INTRODUCTION

The Minolta AL is a 35mm film rangefinder camera made in Japan by Minolta in 1961.

BEST SUITED FOR:

Events

Travel

Street

PERSONAL NOTES

The Minolta AL was my first rangefinder. By playing with this camera, I discovered another complete World in photography.

The AL feels very solid, it's made of thick metal. It's heavy for its size, a bit like a Leica M.

The lens is not interchangeable, but it's a nice 45mm f2, tack sharp and quite capable of delivering nice bokeh.

It has a selenium cell meter, but it's not very useful when it's broken, and on these cameras, they usually are broken. But, the camera is manual anyway. If you do have a working meter, you still have to transfer the EV value from the meter to the lens settings.

I used this camera mainly for street photo. I also used it inside with flash.

There is no hot shoe on this camera. There is a cold shoe, meaning that you can fit a flash, but sync has to be done elsewhere than thru the shoe. On the side of the lens, there is a PC sync port, with X and M sync. I had a flashcube adapter with a sync cord, so it was perfect on M sync. I had a blast of fun with that. My friends still have blurry eyes because of me !

CONCLUSION

If you want to have fun using a rangefinder, a Minolta AL could be it. For just a bit more, I would suggest a nice Canon P instead.

PHOTO SAMPLES

VERDICT:

4 FLASHBULBS