My cameras - The Minolta years

I bought my first camera in 1983. It was about 3 months after my arrival in Newark, Delaware. It was bought during my first trip to New York city around August 1983. The camera was a Minolta X-700. It comes with a 50mm 1.7 lens .

Minolta X-700 with 50mm f/2.0

I also bought an off-brand flash and a Zykkor 2X teleconverter. Within the next 2 years I would add a Minolta 100-300 f/5.6 zoom lens and a Vivitar 24mm f/2.0 wideangle. The flashgun was replaced by a Vivitar 4600.

This is a Vivitar 24mm f/2.0, here shown in Nikon mount.

In 1985 I moved to Hartford, Connecticut. Also in 1985 Minolta introduced the first successful autofocus SLR camera, the Minolta Maxxum 7000. The top-of-the-line Maxxum 9000 was introduced later in the year. My X-700 was sold to a good friend, and with money from a summer job, I bought the Maxxum 9000 in 1986.

Minolta Maxxum 9000 body.

My first lens for the Maxxum 9000 was a Minolta 28-85 f/3.5-4.5. Between 1986 and 1998 I would add a 70-210 f/4, a 50mm 1.7 and a 135mm 2.8, all original Minolta lens. I also added a Minolta 4000AF flash, a data back and a power winder AW90. All equipment were kept and carried in a Tamrac camera bag. I also had a Slik U212 tripod and started to shoot slides, both Kodachrome and E-6 Ektachrome which I processed on my own, with varying degree of success.

Minolta AF 28-85 f/3.5-4.5

Minolta AF 70-210 f/4.0

Minolta AF 135mm f/2.8

Minolta 4000AF flash

I returned to Malaysia in 1989, went to Cessnock, NSW, Australia for pilot training in 1990 and finally becomes a co-pilot for MH B737 in 1992. Starting a family, money was tight and film was not as cheap as it was in the USA. The camera was hardly used; only for snapshots and only for prints. The Minolta 9000 was becoming outdated but still producing good pictures.

Then disaster struck. In 1996 the house I lived in was hit by a flash flood. In the ensuing chaos, trying to save the family, furniture and the car, the camera bag was left in the closet and drowned. I only realized it the next day which was way too late. The whole system was damaged beyond economical repair.

I was without an SLR for about a year, using my wife's Olmpus AF-1 Twin compact for family pictures. I would buy another SLR later, but I would never but a Minolta again, ever.

Anyway, that was for another story.

(all pictures here were taken from the internet. The damaged Maxxum 9000 camera and system is still sitting in a box somewhere in the storeroom)