I am thinking of buying a Minolta Film SLR (AF models)

FrancoD wrote:

There is a lot of room between cool and embarassing. However I can tell you that I had a lot of very excited buyers of those cameras I mentioned.

The photo industry was exited by them, so again FAR from embarassing.

When the 7000 came out , the industry was in a period of stagnation.

Canon had created a buzz (and sent a few camera companies out of business) when it launched the AE1 in 1976. After that there wasn't much that excited the market.

Minolta with the 7000 brought in a lot of people into the stores, it created the buzz. to some , that is cool...

Be aware that emmanem get's off on trolling the forums .

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As it happens the Minolta 7000AF was my first SLR that I bought used in the 90's .

I still have it along with the lenses , and I still shoot mainly A mount cameras now , both film and digital .

My most used Minolta film cameras now though are the Dynax 7 , Dynax 9 , Dynax 5 or 60 and the X700 / X500 .

Having the dials back on the cameras from the 600si onwards was much more to my liking than buttons , especially skinny ones on the 7000AF .

The viewfinders an eyeopener for a lot of people that are used to dingy pentamirrors of most APSC DSLR's .

EmmaNems wrote:

FrancoD wrote:

EmmaNems wrote:

Paul Barnard wrote:

FrancoD wrote:

EmmaNems wrote:

… that had any cool factor. The rest were embarrassing. Have some self-respect.

not at the time.

The 7000 for example was a rather exciting camera because it was the first one that had a working AF and with several lenses to go with it.

That is why it sold very well and other manufacturers had to come out with something like that pretty fast soon after.

Completely agree. This was the camera that switched me from Canon to Minolta. I still have mine in fully working order. Even have the databack for it. Got to make sure that you keep fresh batteries in them though or the internal button cell will go flat and it's not a simple replacement.

Even at the time I hated the control interface and the looks of the body on the 7000. The shutter button always felt odd to me too. I can't complain too much though. I made a fortune selling them. As I recall, they were introduced in February of 2005 (1985) and by spring of 1987 I bought a home.

So they could have not been embarassing if so many bought them .

BTW, i also sold them bud did not sell enough to buy a house. In fact I am pretty sure in Australia nobody did.

For that matter the 7000i/8000i were also definately not embarassing either , at the time.

Of course my comments are about how they were perceived by the general public, personal taste is another matter.

There is not a necessary link between the two. Consider Ford Pintos, Taco Bell food and polyester leisure suits; all very popular. If it helps your case, Steve Jobs had one with a 35-70. They were popular, but never cool.

If all your interested  in is "Cool" , presumably all you shoot now is a Holga ?

FrancoD wrote:

There is a lot of room between cool and embarassing. However I can tell you that I had a lot of very excited buyers of those cameras I mentioned.

The photo industry was exited by them, so again FAR from embarassing.

When the 7000 came out , the industry was in a period of stagnation.

Canon had created a buzz (and sent a few camera companies out of business) when it launched the AE1 in 1976. After that there wasn't much that excited the market.

Minolta with the 7000 brought in a lot of people into the stores, it created the buzz. to some , that is cool...

Excellent points.

FWIW the AE-1 was the first SLR I bought in 1976 when I started a paid job and the camera I traded that for was the 7000. I think I am the archetypal customer you are referring to.

Both the AE-1 and the 7000 were very cool to the user at the time they were launched as they did things that others did not. Getting the exposure right was the forte of the AE-1 and getting the focus right was the strength of the 7000. Those were pretty cool things for the general public.

An additional point about the 7000 is that my then wife actually started taking images with it and eventually bought her own. She had never taken images with the manual focus AE-1. The 7000 was a game changer for many and made ‘high end’ SLR photography possible for ordinary people who made no claims to being a photographer. That’s very cool!

EmmaNems wrote:

Paul Barnard wrote:

FrancoD wrote:

There is a lot of room between cool and embarassing. However I can tell you that I had a lot of very excited buyers of those cameras I mentioned.

The photo industry was exited by them, so again FAR from embarassing.

When the 7000 came out , the industry was in a period of stagnation.

Canon had created a buzz (and sent a few camera companies out of business) when it launched the AE1 in 1976. After that there wasn't much that excited the market.

Minolta with the 7000 brought in a lot of people into the stores, it created the buzz. to some , that is cool...

Excellent points.

FWIW the AE-1 was the first SLR I bought in 1976 when I started a paid job and the camera I traded that for was the 7000. I think I am the archetypal customer you are referring to.

Both the AE-1 and the 7000 were very cool to the user at the time they were launched as they did things that others did not. Getting the exposure right was the forte of the AE-1 and getting the focus right was the strength of the 7000. Those were pretty cool things for the general public.

An additional point about the 7000 is that my then wife actually started taking images with it and eventually bought her own. She had never taken images with the manual focus AE-1. The 7000 was a game changer for many and made ‘high end’ SLR photography possible for ordinary people who made no claims to being a photographer. That’s very cool!

Far cooler than being a troll

Paul Barnard wrote:

EmmaNems wrote:

Far cooler than being a troll

Paul, you can simply put this member on your ignore list. I have around 300 members on my ignore list. Your comments are great contribution to the community, especially for newcomers like me.

Unfortunately, DPReview.com doesn't support the concept of followers/following unlike a number of social media systems; definitely, you would be on my following list.

havanna60 wrote:

Paul Barnard wrote:

EmmaNems wrote:

Far cooler than being a troll

Paul, you can simply put this member on your ignore list. I have around 300 members on my ignore list. Your comments are great contribution to the community, especially for newcomers like me.

Unfortunately, DPReview.com doesn't support the concept of followers/following unlike a number of social media systems; definitely, you would be on my following list.

Havanna

Thanks for the comment. I currently have no one in my ignore list as everyone I have felt the need to ignore has subsequently had their account deleted.  EmmaNems is a rather pathetic troll so not worth the clicks to ignore.

FrancoD wrote:

havanna60 wrote:

Paul Barnard wrote:

EmmaNems wrote:

Far cooler than being a troll

Paul, you can simply put this member on your ignore list. I have around 300 members on my ignore list.

I thought that I had a pretty good list at around 80 (in ten years) but I see that you are way ahead of me.

Mind you I suspect that several on my list suffer from multiple personality disorder and or are returning trolls.

I think I've only ever put a dozen or so people on my ignore list , some could well be the same person who re-joined under a different name after getting banned .

Others might have died .

Most were put on as they were just sad little trolls that don't have anything to say .

Ones like emmanems I tend to just ignore their posts as they have nothing intelligent to say , usually they can't tell the difference between their opinion , misunderstandings and actual facts .

The only time I respond to them is when they are giving out incorrect information that people who are trying to learn could easily be taken in .

I'm surprised he's been hanging around so long , and has yet to say anything intelligent !