Fast 9 Point Illuminated Focusing
Fast 3 FPS film advance
35 Custom Functions!
Great Rubberized Grip
Just the right size and weight

Can't get a battery grip for it - though I don't really need one
Questions about build quality (there a ton of reconditioned ones on Ebay)
Cheap price outweighs the concerns about build quality!

Minolta did a great job combining excellent value and and a wealth of features in the Maxxum 70. I just upgraded from a Maxxum 5 to the Maxxum 70, and though I think the Maxxum 5 is a great camera, it's small size and small grip made it difficult to hold and operate. Although very compact, the Maxxum 70 is larger and a bit heavier than the Maxxum 5 and has a very nice rubberized grip that makes the camera easy to hold and operate, even with larger lenses. The Maxxum 70 also has nine illuminated focusing points compared to the seven points on the 5, and has more Custom Functions than you will ever need! It has very fast focusing and subject tracking, and with a fast 3 Frames Per Second film advance makes it suitable for capturing sports action as well as for taking great portraits and landscape shots. Combined with a decent lens and a Maxxum flash with an automatic zoom head (I have the 3500xi) it is a great setup for taking indoor pictures with flash. I have compared the Maxxum 70 to the newer Nikon N75, and the 70 beats the N75 hands down. It has 4 more focusing points, faster focusing, and is much more comfortable to hold and operate. Plus you have Wireless Flash and High Speed Flash Capability! All in all a great camera for the beginning to more serious photographer, and for the price you can get them for these days it really is a bargain!

Customer Service

None needed

Similar Products Used:

Minolta Maxxum 3000i, 300si, 400si, XTSI, HTSI Plus, Maxxum 5, Nikon N65, Canon Rebel 2000, Canon Rebel G, Canon Elan 7

This camera has been nothing but amazing. This is my first camera and I have no regrets. I get nothing but quality pictures from it. The controls are easy to use and everything about it is good.

-Excellent meter
-Great feel and size
-reasonable price
-Great custom features.

-Dim viewfinder
-Focus likes to hunt in low light
-No Battery Grip
-Non-standard hotshoe
-no PC terminal

I needed a 35mm film camera for a photography class I was taking and my manual camera decided to be unfaithful right before the class started. After trying different cameras and holding them in my hands I decided to go with the Maxxum. The Rebel T2 was out of my price range, the K2 felt very cheap, and the Nikon offerings didn't quite fit my hands right. I picked up the Maxxum 70 and was hooked. It had a great feel, and I liked the way the viewfinder looked in my eye. I shoot with my left eye so I liked that the LCD display wasn't on the back like the K2 and T2. The meter is rarely ever wrong and the autofocus is great as long as you have enough light. It has a bevy of advanced features that can be useful but it lso has a great auto mode that all you have to do is press the shutter. The mode dial is fairly easy to use and has some helpful custom features like leaving the leader out, and switch focus modes with AEL button. Overall I would reccommend this camera for anyone who is wanting an easy to use 35mm SLR but still wants to take control of what their photos look like.

Customer Service

Very nice customer service from Wolf Camera. Very helpful and never pressured me.

Similar Products Used:

Canon K2 T2 Elan, Nikon N55 N65, Minolta Maxxum 50

Light weight-excellent for backpacking.
Simple to use with generally good ergonomics (see below...)
Super-fast AF
Same 9-point AF system found in the Maxxum 7.
Bright viewfinder.

No vertical grip available.
May not be tough enough for hard use.
Slow sync speed for wireless flash.
Inconveniently placed control wheel.

Small, light, extremely fast autofocus (compared to other Minolta/Konica-Minolta AF cameras I've tried--the Maxxum 70 Date is even faster than the vaunted 7 when a decent speed lens is attached).

I purchased the 70 after my beloved Maxxum 7 was stolen. Although this is not a Maxxum 7 review, I do need to state that the 7 is, in my opinion, the best 35mm SLR ever made. That said, onto the 70

Build quality doesn't match the the 7's and, at the price, I would never expect it to. To me, it feels a little more solid than the Alpha/Dynax/Maxxum 5. It fits well in my hands. Has the basic bells and whistles found in midrange cameras from other manufacturers.

Ergonomics: I would have preferred a two-wheel system--or even a one-wheel more conveniently located than on the front of the face plate (Maxxum 3/4/5 users will feel right at home with this setup). I also miss the LCD panel and joypad of the 7, but for a C-note, this camera is really rocks.

Battery use: The reviewer who burned through batteries obviously had a malfunctioning unit--I've never experienced high battery usage.

Viewfinder: very bright for a mirror-box type penta... the only SLR I've owned that lacks a true prism (and this is after using a 7--the best--thanks to the Accute Matte screens found in all Minoltas from the X-series MF cameras on.

Customer Service

Not applicable, but may be a trial, due to Sony's acqusition of KM's repair servicing...

Similar Products Used:

Minolta Maxxum 7
Nikon F100
Pentax K1000
Canon EOS 1n
Minolta SRT-101
Minolta SRT-102
Minolta XK-AE
Minolta XG-M
Minolta X-570 (2)

many features
fast af
cheap if you don't use it much (batteries)
ok-ish stock lens.

poor battery life !!!
feels like it's made from re-cycles yoghurt cartons.
too small, too light.
dull-ish viewfinder.
noisy af
cannot be used with high speed ir
people look down on this brand name (now i know why)
bares no relation to the tank like 70's early 80's minoltas.

late 2005 my local jessops were selling the dynax 60 (including 28-100mm zoom) for the knock down price of £140. after looking at the spec on minoltas website i was sold - this camera looks pretty advanced and this was a silly price, so off i went to buy it. big mistake!

so i get home and unpack my new minolta. hmmmm it looks a bit cheap.... hmmmmm.... it feels very cheap. but that's ok, it was only 140 quid so what should i expect? still, it feels awfully cheap compared to my minolta x-700, but hey! it's got af and it beeps & stuff. so off i go with 10 rolls of fp4 and head for the coast. i have to say the af is very quick and accurate, pity the camera is so small and light, but then i think back the minolta website and remind myself that it's not small but "conveniently compact" and light. 3 rolls in to the morning and the battery meter is down to half. hmmm this can't be right, maybe it's just one of those inaccurate meters that drop quickly but doesn't die for ages. nope, 8 rolls in and it shuts down, so i head home. "they must have been old batteries - sat in the box for months/years" i say to myself. next day i buy 2 more cr3's (£11.00) and head off to the countryside with some tranny & colour neg. 9 rolls in..... yup you guessed it batteries are dead. this is silly, so back to jessops i go and try to order a battery pack. "they don't do one" i'm told. great, better give me half a dozen packs of liths then (£55.00) hmmmmm... still, the camera was only £140. it was cheap right?

50ish rolls later: the leather handgrip cover is lifting at one corner, the lens zoom ring is starting to grind, the shutter is making a funny clunking noise and then it happened..... it died. no power, no life no matter how fresh the batteries are.


died aged 3 months.
r.i.p

Customer Service

i didn't bother. i saw reason & binned it, baught an eos 30 and moved on.

Similar Products Used:

Dynax 4 - equally poor but takes BP-200 AA Battery Grip. Camera was bought for only £40 with full warranty - surplus stock (eBay)

Great lense in package I got. 28-100mm gets pretty much any picture just right.

Well it has been a long time since I shot with a SLR but the platic body feels a little light. Granted plastics are nothing like they were 20 years ago.

This is a pretty nice camera. I got it for my wife who was tired of losing photos in the PC and not printing them out when she wanted them. The hassle of getting the settings for the printer just right, color balance just right and then getting the prints the quality she wanted just ended up being to much of a hassle. She still wants good quality prints so here we are back the 35MM film format. Sometimes old is new again. The quality of pics you get from a film camera can't be beat by even a 8 MP digital. The graduations in a digital picture still are showing up even in my Dad's Sony 828. She even wants to try B/W shooting that will teach hear about lighting.

Customer Service

Not needed

Similar Products Used:

Well I could say a Nikon Nikromat, a tank of a manual camera. That was years ago. So nothing currently availble

-Price is way more than reasonable. -lots of fantastic features, yet still very easy to use. -Excellent focusing and metering.

-no connection for a wired remote. -shutter speed could be a bit faster

This is my first SLR, finally upgraded after using a Fuji point-and-shoot for about 5 years. The camera came as a bundle with a 28-100 lens; it was worth every penny and then some. The interface is just plain easy to use; even without much SLR experience I was had no problem getting the hang of what's what here. Also really appreciate the depth-of-field preview, big plus in this price range. Haven't purchased an external flash yet, so I can't comment on the wireless flash system, but it sounds brilliant. Focusing is very fast, especially when ponied with a fixed lens. Metering is extremely accurate too, haven't really screwed anything up in "P" mode. Lots of handy custom features, like lead-out film rewinding, ISO override and bracketing. The camera is a good size, some SLRs I've tried were getting too small for my taste. It feels solid too, even though it's plastic...nice and weighty without being at all too heavy. Shutter speed tops out at 1/2000, would be nice to have 1/4000 like the Maxxum 5. Also, the remote is infra-red only, there's no option to use a wired connection. Wireless flash sync is 1/45, that could be a bit faster, tripod is pretty much required without sugeon's hands. With a wired flash though, you've got a full range of speeds back, so you can't really complain about that. Overall though, you can't beat this camera for what you pay for it. Real easy to use for us SLR first timers, but also has lots of high-end features for the experienced user.

Customer Service

The shop doesn't specialize in cameras, general electronics, so service wasn't great. I knew what I wanted though, so that wasn't much of a problem.

Similar Products Used:

Tried lots in various stores, couldn't find a better deal than this.