The picture quality of point-and-shoot cameras pales in comparison to those produced with an SLR camera, which gives you better optics, a through-the-lens view that lets you accurately frame your photos, and manual options for full control of your exposure and focus. If you are used to point-and-shoots, this camera makes the transition to SLRs easy; however, you'll have to refer to the manual to get the hang of using the extensive menu of advanced settings. In our tests, the HTsi Plus offered the full range of advanced controls--it let us set the aperture, exposure, and focus manually. The HTsi Plus also made it easy to switch into full automatic mode, in which we just pressed the shutter button, and the camera performed the focusing and exposure for us.

The Minolta Maxxum HTsi Plus is quite lightweight for an SLR and includes both a pop-up flash and an external flash shoe. It includes five preset exposure modes including portrait, landscape, and macro; burst mode; aperture and shutter priority modes; and a self-timer. For serious amateurs or professionals, the HTsi Plus offers all the standard SLR functions, although we found its aperture setting method (you have to push the aperture preview button and turn the camera's selection wheel) a bit disorienting at first. The HTsi Plus's 28-80 zoom lens gave us a good range for everything from portraits to landscapes. We especially liked the automatic exposure bracketing and multiple exposure functions; these features are useful in getting the right shot and exercising your creativity.

Pros:

• Lightweight
• Built-in flash
• Easy to use
• High-quality optics

Cons:

• Menu selection somewhat hard to figure out
• Unconventional aperture-selection method

Over all the technology in this Camera is good -AF so if you always use manual, this camera is good for that. But if you think you are going to do some percentage of point and shot with this camera, I would look elsewhere. If i had to do it over, I would have spent a little more and got the Canon Rebel.


Minolta HTsi Plus AF Camera   June 21, 2002
This has been a great camera for 3 years and 2000 pictures. However it recently has been giving me some trouble. It is now at Minolta getting fixed for $130.00. The first thing that happened was the built in flash would not fire anymore. Then a few weeks later the camera would not even power up. This camera has taken alot of great pictures for me I was just a little disapointed it just quit on me. The only cons I would say about the camera is no Date Imprinting,no Depth of field check. There also is no Panoramic mode and the XI 3500 flash I used when, on the camera hotshoe the red eye function would not work. It is a good camera I would just recomend an extended warranty.


Minolta HTsi Plus AF Camera   June 21, 2002
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This has been a great camera for 3 years and 2000 pictures. However it recently has been giving me some trouble. It is now at Minolta getting fixed for $130.00. The first thing that happened was the built in flash would not fire anymore. Then a few weeks later the camera would not even power up. This camera has taken alot of great pictures for me I was just a little disapointed it just quit on me. The only cons I would say about the camera is no Date Imprinting,no Depth of field check. There also is no Panoramic mode and the XI 3500 flash I used when, on the camera hotshoe the red eye function would not work. It is a good camera I would just recomend an extended warranty.


Perfect for beginners who want to become experts.   May 18, 2002
J. Beaulieu (Michigan, United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I went from a point and shoot camera to this one and I love it! In plain English, I can set the f-stop, set how long the shutter stays open, take two pictures in the same frame, take continuous shots, and exposure bracketing lets me set the meter then it takes three shots: the one I set, 1/2 stop under and 1/2 stop over. Plus, in the five program modes I just press a button to select which mode (macro, night, landscape, etc.) and it automatically knows where to focus for the kind of picture I want. Just about all the features of a full manual camera, yet I just press the P button and it goes right back to full-auto point and shoot mode. With 400 speed film I've taken excellent pictures in almost no light in the night mode.

As far as I can tell it lacks only two features: it doesn't time-date stamp and there is no panoramic mode. Also, the infra-red sensor on the front of the camera is apparently for the auto-focus, not for a remote/remote shutter capability, as I was told when I bought it. A remote shutter release cord is available for this camera... (Minolta part # RC1000L for the 16ft and RC1000S for the 15in.)

I bought my HTsi Plus in a camera shop and paid... more for it, so you can't go wrong getting it here.