The Vintage Minolta Love Project (VMLP) has been a key driver of Earth, Sun, Film posts from the beginning. The VMLP started with a simple goal—shoot all the major Minolta SLRs from the 1958 SR-2 to the 2004 Maxxum 70. In doing so, I hoped to learn photography, experience Minolta’sContinue Reading
The 7sII is a gem, definitely a keeper. If not for the VMLP, I would never have tried one, but I am so glad I did. Before the 7sIl, I had only used a rangefinder once, my father-in-law’s Leica, which was probably an M3. I did not like theContinue Reading
The XE-5 and XE-7 intrigued me because they were part of the Minolta-Leica collaboration, and I wanted to see what the fuss was about. My first XE-5 was a Goodwill buy. It arrived with a good 50mm f2 lens, but the film advance was stuck. Fortunately, a little tinkering resultedContinue Reading
Folding cameras were not supposed to be part of the VMLP. I was drawn to SLRs and was quite happy limiting my photography journey to them. That feeling held until I used an Autocord. Yes, the Autocord is a TLR, but the 6×6 negative yielded such clear,Continue Reading
The Minolta 700si won the 1994-1995 EISA award and a few others after its release in 1993. Today it has faded into relative obscurity. Looking at sold listings on eBay, one finds that only a few are sold in any given period. There are YouTube videos, though, so that’s good. At theContinue Reading
Being in command of an extraordinary machine is an intoxicating experience. I’m a huge Star Trek fan, and the bridge has always held a particular fascination for me. The sense of being in absolute control of an immensely powerful ship–the lights, the screens, the sounds–has never lost its appeal. AlthoughContinue Reading
Those following along will remember my quest to try as many Minolta manual zoom lenses as possible. I am doing this for the VMLP and a little bit for the same reason people climb Mt. Everest. However, in the case of the 80-200mm, f4.5, there is a detective story of sorts. When the Minolta-LeicaContinue Reading
About two years ago, I spied what looked to be a nearly mint black SR-T 101 in a large eBay lot of four lenses, three books, an SR-T SC-II, and a pack of SR-T spare parts. Hoping to fulfill my dream of owning a black 101, I wrote to theContinue Reading
The Minolta AF 35-105mm f3.5-4.5 is an oddity. It is widely touted for its sharpness and has an overall rating of 4.64/5 (sharpness, 4.78) on Dyxum, with the main ding against it being relatively poor flare control. I have seen it mentioned glowingly many times in forums. Yet somehow, IContinue Reading
I did not expect much from the Minolta A. I bought it because, having decided to try Minolta rangefinders, I figured why not start with the first member of the modern 35mm fixed-lens line. The Minolta A is the oldest child in the family of cameras that ended in theContinue Reading
