To Minolta-philes (or -phobes) bold enough to try posting in this forum I extend a big welcome to you. This forum is hardly one day old as of the 5th of April 1999. The messages that I got when I invited people to try posting here from the Minolta Mailing List were less than encouraging. Notwithstanding that, I hope that others will be of a more charitable bend of mind and give this nascent forum time to grow and develop.

I wish to extend a big thank you to Dr. Philip Greenspun for designing this interface and allowing me to host a page on his server. I am confident that Dr Greenspun's user-friendly Q&A format will prove a boon to all participants in the Minolta Users Page.

Bouquets and brickbats about Minolta equipment are welcomed. Please keep your language temperate. Feel free to post anything on the process of image-making and the visual arts with respect to its impact on photography. I welcome especially postings of your images, especially if shot with Minolta equipment, on this forum for all to enjoy or critique.

I promise a hands-off approach; I shall not moderate this forum with a pair of pruning shears. It is your forum, should you choose to support and use it. Please make yourself at home.

Thank you...Rene.

-- Rene Quan (renequan@bigfoot.com), April 05, 1999

Answers

Hello Paul

Thank you for your kind comments. I started this page to serve as a counterpoint to the Nikon/Canon forums, and as a sounding board for all Minolta owners to trumpet the merits of their camera brand. I am grateful to the moderator of the MML, and perhaps I phrased my invitation over at MML too indelicately that gave readers the idea that I was trying to hijack the MML. This is far from my intentions.

I had hoped that Phil's more user-friendly format will help to archive Minolta topics better for the benefit of future Minolta owners. After all, if I ,as a Minolta owner, am sincere about defending my faith in the marque I had better choose a more accessible avenue. It was a nightmare for me to try to find and link threads concerning certain topics over at MML. Thus this forum. But I was not aware that I had intruded on what I now know is a very tightly knit old-boys club. Perhaps, Minolta is doomed to sit by the sidelines watching N and C steal the thunder because no-one will fly its flag. Perhaps, this page of mine will die...but I will soldier on. I hope that in time, those who are not wedded to MML nor belong to that club will make useful contributions. We shall see. Right now, I can only apologise to the two gentlemen who posted questions here so soon after it was set up (this page is needed after all!) that I cannot find anyone to help them with their queries. In my naivety, I had assumed that a better interface will be appreciated but it was not to be.

Oh well, this should provide a nice alternative. Good Shooting ...Rene.

P.S. Oh yes, please do post your images here. That's what this forum is for: PHOTOGRAPHY and not only talk.

P.P.S. Like him or abhor him for his opinions, Phil is passionate about what he writes about, and what's wrong with passion? I thank Phil for providing this me this page. If enough of us post here, we may eventually cause him to change his mind about Minolta. After all, I had been reading photo.net for more than a year, read all the comments and still ended up buying Minolta!

-- Rene (renequan@bigfoot.com), April 06, 1999.

Rene,

As a regular reader of the MML and photo.net I can understand why your responses from the MML have been less than encouraging. Philip's comments of Minolta equipment on his photo.net site have been less than fair. Additionally, regular supporters his site seems to be a Canon/Gitzo/Arca Swiss self-supporting (loving?) promotional group. Even Nikon user's seem second rate there. Philip "shamelesly support"s himself(his own words), and as far as I am concerned, certain other products for his own gain. Definately not the best place to start a MINOLTA web list.

But, it would be nice to have a list we could post images as well as comments. I will visit your new site, and will likely post some images here in the future. As other people visit, they will be able to determine for themselves the excellent results that can be obtained with Minolta gear.

Regards, Paul

-- Paul D. Martinez (photozs@msn.com), April 05, 1999.

I am delighted to find this forum and I will check it regularly. I am a "gear head" trying to take photographs. I have the 7000i which I have had for ten years, but only recently took a good look at it and discovered it is really a very fancy camera. I plan to buy the Maxxum 9 when available.

Rene, good luck with this forum. And thank you, Phillip Greenspun for doing all this.

-- Joseph Allen Worrall Jr. MD RDMS (jworrall@alaska.net), April 09, 1999.

It's probably not what Rene had in mind, but what I would really like is a site dedicated to Minolta manual focus photo equipment. Twice, I subscribed to the MML only to get inundated by Maxxum-related questions. That serves a great purpose, of course. But what this net really needs is a manual focus Minolta site. Think about it -- it may be the right niche.

-- Larry Hample (lmhample@mindspring.com), April 15, 1999.

sorry not an answer a question hopefully your good selfs could answer for me

i have two x700's which do everyting i need, i have just purchased a x300 for my partner and after an hour on the net looking fo a review or instructions for her i have come up empty

can anyone advise me where i can find x300 info?

kind regards good shooting

Tony

-- tony wyness (el.millar@xtra.co.nz), April 28, 2001.