Minolta Alpha Sweet S (Dynax 404si, Maxxum STsi)

I wouldn’t say this was an accidental buy, but a curiosity based one. I bought two lenses for a Canon camera body I had, both the lenses said Canon and I didn’t look beyond that. They were clean and that was my main concern. It turned out one of the lenses didn’t fit. So now here I was with a lens and no idea which make it belonged to. Of course, I have a few camera bodies lying around and I tried it on all of them, but it didn’t fit any of them. So my last resort was looking through photos of the lens online and checking the mounts similarities. After a bit of looking, I decided it looked like a Minolta. The next time I went wombling I looked for a clean Minolta body and found the alpha sweet from 1999. And just like the glass slipper, it fit.

It was wrapped in plastic so I didn’t get a chance to look in the viewfinder. If I had I might have changed my mind about getting it, there was a serious yellow stain.

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That is focused on a white wall. I read on a few forums that it was probably the adhesive used for the pentaprism. As it was not on the lens I figured it probably would not affect the photos. Some forums said to leave the camera in the sun and the UV ray would probably reduce the staining. I might try that…when there is some sun.

It felt light to hold, perfectly fitted my tiny hands, very easy to use, all the settings you might need, just the yellow stain. I wasn’t too worried. If you want more technical details, look here.

This is an entry-level SLR and it is perfectly fine if you are getting into film photography. It does the job, it doesn’t wow.

Here are my test shots…no yellowing 🙂

You can see I tried out the multi-exposure function for fun. I said I would keep the Pentax MZ-30 due it having this function, but the battery lid on that camera was weak. Apart from the yellow issue, this camera is in a much better condition so I think I will keep this one and get rid of the other.

6 thoughts on “Minolta Alpha Sweet S (Dynax 404si, Maxxum STsi)

  1. grumpytykepix says:

    Minolta is one of the two highly regarded 35mm makes I’ve never had (apart from the Leica CL, which was a contender for my forthcoming travels but ruled out as being too heavy), along with Pentax. All the functions seemed too much for me (before digital menus!) so, preferring simplicity, I always shied away.

  2. Toby says:

    I like Minoltas AF cameras, but these silver finishes make me want to vomit. It’sersonal thing I am sure. I love the love the more advance Si models and Minoltas A-mount glass is lovely. From memory access to the viewfinder is behind the eyepiece rubber with 2 screws, may allow you to clean the stain as I bet it’s only a pentamirror. That’s if memory serves me!

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