Minolta Dynax / Maxxum 60
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| Pro | Controls location;
eronomics; AF speed; very handy in manual mode. | ||
| Contra | Eye relief point is not "relief" enough | ||
| Thoughts | Disappointments first.
"Made in China", both body and 28-100 lens. Yes I know, most of the electronics is made in China nowadays, and in most cases it's not bad at all, but to me The Optic was always something more than TV or mp3-player. Plastic's filling. The body is plastic, and there is no doubt on it. The Nikon's finiching (F65) is more "rich", but D-60 body seems to be stronger and better than Canon 300 or 300V. What else I dislike in D-60 is the white plastic spindel of cassette. I mean the axe in the film compartment, where the cassette is lying. If it's a sign of economy, didn't Minolta economise on all other issues? I hope, not. Eyepiece cup. Or my noose is too big, or my glasses are too thick, or the eye relief point is not relief enough. To see all the interior I have to touch the eyepice cup by my glasses, and it leaves the traces on them. Noise. The camera is not quiet. Every focus action is accompanied with noise, but it is of low frequency (buzzing rather than whining). Now the good things are coming. In-hand and gripping is much better than D-5. The 60's handling is sure and convenient, with little finger supporting the bottom of the camera (my hand is size 9 gloves). The buttons AF, AEL and AF/MF are well accessible with thumb. AF/MF switch on the camera back is very useful. Viewfinder. The VF is very bright and clear. It is definitely brighter than Canon 300V or Nikon F65, with marginal differences in magnification. With kit-zoom 28-100 I had no problem to focus manually. The only issue is coming with eye-glass as I've mentioned above, but I need just get use of it and find the right position for my noose. The control dials are well located and clear. I especially appreciate independently switched AF and exposure modes. PASM disk is VERY wise decision. The subject- and full-auto programs are separated from PASM-modes by OFF-position of the dial, and it's very handy, since the camera allows you to get a full control for any of PASM-modes, but does all job independently of your opinion in full-program and subjects. I mean, when program mode is set to Pa or Ps the camera do not try to rise the flash even for AF-illumination, and any of metering and focusing mode can be applied. I especially like the simplicity and conciseness of the camera. It looks just like photo camera, not spaceship or boombox. Autofocus is fast, even with kit-zoom. Time of AF-point illumination is 0.3 sec, and autofocusing in normal conditions is about that fast. At daylight the AF-C speed is enough to keep focused on my baby running toward me. With diagonal movement of subject 9-spot AF-C is somehow puzzling and changes the spots randomly, especially with many objects presented inside focus area. Only once I got it working properly - when photographing my child on swing. With 10 meters distance and 100mm focus all 9 points were working, keeping baby in focus all the time. In "A" mode picture can be recomposed (after focus lock) without AF-C activation, but I liked more DMF-mode for normal shooting and AF-C for children's photo (they are always running!). I've found DMF to be very handy, but it doesn't help when camera cannot focus at all, because the manual adjustment of the focus is possible only AFTER automatic focusing is done and confirmed. Changing AF-modes is fast, just keep the function dial in the right position, and you need only to push button and rotate the wheel. To me it is the most often changed setting. The Metering is next to Focus on the command dial, and it's easy to switch between them. The sensitivity of AF is still under question. In the dark room illuminated by TV or streetlights AF doesn't work (AF-illumination is off). It does only two zoomings back-forward and stops somewhere about right position with "unable to focus" blinking. Exposure metering. I've shoot only one roll, with some on the street and mostly indoor. All was done in matrix meter, and I'm not disappointed. For the subject "people in shadow and very bright building behind" (my wife's face, about 1/5 of the frame's area) the exposure was set for face. The background was almost wanished, but otherwise the face woudn't be visible at all. So, the exposure is set for focused area, and it's I like it. Indoor shooting with built-in flash gave more or less usual results - faces are slightly overexposured, especially against a dark-brown wall's background. The overexposuring is only marginal in the room with light walls. The fill-flash works good. Since there is no flash-compensation, I suppose to set ISO one stop more for indoor-flash shooting. AFAIK Dynax 7 rewinds the film after 24 or 36 frames regardless the real lenght of the film. It's not the case for D-60. To my great surprise, I shoot Agfa 200 24+3, and it yields 27 frames (I set the camera to manual rewind to be shure it doesn't start to howl suddenly). And just few words about kit-zoom. It is OK for the price. The sharpness is comparable with Nikon 28-80, but its long end is longer :). The vignetting at 28 (5.6 open) is very evident, but only in the very corners, some 0.5 cm for 10/15 print. Distortion - barrel at 28 yet noticed (surprise, surprise :))). What I can say for sure - it is not the worst lens on the market. The filling is nice, no backlashes, zooming is sure, focus ring is not loose. Unfortunately, the lens is too long, and the camera does not fit to my pocket. Conclusion: good basic-level camera, which just fulfill my needs. The only thing I cannot understand - why Minolta did not press the custom functions description on the camera's back? | ||
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| Pro | -Very good matrix metering algorithms
-spot metering -very sensitive AF good in low light conditions (depends on the lense though) -two top dials -AF/MF switch on the back of the camera -stronger than usual build in flash (GN16) -direct manual focus (DMF) with D series of lenses -14 custom functions (known from the Dynax5 - mostof them very usefull) -all metal top | ||
| Contra | -Flash sync downgraded (compared to Dynax5) to 1/90
-max shutter speed 1/2000 (lower than 5's 1/4000) -no cabel release only wireless remote (no complaints to anything but the price here) -the build in flash feels too fragile IMO, and is easily deployed by accident (brush your finger on it and it pops up) | ||
| Thoughts | Build, ergonomics & fuctionality:
Although mostly plastic it feels good in hand, not flimsy at all (except that aforementioned onboard flash). The rubber on the righthand grip adds to the nice feeling. It's a bit bigger and havier than the Dynax 5, but still lacks space for the right hand pinkey. After a while you'll get used to set the pinkey on the base of the camera instead of dangling it in the air. The two top dials really improve the fuctionality. Having the PASM/PPr on a separate dial is nice. Without it you'd have to either work with a crowded single dial, or use the control dial to choose. Another good thing about it is that the "Off" position is between the full program and the PASM so you don't reset everything everytime you want to turn off the camera (choosing full program and subject programs reset everything, but the custom functions). Placement of the control dial is a bit awkward. It's same as on Dynax 5 and either Minolta learned nothing from the 5, or I'm the only one complaining. Anyway, I find it difficult to reach, or rather, dificult to turn with just the tip of my finger. This is especially pronounced when trying to select focusing sensor while pressing the AF button on the back. Eitherway, I find the "in-front-of-the-shutter-release" position much better (Canon 300/300v, Minolta Dynax 7...) On the back, in easy reach of your right-hand thumb, left to right, you'll find the AF (spot AF, wide area AF, AF sensor select) button, the AEL button and the AF/MF switch button. All are custom function controled, easy to reach (AF and AEL are easily confused though). I find that setting the AF button to act as toggle easier to use, since it is a bit further left and it might be dificult to keep it pressed. If anything struggling to keep it pressed might affect steadiness of your grip (you know, hand shake blurr and such) The AEL button has the best placement of the three so either toggle or press and hold will do for it. The AF/MF button on the back is a great thing. No more strugling to find the slider on the front while looking through the viewfinder. The transfer from one mode to the other is noisy , but I didn't find it disturbing. One notification though, don't expect it to substitute for DMF, because each time you switch you have to focus from the start. It is not to be used for subtle corrections! The DOF button has nice placement, but is a bit small for my taste and might protrude a bit more. Luckily it's from metal so the cold feeling helps to distinguish it from the suroundings. The function dial is as usual (reliefed from the PASM/PPr positions). All things set I find it best left at metering select positon so the only thing needs to be done is press the function button and turn the control dial to change the metering mode. If you use slides, bracketing might be your function dial choice, since the simultaneous exp. compensation+shutter release pressing shortcut gives you instantaneous +/- 0.5 EV bracketing. Than again, +/- 0.5 EV is about enough for slides, or so they say. Exposure metering: I found the matrix meter doing a very good job. It links pretty good with the AF sensor in use and is not fooled by situations like backlighting and such. Of course it can't work miracles and works within the film latitude. Keep in mind though that if you don't use AEL (Auto Exposure Lock) and try to focus and recompose the matrix metering will be fooled (by you, not the complexity of lighting). I have yet to try it on snow with subjects not filling more than a 1/4 of the frame to see how it acts, but so far no mistakes. If you have any special wishes about the exposure then I suggest you use the spot metter, which unlike most other cameras in this class, is available on the Dynax60 (as well as on the Dynax5). Autofocus: I found it reliable and pretty fast. It does depend on the lens though so I cannot give a judgement. I have yet to try it with a fast Minolta lens. With the Sigma 28-135 it's pretty fast, but not too fast. At low contrast, low light situations it does a little hunting, but switching to the center cross sensor helps. If it's not able to focus it will quit after 2 tries, so either pay attention to the signal in the viewfinder or set AF achieved bip sound on (done through the function dial). Eitherway, I found that in the indoor lighting situations it has no problems to AF, even at the f/5.6 end of the lens. You also have the flash AF assist (so called anoyoflash which live subjects hate) Flash & flash metering: Unlike the usual GN11 or 12 this camera has a flash with a GN16. Not much more but sufficient to say that it gives you a reach of 4 meters with ISO 200 film and an f/4 lens. Quite enough for unexpected indoors situations and for fill flash. As previously mentioned the flash feels very fragile. It extends enough to avoid red eyes in most situations without the use of the anoying preflash redeye reduction. The flash metering is really good. It doesn't get any better than this. The only time when I saw a washed out face was when I took a photo of people sitting on a 4-5 meters long table. Fill flash works pretty good too, perhaps a bit too strong and there is no flash exposure compensation available. With D type of lenses it has the availability of Advanced Distance Integration. It is said that it helps with tricky situations, especialy since flash has only 4 metering sensors unlike the available light metering. The 1/90 flash synchronisation speed is rather dissapointing. Considering the Dynax 5 had 1/125, and every user was so glad to have it, I can't figure out why Minolta downgraded this feature. Anyway, to get higher sync speed than this you have to buy one of the HS series of Minolta flashes which by the way cost almost as much as you'd pay for the Dynax60 body itself! Other features: Shuter speed of 1/2000 is again another downgrade compared to the Dynax 5's 1/4000. Some might argue there is not much use of 1/4000 shutter speed, but that entirely depends on what you shoot and the situation. As far as I'm concernd I'd take this and the 1/125 flash sync speed over the 9 AF sensors anytime. 9 AF sensors with a central cross sensor. It's still an enigma for me if the upper and lower side sensors are really set at an angle as displayed in the viewfinder?!? All I know is that they do a grat job and it takes an extreme situation to have to use the central cross sensor and then recompose. It also features the predictive AF which I have not tested yet. Based on some playing with the predictive AF I don't think it's as good as they say it is. 3 frames per second available (depending on shutter speed and without flash of course). I keep it on single shot mode, but then I don't shoot action too much, so it's up to you to decide if you need it or not. The DMF is Minolta's answer to Canons FTM. I don't have a D lens to test it, but I can only imagine how good it is to be able to manually adjust the focus once the AF has done the rough part (like AF locking on the front of the hat instead of the eye :)) ) As a conclusion: I have to say that I'm every bit happy with this camera. Spent most the time with a manual everything, sunny 16 guesstimating mettering, camera and this one does makes a photographers life easy. It has all the bells and whistles (except the mirror lockup for the landscapes lovers) and yet leaves you in total control of the situation should you choose to do it. For the money, they don't get any better IMO. Of course, I'd like to have a Dynax 7 too, but for the price of one of those you can by 2.5 Dynax60's ;). | ||