Handling of 800si

[dirk]

What are your positive and negative experiences with your Minolta (Maxxum) 800si?

I just purchased one recently second hand. I like the long list of features - for this second hand price level excellent. The flash is extremely powerful and the handling of the body is excellent, although not as sexy as my Maxxum 9xi

What bugs me the most is the switch-button for changing the metering method. To put it under the "door" is not very smart. If you are in a hurry, you simply have not the time to open it, press the button and then turn the dial 'til you have your preferred metering method for that situation.

Takes just too much time and is not possible with one hand or even finger. Should have been on the top of the camera or - even better where the AF/AEl buttons are or the bracketing button.

The other negative point I found so far is the lack of mirror lock up (MLU), but I did know this in advance, so there was no surprise after the purchase.

Dirk

 

[qiang]

I bought my 800si as new in 2000. I find recently that two of the bottons, memory selection and mode selection, are hard to activate. I have to press the button very hard to make it work. Other than this I am happy with the camera so far. The feeling of the buttons on my second-hand 9xi is much better.

 

[photoswede]

I have used my 800si for 4+ years and 400+ rolls of film mostly with an 28-85mm zoom. Rcently the camera started to 'scream' at me when the focus motor kept going and going. After a few secs it stopped. I found no way to make it work but switched to a second zoom and it worked fine... for a few months. Then this one failed too. And now all my lenses do. The camera does not recognize the near limit. It focuses down to the limit. If I get even closer it tries to go beyond and squeaks badly!
I have cleaned connectors and 'massaged' them. Two years back it randomly wound the film a few frames at a time (or the rest of the roll), and that was resolved when I pushed (massaged) a few switches inside the film compartment that likely had poor contact.
Anyone encountered that before?
Cheers, Christer

 

[Siimt]

Hei, I had similar behaviour with Maxxum 7 and Sigma 70-300 lens (and my friends Sigma 70-300 lens developed same problem almost at the same time). After talking to two repair shops and asking about it here in the forums (link: http://www.minoltainfo.com/discus/messages/1555/5168.html) new focusing ring or something was ordered. Still waiting for it to be sent from Japan as Estonia is such a small place they don't keep those things on the shelves.

Anyway, I would think it's more a problem of lenses. Or perhaps electronics so that camera is misreading signals sent from the lens and telling it to do wrong things.

You should certainly turn to local Minolta dealership or then some repairshop with good reputation.

 

[misiek]

Hi Crister, I have 800si too but I have no such problem (no problems at all) = encountered till now. I would suggest you to sign to (if you haven't = done it yet) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Minolta/. It's the biggest = Minolta forum I know, full of open-minded folks eager to help each = other. Many 800si users too, so maybe you'll find the answer there . Honestly speaking my engineer brain says "hey, it's for sure the body" = and I agree with him ) First, AFAIK there's no information passed = from lens to the body (as Siim says) unless we consider "D" lenses. = Second, if it's the same with all your lenses, the conclusion is obvious = - the problem is inside the body. IMO it's highly possible that the motor crapped (dust, humidity, = temperature, other environmental agents) and is drawing to much current. = It can lower the the supplying voltage so the electronics is fooled. No = matter what it is - it's probably the problem for servicemen. But I may be wrong - ask guys on = http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Minolta/.

My2c Michal

 

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