Minolta Maxxum 7000 Review

Purchased: Directly from Mike Ryan of PhotoSpace.Price Paid:$120 for body with 50mm Minolta AF f1.7 lens, close up filter set, bi-focus filter, and 2 rolls Kodak B&W TMax 100 speed film Recommended: Yes.

Strengths: Easy to use buttons only interface, bright viewfinder, accurate light meter. All controls fall right under fingers if you hold the camera the way the textbooks say you should.

Weaknesses: Heavy by today's standards, slow autofocus, can be a battery hog if you don't like to manually focus.

I bought the Minolta Maxxum 7000 to have an SLR for a Photo class that I signed up for. I purchased the Maxxum 7000 after a quick look at it with Mike Ryan. I liked it because when you pick it up you get a sense that this is a real camera and not a low end plastic fantastic that seems so easy to break.Another thing that I liked was the fact that as of 2011, you can still find new, not New Old Stock, AF lenses that will work with this camera.

Minolta had a reputation for having very bright viewfinders, and this camera is no exception. Even with my Promaster 28mm-200mm f3.5~5.6 zoom lens I get a pretty bright picture through the finder at the longest focal length.

By today's standards the autofocus would be considered fairly slow, the only time I ever use AF with my camera is when I am trying to get something that is standing very still (flowers normally with my 50mm lens without closeup filters). I normally use the manual focus with the focusing aid (on the bottom of the viewfinder you get two red arrows and a green dot, when the center is focused the green dot lights up) or you have to use your own judgement when the screen looks sharp to your eye, you go ahead and snap, this allows for better composition.

On the bottom of the viewfinder you have a focusing guide which tells you what it thinks according to the center of the frame. I personally ignore this and pay more attention to the light-meter and use the Acute-Matte screen for focusing. This is what I would recomend for a beginner, this forces you to make the decisions about how your pictures are going to look.