Milsurp After Hours

The Maxxum 3000i SLR film camera. From about 1988.

Got two bodies. Couldn't help myself at the price. I had bought from the seller before and I trusted him that they worked. Both came with straps. Note the "Walt Disney World".

http://www.ebay.com/itm/192039913427?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

In any case... the 3000i is about as close as you can come to the Kodak Brownie era click and shoot as an auto focus SLR can come. It's even less bother... you don't have to turn any knob to advance the film and it auto rewinds at the end of the roll. And... I think.... no decisions to make was what Minolta was aiming at. There are no bothersome manual features other than you can you can turn off the auto focus and adjust the lens focus manually. You can't set a f stop or shutter speed or even know what the program is selecting for you. The autofocus system is a "phase-detection type" based on ambient light. It has two programs... Program and Program Hi-speed which chooses the highest speed possible up to 1/1000 of a second. There is also a self timer button with no idiot light to let you know it is working or to blink faster to show you it is about to fire the camera. It also requires a previous set focus point or the photo comes out blurry in self timer mode.

It's a just snap the picture and don't think about it camera. All things considered...quite utilitarian. No professional or serious amateur would have much interest in it. But....if you are interested in just taking some photos without caring anything about the science of photography... it's a good fun camera. It also helps that you are less likely to fall into the never ready excuse when a good passing subject comes along.

None of the photos attached were touched up any any way. Just as they were scanned is how you see them.

Good renditions Robert - I think you should look out a plate camera next

Vern.. you have to get the tyro enthusiasm before you start caring about the technical aspects. It helps to read a lot of books on the subject as art and again as technical science if you want to be an "enthusiast" . But... the best photos have nothing to do with the technical aspects... or art for that matter.. unless you are Ansel Adams ... and in that case it is really all about masterly printing. .

To me a good photo is one you see once and if lots of years later a print is made and shuffled in with a lot of other photos and shown to you... you will remember that particular photo and that you had seen it before. The memory tells you the good photos... the thinking conscious brain doesn't. The sophistication of the camera and the skill of the photographer has nothing to do with it.... just me saying how I feel about it.

Either you get a thrill out of taking photos or you don't. It's like a lot of other things we do in life that we do ....like collecting old war weapons. The attraction originates in you and not it.