Konica Minolta Maxxum 5D

I’m an old school photographer who was still using a 35mm SLR with manual setting manipulations. Than my eyes starting going, so I had to settle for a 35mm Auto focus which are not all that durable and malfunctioned often. Frustrated I gave up my passion for photographer which was no easy task considering it was nothing for me to take 200-300 pictures a week.

I borrowed and tried many Digital cameras, buy none suited me until my wife bought me the Konica Minolta Maxxum 5D as a gift. It sat in the closet for about a month not wanting to get my hopes up and be disappointed. I could never have been more wrong about this camera. The 5D weighs in at just over 2 pound with an 18mm to 70mm Lens and built in flash, rechargeable batteries (charger included) and a high capacity data card.

All in all, its weight and physical design makes it easy to handle and shoot one handed when in auto mode. Though it took me some time to go through the manual and all the functions the camera has to offer, but, that’s exactly what makes this camera so great.

Put aside the usually anecdotes of how great the picture quality is, the anti-shake feature and all those other things that the experts talk about that most lay person don’t understand anyway. The 5D is extremely versatile, it has all the features you expect to find on a high end SLR 35mm which allows you to manually manipulate a picture for those artistic shots, an ISO button to change the sensitivity rating from 80 to 3200, a feature to adjust picture quality from Raw/JPEG to Extra Fine, 3 choices of image size, selection of focusing methods, the ability to put both the background and foreground in focus in the same photo, or you can use the Exposure-Mode dial on the cameras body to manually manipulate Shutter, Aperture, for Night shooting, Landscapes and Action or leave it on Auto.

This camera has combined the best of both worlds, it gives the user the freedom and artistic control that a high quality SLR 35mm has, with the technology of the digital age. The Minolta 5D cost in around $700.00, but it’s well worth it in the long run, I consider it compact, durable and money saving. Its last outing I took over 280 photos in one day on a single data card, did I mention downloading, it’s a snap, turn the computer on, plug the camera in to the port, turn the camera on and you have an automatic download.

Everything you need is included when you buy the camera. Though it may seem complicated at first with all the flashing setup screens and terms like SLOW SYNC, especially for us old school photographers, but, hang in there, take your time to read the manual, its worth it because this Camera has restored my love of photography The only feature it doesn’t have is an auto zoom, but that’s a minor item since you can change out the lenses and there are plenty to choose from.