Vintage Refurbished [ℹ]

The Minolta Freedom Zoom 90c is a 35mm point and shoot camera manufactured in the 90s with an interesting 'eye start' feature. The 38-90mm f/3.5-7.7 lens features 4 elements (two of which are aspheric) and offers excellent image quality for a point-and-shoot zoom camera.

This camera is widely believed to be the same as the Leica C2-Zoom with a different body (Leica and Minolta collaborated on a number of cameras from the 70s to 90s). One nice feature of this camera is its very wide film metering range: it reads DX coded films from IS0 32-3200, which is nice if you like to use less typical film types (like Kodak T-Max P3200, an amazing low-light film with beautiful grain).

What makes the Freedom Zoom 90C a bit different, is its inclusion of Minolta's ASZ, or Auto Standby Zoom.  This feature would automatically zoom the lens of the camera, finding the right focal length to match the subject in the viewfinder.  The Freedom Zoom 90C also incorporated ES (Eye Start) technology, that allowed the camera to perceive when it was put up to the photographer's face, ready to make an image.  Once the camera detects this motion, it automatically engages the ASZ feature to focus the subject. A fill flash feature also helps with certain backlit situations but can be turned off if desired. 

According to the manual, the camera weighs 320 grams. The dimensions are 14.7 x 7.3 x 5.9 cm. The power source of the 35mm camera is a 2CR5 battery which usually lasts for about 600 pictures.

Features include:

• Lens: 38-90mm zoom f/3.5 - 7.7
• Focus: autofocus
• Shutter speed: 1/4 to 1/350 seconds
• Picture format 24 mm x 36 mm
• Min. focus distance: 75 cm
• Film transport: automatic
• ISO capability 25-3200 (Note: setting the ISO is entirely dependent upon DX coding)
• Flash range: ISO 100
• Flash modes: fill-in flash, red-eye reduction
• Built-in flash
• Built-in light meter
• Tripod mount
• Self timer
• Power: 2CR5 lithium battery