Milsurp After Hours

Saw this Minolta slr on ebay. Seller was calling it a Maxxum 7D. It was a Maxxum 70. Seller said film door stuck and wouldn't open. $5 bid bought it. It is an example of the last of the line of Minolta SLR's made in 2004 right after merging with Konica. Konica got out of the camera business in 2006 and whatever technology it had, along with whatever Minolta had, went to Sony. Minolta made this Maxxum 70 as the last of the film line. It has a lot of auto and manual features and a built in flash.

It seems to work fine... it didn't come with a lens but I have several. Auto focus works. Flash works... shutter readings seem to work... shutter snaps.. film advances. Came with a roll of film in it that had eight exposures on it out of 24. Oh..there is a door lock that keeps the door latch from opening while there is film in the camera. No problem with the door. And I already had some batteries.

Could be interesting to see what is already on that roll of film.....

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I thought of that, Vern...but it's color film and I have to send it off to develope and I have no idea what's on that film. What if it's porn or something?

Take it out and send it back to the guy you bought it from

It's an ugly looking thing

The guy I bought it from got it from a yard sale or estate sale. He couldn't have owned and used it since he didn't know why the door latch wouldn't open.

The Maxxum 70..also called the Dynax 60.. does probably everything any 35mm SLR can do. And I mean everything that I can think of that has ever come along......every feature in the history of the SLR worth being carried forward is in this cameara. Nothing manual or auto is left out. No incidental feature is left out.... Depth of field preview, rewinding the film and leaving the leader out, B mode, double exposures, multiple built in programs, multiple auto focus options, multiple flash options in, on, or linked to the camera and likely if you can name it and it has it, including a diopter adjustment for the sight window. You can read about it here.

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/90002 ... =79#manual

I went to the park. Tried the double exposure on the train. Tried shutter priority and aperture priority, program modes and full manual. Tried the fill flash on the statues in the full bright shadow producing sun. Tried the time exposure which can even be keyed by a remote that I don't have. And....all and all it was a fitting end of the line for Minolta that probably got little notice because of the new digital age and because they were sold at a modest price and not the inflated professional level camera price.

Pleased with this camera. I prize it now more than some I paid several times more for with established reputations. All of the photos just as scanned...no photoshop stuff to any of them.

Some of the best quality images you have posted recently Robert.............

I agree, excellent photos, even the double exposure looks great. And I especially like the locomotive photos,
looked up that engine and it's a Baldwin 4-8-2 made in 1925. Reminds me of the Baldwin 2-6-6-2 my grandfather
ran, it was made in 1927 and was a little smaller and articulated, which they needed for sharp curves on logging
railroads. Seems the parks around you have some very cool planes, ships, and locomotives....

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Vern...that's the same engine I posted some time ago. Looks like they put some paint on it.

Duncan... much of the result in what I post is dependent on how good I am at timing the development time...mostly guess within a minute or two without taking the temp of the developer. However... I agree that the results are some of my best.

Should have taken the engine straight on and varied the short zoom on a double exposure.

One of the things that the camera won't do is infrared with any assistance as to exposure...but I don't do infrared anyhow.