splatt said:
I hate to rain on this little Minolta party, since I am a long time Minolta user, but you should really think very, very hard before buying Minolta AND before buying a film based SLR.
Fact: The VAST majority of pros and semi-pros use Canon or Nikon gear
(not because they are inherently better but because they have a wider range of gear which is widely available and they provide better support for pros)
Accepted fact: Hardly anyone will be using film cameras within 3 years.
The problem here is that you will inevitably start to build up a system of lenses, flashes etc which will be worth far more than camera body. Because the market for Minolta gear is so small, it is hard to get hold of both new and used equipment. You will always feel like you are swimming against the tide.
Furthermore, any money you spend on film bodies now is likely to go up in smoke within 2 or 3 years (lenses should be fine). Worse still, Canon & Nikon are already 2 or 3 generations of digital SLR ahead of Minolta and are likely to play catch-up in the immediate future. They also have much larger R&D budgets for sensor development etc.
I suggest that your easiest, cheapest, safest route would be:
1. Buy a 2nd hand Canon/Nikon film body and a used 50mm f1.8 lens for very little money which will help you to learn all about photography. You should not have to pay more than S$300 for this combo.
2. Add other lenses e.g. a good 24-85mm f3.5-4.5 but very slowly (by the way, there is a HUGE difference between a 28-85mm f4.5-5.6 lens and a 24-85mm f3.5-4.5 lens).
3. In a year or two, pick up a 2nd hand Nikon D70 or Canon 10D/20D when the price will probably be around $500.
Now I know I'll probably get flamed for this message, but these are the facts of photography life.
I had to agree with you one some point, but not all.
1. I sincerely doubt film will be overtaken within another 3 years, digital output is still not up to the level of negative and with it's latitude level slightly lower then slide film, it is difficult to compare with negative film, not to mention slide film. Unless, of course some guru find a way to push the digital output to film level. Namely, it has the disadvantage of both negative and slide without their advantages.
2. Hard fact, I used minolta for a long time (15 years is classified as Long, I guess), then I switch to canon, then I switch back to minolta again. No doubt I guess more choices for lenses, in the end, only a few lenses are useful for me, minolta has it all. (Actually, I find myself slowly going backwards somehow, I used to use TTL, Zoom lens, Autofocus, Automode (namely Aperture Priority / Shutter Priority and such) etc etc ...., but as I goes along, I drop TTL totally and use manual flash or at least only in auto mode, I am slowly going towards fixed focal lens and slowly dropping zoom lens, I tend to use Autofocus only in fast situation now and slowing going toward manual focus, now I used manual mode more then I use automode). I used to own 21 lenses, now I have only a few and now I intend to slowly sell of my zoom lenses and go back to fix focal lens.
I now only own - 28-85 f/3.5-4.5 (which I intend to keep and it is not the 24-85), 70-200 f/4 (comtemplating to sell), 28-135 f/4-4.5 (Thinking of selling it away), 50mm f/1.4 (Keeping), 105 Marco f/2.8 (Keeping).
Thinking of getting a 28mm f/2, 300mm f/4, 500mm Mirror Reflex Catadioptics (Or maybe the 400 f/5.6), 1 x Kenko Pro 2x (maybe 1.4x) teleconvertor
.
3. Minolta is always called the innovator company. They might be 3 generation behind in Digital Camera, but if history are to be followed, Minolta first generation items are often better then other models 3rd generation items. For example, Minolta's 1 Generaton Autofocus camera, they are they creator, Minolta's 1 generation multicoated lens, they are the creator, minolta 1 generation high speed flash light sync, they are the creator (after 7 years since the introduction of High speed sync at 1/8000, no other brand can sync at that yet, and until the last I know, Minolta 5600HS is still the only flash that can sync at 1/8000 WIRELESS, not that I use it, of course), their 1 generation 14 segment metering which span across their consumer camera, which in personal view, can only be equalled by Canon 1v's or Nikon F5's metering. I am quite sure minolta will pick the fault of the other brands of camera and leapbound with their introduction of D7D, which I think other then Anti-shake technology will include something else.... Anti-shake technology is just a diversion for other brands manufacturer to drool upon while they come up with some "Secret" weapon, just like Canon's New's Objective's Lens (very nice green coating if I should say it myself, one of my favourite colour actually, other then blue and purple coating) which will lower down the cost of lenses to achieve the contrast of "L" lens.
