We had fun doing a quick film test of this Minolta Freedom Escort on a bright Montreal day in the spring. This camera (called the Riva Mini in some markets) is allegedly (or to borrow a Norm Macdonald-ism, "allegedly, but also really") the same camera as the Leica Mini II.
It's a nice little Japanese-made point-and-shoot from 1991. It's fun to use and quite simple. We didn't pine for any missing features. Its 34mm f3.5 (4-element, 3-group) Tessar-style lens is great.
We didn't love the fact it has no built-in lens-protecting cover (it instead uses a piece of glass to shield the lens). This isn't a deal-breaker but you should avoid touching the glass (or keep a lint-free cloth handy to remove smudges if you touch it by accident). And our only other minor quibble was that it doesn't feel quite as robustly constructed as the contemporary Canon Sure Shot Max or Olympus Infinity Stylus.
On the other hand, the Freedom Escort's 4-element lens delivered photos that were, to our eyes, a smidgeon sharper than what we've seen with its Canon and Olympus rivals (both of which feature a 3-element lens).
You can buy this camera here.
Film testing
We used an expired roll of Ilford HP5 Plus black-and-white film. As mentioned above, we shot it on a bright spring day in Montreal. The sky was hazy but the light was intense. We were just on the way to the post office so forgive the repetition in subjects. We also took a number of indoor shots to experiment with the various flash modes (the severely underexposed ones were taken with the flash off and were beyond the camera's exposure range).
Processing notes
The clapperboard says HC-110 film developer but we ran out so we used Flic Film Classic MQ developer (a D-76-style developer) instead. We used it at a 1:1 dilution timed for box speed (i.e. we didn't feel the need to add extra time to compensate for the fact that the film was roughly 3 years past its expiry date*). We used Kodak Indicator Stop and Flic Film Quick Fixer. The negatives were developed in a UniRoller drum. I dropped the negatives on a dusty basement floor while they were still wet so please note the dust and scratches are my fault--not the camera's. We scanned the negatives with a Nikon Coolscan V ED.
* It should go without saying but when you buy film from us, it's always fresh unless it's explicitly labelled "expired" in the product name.
Test photos
As mentioned above, please excuse the dust (darkroom mishap) and same-y photos (as is often the case, we were doing this in a hurry while running errands).
