Minolta Maxxum 7000

I often wonder why such an arbitrary number such as “7000” might be attributed to the camera that is the first of many things. Not only was this camera the first in the line of cameras branded under the “Maxxum” model by Minolta, it was also the first camera to use Minolta’s A-mount lenses and, more to the point, it was the first camera to feature both integrated autofocus (AF) and motorized film advance and the first successful auto focus SLR using a motor integrated in the camera body. It could have been called “Maxxum A” or “Maxxum 1” or even “Maxxum 1000” but instead, it was sold as the “Maxxum 7000” when it first hit the markets in 1985. Names and numbers of consumer products are interesting things.

As you read, this was a fairly industry-shattering camera when it came out. Nikon and Canon were in a neck-and-neck arms race with their advanced SLR cameras for the consumer market, then Minolta debuted this… “beauty” I guess, in 1985 and that was it. Everyone wanted fully-automatic cameras. Canon even went so far as to dump all the camera plans it had been working on in order to develop a whole new line with features that could compete with Minolta. I personally was nutso with envy for anyone who could afford this (I was a teenager making 30 bucks a week) or the Nikon N2020 or any of the Canon EOS models when I was in high school. I had a late-60’s Pentax, there was no zip-zip of autofocus, no (silent non-zip-zip) auto-metering and to rewind I had to use a teensy hand crank. Plus it looked old! These new cameras were shiny black plastic and had LCD screens and MAN would you look at those sharp 80’s lines and edges in the body design! Yowza!

This is not a very popular camera nowadays. I think in large part it’s because it’s kinda ugly. Why? Well BECAUSE of those 80’s’y lines and edges, buttons and LCD screen. Modern film shooters don’t want something that looks like their DSLR, they want classic film cameras of the 60’s and 70’s, manual wind, manual focus. So these old Minoltas sell super cheap online and in shops, I got mine for 30 bucks on eBay with a 35-80mm zoom lens (more on that in a moment). I had been wanting to get my hands on one of these, it’s just so 80’s’y-lookin’, had me feeling nostalgic. I could see myself in a Chess King blazer walking through the Crossgates Mall carrying one of these while I shop for a Patrick Nagel print from the Athena poster shop, then hook up with my girlfriend to go see Top Gun at the drive-in in her ’78 Camaro with the T-top. These are all things I did, incidentally, but I didn’t have the camera to do all those things with – now I do!

I bought it on eBay for 30 bucks, just like I said, and it was pretty good-lookin’ for an “ugly” camera. I always want a camera in good physical condition, because I like the way they look and part of the enjoyment for me is selecting an attractive camera from my shelf to use for the day. “The camera’s looks don’t matter, it’s just a machine with a task to perform” one might say, but the same thing can be said of cars. The car’s job is to get you to the store, get you to work, and to give you something to live in once the entire U.S. real estate market is too expensive for 99% of us to afford shelter. People still want these cars to LOOK good, however, and those looks are the principle force behind which car we select. Cameras are no different to me.

The biggest problem I’ve noticed with these cameras, as far as the physical appearance goes, is in the hand grip. 90% of these cameras have hand grips covered in a foggy gray color as the plastic surface breaks down over the years. Another high percentage has all manner of cracks and chips in the surface plastic of that grip. Visually-speaking, that grip is where the “ugly” seems to happen.

I found one with minimal grip-ugly, still mostly black with much of the original shine to it. Took it out of the box and clipped in the four AAA batteries it required to run. AAA’s, neat! You can get those anywhere! So many of the early AF cameras have these big weird ten-dollar batteries that you can only order online. I slide the battery holder back into the camera and fire it up! I remove the lens cap, point it at some spot on my kitchen wall and push the button down halfway… and nothing happens. I push all the way down and puh-CLICK! The shutter snaps. Dang, must have the lens set to manual focus… oh wait, it’s set for autofocus after all, isn’t it? I pop off the lens to inspect the contacts, all looks okay. I clean everything with some iso alcohol and try again. Nothing. Either the camera or the lens has an issue with it, but the autofocus is not auto focusing and the lens isn’t being recognized for aperture settings either. So I contact the seller and tell him the deal. “Well try it again!” he replies, “I don’t offer refunds!” Whatever dude, you didn’t sell this as a for-parts camera, you’re selling this as a used but fully-functional camera, and eBay guarantees refunds for merchandise that doesn’t match this descriptions. “How about if I give you back half of the money, and you just keep the camera.” That should be fine. It was only 30 bucks, after all. Now I have a 15-dollar parts-camera. I’m figuring either the camera or the lens is perfectly fine, but I’m not sure which it is. So for ten dollars I buy another lens, and I put a bid down on a cheap body as well, am hoping to be able to bring this to New York with me in a couple weeks so I want to cover all the bases. Now I’m into this “cheap” camera another 30 bucks for a whole new lens and a whole new body. It’s getting less “cheap” by the minute, but that’s on me. I’ve had this camera in my hand and now I want a working version a.s.a.p. (or at least before we hit I-95 north!).

I got the lens and discovered that a new lens worked just fine on this camera… and also, I won the auction for a Maxxum 7000 body that I put a 20-dollar bid on hoping for the best, and the seller threw in a lens. So now I have TWO working Minolta Maxxum 700 cameras for the price of $45. Looks like someone is getting a camera gift in the future!

I have had a few auto-everything plastic-fantastic cameras, I love them but they are usually heavier and bulkier than my old-school manual-focus models. This Minolta, however, feels great in the hand. It’s lightweight and more compact than every other AF camera I’ve got. Compact is important when you’re a photographer on a motorcycle. Perhaps not as solid, though. I get the impression that if this camera bangs into a wall I’m climbing to get a better shot (I do that, by the way. Climb up on stuff to get better shots, stand in traffic to get better shots, piss off a charging bull moose to get better shots – fairly standard shenanigans) a piece of it will break off. So I guess I’ll try not to bang this into stuff! Or, you know, I can just replace it with my OTHER Maxxum 7000.

For starters, the auto-focus doesn’t compete with the speed and accuracy of modern auto-focus cameras. Why would it? This is a first-generation, mid-80’s AF camera. I’m almost surprised it works at all at this point! Minolta made some underrated and very advanced cameras in their day. The Maxxum 7000 has a slow and slightly-noisy AF that doesn’t always find the spot I’m trying to focus on. It’s not going to win any performance awards in this day and age but if you can look past that hurdle this sucker isn’t too bad. I don’t have many auto-focus film cameras that actually fit into the waistpack I wear when motorcycling. When you shoot analog photography and ride a motorcycle you tend to carry a lot of rangefinders. Smaller is better, but I don’t like rangefinders nearly as much as I do SLR’s, so I frequently tuck one of my compact Olympus OM’s into that waistpack, sometimes a point-and-shoot (a camera I prefer even less than rangefinders), but this Minolta camera is lightweight and compact enough to fit. Another high mark is in its ergonomic value, with it’s chunky right hand grip it’s an easy camera to hold and shoot one-handed, even when I’m wearing leather motorcycle gloves.

Minolta was eventually bought and consumed by Sony, however, most of its early film camera A-mount lenses don’t work when used on a modern Sony camera, at least not without a bulky adapter, and since the appeal of mirrorless digital cameras is their lack of “bulky” these AF A-mount lenses are only really attractive purchases to owners of Minolta AF film cameras, which are not nearly as popular as the Nikon or Canon varieties. Translation – less demand makes for a MUCH cheaper vintage lens on the secondary markets, and Minolta made some very good lenses. While I tend not to be a collector of lenses like many photographers are (nine times out of ten I mount a 50mm prime lens onto a camera and leave it there forever), I admit it’s nice to have affordable options.

Displayed photos were shot in downtown Plattsburgh, NY, at the Markel Building and at the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA. They were made using Kodak TMAX 100 film and a Minolta Maxxum 35-80mm 1:4-5.6 lens… not an amazing lens (and not the one pictured above), granted, but it’s compact and has a built-in lens cap that I really like.