Minolta AF-S

In June 1983 Minolta launched two compacts that were the same machine, and only one of them could talk. The AF-Sv got the voice. The AF-S Quartz stayed quiet. Minolta's own history shows how quickly the family kept branching after that, with an AF-S Talkman and an AF-S Quartz Date arriving in September 1984. Camera-wiki puts it plainly: this is the Talker with the voice chip left out, and a blue line where the talking model has a red one is how you tell them apart. If you wanted the autofocus and the motor and had no use for a camera that talks back, this was the one to buy.

Almost everything runs itself. Two AA cells power the camera, which loads the film, winds after every frame and rewinds at the end of the roll. The main thing you set is film speed, on a ring around the lens that runs from ISO 25 to 1000. Check it every time you change stock, because the camera believes whatever that ring says. Autofocus works from 0.85 m out to infinity, close enough for a head-and-shoulders portrait and no closer. The other control is the flash, which stays down until you pop it up by hand.

The program is where the AF-S splits from the Hi-Matic AF2 and the AF-C. Those two top out at 1/430 at f/17. The AF-S stops down only to f/14.5 but reaches 1/625, and its whole program leans toward faster speeds to cut camera shake. At the bottom it opens to f/2.8 at 1/8, so the full span runs from EV 6 to EV 17. The finder warns you once the speed falls to 1/40 or slower, a sensible threshold for a 35mm lens in casual hands.

Minolta put more into the lens than a program compact strictly needed. It is a 35mm f/2.8 with four elements in three groups, a 63 degree view and a proper 40.5mm filter thread, so a hood or a protective filter screws straight on. Analog Cafe reviewed one with film shot in 2022 and found it sharp, with little falloff in the corners.

Low light is where it gives up. With f/2.8 at 1/8 as the slowest pairing, an indoor scene without flash runs out of program fast, and the finder will have been warning you about shake well before that point. There are no manual speed or aperture settings to fall back on. A reading from the Zone Light Meter app settles the question before you spend a frame: it tells you whether the scene sits inside the camera's EV 6 to EV 17 program at ISO 100 (the window shifts with the film speed you set), or whether it is time to pop the flash or load faster film.

In that same review, Analog Cafe put typical prices at about $30 to $150. If the extra speed at the top end doesn't matter to you, Minolta's Hi-Matic AF2 covers similar ground. The AF-S suits travel and everyday color negative, for someone who wants sharp 35mm frames and a motor that does the chores. Keep spare AA cells in the bag, though. When they die, the whole camera stops.