I’ve had Minolta film SLRs in bygone times and been hugely impressed with them. One of my favorites was the Minolta Maxxum (Dynax) 7000, nothing less than the first SLR to feature autofocus, and with very space age styling. And let’s not forget that Minolta made digital SLRs as well, before Sony bought the company lock, stock and barrel nearly 20 years ago. The rest, as they say, is history but Sony has certainly made the most of its Minolta assets.
The Minolta camera that I’m reviewing here isn’t a ‘real’ Minolta. Like the Kodak PixPro FZ45 and AgfaPhoto Realishot DC8200, it’s a plasticky digital camera that’s made under license, pinning a famous name onto a cheap Chinese camera that has no historical links to the past glories of these illustrious photographic companies.
