Minolta 600si

[Update: apparently the 600si has recently been discontinued by Minolta, leaving a gap in their line between the XTsi and 800si. The XTsi is easier to use, but the 800si is better suited to the advanced amateur (at nearly twice the price). With luck this gap will be filled soon.]

After I discovered the limitations of my first Maxxum, the 450si, I carefully compared the features of the more advanced models, which at that time included the 600si, 700si, and 9xi. There was nothing especially compelling about the 9xi, and there's really not much functional difference between the other two. I chose the 600si for exactly two reasons: the user interface to the controls, and the adjustable diopter.

Big dials and switches

The 600si does not have a reset button, to return it to a known state. This is because it doesn't need one. Want to know if you're in shutter priority mode with auto-bracketing, continuous narrow autofocus, spot metering, and +1 stop exposure compensation? Look at the camera. Want to reset it to the defaults? Turn the dials and switches until the white mark on them is either horizontal or vertical. Want to know what mode the camera is in when it's not turned on? Look at it.

This is not quite the same as an old manual SLR, where the shutter speed and aperture are on direct, physical controls. In fact, those are almost the only settings that aren't visible when a 600si is turned off, being controlled by a fairly standard pair of wheels conveniently placed under the thumb and forefinger of the right hand.

The only control I actively dislike is the ISO override switch, which is a tiny little pushbutton on the back of the camera, designed to be pressed with a fingernail or ballpoint pen. This is especially annoying since the camera insists on using the DX-coding on your film, requiring you to override for every roll if you aren't shooting straight.

You can have any flavor, as long as you want vanilla

You get all of the features to be expected from an advanced-amateur camera, with the exception of mirror lock-up, something Minolta simply doesn't do. What you don't get is the variety of customizations possible with competing cameras. No leader-out on rewind, no creative expansion cards, no release-priority autofocus, etc. Well, actually, there are a few custom features, such as the ability to change the exposure-lock button into a toggle, but nothing like the variety present on many other cameras.

There is no program shift mode. There are no cute-and-fluffy special program modes ("sports", "portrait", "landscape"). However, you do get 2-frames-per-second continuous drive, 3-shot auto-bracketing (at a fixed +/- 0.5 stop), and simple, flexible multiple exposures (up to nine per frame without any trouble, infinite if you really want to). If you're feeling really adventurous, you can even combine multiple exposures with either the auto-bracketing or the continuous drive, although I can't think of a reason why.

I can see clearly now

The viewfinder data display is clean and sensible, and easily visible while wearing glasses. Much of the display is reserved for the exposure scale that shows you how close the current manual settings are to the metered exposure (plus or minus three stops, in half-stop increments). In Program, Aperture-priority, and Shutter-priority modes, it only comes on if you activate exposure lock, in which case it shows you how far off the current meter reading is from the locked one. Combining the exposure lock button with spot metering gives you a quick way to evaluate the contrast of a scene.

Metering

Ambient metering is one of Minolta's real strengths. The 14-segment matrix meter is extremely clever, and comes up with reasonable solutions under almost all conditions. TTL/OTF flash metering, on the other hand, is a pretty basic single centerweighted sensor, and lacks the bells and whistles of some other brands; still, it does a pretty good job, apparently due to incorporating some information from the ambient meter reading.

Centerweighted and spot metering are available, and convenient exposure compensation dials are available for both the ambient and flash exposures. The key to the relationship between these two dials is that the camera will by default always try to balance the ambient and flash exposures in a 1:1 ratio, for the primary subject. Adjusting the ambient exposure dial affects the flash exposure as well; adjusting the flash exposure dial just changes the ratio between the two. There's some hidden complexity here that I plan to write up soon, but the bottom line is that no matter what you do with the flash compensation dial, the primary subject should end up receiving a correct exposure.

There are two things that Minolta really does right when it comes to flash: wireless sync and high-speed sync. Want to take the flash off the camera for higher quality light? Flip the switch on the body to "wireless", remove the flash (3500xi, 5200xi, or 5400HS) from the hot shoe, and raise the built-in flash. As long as the sensor on the external flash can see the light from the built-in, it will fire in TTL mode, with a maximum sync speed of 1/60.

Want to shoot at f2.8 at high noon with fill flash? Put a 5400HS in the hot shoe, switch to aperture priority mode, and fire away. The 600si will sync at up to 1/4000 with this flash, although the range gets really, really short (with ISO 100 film, the guide number at 1/4000 drops from 177 feet to 15.7 feet).

Construction

Mostly plastic, with metal in all the obvious places (tripod mount, lens mount, film guides). It feels nice and solid in the hand, though, especially with the optional vertical grip that adds a second set of controls, a studio sync socket, and the option of using 4 AA batteries instead of a single 2CR5. A nice touch is that the vertical grip has its own on/off switch, to keep you from bumping the extra buttons when you're shooting horizontally.

The viewfinder is definitely friendly to those of us with less than perfect vision; a removable rubber eyepiece cup protects your glasses from scratches, and an adjustable diopter allows you to do without them completely if you prefer.

Bottom line

I have a dislike for push-this-twist-that user interfaces. Some are better than others (in the Maxxum world, the new XTsi is far more sensible than the 500si it replaces, and don't even get me started on Nikons), but best of all is a control that has direct visual feedback, so you know at a glance what it's set to and what changing it will do.

Neglecting the vertical grip and the battery compartment door, the 600si has twenty separate buttons, switches, and dials, and all but one of them either has an obvious function or is labeled in a way that makes its correct use clear. The exception is the depth-of-field preview button, which some people might overlook completely if they don't happen to trip it with the tip of their ring finger and wonder why the viewfinder went dark and they heard a funny noise.

This is a no-nonsense, hands-on camera, one of the few on the market that gives easy access to all its functionality. There are features it lacks, but nothing crippling. There's a Nikon N90S sitting about ten feet away from me as I write this, with a nice trio of pro lenses and an SB-26, but I haven't found any reason to switch.