Film: 35mm
Format/Frame: 36 x 24 mm
I’ve heard the longtime Minolta users say wistfully there’s nothing like
—Matt Denton
the SRT 101 when you just want to go for it.
Read Matt Denton’s full review of the Minolta SRT 101 HERE
My Insights on the Minolta SRT
The Minolta SRT camera series is almost as illustrious as the Nikon F camera series… well, almost.
Sometime during the autumn of 1976 I came to the conclusion that my Kodak Pocket 110 camera wasn’t cutting it any longer, and an upgrade was needed. This probably came about for two reasons: For one, I was enrolled in the yearbook class of my high school, and secondly, during that same year, I became a charter member of the school’s new vocational graphic arts program. In short, I was suddenly surrounded by photography and the photographic process during school.
As a junior in high school, I was also starting to get around with friends that were driving. And, one of those places that we would frequent was the local shopping mall to hang out—as most teens did back in those days. During those visits to Chapel Hill Mall, I discovered the camera section in J.C. Penny. In particular the line of Minolta 35mm cameras. I was smitten with the SRT 202 model, even if I knew little about it. If there had been an internet back then, perhaps my choice of camera would had been different, but this was the camera that was easily accessible to me and that I could physically see. So, after several trips to the mall, I became certain and determined that it was the camera I needed.
After lobbying my parents throughout the Christmas shopping season, it showed up under the tree on Christmas morning. There was no surprise given the energy I put into my photographic quest.
In the years that followed, I purchased other lenses for the 202, and it stayed with me until 1988 when I sold it because I was strapped for cash in my last semester of graduate school.
Fast forward many years later in the purchasing of many film cameras, I now have an SRT 101 (the original of the SRT series), an SRT 102, and an SRT 201. My big brother gave me at least one of them when he went over to the dark side of digital photography. I suppose out of a sense of being complete and nostalgia, I’ll likely purchase an SRT 202 someday. For the record, an SRT 202 body is currently going for $50–$100 on eBay.
