>>3741285minolta glass is pretty under-valued currently, it's a pretty big ecosystem, and there's a big variety of cameras, so anything minolta would be a good idea imo. a handful of the older lenses were collaborations with leica. the minolta srt 101 (or any from the srt line) is a fantastic camera that can be found pretty damn cheap. the controls are great, the light meter is surprisingly adequate, and it doesn't need batteries aside from the light meter. if you're new to photography in general I think it's a great idea to get a fully manual camera. it's how I learned and it'll really help you internalize exposure. I upgraded to the xd-11 eventually. it's a great camera but I still use my srt more often because I like it so much. I'm currently upgrading to large format.