In your opinion, which camera brand do you recommend and in what order would you prefer:

Cannon Minolta Olympus

I was really looking into a Minolta brand camera. Is that a good choice?

I'd appreciate your help.

Sincerely,

Nehemias Nuņez

-- nehemias nunez (nnunez@elp.rr.com), April 17, 2002

Answers

Heh... Nothing like stirring up trouble, eh? :-)

Ok, you didn't say what you plan on shooting with that equipment, how much you want to spend, and if you need new or are willing to buy used.

Being a big Minolta fan, I'm a bit biased, but here's my take on the three:

Minolta: Used gives you the best "bang for your buck" in either autofocus or manual focus systems. New, still a good BFYB, but other factors must be considered. Their AF lens line is a bit dated, with no image stabilization technology (though they hold patents on some of that...) Not that the glass is bad, it's excellent and better than most. Just needs some updating and a broader selection. Manual focus is virtually not supported by Minolta any longer, so you're limited to used. But the bargains are amazing. 300 f4.5 Minolta lenses for $200 can be found, and a 100mm f3.5 macro for under $300.

Canon: Two words: Image Stabilization!!! The first company to release lenses with this tech, and it is amazing. If I had the money for new autofocus gear, this is where I'd be. Now they are on the second generation of this technology, and it's even better. Great support, huge lens selection. Rather confusing bodies, at least to me, with various flavors and whatnots. Nice bonus: Canon is maintaining their lens support with their professional digital bodies. If you upgrade to a digital body, you can keep using your existing lenses.

Olympus: The "OM-Ti" is outrageously expensive, even used. Oly glass is top notch, but wasn't common enough to get the low price point that Minolta has. There are many Oly bodies that are inexpensive, but as far as I know they've all been manual focus. (Correct me if I'm mistaken.) Loyal following, hard core users share secrets and parts and repair services, so you'll probably never lack for support of your system.

I think that's it. I personally use Minolta manual focus. Favorite body is my x-570. Top 4 lenses: Rokkor-X 300 f4.5, 100 macro f3.5, 50 f1.7, and 24 f2.8. All Minolta glass, and all super sharp.

Don

-- Don Tuleja (don@calimages.com), April 17, 2002.

I pretty much agree with what Don said, but I chose, and still choose Canon. Canon has the best/most complete autofocus system.

Olympia SLR's are dead. Minolta and Canon are the real innovators. Nikon is generally trying to catch up, and I hope they do. Boy, I'll catch it for that generalization.

-- Jim Strutz (j.strutz@gci.net), April 17, 2002.

Inaccurate, inadequate, pointless, useless, shallow. A bad question (and answers) in short, even for this forum.

-- umit (umyth@hotmail.com), April 18, 2002.

The best brand is always the one you did not choose; don't you know that? Aren't you a savy consumer?

Why: it does not break down, fail, it has a minute extra feature that would have done the trick, when you can not master the equipment you did buy. The grass is greener on what side?

-- Frank Uhlig (uhligfd@auburn.edu), April 19, 2002.