The Minolta Freedom Escort is an autofocus, point and shoot camera released by Minolta in 1991.  It is an unassuming little camera that packs a high quality lens.  Before we dig in, it is worth mentioning that the Freedom Escort goes by a few different aliases depending on the part of the world you encounter it.  In Japan it was referred to as the Minolta Pico, meanwhile in Europe it was the Minolta Riva Mini. It is also very closely related to the Panasonic C-625AF and Leica Mini II.  Just what blood these siblings share we are not entirely certain but one look at them side by side speaks of a closely aligned lineage.

So what is the scoop on the Minolta Freedom Explorer?  Well the major attraction here that you will likely be most concerned with is its prime 34mm f3.5 lens.  These days it seems every other photographer hungers for an AF compact camera with a prime lens.  Now you can add the Freedom Explorer to your wish list.  The Freedom Explorer's lens consists of four elements arranged in three groups and was made at a time when Minolta and Leica were involved in a partnership that saw numerous cameras brought to market that involved both companies.  Word on the street is that the Freedom Explorer's lens was designed to Leica's standards and has a reputation for being sharp.  Based on samples we have seen online, as well as our limited experience, it does indeed seem to be a decently sharp lens.  Even wide open there is only a small amount of softening at the corners and it has only modest vignetting.  Plus with a max aperture of f3.5, it is both up to the task of making low light photos as well as providing some shallow depth of field for isolating close subjects.  Speaking of the lens, it retracts into the camera body when not in use and is covered by an integrated UV filter, but there is no other covering for the lens.  It feels a bit weird for a pocket camera to leave glass exposed, even if that glass is merely the UV filter.  But still, a scratch or scuff on that is not much better than one on the front optic.

The Freedom Escort offers a reasonable array of features.  There is a built-in flash with five different modes: auto flash, auto flash with red eye reduction, always on, always on with red eye reduction and always off.  It is worth noting that every time the camera is turned off the flash resets to Auto mode and needs to be manually set back to the preferred mode.  It is a little annoying but pretty standard.  Other features include an electronic self-timer (10 second delay, DX-code with a range of ISO 50-3200 (defaulting to ISO 100 when no code present), a nifty green LED in the viewfinder that blinks at different speeds depending on if the shutter speed is going to be too slow for handheld photography (slow blink) or your subject is too close/flash is still charging (fast blink). Focus can be locked with a half press of the shutter but there is no provision for exposure lock. Niftily enough, there is also a tripod socket!

The Minolta Freedom Escort is not as fast of a camera to whip out and fire away as some of Olympus' compacts, nor does it have the cachet of a Leica compact.  Again, it is unassuming.  The Freedom Escort doesn't need its reputation to precede it, it will just show up and do the job it was designed to do and do it pretty dang well.