Spring cleaning in January…

It’s time to trim my collection of film cameras, and make room for newer entrants.

The Minolta Maxxum 9xi has to go – I like it but I can’t use it to its full potential unless I spend more money on a set of Minolta A lenses and, maybe, a flash. I already have 4 sets of lenses for as many different makes of cameras. That’s already one or two too many, I won’t add a fifth one.

The Olympus OM 2000 falls into the same category as my Nikon FM (a modern semi-auto SLR), and is also competing for my attention with an Olympus OM-2 and my beloved Nikon FE2 (which both have very good semi-auto modes). I know I won’t be using it and I need to find a better place for it.

The two cameras are currently listed on eBay. It took them for one last photo shoot …

One last round with the Minolta Maxxum 9xi

I don’t know what drove Minolta out of the photography market – the expensive (and ultimately lost) lawsuit against Honeywell over auto-focus patents, the APS format debacle, or their inability to get more than a tiny fraction of the “pro” market – but at some point they decided to throw the towel and sold themselves to Konica (forming Konica-Minolta). Two years later, Konica-Minolta stopped manufacturing film, and sold its photography line of business to Sony. It explains why current Sony a77 and a99 still work with the same Minolta lenses that the 9xi uses.

The Minolta autofocus SLRs designed for enthusiasts and pros were very pleasant to use and worked very well. The Maxxum 9xi is no exception. It falls very well into the hands, gets the exposure right, and does not impose an information overflow to the photographer. Being designed as a “pro” model, it’s very well made (better than the 700si, for instance) and still looks good (no panel gap, no sticky paint) after all these years. If you love the Minolta brand, or if you are an active Sony Alpha photographer, it’s a camera to have.

Links to previous blog posts in CamerAgx

Minolta Maxxum 9xi – a fuzzy logic camera for the “Pros”? (part I)

Minolta Maxxum 9xi – part II

the eBay listing : Minolta 9xi – tested – original Maxxum carrying case, manual, brochure

dogs_on_9xi-14 — Heritage Park – Mableton – Minolta 9xi 28-105 AF zoom – Fujicolor 400.

Olympus OM 2000 Spot Metering

The Olympus OM 2000 is a Cosina-made semi-auto SLR, and has little in common with the rest of the Olympus OM family, except for its bayonet mount, of course.

It’s still an interesting camera – good looking, simple, with spot metering (in addition to the conventional weighted-average metering). A good introduction to the OM family of cameras, and a good backup for owners of an OM-3ti or OM-4ti who don’t want to risk damaging their expensive and sometimes temperamental camera in difficult situations.