david_m Posted March 12, 2005 Share Posted March 12, 2005 I just found a nice Minolta Talker in the local Goodwill shop. Got it for $1.50 It looks like a quality camera. Anyone know if Minolta has a site to download manuals? Anyone know the specs of its lens, its a 35mmF2.8? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_accetta Posted March 12, 2005 Share Posted March 12, 2005 Try KonicaMinolta's USA website. Look under the "support" tab for a link to downloadable manuals. They don't have a manual for every camera, especially older models, but there are many listed. All are in .pdf format. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_m Posted March 12, 2005 Author Share Posted March 12, 2005 They don't list the Talker camera. It does say "more manuals are being added" so I'll keep checking back. Meanwhile if anyone knows another source, please let me know... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_noble1 Posted March 12, 2005 Share Posted March 12, 2005 The <a href="http://www.engrish.com">Engrish</a> voice prompts on that camera are funny as hell. My mother had a Talker in the early eighties, and she never had any problems getting people to smile -- she'd cover up the light sensor to make the camera say "Too dahk, use frash!", then snap away at laughing people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Gammill Posted March 12, 2005 Share Posted March 12, 2005 Back when my family ran a camera store we stocked the Talker. Sold about half a dozen or so. The lens is probably a four element four group Tessar-clone used by sooo many camera makers at that time. Sorry I don't have any leftover manuals. I tried one out when we sold them and it was a decent enough picture taker. You can probably do okay even without a manual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael_linn Posted March 12, 2005 Share Posted March 12, 2005 The camera is a riot. The "talker" feature IS the manual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_m Posted March 13, 2005 Author Share Posted March 13, 2005 What is the little red button for underneath the red 'jewel' on front? It sats ST underneath it. Is it a self-timer button? Also, what is the weird little thing on the bottom above where it says JAPAN? It has an R and an arrow, is that something to do with rewinding? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitar_j Posted March 13, 2005 Share Posted March 13, 2005 I think www.manuals2go.com has this manual though it costs almost 5x what you paid for the camera... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sl attanapola Posted March 13, 2005 Share Posted March 13, 2005 Hi The Minolta talker is essentially the same as the Minolta AF-S camera. Hence the manual for this should suffice! Of course this camera cannot speak! My mum bought the QD version 20 years ago instead of the talker.It was quite an expensive camera then(around 150 GBP I believe!) I can confirm it has a 4-element lense. Here are two Japanese sites.The first has info on the AFS and the second has the specs of the talker. 1.)http://www3.kiy.jp/~daddy/AF-S/AF-S.html 2.)http://www.kitamura.co.jp/museum/05_cmp/min_af_s_talkman.html If you run them through the Google or Altavista url translator you should get a passable translation! I hope this helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sl attanapola Posted March 13, 2005 Share Posted March 13, 2005 A few more things! About the little red button - It is the selftimer. You press it down and then depress the shutter button.A little red light above this beeps together with a audible "beep".The r button is the rewind button.If I can remember right you have to move the switch and the film should rewind.I am not sure if you have to depress the shutter button again,though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sl attanapola Posted March 19, 2005 Share Posted March 19, 2005 I found out something else! If you toggle the speaker switch at the back you can make the camera speak in Japanese! I tried it and it works! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_bedell Posted March 19, 2005 Share Posted March 19, 2005 SL - That's interesting. ;-) What's the exact procedure to get the camera to talk in Japanese? What do you mean by "toggle"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sl attanapola Posted March 19, 2005 Share Posted March 19, 2005 I was looking for more inormation about the camera when I came across an Ebay auction for this camera.It stated if you could adjust the position of the switch which turned the speech mode off and on you could get the messages in Japanese! I acquired a broken Talker camera this week(shutter does not fire) and tried adjusting the position of the switch between off and on.Guess what it worked! I got the warning messages in Japanese! It seems that the female voice was supposed to be that of the daughter of the owner of Minolta Company at the time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sl attanapola Posted March 19, 2005 Share Posted March 19, 2005 Concerning the meaning of the word"toggle" from dictionary.net toggle noun 1: any instruction that works first one way and then the other; it turns something on the first time it is used and then turns it off the next time 2: a hinged switch that can assume either of two positions [syn: toggle switch, on-off switch] 3: a wooden peg or pin inserted into the eye at the end of rope in order to fasten it to something verb 1: provide with a toggle or toggles 2: fasten with, or as if with, a toggle 3: release by a toggle switch, of a bomb from an airplane Source: WordNet ® 1.7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_bedell Posted March 20, 2005 Share Posted March 20, 2005 That doesn't seem to work on mine. I'll try again when the family recovers from hearing "Load film!" twenty times in a row... And toggle is moving between two points! Putting the switch in between the two points is...well, not toggling. ;-) But thanks for the explanation. I hope I find the right position... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sl attanapola Posted March 20, 2005 Share Posted March 20, 2005 OK,TOGGLE between the ON position and the "Japanese" position -that's TWO :)!It took me some time to get the correct position too.My friend couldn't stop laughing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sl attanapola Posted March 20, 2005 Share Posted March 20, 2005 BTW those pictures of the Kitten are sooo cute! Ahhh! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john falkenstine Posted July 27, 2005 Share Posted July 27, 2005 This camera has some looong exposure capability. I got mine in the original Minolta Box at a sidewalk sale for 5 bucks. The voice is a riot. Give it to somebody to use and watch their face as it starts telling them what to do!!! My first roll was done in very low lighting with no flash. The film quality was horrible. the exposure quality was just fine. Really a good little camera. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jo_melmer Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 I have the manual for the talker. If interested I could scan and send. My talker works great, but I lost the lens cap. Does anyone know where I can get a replacement? Did someone say they had one that didn't work? Maybe the lens cap can be sold? I don't use this camera since I've had a digital, but I keep it in a plastic bag to keep the dust from the lens. Also, mine doesn't speak in Japanese. I went to the two websites that were mentioned in a post and the pictures of the cameras there were different from mine; maybe a different model than mine has the toggle to Japanese feature. Jo M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ta_tuanhai Posted October 22, 2007 Share Posted October 22, 2007 Dear JO MELMER I heard you have maual for Minolta talker, I've bought a cheap one at thrift store with $3.00, it 's still working good, but lens cap missing like your. so I need the manual. Can you scan the manual to my email ta_tuanhai@yahoo.com. Thank you very much Tuanhai Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jo_melmer Posted December 3, 2007 Share Posted December 3, 2007 Tuanhai, I've just seen your request and will be sending you a copy of the manual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bo_lee3 Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 <p>Hello all,</p> <p>I bought the Minolta Talker AF today at the thrift store. I know this thread is nearing 4 years old but I was hoping someone could send me a copy of the manual for this camera. I just only bought the camera itself so I'm a bit clueless but after playing around with it, I've been able to figure out self-timer, flash, how to load the camera, etc. I was just wondering also if someone could answer: how do I rewind the film so I can unload it without it getting exposed so I can put in a new film. I'm going to Costa Rica in couple days and won't have access to a film store to get it developed until I'm back to the US. Let me know. Thanks</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bo_lee3 Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 <p>Hello all,</p> <p>I bought the Minolta Talker AF today at the thrift store. I know this thread is nearing 4 years old but I was hoping someone could send me a copy of the manual for this camera. I just only bought the camera itself so I'm a bit clueless but after playing around with it, I've been able to figure out self-timer, flash, how to load the camera, etc. I was just wondering also if someone could answer: how do I rewind the film so I can unload it without it getting exposed so I can put in a new film. I'm going to Costa Rica in couple days and won't have access to a film store to get it developed until I'm back to the US. Let me know. Thanks</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m_m3 Posted August 8, 2011 Share Posted August 8, 2011 <p>bo lee - I hope you figured it out. There's a switch at the bottom to rewind the film. Push to the right then up. How did the camera work for you? Post pictures.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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