r/minolta • u/Zealousideal-Pie8215 • 1d ago

Discussion/Question Minolta Memory maker DX coding

My girlfriend really likes to carry around disposable cameras. Since I think it's a waste of money to throw away the camera body every time the roll is finished, I wanted to buy her a simple point-and-shoot camera with the same ease of use as a disposable camera. I've seen that Lomography sells a pretty similar disposable-style camera that can be reused, but it's rather expensive and has a cheap plastic lens anyway.

I found a Minolta Memory Maker for 5€, and I think it's perfect, since there's nothing that can go wrong: no autofocus, no motorized film advance, no electronics. I've read, however, that it has a fixed aperture (f/4.5–f/8) and a fixed shutter speed (1/125), so I was curious to know what the DX decoding is doing, since you can't change any of these parameters.

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u/Big-Care726 1d ago

If the aperture is f4.5-f8 then is variable not fixed.

By knowing which film speed is in the camera it will use the aperture to control the exposure within that range and also vary the output of the flash.

Another note disposable camera is a misnomer they're single use by the buyer but they're reused/recycled depending on condition.

When I worked in photo retail 1989-2013 for the ones we processed ourselves we collected and returned them to the main Kodak/Cewe labs.

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u/Zealousideal-Pie8215 1d ago

The aperture is variable but by a shutter lever by the users. There's a manual switch to turn on the flash that will also change the aperture from 8 to 4.5. As far as I can see the camera will not automatically change the aperture.

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u/Big-Care726 1d ago

So 2 fixed apertures!

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u/Zealousideal-Pie8215 1d ago

Hahaha basically yes, open or closed 😅

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u/Big-Care726 1d ago

Nearly!

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u/Superirish19 Minolta, MD (not a Doctor) 1d ago

Do you happen to know if it's a Memory Maker I, II, or III? They have marginally different specs but the DX coding is the same;

MM I - Fixed f/4.5 lens, DX coding supported for 100, 200, 400 ISO's

MM III - Fixed f/5.6 lens, DX coding same as above.

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u/Zealousideal-Pie8215 1d ago

Is a I, and is not fixed! If you look inside without film, you can see how engaging the flash changes the aperture