After deciding I wanted to try Minoltas other than my Maxxum 7000i, I went for the Sevens in the Maxxum line. The Maxxum 70 was the next purchase (it has a meta-origin story—The People by the Side of the Road). In quick succession, the Maxxum 7, 700si, and 7xi followedContinue Reading
When I decided to do the Vintage Minolta Love Project, the focus was on camera bodies and how camera features and technology had changed over the years. The plan was to own only a few lenses and use them to evaluate all cameras. Having started with autofocus cameras, I hadContinue Reading
After using the Maxxum 7000i, my first Minolta and real camera in more than three decades, I realized I wanted to try other Minolta cameras. That realization led me to research other models. On learning that Minolta favored the numbers 5, 7, and 9 when naming cameras, I decided that,Continue Reading
I never set out to buy an SR-2 in a deliberate sense—that is, in the same way I searched for my Maxxum 7. The Maxxum 7 was going to be the camera I used to achieve photographic perfection. At the time, the SR-2, and all SRs, for that matter, wereContinue Reading
I have before me a Minolta Maxxum 5D camera and a Sony a100. The a100 was a pandemic buy—I hadn’t planned to buy another digital camera because the Olympus e300 works fine for testing manual lenses. The a100 was the first A-mount camera Sony made after buying Minolta’s camera IP.Continue Reading
This is the first Vintage Minolta Love Project (VMLP) post. To learn more about VLMP, read this. Last year, I bid on a 35-105mm RMC Tokina lens intended for use with my recently-acquired Minolta X-570. There were plenty of pictures. When the lens arrived, I spent 10 minutes trying toContinue Reading
Mindlessly browsing through eBay, I came across a collection of Minolta miscellany, which included a camera, a few flashes, and a fanny pack with a Minolta blue and white logo. I actually paused and looked at it. Then I immediately had one of those “at the precipice” moments—the kind where your lifeContinue Reading
Since last year, when I dove headfirst into photography, I have taken chances buying gear from Goodwill and eBay. Both sites worked well for me because I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on gear, then decide I had no passion or talent for photography. Well, I’ve foundContinue Reading
The day I held the Maxxum 7000i for the first time proved to be a turning point in my life. I thought I was buying an inexpensive AF camera to take pictures of my garden. In reality, I was joining the ranks of Minolta collectors. I started down this pathContinue Reading
Viewfinder diopter adjustment is, for me, is an essential camera feature. Since many manual focus cameras lack this feature, using a manual camera can be problematic. However, even when adjustment is possible, it never compensates completely for my changing vision. Autofocus makes this problem moot. Viewfinder magnifiers are available andContinue Reading
