Do I Have a Minolta Obsession?

[minoltaman]

Dave, dude, you're right, my collection is a baby compared to your full-grown collection! You've got some real Minoltamania. I have some leverage now to persuade wifey to let me buy more Minolta goodies.

michael Fraley, I'm a flasher, what can I say, LOL! Those flashes all cost more than the cameras they're on. I realized that flash photography really interests me and I wanted the best ones I could buy....especially vari-power features.

peter, what can I say? I thought I had an obsession!? You have Rokkormania my friend. I can see why you would want to obtain a Rokkor fisheye. Please forgive my ignorance, but what's a "circular fisheye"? I do love fisheye images, so I bought a LOMO Fisheye camera for $50. It's a pure novelty, I barely use it anymore but I keep because.....well......you never know when you'll need it! (This is the line I use with my wife all the time...it works most of the time!)

randy, your Minolta page is shaping up really nicely. I love those old SRT ads. You've got quite an Old School collection there yourself! I should hand over the torch to you as the official "Minoltaman" of Camera Collector.

peter, we all need help here but you're obviously the strong and logical one around here....thank God there's at least one sane one!

[Peter S.]

minoltaman said:

peter, what can I say? I thought I had an obsession!? You have Rokkormania my friend.

Dear Tommy,

Your finding don't comes too surprising... ;-)

but what's a "circular fisheye"?

Well this term should describe a fisheye that exposes a circle on the film. The focal length
is typically 7..8mm for a 35mm film camera. Thus a whole hemisphere is
taken in this circle. Against that a full-frame-fisheye does expose the whole frame.
Typical focal length' range from 15 to 18mm. The 15 and 16mm ones have 180° on
the diagonal of the frame. There is however this fancy 6mm fisheye by Nikon that
can watch a 220° segment!

I do love fisheye images, so I bought a LOMO Fisheye camera for $50.

You could make a deal with Your wife - You sell this mostly useless camera in order to save money for a Minolta or Sigma fisheye.

You don't need to tell here, that it takes You five to ten Lomo's to make up for one Minolta or Sigma.

It's a pure novelty, I barely use it anymore but I keep because.....well......you never know when you'll need it! (This is the line I use with my wife all the time...it works most of the time!)

One has to elevate against the level of these kind of reasoning.

peter, we all need help here but you're obviously the strong and logical one around here....thank God there's at least one sane one!

I suppose You don't refer to me here...

Best regards
Peter

[camerastoomany]

I bought my first Minolta in 1980. I was heading to Indonesia for a couple of weeks, visiting friends over Christmas and New Year. I decided it was time to lay aside my Yashica D tlr and Olympus Trip and invest in a 'real' camera.

Money (the lack of it, that is), was a major problem (still is, come to think of it), so I settled on an SRT100x with 45mm f2, Kiron 80-200mm zoom and a Hanimex 28mm.

I still have all of the above as I am simply incapable of parting with anything photographic (Perhaps that should be incapable of parting with anything! - 3,000 records, 1,000 cds, 7-8000 books. Somebody will have it to do when my time is up).

Back to Minolta. Reading this thread prompted me to round up my Minoltas to see how I compare. No photos, sorry. I'm just not that well organised.

[glow=red,2,300]SLRs[/glow]

SRT100 --- SRT100X x 2 --- SRT101 (chrome and black) ---
SRT201 --- SRT303b --- SRT SUPER x 2 ---
XE-7 --- XG-1 x 2 --- XG-2 ---
XG-S --- X-9 --- X-700 x 3 ---
X-370 --- XD-7 --- XD-11 ---
Maxx. 7000 --- Maxx. 500SI --- Dynax 9xi (what a camera!!)


[glow=red,2,300]Rangefinders, etc.[/glow]

Minolta A --- Minolta A5 --- Uniomat ---
AL --- Hi-matic x 3 --- Hi-matic 7 x 2 (one u/s) ---
Uniomat III --- Minoltina S --- Minoltina AL-S ---
Minoltina P x 2 --- Hi-Matic 7S x 2 ---
Hi 9 --- Hi 11 --- Hi 5 ---
Hi E --- Hi F --- Hi G ---
Hi S --- AF-2

Also a couple of Autopaks and 2 x sub-mini 16s. And many lenses and accessories.

Perhaps I could add the Mamiya 135 and Konica C35 as these are described as variants of the Hi-matic G on the Minman site.

I think I have used them all, although I'm not sure about one of the original Hi-matics.

???I have to say, the X series is a disappointment. Both XG-1s, the XG-2 and XG-S have erratic shutters. Mostly they work, occasionally they don't. The X-9 has a shutter speed selection wheel which binds up every 6 or 8 turns subsequently requiring the application of judicious force to free it up. The XD-7 has gradually lost all its viewfinder leds and the XD-11 seems to have developed a short circuit which causes it to drain a set of of batteries within 24 hours. The SRTs now, well that's a different story. One which has been told many times on this forum. They just never stop working.

Now to sort out the Fujis, Mamiyas, Canons, Ricohs, Voigtlanders, Pentax, Yashica, Oly, ......................

Forget it! Counting the Minoltas was a big enough shock. One shock per day is enough.

What's an obsession?

[minoltaman]

peter S. Thank you for the description of the different fisheyes. Yes the LOMO I have, is a "circular fisheye". I may take your advice and sell the LOMO in order to save up and buy a real Minolta or Sigma fisheye.....but I think fisheye lenses, like you said earlier, become mostly useless after a short time.....anyway, I'm having way too much fun with my Minolta Bellows to shoot anything else right now!

I suppose You don't refer to me here...

No, I was refering to the other Peter here on the forum.

camerastoomany, your catalog of Minoltas and other cameras simply blows me away. You might be the winner, the King of Kollectors. And watch out for those shocks!

[Pete]

Attachment DeletedI got the Minolta bug too. Lack of funds is the only thing saving me from going completely over the edge.

[philbirch]

I've only got 3 SLR cameras and 6 lenses and 4 flashes so I'm an amateur oh I have an Minolta A too.

[Doug T.]

The only Minolta I have left is the one my wife brought me from Florida, a Hi-Matic E.
Other than that, I've been collecting old twin lens cameras for TTV photography.

Doug

[Randy]

If you click on my flicker link in my signature, you'll see some of my Minoltas.

[Pete]

Mar 30, 2014 9:06:04 GMT -5 Randy said:

If you click on my flicker link in my signature, you'll see some of my Minoltas.

 Nice collection Randy. I like the recovered black SRT 202. Very cool looking camera.

[moltogordo]

Love Minoltas! Have two SRT101s, an SRT-CLC, and an Autocord.

My Autocord is my favorite TLR for trips and light use (I have a C330 which I use for day to day stuff), and is there a sexier SLR than the SRT-101? I think not!