Minolta Freedom Vista – Fuji Superia 400

When buying cameras (or anything) I often prefer to have several models that each have specific functions or fit a specific category as opposed to going all-in on one do-it-all item. I know this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, some will advise learning just one tool inside and out. For me, I’ve always found myself building up systems, collections of things, and learning through each item’s perspective. Does this end up being a faster way to learn? Who knows. But does this end up being more or less expensive? Well, it can be cheaper, since an item with all the bells & whistles is often many times more expensive than a more basic one. But then again, buying multiple individual items can hide the actual cumulative cost of a project, and it compounds ancillary costs like shipping fees. Nonetheless, it’s easier to dip a toe in the water when you aren’t shelling out for a Leica M-whatever or Hasselblad (or U87 or Jupiter-8 or Les Paul or SawStop or whatever you’re into). All that to say, I’m not really recommending that anyone follow my lead here, just explaining why I shoot so many different cameras, and specifically why I got this camera.

This is the Minolta Freedom Vista (QD) from 1991, also known as the Minolta Riva Panorama and the Minolta P’s, and what I call “the poorest man’s XPan”. The XPan, made jointly by Hasselblad and Fujifilm and released in 1998, shoots 35mm film but exposes what amounts to two frames worth of negative at once, resulting in a very wide panorama with more information than you would get with a standard 35mm negative. This is in stark contrast to the other “panorama” cameras of the era, which instead offered the option to mask the top and bottom of a standard 35mm negative to only expose the center portion, thus creating a pseudo panorama. The Minolta Freedom Vista is somewhat unique in that it takes it one step further: you can only shoot pseudo panoramas. You don’t have an option on whether to shoot full frame or masked, the mask is not removable, it doesn’t flip into place, it only shoots an aspect ratio of 3:1 down the center of the negative. But with this limitation comes focus, and the lens and the viewfinder are matched exactly for the camera’s purpose. The lens is a 24mm f/4.5 wide angle lens, which is appropriate for the type of wide compositions you necessarily make with this camera. Similarly the viewfinder is shaped to give you an exact 3:1 preview when composing. And that’s it, that’s what’s good about the camera. It’s focused on just one thing and forces/allows you to compose in unique ways, giving you shots you probably wouldn’t get with other cameras.

If it did all of the above but was big and bulky and ugly (or expensive) then it would be a hard sell, but luckily the Minolta Freedom Vista is light and tiny and really nicely designed. It’s a perfect pocket camera, though since it’s so small I do have to remember to keep my fingers out of the picture. Mine was also very cheap, since it was untested from a local seller. I thought I had a dud at first, since I couldn’t get it to wind a roll of Kodak Ultramax. But I eventually swapped the film for a roll of Fuji Superia which it wound right up, though I did find the motor sounded a little healthier if I pinched the body right against where the gears were spinning ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . Once the gears started moving, the camera seemed to resurrect and I haven’t had a problem since. I’m pretty pleased with the photos, though I think a higher res scan would draw out more detail from these cropped negatives. There is also some heavy vignetting in some situations, but I hear that can be corrected in Lightroom.

Hit Rate: 18/24 (75%)