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Minolta Vectis S-1

by Philip Greenspun; created 1997

It is small. It is weatherproof. It is a single-lens reflex. The lenses are small. They are weatherproof. A whole Vectis camera system takes up less space than one of my Canon EOS-5 bodies with vertical grip.

Viewing

I like to be able to see what I'm photographing. I wear eyeglasses. The Vectis viewfinder has reasonable eye relief. I can't really take in both edges of the frame at once in panoramic or HDTV mode, but I can come close. The LCD display at the bottom of the viewfinder is clear and large. I'd rate the finder almost as good as on my Canon EOS-5 body, though not as good as a Nikon N90 or F4.

The finder optics seem a bit dark compared to 35mm SLRs, a problem compounded by the generally slow lenses that are available for the Vectis.

You choose your APS format from a convenient wheel on the side of the camera and a mechanical curtain blacks out the relevant portion of the viewfinder. Very slick.

Focusing

Manual focusing is available at all times by depressing the shutter button halfway and then turning the MF ring on the lens. About as convenient as a Canon EOS body with a USM lens (if only the Nikon AF system were this smart). Unfortunately, the feel of the rings on the 28-80 and 50 macro lenses that I tried was very poor. The ring seems not to be mechanically connection to the optics but rather is a sensor input to the camera which will drive the focus rack with a motor. The S-1 body seems to not reliably notice when you are turning the ring, so can take several complete rotations of the ring to go from infinity to close focus. The camera can also be set to full-time manual focus mode at the touch of a button.

Autofocus is presumably how most people will use the camera. The sensor is a big wide central one. The camera hunts much more than my EOS-5 and seems less tolerant of what one would think are good targets (e.g., text).

Exposure

Autoexposure works like you'd expect, with aperture and shutter-priority modes plus program. A thumb wheel on the camera back adjusts aperture or shutter as appropriate. There does not seem to be a program shift function which every modern 35mm SLR I've used has had (e.g., if my Canon EOS-5 thinks f/8 and 1/125 is good, a twirl of the wheel will bring up f/5.6 and 1/250). The wheel simply does nothing when in program autoexposure mode.

Manual exposure is crippled in two separate ways. First, the camera has only one control wheel and you have to set two items. Shutter speed is set conveniently using the control wheel. To change the aperture, you have to press the exposure compensation button and simultaneously twirl the dial. The second blow against ever using manual exposure is there there is no graphical indicator of how far from the meter's recommendation your set exposure is. The LCD on the camera has no indication at all; the in-finder display shows only a plus or minus sign.

Motor Drive

The built-in winder is quiet but slow; you won't get more than 1 frame per second out of this camera.

Flash

The Vectis S-1 has a wimpy built-in flash whose best feature is that it can emit coded signals to remotely activite off-camera Minolta-brand strobes. There is even an automatic way to get 2:1 lighting with the off-camera strobe providing 2/3rds of the exposure and the on-camera flash providing 1/3rd as fill. You could do this with a Canon or Nikon too, but you'd need $150 of extra cords and a PhD in reading Japanese instruction manuals.

If you don't like high-voltage electric shocks, then you'll appreciate the dedicated SF-1 accessory flash that remains splash-proof when attached to the S-1.

The only thing Minolta could really learn from any other company on the flash score is the value of the Nikon D metering system. The Vectis will set flash exposure based on its TTL sensors. Minolta will tell you that their "14-segment honeycomb patterned metering" is the best in the business (and it probably is), but I like to take pictures with subjects that are at the edges of the frame. The Nikon D system is the best for this because it sets flash exposure purely based on its knowledge of the power of the flash, and the distance at which you've focussed the lens.

Construction

Plastics. It is all plastics. The only part of the camera or lenses that is readily identifiable as metal is the tripod socket. I think a bunch of other little things are in fact metal, e.g., the front filter threads of the lenses and the strap holders on the body. But basically the body and the lenses and the lens mount appear to all be plastic.

I'm not going to complain. It works and it bounces.

Lenses

Minolta decided to make a new lensmount and all new lenses for the Vectis. I guess if I had a huge collection of Maxxum lenses, this might upset me. But really there is no point in carrying around a set of lenses big enough to cover a 35mm negative when you could carry around a set of lenses big enough to cover the APS negative area (56% of the size of 35mm). I don't want to use my Fuji medium format or Schneider 4x5 view camera lenses on my Canon EOS. Why should I want to use my Canon EOS lenses on an APS camera? The thing that I hate most about good optics is weight. Having a custom line of APS lenses lets you slim down considerably.

the 22-80 zoom lens

My idea of a zoom lens is a Canon EOS 70-200/2.8. 3 lbs. Metal. Tripod collar. The Vectis 22-80 is about the same size and weight as the plastic lens shade for my 70-200. A delight. The angles of view that you get correspond roughly to a 28-105 in 35mm format. Aperture goes from a slow f/4 at 22 to a very slow f/5.6 at 80. Still, I guess if you're a consumer used to a zoom P&S camera with its f/10 telephoto zoom, this would be a big improvement.

Since the lens has no distance scale it also can't have depth of field or infrared focussing marks. It does have a nice bayonet-mount plastic lens hood, though.

The lens focusses continuously to 1:4. If you want to go closer, and/or have higher image quality, then you want...

the 50/3.5 macro lens

This is almost like a real lens. It has a distance scale. It has depth-of-field marks for f/16 and f/32. When you rack out the barrel, it reveals 1:10, 1:5, ..., 1:2 image magnification indicators. When the lens is out at its maximum magnification of 1:2 and you've set f/11 in manual exposure mode, the lens is actually delivering less than f/16 worth of exposure. This is true of any macro lens because it has been racked way far out from the film plane and is projecting a huge image circle, much larger than the negative. If you are metering through-the-lens, this loss of light doesn't really screw up your pictures because the meter automatically compensates. If you are using a studio strobe system and a handheld meter, then your pictures will be underexposed by 1.25 f-stops. Oops.

Nikon is the only company that does this right. An ancient N8008 (F801) body's viewfinder display will report "f/16 and then f/32" as you rack a Nikon AF macro lens out to 1:1, even though the aperture ring is set to f/11.

With all the computer horsepower in the Vectis S-1, Minolta should have been able to get this right.

I don't know if the macro lens has a floating element.

Prices

The Vectis S-1 body seems to cost around $350. The decent lenses are around $250-300 each (macro and 22-80).

My friend Lorrie's Report

I lent the Vectis outfit to my friend Lorrie for her three-week trip to Nepal. Here's her report...

For years I've been using an Olympus OM-1 35mm SLR and a 20-year-old Hasselblad 500C, so I was very excited by the chance to take a Minolta Vectis S-1 on a recent trekking / river rafting trip to Nepal. I didn't want to be bothered with a light meter or manual focusing so I was counting on the Vectis S-1 to provide point-and-shoot convenience with SLR quality. The ability to change the APS film in mid-roll would be icing on the cake. I found the Vectis S-1 delivered on some of those expectations, but disappointed on others.

The Body

The Vectis S-1 is a bit smaller and lighter than my Olympus, but didn't feel it. It has an ergonomic, molded plastic body, so it felt larger than it actually was. I noticed that the molding allowed my right hand to curl around it comfortably, however, those folks who like to hold a camera in their left hands are out of luck--it just doesn't work.

The viewfinder is reasonably bright and worked fine with eyeglasses.

If you're in auto mode and the flash is called for, it pops up rather loudly when you touch the shutter release. Unfortunately, it sounds almost exactly like you just took the picture. It startled me every time and eventually I just turned off the auto-flash mode.

The Controls

In a word: complicated. I found all the bells and whistles of the S-1 to be its biggest drawback. Perhaps I was put off by the 120-page manual, but it was necessary. The back of the camera had more buttons and little LCD pictures than the average VCR. So, not being willing to memorize that many instructions, and not wanting to be caught fiddling with my camera in case I saw a tiger, I left the S-1 in AUTO mode most of the time. I could only hope that if it appeared, the tiger wouldn't be doing anything artistic.

Autofocus and the Swaying Elephant

The 22-80 Minolta Vectis lens gave me most of the versatility I wanted, but I had a major hassle with the autofocus. Sitting on the back of swaying elephant is not the easiest photographic situation, but I wouldn't have thought it would pose such a challenge to a technological marvel like the S-1. The focusing sensor was baffled by the constant motion. The result: I couldn't take any pictures! The camera refused to fire. I suppose I should be glad it chose to protect me and my film from such an impossible situation, but my trusty little point-and-shoot didn't have any trouble. It focused and shot, and the pictures were fine.

Picture Quality

In spite of all the frustrations, my pictures came out pretty well. The ability to choose between a standard sized frame, a full sized frame, and a panoramic frame was nice and helped make up for my unwillingness to fool around with all the settings. However, the photos weren't any better than those I took with a point-and-shoot that probably cost a quarter of what an S-1 costs.

Overall rating

On a scale of 1 (completely unacceptable) - 10 (absolutely amazing) I'd give the S-1 a rating of 6. In spite of its good construction and sleek design, I found disappointing to use and wound up missing a lot of shots I would have easily captured with a point-and-shoot or a manual SLR..

A note on APS film

The APS system is, as advertised, virtually foolproof. The film fits in the chamber in one position only, and the camera takes care of the rest. You don't have to fiddle with a leader, or worry about whether you've wound it on the uptake spool correctly. Changing the film is midroll is simple--the camera takes care of everything. The drawback to this system is that you can't look at the processed negatives.

OK, that's what Lorrie had to say.

Where to Buy

Adorama our recommended retailers page the user recommendations section

You can now Add or View Comments on either my review or Lorrie's.

Readers' Comments


Add a comment



Victor Wood , August 22, 1997; 08:07 P.M.

Having just shot off my first 6 rolls on a new Vectis s-1 I agree with most of what has been written on your review. However, If the camera had been put into action shot submode of fully autmatic, I think you would have got your shot from the elephant. In this mode the autofocus is continuous and a moving target is no problem.

? Beepy , February 25, 1998; 01:35 P.M.

Comments were to the point. For the Vectis S-1, I went with the 22-80 lens. Good all around lens. When climbing a volcano in Bali, I appreciated the low weight compared to my Maxxum 700si with 28-105 lens. It gets noticeable by the end of the day. The one thing that truly impressed me was the "splashproof design". In China in June '97 it rained nearly continuously. Someone travelling in our group had a 35mm high end fixed lens camera completely self-destruct (sounded like the gears were stripping) after the first day. My Minolta 700si started flashing what looked to be the characters on the display in a X-wing fighter in Star Wars on the second day in Fushan. The Vectis S-1 kept going. If I hadn't brought it along I would have not had any pictures to show for the trip. I just wish it autofocused with the speed of the 700si. I'm not getting rid of my 35mm, but I appreciate the portability and casualness coupled to some felxibility of the S-1.

Jerome Parmentier , December 13, 1998; 04:17 P.M.

I'm a low end photographer. All I've ever used are high end point-and-shoot cameras. I've found some very nice 35mm ones that work great, but for my first forray into the SLR camera market this is great. It is much like my Samsung in its automated approach to photography. I truly believe that Minolta designed this camera for the P and S user that wanted something more sophisticated. Great camera for people that don't want to worry about f values and have no problem reading a 120 page manual.

Franka Tao Lieu , March 11, 1999; 12:49 A.M.

First off, I must point out that I regularly use medium format and 35MM. But the S-1 are a real delight to use providing the user are willing to spent the time to get to grip with all those controls. Actually I have found no problem with it at all. The real gem in the lineup of the Vectis got to be the 80-240 APO Zoom. With two S-1 body, the 80-240, 22-80 & the 50/3.5 macro. The setup has been with me for over a year and to a number of location. I have try all the different emulsion on APS and generally found the vectis work well up to ( and sometime beyond ) 8X10 enlargement. The 50/3.5 macro and the 80-240 APO zoom give particularly good result. I have also the 400/8.0 mirror and using it is certainly an experience. Overall I would rate the Vectis a 7.5 out of 10. I am looking forward to the 2.7 Million pixel Digital body Minolta going to bring out for the Vectis

Randy Shafer , March 19, 1999; 12:48 P.M.

I recently purchased the S-1, 25-150 and 80-240 zooms. I had used the Canon Elph on a few trips and was very impressed with a much higher yield of good pictures than from my 35mm camera, probably due to the APS picture quality improvement features. So far I'm very pleased with the results and find the camera a big improvement over the Elph (other than size) but would like to see an additional lens added to the lineup--- a superwide angle lens, perhaps 14mm or a 12-24mm zoom. This would be a big aid when shooting panoramic shots, and would get me closer to the large angular coverage of true panorama cameras-- at least 100 degrees. The camera itself is a joy to use once the typically poor quality Japanese "VCR" control suite is decoded. This is typical, and the only Japanese cameras I've seen with high quality controls are those from Contax. With the current rebate program (March 1999, $300 back on my purchase) I'll rate the system 8 out of 10 for value, 9 out of 10 for picture quality, and 8 out of 10 for size and portability.

Timothy Skoraszewski , August 27, 1999; 11:18 P.M.

The Vectis S-1 may not be a professional camera but many wish they could do the things with their 35mm's that I can do with my S-1. As far as enlargements go all of you 35mm users can take a hike because you know the truth and that is that true pro's don't do big enlargements with a 35mm. I was taking low angle shots in a river with the water literally up to my chin and despite the care I took I slipped and my camera was briefly submerged, about 10 seconds, and never has a problem emerged from that. I use a Cokin Filter setup with it and it works fine. Excellent camera.

Nicklas Larsson , August 05, 2000; 02:49 P.M.

"The S-1 body seems to not reliably notice when you are turning the ring, so it can take several complete rotations of the ring to go from infinity to close focus."
Actually it seems as the lens (at least the 22-80) has some kind of "accelerating autofocus". If you turn the ring fast then the focus will change even faster, it only takes 1/4 of a rotation to change the focus from the nearest to the most far distance. If you turn the ring slowly then it will take several complete rotations.

K Donkor , October 07, 2000; 06:15 P.M.

I have the body, I have the big lens, the flash and the remote control. The whole system is excellent and works a treat. However, I must be honest, when I fail to take a high-quality picture it is not down to flaws either in APS or in the S1. It is because I do not yet know enough about photography. I find that, as my knowledge increases, I am better able to manipulate the myriad capabilities of the tool.

Marco Crewe , January 08, 2001; 06:38 P.M.

I have had S-1 quite a long time now (3 years) and over the years I have taken thousends of pictures. After I bought Kodak Advantix FD 300 film scanner I have only scanned developed film, not taken any prints.

What I really love in this camera is its light weight and compact size. It has been pleasure to carry it around in my travels. However, I'm now changing the system back to 35mm since this camera or APS film cannot give me results that I want. They are good when it comes to sharpness but could be better. Colors and metering seem to be a bit problem.

What I have found out, this camera takes amazing pictures when sun is shining high above, no clouds, summer. Then colors are absolutely fantastic, and metering works well. Another situation where I have gotten very good results are close-ups with flash (using 28-56 lens). They mostly are very good. If the situations would be always like this, I probably wouldn't consider changing this camera. I have also taken lots of good night pictures, but camera is quite hard to use in the dark, viewfinder isn't too good for that job.

BUT, metering doesn't seem to work if it's cloudy, rainy or gray (or maybe it's my problem, I can't use the metering way it should be? I've tried spot metering as well but I didn't get satisfying results.). I have had really hard time getting exposure right in these conditions. Colors aren't too good either.

I also have 56-170 lens that seems to be pretty bad quality, especially in 130->, I haven't tested other lenses (except 28-56, which is ok, except it doesn't have manual focus option).

Ok, still some pros... You really can have lots of different equipment for this camera, like remote control, flash (Dynax series as well), battery pack etc.

And in the end I have to mention that I've shot two rolls of APS slide film and results were pretty good, another in the summer and another in the winter, no metering problems. Too bad that these slides are so damn expensive and my scanner cannot scan them!

Stephan Hinz Dr. , September 06, 2001; 04:46 P.M.

I particularly estimate with mountain migrations the “splash-proof and the small weight. The specification on the rear side of the pictures concerning date, time-of-day, focal length, shutter-speed and aperture is very favourable. Portraits and close-ups succeed very well under all exposure conditions. After my experience the camera bends with bright landscape accommodations to low expose. There is then even corrections up to two apertures necessarily. A further problem of the camera seems to be the proportionally to the camera quite heavy mirror, which leads when tilting up very easily to blurring. Therefore probably the very often described indistinct pictures seem to come. I have realy achieved clearly sharper pictures by training at an air pressure pistol with long focal length up to 1/20 shutter-speed.I recommend two Films: Fuji F(!) & D 100 and Konica 200. Very well are also the new 400 ASA- films of all manufacturers. I would quite particularly require myself a SHIFT function with the program automatic. Beautiful also Akkus would be in the size of the batteries, because the camera uses immensely much batteries. Perhaps the best at the APS photography is those super easy archiving of the negatives.

Christopher Zibert , November 29, 2001; 03:17 P.M.

I bought my Vectis S-1 about a month/1.5 months ago here in the UK for an excellent price of £129 ($190) which included the 28-56 lens, and am tentatively very happy with it.

I am an American studying in London and I left my wonderful P&S Konica APS BMS-100 on the tube (subway), and was forced to buy a new camera. I had bought the Konica several years ago when APS had just come out and I had carefully researched it at the time and was thrilled (and continued to be thrilled) with the camera for years as I hauled all over the US. So little, and deffinitely a chick magnet. I remember looking lustfully at the APS SLRs when I bought the Konica wishing I could afford one.

I went to Dixon's, a large electronics retailer here, and checked out what they had. Prices, as I feared were high, and it looked like I would be forced into another P&S camera until I caught site of the two little APS SLRs on a lower shelf behind the counter. The store carried the S-1 as well as the Nikon Pronea S. I not only thought the Vectis looked better (first impressions), but as I went home and did my research it seemed clear to me that the Vectis was a better camera. It seemed to have an extensive selection of features for the price. I was leaving the in a couple of days for 9 days in Spain so I quickly decided that the Vectis was the camera for me and my trip.

I have been dissapointed with the lack of manual focus of the 28-56 lens as the autofocus seems to have plenty of problems when I think it shouldn't. Focus hold does seem to help with this, but I don't think it should be hunting around so much. The lack of a multiple exposure feature is also frustrating as it seems to me that would be the kind of thing that would be more useful to creative amateurs (people who buy this camera) than things like the continuous drive mode. I would also submit that the camera should have a feature allowing the user to set an interval in which the lens is to remain open. I know the bulb feature can produce the same effect, but it would be alot easier to be able to select 30 seconds for example. I don't like that I have to remember to set the title to print on every photo before I take it either, as my Konica would retain the print settings until I told it otherwise.

At first I was concerned that the expensive Minolta lenses were all that was available, but thanks to eBay the problem was solved. I picked up a factory refurbished 80-240 lens with 6 month warranty for only $180 and the remote control was only about $15. I got the $180 SF-1 flash for $36, brand new!

The auto exposure programs seem to be worth using (at least it looks good in the viewfinder), but I have yet to play with shutter & aperature priority and full manual modes, and the camera's light weight make it wonderful to carry around (compared to my roomates heavy & bulky Pentax SLR). The 14-segment metering was impressive (compared to much more primitive systems offered by competitors). The MRC feature is too much fun, I love switching between my B&W and color film (who shoots a whole roll of B&W at once??). I just wish we could get some different films available for this camera; high quality and store brands that cost less would be nice alternatives sometimes, depending on where you are going and what you need. At least we now have B&W. In Spain I picked up six rolls of 400 speed 40 exposure color for 3,600 pesetas (about $19.50) which is AMAZING for Europe and still very good for home too. The store is FNAC if anyone is heading to Spain sometime soon.

As I said at the beginning I am tentatively happy with this camera. I have yet to develop a single roll of film (it's prohibitively expensive [as is life in general] here in London) so I am waiting till I go home in about 2-3 weeks. The biggest fear I have is having an awesome photo I want to enlarge and then find that it turns out terrible when I do so. However, I have never enlarged a photo in my life and may not start now. I can't imagine enlarging above 8 x 10 anyway. We'll have to see, and perhaps I will comment again on this thread when I see the true fruit of my labor. I am extremely interested to see in this PQI junk is true or a gizmo created for marketing purposes.

In conclusion this is my first SLR, and I have been very pleased with my purchase thus far. I was sold on APS back in '96 and the Vectis S-1 is deffinitely the camera for me. I have used my parents Nikon N6006 which I find ridiculously difficult to use, not to mention heavy. The Vectis is about as easy as my P&S, just with more features and the ability to have a system camera that produces quality photos right along with the rest of the decent amateur SLRs out there. I can't wait to get home to the lens, remote, flash and tripod that should be waiting for me so I can give this camera true workout.

I don't know why the S-1 thread isn't as popular as that overcrowded one for the Canon EOS IX. It's not a very good camera (it seems to me) and I imagine it's just spillovers from the 35mm Canon owners who have tons of compatible lenses.

Finally, the only thing it's really missing is that multiple exposure mode. I sure would love to play with that...

Best,

Chris Zibert


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