Why did you buy your KM?

[dmacgee]

I thought I'd start a thread to see why we're Minolta users.

I bought my first Minolta SLR back in 1979 it gave me many years of great pictures. I liked the controls and feel of the camera. I made a brief foray in to Canon, I had numerous problems and really never got comfortable with the camera & lens. I then was in a period where I wasn't getting much opportunity to shoot until about 10 years ago.

I wanted a new camera so I started shopping and looked a number of manufacturers. I ended up back at Minolta and bought a Maxxum XTSi SLR and a couple of zoom lens. This year I decided to make the jump to DSLR. I shopped around again mainly at looking at KM & Nikon, both good products. I liked the 7D and an added bonus I didn't need to get new lenses.

Let's hear why you bought your Minolta.

Dave

[CAClark]

I think brand loyalty having had a 7000i for many years, and then a 7xi (which I still have). In hind sight I do regret the choice in one or two respects, although the 7D is a joy to shoot with (AF aside).

Cheers!

[Fish36990]

I guess you would call it brand loyalty...

My first camera was a Minolta Dimage S414 digital camera. I got it as a point and shoot camera but I really began to enjoy taking pictures and wanted to do things the camera couldn't do. I loved the camera and it's ease of use but I just needed to get a camera a little more powerful.

I had decided to get a A200 because I thought it was sort of a hybrid between 7D/5D and my old camera. My wife asked her friend who was a seasoned amatuer photographer about the A200 and he told her to get the 5D instead and she got it for me for early Christmas.

My 5D arrived yesterday and I'm quickly realizing that this camera is much more involved than my previous. I'm an extreme novice to this so I've already started taking my share of bad pictures....have a couple of good ones....I think.

I'm forcing myself to try all the different settings and tough it out to learn the camera instead of just using it in AUTO mode. It's very rewarding when I select a setting and it has exactly the effect on the shot that I want. Just when I start to feel a little confident...the camera kicks me back down again with a bad picture to make sure I didn't forget who's boss.

Josh

[edawn]

I got my first SLR about 3 years ago...a Minolta Maxxum 5. Before that, I had had a Minolta point and shoot that I liked well enough (took it to Japan with me in 2000), along with some other little point and shoots, including a Kodak APS film camera. I started to get more serious about photography when my son came along in 2001. I wanted a camera that could focus and shoot fast and wasn't very big and heavy to carry around. My sister-in-law started doing research for an SLR at the same time, and I liked what she had discovered about the Minolta Maxxum 5. It was the smallest and lightest in its class, and it had the eye-start technology with made for very fast focussing. I loved it! I got a second zoom lens for it and a couple filters.
This year, I decided I wanted to make the leap to digital. Since I had an SLR that I liked, I decided to go with a point-and-shoot style digital, to learn the ropes. I got the Canon Powershot S2 IS in June. I took thousands and thousands of pictures in a few months and learned so much about photography that I found myself wanting a DSLR! (I also took a Photoshop Elements 3.0 class on-line through my local community college, which opened up a whole 'nother world to me.) I ended up winning $500 over the summer in a couple local photo contests, and I had to spend the money at a local camera shop. What was I to do other than buy a DSLR??! Since I already had the two lenses from my Minolta SLR, and since I really liked how the camera fit in my hand, it was a fairly easy decision to get the KM 5D. After holding the KM 5D, I decided I didn't care for the ergonomics of the Rebel XT, although I did like the idea of 8 megapixels. But, I'm really fond of the layout of all the buttons and menus, and I decided not to solely chase megapixels, but to consider the other factors that I knew I liked and valued.
I have not regretted my choice. Among other things, I really like the colors it produces, and I like the fact that I am in charge of lifting the on-camera flash (no auto pop-up). I'm continuing to learn lots about my camera and photography. I think it will be a long time before I out-grow this one!

Elaine

[scoundrel1728]

I haven't actually bought a dSLR yet, but the K-M 5D has some serious advantages over the competition for an available light shooter like me whose work tends toward the telephoto. First, I don't have to worry about the extra price for an IS (Canon) VR (Nikon) or OS (Sigma) lens to keep camera shake under control. With the K-M 5D, everything has anti-shake capability. I don't have to pay extra for the feature for every lens I get; it's built into the camera body instead. I also get a real mirror lockup and DOF preview that Canon and/or Nikon leave off their entry-level models.