Image by Capt Kodak
Manufactured from 1985 to 1988 by Minolta Camera Co. of Osaka, Japan. While other manufactures were all entrenched working on autofocus lenses for their line of 35mm SLRs, Minolta quietly rocked the industry back on it’s heels with the introduction of the first in-body autofocus system for 35mm SLRs. It was a bold and risky move—Minolta changed from their beloved MC/MD lens mount to an mechanical/electronic “A” mount. The camera featured many other “firsts” other than the autofocus that today we think of as standards. It had an in-body winder providing film advance and motorized rewind. To make room for the needed battery power, they made use of a grip on the right side of the camera—today, most cameras have a grip of this type whether the batteries are there or not! It featured pushbutton controls instead of dials and had a large, external LCD display.
What’s in a name? More correctly, what’s in how you write that name? In Europe it was called the “7000 AF” and in Japan the “Alpha 7000” (and you thought Sony came up with that all by themselves!). In North America, Minolta chose to market it with the Maxxum name. In spelling the name on the body of the camera, the decision was made to use an interlocking double “x” (as this example has—see picture). Looks nice until Exxon sees it in a print ad. The interlocking double “X” had been an Exxon trademark for some time. While Exxon did sue, they and Minolta came to a gentlemen’s agreement on the problem. Minolta apologized and agreed to change the logo-type to strait “xx”. And Exxon allowed Minolta to leave what had been sold by that point out there and only change new and undistributed stock. I wonder if it would have been settled the same way today…
The unique in-camera autofocus system relied on a semi-silvered pattern on the mirror (shown here) that allowed a portion of the image to transmit thru the viewing mirror onto a smaller “piggy back” mirror that reflected that broken image down into the bottom of the mirror box to a set of beam splitters and CCD devices. Basically, it focuses by looking for an area of contrast and focusing it to the finest detail (i.e. a hard edge) and the focus point of the lens. Very cool—works with ANY lens on the camera. The “A” mount also provided data to the camera about focal length, zoom position and aperture settings. Seems another company decided this was too close to their patent and sued. And let’s just say they we’re not as nice as Exxon. Unfortunately for Minolta, its autofocus design was found to infringe on the patents of Honeywell and in 1991, Minolta was ordered to pay Honeywell damages, penalties, trial costs and other expenses in a final amount of 7.6 million.
On a personal note, I’m very fond of this camera. As a younger man, I worked in a camera shop. This was the last “new” camera I sold as I went into a different career path in mid 1985….
See also: www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Minolta_7000
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