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Minolta P's

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Photo of the Day

Minolta P's

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Photo of the Day

Minolta P's

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Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

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Photo of the Day

Minolta P's

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Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

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and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

Minolta P's, A 35mm Panorama Film Camera

Panoramas: Image making with the Minolta P's, a 35mm point-and-shoot panorama film camera with a 24mm wide-angle lens.

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The Minolta P's (Freedom Vista or Riva Panorama, depending on your location) is a very petite, lightweight, compact 35mm autofocus point-and-shoot film camera with an auto flash and crop frame panorama feature. The cult classic, introduced by Minolta in 1991, comes with an almost ultra-wide 24mm lens that sets it apart from the rest of the crowd and fixed blinds that trim the top and bottom of the normal 3:2 image aspect ratio of the standard 35mm film frame to 2.7:1.

The camera is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, weighs 185 grams, and measures 116 x 62 x 34 mm.

Tech specs include the 5 elements in 5 groups 24mm 1:4.5 lens, infrared autofocus with a range from 0.9 meters to infinity, programmed autoexposure, a shutter speed range from 1/4 to 1/200 second when flash is deactivated, ISO 100 or ISO 400 DX-coded film rolls, and automatic film loading and rewind.

The camera is powered by a CR132A 3-volt Lithium battery, good for up to 25 rolls of 24-exposure film with 50% flash use.

Loading the film is fairly straightforward - open the film back, drop in the film canister, pull the film tab across to the red line across the film box, close the back, and the camera will automatically wind the film forward to Frame 1. The camera will also rewind the film back into its canister at the end of the roll.

Using it is equally easy and fun. To start shooting, all you need to do is slide the lens cover open, frame the image, and half-press the shutter button for the green diode to light up before releasing the shutter fully. The camera flash will fire automatically to compensate for low-light conditions, and the shutter will remain locked while the flash charges.

Minolta P's

To capture images without flash, press and hold the cancel button located to the left of the camera's top while taking the shot. Low battery is indicated when the flash takes more than 20 seconds to charge, the shutter will not release, or the film rewind stops before the operation is completed. A tripod socket is available on the bottom plane of the camera.

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Photo of the Day

Minolta X-700, Minolta MD Rokkor-X 45mm f/2

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Minolta X-700, Minolta MD Rokkor-X 45mm f/2

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Photo of the Day

Minolta X-700, Minolta MD Rokkor-X 45mm f/2

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Photo of the Day

Minolta X-700, Minolta MD Rokkor-X 45mm f/2

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Minolta MD Rokkor-X 45mm f/2, Almost The Perfect Normal

Analog Diary: Film photography favorites, analog diary, image making with a Minolta MD Rokkor-X 45mm f/2, the almost 'perfect' normal prime lens.

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One of the accepted definitions of the 'perfect' normal lens for a 35mm full-frame camera, a lens that reproduces a field of view that appears natural to a human observer, is based on the diagonal of the film frame, which measures 43.3mm.

A lens unique to the interpretation of this definition is the Minolta MD Rokkor-X 45 mm, 1:2.0, a very compact lens with a focal length that is very close to the measured distance. Introduced in 1978, and only available as an MDII version, this lens is a rare case as Minolta normally replicated and made the lenses available over their camera version releases.

Not quite a true pancake, the lens is a blend of a plastic body and a 6-element and 5-group glass. It measures 30.5 mm in length and weighs 125 grams, comes with 5 aperture blades, a minimum aperture of F16, and a minimum focusing distance of 0.6 meters.

Minolta MD Rokkor-X 45mm f/2

With a large open aperture of 1:2, the lens is also a potentially good bokeh lens, and with its compact size, it makes the lens a worthwhile consideration for the street shooter, fashion, or lifestyle photographer, simply as a lowlight lens or one to get good background separation with.

Minolta X-700, Minolta MD Rokkor-X 45mm f/2

At most times unnoticed, and grossly underrated except by gig lens connoisseurs, the Minolta MD Rokkor-X 45mm f/2 is more than the sum of its parts. Images are exceptionally sharp, with good mid-tone contrast and accurate color reproduction. It is lightweight both on the wallet and in the camera bag, and whichever Minolta body it is found attached to, it is the go-to lens.

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Minolta AF 50mm f/1.7, Ominous

Analog Diary: Film photography favorites, image making with a Minolta Maxxum AF 50mm f/1.7, looking at ominous evening clouds.

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I am still in the 'getting the feel' relationship with the Minolta Maxxum 7 here, with the Maxxum AF 50mm f/1.7, as I did in an earlier post, but has not gone far beyond the stage, except for the opportunity to grab these images of a bank of ominous clouds that seems to be threatening mine and surrounding areas. As my normal practice, the images were post-processed on Olympus Viewer 3 (OV3) with final print sharpening done on Google NIK Sharpener Pro 3.

Mentioned as a whale of a camera, the film-based SLR Maxxum 7 (or Alpha 7 in Japan and Dynax 7 in Europe) is perhaps one of the best of Minolta's A-mount autofocus film cameras one could get. The camera has a shutter speed range from 30 seconds to 1/8000 second, plus Bulb, flash sync speed at 1/200th of a second, eye-start automatic focus, multifunction LCD data screen, LCD navigation panel, full PASM shooting, three metering modes, exposure compensation, AE lock, continuous shooting at up to 4 frames per second, unlimited multiple exposures, self-timer, DX and user-selectable ISO control, and more.

Minolta Maxxum 7, Maxxum AF 50mm f/1.7

The camera was easy to get started with, feels great in your hands, and autofocus is fast and accurate, with the ample handgrip that makes one-handed operation smooth and easy. Metering seems flawless, with the equally lightweight Maxxum AF 50mm f/1.7 RS working well in tandem. So much more to talk about here, but beyond this scratch on the surface, I still have a long way to go to really realize the full potential of the camera. Let's hope that is not too long in coming.

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Sony DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6, The Square Revisited

Analog Diary: Film photography favorites, image making with an APS-C Sony DT 18-70mm 1:3.5-5.6 mounted on a full-frame 35mm SLR film camera.

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A parting post for a look back session, posts on street photography outings with an ASP-C digital SLR lens, the Sony DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6, mounted instead on a full-frame SLR Film camera. The first post shows images captured at the short wide-angle end of the lens, while the second shows images from the long end, and for the rest, somewhere in between.

I have not seen much of this on the Net, really, not at all, if any. I can only assume that DSLR enthusiasts are not really keen on going back to film. The good fun here is that film cameras that can be retrofitted with your current crop of DSLR lenses, depending on the make of your camera system, are easily available on the auction sites, and their cost is normally very affordable.

Minolta Maxxum 70, Sony DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6

These images were shot on color negative film, converted to black-and-white, and squared to the 1:1 image aspect ratio on Olympus Viewer 3 (OV3).

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Sony DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6, The Long End

Analog Diary: Film photography favorites, image making with an APS-C Sony DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 mounted on a full-frame 35mm SLR film camera.

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Continuing from where I left off with the Wide-Angle Vignettes, posted previously. These are the images from the long or telephoto end of the lens, which, to me, is about as normal as what they are supposed to be. As I mentioned in the previous post, this was a fun session where I had the Sony DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 mounted on a Maxxum 7000.

Minolta Maxxum 70, Sony DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6

The whole idea of mounting a DSLR lens, more so one designed for the APS-C sensor, was actually an experiment with which you can get interesting results. Lenses designed for APS-C sensors have a smaller imaging circle, and at the wide end of the lens, the image circle is much smaller than the film frame size; thus, the vignette effect, which will dissipate as you zoom in past the 24mm focal length mark on the Sony DT.

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Sony DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6, Wide-Angle Vignettes

Analog Diary: Film photography favorites, image making with an APS-C Sony DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 mounted on a full-frame 35mm SLR film camera.

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This was way back in 2009 when I experimented with mounting an ASP-C-designed lens, the Sony DT 18-70mm (3.9x) f/3.5-5.6, on a full-frame A-mount Minolta Maxxum AF body. The lens was from a Sony A-200 DSLR kit, and the film camera was a Maxxum 70. I still have the lens, but not the body, so the image shown here, with the Sony DT mounted on a later Minolta Maxxum 70, was just for illustration.

Minolta Maxxum 70, Sony DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6

Retro-fitting DSLR lenses on AF SLR film camera bodies, if the mount matches, is a low-cost way to get into film photography, and you are in for a lot of fun here. Lenses, like the Sony DT as shown here, due to their design that comes with smaller diameter lens components, will give you the vignette or porthole effect at their widest or short end. The vignette effect will dissipate as you zoom in towards the telephoto end of the lens.

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