Minolta Freedom III
I’m not sure what freedom you are achieving when using this camera but maybe the first two iterations were very restrictive. Just kidding of course it was Minolta marketing for all the automatic features of the camera: auto exposure, auto focus, auto wind auto film loading, auto Henri Cartier-Bresson (Just kidding I made the last one up) . The amount of user control is very limited though with no exposure compensation and only the ability to force flash fill and not flash off. The lens is a 35mm f2.8 (4 elements in 4 groups). The viewfinder is nice and bright and uncluttered. While it has a sliding lens cover I wouldn’t call it a clam shell, like an Olympus XA because it’s so large, perhaps a giant clam. The larger dimensions of the camera make the lens appear all the smaller in the center but it is an okay little piece of optical gear. I’m refraining from calling it great because it does have soft corners and chromatic aberrations. I like the 1980’s style membrane shutter button it allows for a nice flat top plate that suits the rest of the design and materials.
