The best film camera ever made? - Minolta Maxxum 9 Review

[@gregshawphotography8828]

I have the Maxxum 9 as well as some other Minolta cameras. The Minolta was my first ever system I started with back in 1985. It’s always had a special place in my heart for collecting and shooting a few rolls from time to time.

[@jpg_sig10]

Thank you very, very much for this nostalgic review of the wonderful Minolta Maxxum 9 35mm film SLR camera. I almost feel 25 years younger. This was a glorious but now bygone era in photography. I got my start in 35mm film photography in late 1986 with the old Minolta Maxxum 7000. That SLR camera was followed up by my upgrading to the Maxxum 8000i, and then another upgrade to the Maxxum 9xi. When the Maxxum 9 came out in 1999, I had to have it, so I promptly sold my 8000i and 9xi to help offset the cost of the 9. Having not minded the additional bulk, I did opt for the Maxxum 9 vertical grip. I loved my old Maxxum 9. Like the 9xi before it, the 9 sported a 1/12000-second top shutter speed. And just as I often did with my 9xi, I appreciated the ability to easily leave the film roll leader extended out of the film canister to easily remove and then later reload the same film roll for continued shooting with the 9. Alas, I sold off my Minolta Maxxum 9, and all of my Minolta Maxxum related gear in late 2004 / early 2005, after buying into digital with the Nikon D70 DX DSLR. I still prefer and miss some aspects of 35mm film photography over digital, particularly black-&-white film darkroom work. Photography felt much more like a labor of love back then, not a high production job. In my case, a serious hobby. Good things! 👍

[@cadmus777]

"The last made is often the best" also goes for Sony's continuance of the Minolta legacy, and their last in the A-mount line - the A99ii is the DSLT successor to the Dynax 9, and even to this day it's still better than all but a few of Sony's mirrorless line. Minolta was awesome and ahead of its time!

[@CrashCarson14]

Nice!!!

[@vers1fier]

The SR-1, SR-T101, and the Dynax 9. The trinity of 35mm film camera masterpieces!

[@areallyrealisticguyd4333]

The absolute underdog of the late 90s and early 2000s SLR world. Everyone hypes up the Nikon f6 and Canon 1V but this camera definitely can match those two. I'm so glad these cameras haven't caught on yet and are still relatively cheap!

[@thisisbenji90]

My favorite thing about the Nikon F6 cameras is that they use the f-mount which has a huge catalog of glass available from AI all the way through G. The Minolta and Canon definitely have a bit less backwards and forwards compatibility. Like I love my FD glass, but I’ve never bought a EF film camera because none of my lenses work on it.

[@areallyrealisticguyd4333]

@@thisisbenji90 that's pretty fair. the lenses are also quite cheap compared to Canon ef equivalents and Sony has made an adapter to use them on their mirrorless cameras. I'd say it's worth investing in especially for someone already in the Sony ecosystem

[@fittoat9261]

I used to own two of them with the add-on battery grip which gave Gatling gun speed! You would go through a roll of film in seconds. Best camera Minolta made, and I've been through pretty much all of them long before auto-focus was a thing! Loved those cameras, hated letting them go .... but we must keep up with progress ... called Digital!

[@anthonyxuereb792]

I still have my XM from when it was released with a brilliant f1.4 Rokkor lens (with fungi unfortunately), the XM also required an adaptor for the flash gun. I left it behind on a seat in an airport lounge once when travelling overseas when I went to freshen up, just one of those lapses and when I got back to my seat a man was holding the XM, "I believe this is yours"

[@jeffrypittman]

Great camera. I bought mine new and had it upgraded to support modern SSM lenses. I can use all Sony A mount lenses on it. The vertical grip really makes it a beast.

[@photobyTaps]

Great video. I had forgotten about that model. I have the same 28-105mm f2.8 in F mount, good lens. Thank you

[@Emma-zk6it]

Got two maxxum 9 and I can't complain for me is the perfect film SLR. I have a decent lens line up the 20 f/2.8 , 50f/1.4 the 28-135 F4 and the mirror lens. If one day I move mirroless the Sony alpha will not need as many lenses if I get the adapter.

[@maxwellwellmax878]

I got my Maxxum 7 brand new and I still use it to date!.

[@simonjonasmusic8410]

Great video, Thanks! I originally was set on a Canon EOS 1V, but now I'm leaning towards the Maxxum 9...lens prices are VERY moderate for the quality

[@MR-rp3xr]

One underrated Minolta was The 500si Super with the extra manual over ride Iso metal mount and wireless flash over the standard 500si

[@garymorrison277]

I changed from Minolta to Nikon when Minolta sold out to Sony but still have a love for the AF Minolta's from the 90's. Sadly I don't have the 9 (yet, trying to work a deal with a ebay seller at the moment) but have 2 good copies of it's smaller brother the Dynax (UK) 7, a very good 800si, 2 good 700si's, 2 reasonably good 7xi's and the brick a af 9000 with plenty of glass flashes ect, but unfortunately nothing very exotic like your af reflex. Great video and a bit of a rarity on KZbin seeing the Minolta Dynax/ Maxxum /Alpha 9.

[@CrashCarson14]

I've got a 9000!

[@rwilifeandtravel]

Nice review. I bought this camera back in the day and I still have it. It's a great camera. When Minolta started to introduce their SSM lenses they also had a service to modify Dynax/Maxxum 9 cameras to shoot with those lenses. I had mine modified and I used the 70-200mm f2.8 G SSM lens with it. I don't know if any Dynax/Maxxum 9 cameras were sold already modified out of the box.

[@VitorFonseca]

Not hat I'm aware. All 9's required the upgrade.

[@areallyrealisticguyd4333]

unfortunately the only options now are investing $1000 into an ssm upgraded body or getting a minolta 7 which although very similar has a slightly less desirable build quality. the two main fault points being the film door lock and the aperture gear

[@rwilifeandtravel]

@@areallyrealisticguyd4333 I've never had an issue with my Dynax 7 build quality. Yes, it's not built like the Dynax 9 but I've not had any issues with it during the time I was actively shooting with it. However, after an extended period of time parts can fail. The hand grip on my (once workhorse) Dynax 700si went sticky while in storage and eventually broke apart. I don't know how much a modified Dynax 9 is worth but I find it hard to let mine go even though I no long shoot film. Its AF may be basic by modern standards but the camera is beautiful to shoot with.

[@horizonoftheeast]

I have trouble focusing using that Tamron 28-105mm F/2.8 on my Alpha 9. Maybe is that a lemon lens?

[@jerryrichards8172]

Very fine camera I'll never let mine go.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Whoa, that mid-roll reload is amazing sounding. As a kid I always wondered why I couldn’t do that. Does it wind the film back to the leader to keep it safe from the light, and wind it back out when you put it back in? Well, even if you have to stuff your hands into a bag to do it, it’s still really cool. I love portraits and macro photography, especially of wildlife and insects and natural textures like wood and stone and dirt. And I’ve been thinking about getting a modern mirrorless - I’ve only used fixed-lens cameras so far, even though some of them are really rather good. I do keep running into limitations such as having to do a macro shot from further away and then crop-in later, losing resolution. So I’ll have to write down that middle lens you showed.

[@griffensander]

Yes, the camera will rewind the roll and leave the leader out. You can then put the same roll back in and it will wind it perfectly back to the frame you were on.

[@takitam2521]

You can do it with basically every film camera - only those who roll up film without leaveing the tip outside, you need to use tool to get it out. In old exacta from '50 that was passed to me there is even mechanism inside the camera that let you cut the film in hlaf so that you can change mid roll without windint it. In this camera it is little bit spimpler because you dont need to shoot to first free frame. And dont we forget about aps-c format films and other similar, where you can switch films without winding ;)

[@orestes1984]

With the leader return there are multiple settings, to leave the leader out or fully rewind the film.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@takitam2521 maybe it was just the shitty one I had growing up then - the door was locked until the manual rewind was finished and came loose off the roll, and by then the leader was trapped fully inside.

[@walterarroyo5220]

I currently have two Minolta Maxxum 600 si bodies and I love them but I need this next. It would be the ultimate acquisition for me.

[@arrebarre]

Mirror lenses get such a bad rep but I'm still using my Minolta AF reflex 500 and it's my favourite telephoto, there's just nothing that beats the lightness and size.

[@TempoViolence]

Great video as always, love the editing and photos look amazing. Might have to add this camera to my collection based off this video

[@stefannantz]

Hi there, is there a way to take more that 36 exposure, take exposures to the end of film rather than 36 as a hard stop.

[@weisserth]

Wow. I had no idea about the shutter speed. The specs are better than Canon's 1v. The thing that makes the Canon 1n and 1v more appealing still is all the modern EF glass that's fully backwards compatible and introduces amazing image stabilization. I got a massive collection of manual focus Minolta gear, several XD7 bodies, an XDs, an X700, a CLE, tons of Rokkor glass, including all the legends like the 35mm Shift CA, the MD 50mm f1.2, the 58mm MC Rokkor f1.2, the MD 20mm f2.8 and more. It's a shame that Minolta isn't around as a brand anymore - but their legacy lives on with Sony I guess...

[@griffensander]

And Sony makes an adapter for using Minolta AF glass on a modern E-mount camera. Even the Autofocus works.

[@orestes1984]

It's the fastest shutter speed on ANY camera to this date. Although I struggle to think about the usage cases, unless you want to use TMax 3200 in broad daylight. I've done that with my A7 and it's a series of ridiculous compromises. The biggest problem with this camera is that it's a nice spec to have, but it's not really necessary, and the usage cases are very limited for most people.

[@orestes1984]

@@contentsdiffer5958 the A9/Maxxum 9/Dynax 9 is a very amazing camera that costs about a quarter of the price of the equivalent Nikon F6, or Canon 1N/1V. It was one of the very last true professional film SLRs in a weird period prior to 2007 where the internet was common but professional DSLRs were not due to how much they cost. I wouldn't recommend an A9 unless you plan on paying for one that is SSM enabled, so you can use the Sony A mount lenses. I have an A7 which has a 1/8000 shutter speed, a more modern menu system, and even a matrix metering system. The advantage of the A9 is that it is more reliable, the body is weather sealed, provided you use weather sealed lenses, it has a faster auto exposure system, and the shutter speed tops out at 1/16000 of a second. Given that ISO3200 film isn't even really a thing anymore outside of Delta and Tmax, there is no real use case for a 1/16000 shutter in terms of exposure, but I guess it does give you more exposure choices in bright daylight without having to use an ND filter on sunny days with fast film. The drawback between the A7 and A9 all things being equal that both cameras are SSM models and therefore can use Sony's lenses with in built motors, is that the A9 is extremely heavy, the body is made out of alloy, and in some rare cases if you buy the right model, the A9s body can be made out of Titanium. The positives of the A7 are that it comes with SSM support by default, has an actual menu system that works as well as an early DSLR, and it's light weight. The drawbacks of the A7 because of its light weight is that the components inside of it are unreliable. The focus motor at this point is known to fail and when it does you will get an error screen on the camera, bricking the camera, as it starts up and tries to do a system checkup on the camera... I'd struggle to call it a computer by modern standards but the A7 does have a computer in it, that checks all of the components just like modern cameras have. It also has computational matrix metering in the A7 so if the light metering is bad, it's bad only because you measured it badly. The A9 does the same thing with Matrix metering but there are less computational things going on in the background. TBH: The A7 and A9 due to their ability to meter almost perfectly are the almost perfect cameras for slide film, and that's where the market was back then, for professionals, who has to get slides copied. Run a roll of Ektar, Provia, or Velvia through an A7 or A9 and it will come out almost as well as colour negative film, and ultimately that's what these cameras were for, Making perfect slides that could easily be copied for magazine prints on Durst enlargers. If you don't need something like that these cameras have too much technology in them and are now at a point where they are regularly failing after 25 years of use.

[@orestes1984]

@@contentsdiffer5958 they're kinda cool cameras, but in hindsight retrospectively today because they're not something common like on the Canon EF or Nike FX mount and use the Sony/Minolta A mount, it does take a lot of ingenuity by comparison to trick them out to the same extent as a Nikon F6. To which it extent, it often leaves the argument, why would you buy a Minolta when it's far easier to buy a Nikon and just use a far more common platform. Well, in the end, even after your finished (in my case for example) it's far cheaper to stick a Carl Zeiss Vario Sonar F/2.8 on my A7 than it was to buy a Nikon F6. I also get to be one of the select group of people who uses Zeiss glass rather than Nikon glass.

[@Nedumgottil]

Wow that’s a cool camera

[@erichramone7812]

Man I would love to have this one, thanks

[@flowermaze___]

4:54 with mid roll reload, wouldn’t it resume half way through the new roll? Wasting shots? Say you shoot 15 shots on tmax, mid roll change to hp5 - would it shoot from frame 15? Does it remember which roll is which?

[@danmar007]

My first camera was the SRT-101 and I still have my XD-11 with motor drive. But I think the best consumer camera was the Canon T90.

[@mikebraz25]

Never understood why the distaste for Minolta flash shoe mount as if you'd use any other flash on it and you can have a Minolta flash on and off before you could even get a 'standard' hotshoe flash attached to any other camera. Let alone Minolta pioneered the wireless flash using its own built in flash!

[@rwilifeandtravel]

I never had an issues with the Minolta flash shoe as I only used the Minolta flashguns. I liked the fact that once you attached a flash gun they are automatically secured. However for photographers switching systems the Minolta flash shoe probably was a minor inconvenience.

[@orestes1984]

Because Minolta did a lot of distasteful things like that, that Sony in that time period inherited. They decided to break a standard for flash shoes, that had been around since Olympus invented modern TTL flash units in the 1970s. There is disruption and just being a dick. Even Sony no longer uses that flash pin configuration.

[@NorceCodine]

Can you focus and set depth of field manually, or it will always autofocus on the subject and the background will be blurred?

[@Cototto]

Of course you can focus manually, just disengaging autofocus by a button near the lens.

[@orestes1984]

@@Cototto or use the depth of field preview also on DOF preview (D) designated lenses.

[@MR-rp3xr]

Just as good is The Minolta Dynax 800si of which beng earlier still has 8000 sec top shutter and a 3 fPS winder I just bought one from facebook marketplace for the measly sum of £10 including the 28-80 Minolta AF lens and strap not a mark on it including the veiwfinder and screen also a £18 VC 700 battey grip complements it

[@orestes1984]

The Maxxum 9 wasn't their last product, the Maxxum 7 was their last film product. I have the Alpha 7, which is the same camera as the Maxxum 7, but for the Japanese market... These cameras the A7 and A9 were clearly one of the most well thought out film cameras, and it's clear from this that every other DSLR from that point including Nikon's cameras followed the same basic intrinsic design. Two control wheels and two control dials, coupled (in the A7's case) with a digital LCD screen read out. The A7 had a few neater trick than the A9 in this case. While you couldn't see what was on the rear screen as such, you could pop up a matrix meter which was the next best thing and get a full, live, reading of your lighting conditions, and on D designated lenses such as my Vario Sonnar 24-70 F/2.8 you could press the D button on the lens and the screen would give you a depth of field scale preview.

[@orestes1984]

@@contentsdiffer5958 its a horse trade scenario. It's far cheaper to buy an A7 for Sony SSM lenses, such as the Vario Sonar 24-70 F/2.8 I have attached to my A7. If you have the money to afford it and don't mind the extra weight, an SSM enabled A9 is a more reliable camera at this point. A lot of people who own these cameras now choose the A9 because it was built better at the end of the day. The trade off is that you pay a fortune for an SSM enabled A9 now.... And as such prices closer to the Nikon F6, or Canon 1N/1V which already support internal motor drive lenses by default. I had to send back two A7s to Japan to find one that just works without it giving the bricking ERROR screen. I also use SSM lenses with my A7 to reduce the probability of what is likely to happen anyway that the internal focus motor will fail eventually one day. At least by using SSM lenses (wuth internal motors in the lens) I'm slightly reducing that point of failure. But really if I wanted to spend the serious money I would just buy an A9 that was SSM enabled. In a lot of ways except the weight, the A9 is a far superior camera, but it was designed to be. Minolta through everything at it to make a camera that was better than a Nikon F6 and in a lot of ways they did. It just weighs A LOT.

[@CatskillParanormal]

Still have my 7, 9, A600, and A800. Won't part with them. Excellent cameras.

[@rumrill5020]

Anyone know how to turn off the AF assist light? Or is it integral to focusing?

[@ahoNikku]

The AF assist light stays off in continuous AF mode, or you can try putting some tape over the light. It will focus slower under low light, or not at all if it's too dark, but most of the time it should still do fine.

[@rumrill5020]

@@ahoNikkuThanks. Just picked up a mint copy this weekend (with flash, trigger, remote, 50 f/1.4 etc). Like it so far, other than the dim display in the viewfinder.

[@userjjb]

Not sure about the Maxxum 9, but on the 7 you can turn it off in the custom settings.

[@borlean4691]

This camera is weirdly similar in looks to Fujifilm XH1

[@orestes1984]

That's because of convergent evolution really. The Minolta A7 and A9 are pretty much the closest thing to using a digital camera, but with film. All be it they released in a time period between 1998 to 2003 where one company named Minolta was brave, or foolish enough to try to put all the bells and whistles a modern DSLR camera would have on a film camera.

[@pixieloco]

Best film camera? no. best 35mm film camera? definitely one of the best.

[@curiosity2314]

G8 the best?!? Yeah I don't think so 😬 It's a good camera but for whatever reason anything over the Maxxum 5 was plagued with body rot. They did not handle plastics well, shame really as some of their good cameras are not in good shape today unlike other competitors of the day.

[@wendysburgers4326]

1:58 RADIUM RADIOACTIVE

[@Ikgeloofhetniet]

So mad I bought the Minolta Maxxum 70 for the same price the 9 goes for.

[@Ericbjohnston5150]

Canon t90

[@uthayakumar2937]

#sonyalpha57