I bought this camera a few years ago as a replacement for my old Zenit, on the basis of a few magazine reviews and a shop test. It's a competent camera but it doesn't do anything particularly well. Many of the modes/functions it has are only useful for beginners, while it's missing some that ... Read review
(+) Great for beginners, fool proof, easy to use, compact and can buy used models very cheap. (-) Slow autofocus, no manual overrides for shutter and aperture settings.
(+) Fold out LCD screen, Image Stabilization, Zuiko lens quality, Picture quality, Flash options (-) Noise in low light, Too many buttons, Badly laid out, Too many gimmicks
Advantages: Has most of the features needed, good all-round performace Disadvantages: featureset not perfect, some technology niggles
I bought this camera a few years ago as a replacement for my old Zenit, on the basis of a few magazine reviews and a shop test. It's a competent camera but it doesn't do anything particularly well. Many of the modes/functions it has are only useful for beginners, while it's missing some that you might hope to find, e.g. frame-forwards control (for when you want to do multiple exposures). The "predictive" autofocus is laughable - if you ... more
I bought this camera a few years ago as a replacement for my old Zenit, on the basis of a few magazine reviews and a shop test. It's a competent camera but it doesn't do anything particularly well. Many of the modes/functions it has are only useful for beginners, while it's missing some that you might hope to find, e.g. frame-forwards control (for when you want to do multiple exposures). The "predictive" autofocus is laughable - if you want to capture a moving subject you're best off pre-focusing. The shutter relese/focus stopped working properly after a few months, though in fairness other cameras somtimes have the same problem. Of it's contemporaries the Pentax MZ-5 was/is the best buy - it has all the essential features, while the superfluous are stripped away to leave a smaller body.
The good points about this camera are that its really very user friendly, and surprisingly durable (has gone everywhere with me ever since I bought it) even the Amazon!!
However I have found some bad points about this camera these are its a bit slow on the low light shots, and I know its an SLR but its quite hefty
General Comments
I have bouth this Dynax 500si in 1997 with my then girlfriend from Dixons in London, England. Always wanted an SLR ... ...I was not in photography. Six years and three girlfriends later the camera is still with me never letting me down. I shoot about 30 films a year, and have had no problem whatsoever. I started enjoying it even more when I treated myself to an 70-210 zoom lens. I find that it takes better pictures with a kodak ultra (400) film and that is what I recommend.After that i think the brand has won me. ...
karma12 07.02.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Minolta Dynax 500si
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