t_blazer

Interestly, since I posted this originally I have had no further problems with this camera at all. It has worked great under all conditions and I have never experienced this again. Other than this somewhat bizarre incident, it has been a great camera.

Michael - thanks. The conditions of use were normal (i.e., at my dining room table) so there should not have been any environmental factors. But you could be right about the lesser used contacts. Perhaps a little oxidation or corrosion of some sort. I did notice it returned an "ERR" condition when I turned it on later. The manual recommended removing & reinserting the batteries which I did. It now seems to function normally, but I don't really trust it yet. I'm going to shoot a test roll and take it to the shop if I have any further problems.

I was looking at both of these about 2 weeks ago, but decided to wait for now. The C82 is claimed to produce prints of great longevity but as it is not a "photo" printer I'm concerned about quality on photo paper. The 820 - not sure - but don't think the longevity is as great. I am intrigued by the HP 5550 though. Check out Wilhelm Institute - it rates this as producing prints with a 70 year life on HP photo paper. It uses 6 inks (interestingly, non-pigmented) so with 6 I expect the quality would be comparable to the Epson possibly - and it runs about $100. Not sure how the print they would hold up if they happen to get wet, but it may be worth checking out on the basis of price and longevity, assuming quality is good.

I have had a Minolta Maxxum 5 for 18 months and it has been

troublefree and well cared for. Today I was reading the manual

brushing up on how to use a few features and began having problems

as I tried to activate various functions. The problems I

encountered included:

- could not change Eye Start from "on" to "off" without slightly

tapping the camera on a table after switching it

- could not get the focusing mode to switch from manual to auto

- intermittent success getting the program mode button to go

from "action", to "night" etc.

- intermittent trouble getting the camera to power off

 

I changed batteries but still had problems. Has anyone heard of any

similar problems with this camera? I also have an XTsi which at

times has had a balky shutter release when the self timer is in use

so I'm wondering if Minolta has a reputation for this sort of thing.

 

Thanks!