jss (06/30/82)
A thousand pardons to all you Minolta lovers, the name simply completely slipped my mind when I wrote the item. As our other writer comments, however, pentaxes are the cheaper. With regards to features, if you want an automatic camera thats just fine, and if that's what you want it's right for you. Nonetheless, if you want to be in control, the automatic features, with no exceptions that readily come to mind, are a royal pain. Thus in my mind the "features" argument is not a good one (I like to be in control.). However, for the times when you want to use the automatic option occasionally, the automatic cameras are wonderful, except that they are battery dependent, in most cases, even in the "fully manual" modes. Further, the "fully manual" modes on most cameras really aren't. My reasoning on the pentax is as follows: It has a meter, and since I dont like the idea of the battery dying, it is a small effort to reach forward and force that aperture ring around until the meter tells me things are O.K. More important, I can just ignore the meter if I so choose. (This is the K1000 series). Cheap, maybe, but that does not imply lack of ruggedness. The school in question was private, and the teacher in question did not have money restrictions. The K1000 was his first choice. I wouldn't touch the bayonet/screw mount argument. It's a matter of personal preference.