Is this Minolta Worth it?

Mike Kennedy · Mar 17, 2009

A good friend of mine popped in yesterday and announced she had a belated birthday gift for me.Handed over a plastic bag that contained a very dirty Minolta Maxxum 7000 she had purchased at a flea market.
I'm a Nikon/Pentax shooter but this camera looks interesting.Alas the battery holder is absent.
Can a battery holder be obtained at a reasonable price?
Is there any Canadian supplier?

Sirius Glass · Mar 17, 2009

Mike Kennedy said:
A good friend of mine popped in yesterday and announced she had a belated birthday gift for me.Handed over a plastic bag that contained a very dirty Minolta Maxxum 7000 she had purchased at a flea market.
I'm a Nikon/Pentax shooter but this camera looks interesting.Alas the battery holder is absent.
Can a battery holder be obtained at a reasonable price?
Is there any Canadian supplier?

Keep the camera and the friend. Both may need a CLA though.

Steve

Vonder · Mar 17, 2009

The 7000 was the first autofocus 35mm SLR camera. Knobs and dials were out of favor then, so the 7000 relied on rubber buttons to activate electrical contacts. These fail over time, so even if you did get a battery holder you might have problems. Minolta lenses are very nice, so if it came with a good, working 50mm lens, it'd be worth fixing up this body or getting a Maxxum 7 or 9 to use it on.

wayne naughton · Mar 17, 2009

You'll pay between 50=100 bucks for a good used body, so unless you enjoy restoring cameras, it's most probably not a practical proposition

wayne

Jon Shiu · Mar 17, 2009

My sister has one of those, but it developed some problem where it drains the (expensive) battery a common problem on the 7000 model.

Jon

Mike Kennedy · Mar 17, 2009

Thanks all.
I'll keep the camera and the friend.A sweet gesture from someone who knows I love photography.All she said was "It holds film".
Might run into an old body with the battery adapter further on down the road.

mjs · Mar 18, 2009

Minolta 7000's came from the factory set up for AAA batteries but the battery holder could be removed and replaced with one which held AA batteries. The AA holder also made the hand-grip a little thicker. You ought to be able to find one or the other battery holder, but as previously mentioned if you want one you'll probably be better off just buying a clean one.

Pretty decent camera: I used one for several years before getting a 7xi. It wasn't really the first autofocus camera but it was the first commercially successful one -- Minolta sold a boat-load of them. AF is slow by current standards but also by current standards the controls are super-simple to use and the exposure calculation is excellent.

Mike

winjeel · Mar 25, 2009

I saw this thread a little late. The camera is probably fine, but the lenses in the Minolta (now Sony) line up are stunning. The 50mm 1.4, 28-70mm G, the 70-200mm G, 100mm 2.8 (regular and macro), and perhaps the 300mm G are the creme de la creme of lenses. To me, my current philosophy is that you invest in the lenses, and make do with the bodies.

Marc Akemann · Mar 25, 2009

Mike,

I have a non-working Minolta 7000 with a good battery holder that you can have.

-Marc

Mike Kennedy said:
Thanks all.
I'll keep the camera and the friend.A sweet gesture from someone who knows I love photography.All she said was "It holds film".
Might run into an old body with the battery adapter further on down the road.

Mike Kennedy · Mar 25, 2009

Email sent.
Thanks Marc.A very nice gesture.

Steve Roberts · Mar 25, 2009

Ah! Someone as bad as I am for not being able to resist things that are cheap/free whether we need them or not!
Long may we both continue!
Steve

Steve Roberts · Mar 25, 2009

...... and indeed very good of Marc to come up with the necessary to get the camera going!

Mike Kennedy · Apr 10, 2009

Thanks Marc Akermann!

Not only did Marc A. send me the battery holder but included the camera as well.Above & beyond the call.
By the y,my friend's gift Minolta 7000 powers up and all functions seem to work.I'm using it today to photograph the local spring freshet.
I've got a question.The manual states that there is a battery located somewhere in the camera that controls the data function.Can someone expand on this.

Mike

RMD · Apr 10, 2009

The internal battery is under the battery compartment. There are one or two screws. Carefully take the screw out and carefully take the internal cover off. There is a single wire soldered to the cover. Simply pop the battery out and replace. Common battery. I think that the only function it serves is for the internal clock/calendar.

Marc Akemann · Apr 10, 2009

Mike, this 3-volt battery is really thin and is 2 cm. in diameter. They seem to last forever and battery stores around here (Michigan) seem to have them in stock so guess they're not uncommon. This extra battery is indeed located in the battery compartment behind a metal plate. There are actually 6 screws to the metal plate in order to get to that 3v battery. If you decide to remove the cover to check the battery, keep the screws in order because 3 of them are shorter than the other three and will not 'grab' if you try to screw a short screw into....well,... just keep them in order. Inside the battery panel are two wires (blue & black) soldered to the metal plate. Seems a bit fragile so don't pull too hard on the metal plate after removing the last screw. The main purpose of this battery, as I remember it, is mainly as a memory for your settings and film counter when you change the 4 regular AAA batteries. The one in your 'new' camera should be good.

Is this Minolta Worth it?

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