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Hook is baited with nifty kit buy
 Until recent years, a low price for an SLR indicated only basic features, mainly in autofocus and exposure. Today’s cameras, such as the Minolta Maxxum 5 and its successor, the Maxxum 70, often borrow features from the top-line cameras that are nearly exhaustive. And unlike most digital SLRs, film SLRs are amazingly small, light, and surprisingly inexpensive.
The Maxxum 70 has had its interior machinery proven in the Maxxum 5 over that camera’s three years of production. And while there may be some of us who will miss some of the Max 5’s features, such as Eye-start (which turned the camera on with nary a touch on the shutter release), from a practical picture-taking view, the incredible increase in autofocusing area sensitivity is worth far more than anything that’s been removed. (For more details, see “Max Turns 70,” April 2004.) It’s not mentioned in the instruction books, but our lab’s careful AF tests dug out the Max 70’s amazing sensitivity, which you can see in the diagram, below right.
As might be expected, all features worked well: 14-cell honeycomb evaluative metering, shiftable program, spotmetering, and, new in the 70, choice of centerweighted metering, selected from an easy-to-use single control dial.
Other major features were easy to control: exposure bracketing and compensation, wireless remote control of flash and subject exposure modes, as well as standard shutter- and aperture-priority AE and metered manual. The camera has both AF and shutter-release priority, along with 15 custom functions. We’re grateful for the flash exposure-OK signal in the viewfinder, missing from so many other mid- and low-priced SLRs. The AF-assist flash from the pop-up unit is as annoying to subjects in the Maxxum 70 as it is in all other cameras with similar setups.
The Maxxum 70’s new all-black shell is easy and convenient to hold. The white-on-black graphics are highly legible, and the kit package price ($250 street) is almost too good to be true.
What's Hot
Excellent buy with lens. Built-in diopter correction. Extremely wide AF coverage. 25-percent flash power increase. Quick manual-focus button.
What's Not
Eye-start, grip removed. Top shutter speed cut. Date lost with battery change. Dullish cosmetics. No wired remote control. Use of CR2 lithium batteries.
Download our Minolta Maxxum 70 Certified Test Results
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