I'm a 100% digital photographer. I need to buy a regular non-digital unit for some special effect as I cannot afford a very highend digital. Now I got this unit in my hand that I borrowed from a friend. Give me your opinions on it, without knowing the price. the kit include: Minolta X-700 Minolta Auto 280PX Flash Minolta MD Zoom 35-70mm 1:35 Minolta motor drive Vivitar Macro Focusing auto Zoom 70-210mm 1:35 w/ UV haze Vivitar 2X-5 MC Tele-Converter So?? worth it or not?

and I forgot. A hard shell case to bring the whole thing :)

BruB, I am not sure, don't really know anything about the X700. Seems like a nice little package. (I don't care for teleconverters though). OK now I am going to tell you what I told my son who liked taking pix with my little digital cam. If you are thinking on getting a 35mm, I think in the end you would be much happier with something that isn't totally automatic. You will learn more from a manual camera if you are seriously a photographer ot just a hobbyist. I like having total control over my aperature, shutter speed and focus. You can do creative things with a manual camera IMHO. Even a cam that has an auto aperature like the Cannon AE1. I am not sure where you are located, but I tend to haunt pawn shops and ebay looking for old 35mm cameras as they don't charge a lot for them there. And worse case scenario you could wind up with something Like my minolta SRT201 that needs a total overhaul, which I am having done right now, for about $150. I bought my Canon AE1 at a Pawn shop and paid about $40 for it, she works beautifully and has produced many wonderful images. If you were to pick up something like this, you can always buy manuals online if one isn't included. But if the price is right (without knowing it is a hard call) I personally would buy that set up and maybe look for a manual cam as well. Just me though. Brenda :)

Attached Link: http://www.cs.ubc.ca/spider/boritz/photo/xmain.html

A link to what appears to be a rather decent page on the X-700.... Seems like a very good basic camera, Auto-Program Mode, Aperture Priority and Manual. Although this camera for some reason does not have shutter priority. No big deal unless you are used to working in that mode. Can't really comment on any of it personally as I'm not familiar with the older Minolta cameras or their older lenses. This page talks of the lenses as well. When you say you need to do special effects, what exactly are looking to do? I'm also curious as to what top shutter speed is and what the f/stop of the lens is, as these factors could be limiting to what you want to accomplish. Remember that for the most part a camera is a camera, all they are is a light box, some with more features or ease of use than others, but the lens is important.... probably the most important thing when considering what to buy.

Thanks for your answers. after looking on the web, on the page that Michelle brought up. on ebay for prices and doing a few hours of research. I'm going to buy it. the deal is more than excdellent at 200$ canadian for the kit. it includes all of the booklets and a few more stuff I haven't noticed when I listed the kit. (like an auto-winder and one more lens) the lens fastest speed is 1/1000 which is ok for me and the camera has some great automatic features also. So has people are going digital, i'm going backward!