I bought a used Minolta back in 72 or 73, the SLR-101 with a couple of Minolta lenses. Enjoyed the camera, upgraded to an Minolta XK in 75. Being as I was in high school I could not afford the money for Nikon or Canon, wanted one but could not get one. Went into the Army in 77-80 and sold my gear and got a Nikon F2AS Photomic. The pictures it took were a major step up from the minolta. When I was looking at Nikon and Canon back then the Canon F1 was my camera of choice, when I priced the lenses ,canon was much more expensive than Nikon. Being a private limited my cash flow, that directed me to Nikon.
Had my Nikon F2 stolen in 79. Went camera-less. Last year when I looked at buying back into the photo game I looked at Minolta, Nikon and Canon. Nikon seemed the best built, and the lenses still seemed much better for the price. Spent about $4,000 "not a private anymore". I like the solid build over the Canon, I thought that the best canon still to this day is the F1, since they are not making it anymore I jumped straight to the F5, SB-28, the 24-120 and 70-300, 60 macro, few other things. I went to Washington D.C. for my 26th HS reunion, I knew with the Nikon F5 the pictures I took WOULD be perfect, with Canon and Minolta I was not as sure it would be the case. Had the pictures developed yesterday, I am VERY happy with the results.
If I had to purchase again would buy the same gear!