Minolta Capios 115
The Minolta Capios 115 is a compact 35mm point-and-shoot film camera from Minolta's late-era Capios line. It was also sold in other markets under different names - the Minolta Riva Zoom 115 and Minolta Freedom Zoom 115. Keep those names in mind when hunting for one today.
The lens is a 38-115mm Minolta zoom, an aspherical design with 6 elements in 6 groups. Maximum aperture is f/3.5 at the wide end. It autofocuses, and the camera does auto-exposure with shutter speeds up to 1/500 second. Closest focusing distance is 60 cm. It also has a built-in flash, a self-timer and an LCD display. It takes standard 35mm film and runs on a single 3V CR123A battery. It weighs about 285g without the battery. Dimensions are roughly 115 × 62 × 45 mm.
One spec needs a caveat. Sources conflict on the smallest maximum aperture at the telephoto end. unit-filmcamera.com lists f/10.5, while filmphotography.eu gives f/9.9. No firm number is given here rather than a guess. If you have the manual, the archive would welcome the correction.
Modern film shooters speak well of it. It's been called "an underrated gem" and "light, sharp & simple," and one seller described it as a "pocket-sized powerhouse." The body is plastic, but owners consistently praise the image quality over the build. The one documented failure mode is a dead flash. At least one used listing in Russia offered a unit with a non-working flash for 3,000₽ (discounted to 2,850₽). Working examples in good condition currently sell for around $75-150 USD depending on market and packaging. A near-mint example with original box and papers was listed by Australian Analog.
No production years, original retail price or ISO range have surfaced in any source we've found. Manuals - user, service and repair - are available as a free PDF download from pdf-manuals.ru.
- Type: Compact 35mm point-and-shoot film camera
- Lens: Minolta 38–115mm zoom, aspherical, 6 elements in 6 groups
- Max aperture: f/3.5 (wide)
- Focus: Autofocus, closest 60 cm
- Shutter: Auto-exposure to 1/500 sec
- Flash: Built-in
- Power: 1× 3V CR123A
- Weight: ~285g (without battery)
- Dimensions: ~115 × 62 × 45 mm
- Also sold as: Riva Zoom 115 / Freedom Zoom 115
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