Minolta P's, A 35mm Panorama Film Camera

Analog Diary: Film photography favorites, image making with the Minolta P's, a 35mm point-and-shoot panorama film camera with a 24mm wide-angle lens.

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The Minolta P's (Freedom Vista or Riva Panorama, depending on your location) is a very petite, lightweight, compact 35mm autofocus point-and-shoot film camera with an auto flash and crop frame panorama feature. The cult classic, introduced by Minolta in 1991, comes with an almost ultra-wide 24mm lens that sets it apart from the rest of the crowd and fixed blinds that trim the top and bottom of the normal 3:2 image aspect ratio of the standard 35mm film frame to 2.7:1.

The camera is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, weighs 185 grams, and measures 116 x 62 x 34 mm.

Tech specs include the 5 elements in 5 groups 24mm 1:4.5 lens, infrared autofocus with a range from 0.9 meters to infinity, programmed autoexposure, a shutter speed range from 1/4 to 1/200 second when flash is deactivated, ISO 100 or ISO 400 DX-coded film rolls, and automatic film loading and rewind.

The camera is powered by a CR132A 3-volt Lithium battery, good for up to 25 rolls of 24-exposure film with 50% flash use.

Loading the film is fairly straightforward - open the film back, drop in the film canister, pull the film tab across to the red line across the film box, and close the back, and the camera will automatically wind the film forward to Frame 1. The camera will also rewind the film back into its canister at the end of the roll.

Using it is equally easy and fun. To start shooting, all you need to do is slide the lens cover open, frame the image, and half-press the shutter button for the green diode to light up before releasing the shutter fully. The camera flash will fire automatically to compensate for low-light conditions, and the shutter will remain locked while the flash charges.

Minolta P's

To capture images without flash, press and hold the press cancel button located to the left of the camera's top while taking the shot. Low battery is indicated when the flash takes more than 20 seconds to charge, the shutter will not release, or the film rewind stops before the operation is completed. A tripod socket is available on the bottom plane of the camera.

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