Minolta DiMAGE A1

[figment52]

Did you/Do you love it? Hate it?

I recently decided it was time to take the next step and upgrade from my Kodal EasyShare C360. I was looking at the Canon S3 and S5 and was hoping I could get one of them on sale (maybe the day after Thanksgiving), anyway .....

Today I was in the camera store (small town, independantly owned) getting a photo enlarged and was talking to the owner about a beginners digital photography class and cameras and he told me he had a used Minolta DiMAGE A1. He has a good reputation in town and my BIL knows him pretty well but BIL is not into cameras AT ALL. He will give me a 90 day warranty on the camera and saif the former owner was a good customer of his over the years but she wanted to upgrade her camera. He had the box and all the accessories it came with, battery recharger and 2 batteries.

Since this is totally not the direction I was leaning I would like some input. I looked it up and found the original price and compared that with the recent Ebay sales so I am ok there but haven't talked to anyone that had/has one. Is there a different brand camera with similar features you would recommend? Any input would be appreciated.

TIA.

Sandy

 

[ukcatfan]

That is a four year old camera. That alone would keep me away.

Kevin

P. S. That and the fact that Minolta is no more. They were bought by Sony and that old of a camera is not likely supported by them. Due to that, a simple repair might become impossible to do.

 

[figment52]

I forgot about the support issue so thanks for the reminder. I was actually thinking more about the fact that it would not be a major investment if I happened to hate the complexity of it.

 

[Groucho]

I don't think that support is an issue. My wife's Minolta X20 started malfunctioning and Minolta had a recall to cure the issue that it was having, and we shipped it back to Sony and they replaced a handful of parts inside for free, no issues whatsoever.

I had a Minolta Z5 and was driven to a DSLR by the levels of noise, which were higher than I would have liked but apparently fairly normal for that class of camera at the time. Other than the noise, I liked it very much. I'm not familiar with the A1, though.

If the price is right, I'd give it a shot - if you know what it sells for on eBay and you're getting it for around the same, what have you got to lose? If you're not happy with it, you can eBay it yourself with minimal loss of cash.

 

[MICKEY88]

my first digital was the Minolta A2, the camera that replaced the A1, it is an awesome camera...

the nice thing about it is it can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be, for simplicity, you can shoot in full auto, or program mode,

or if you want full control the camera gives you full manual option, with a lot of control, such a s bracketing, exposure comp..etc...