Buying used Minoltas to use with my sony and Minolta lenses.

<p>Years ago my Cannon SLR system was lost. Six lenses, master and slave flash, two cases etc..<br>

I went to a big camera store and spent the day selecting an entire new system. I settled on a a brand new Sony Alpha DSLR. I also already had the very first Sony Mavica with the floppy drive so that influenced me to go with the Sony Alpha. Naturally I bought several lenses, and two electronic flashes, each of those cost more than the alpha camera body. <br>

I know I spent only 10% of my camera budget on the camera body, but i always felt my money was better spent on the rest of the system.<br>

Now I'd like take some 35mm slides. I'd like to show some current slides to the family when we have a family slide show. I have a few thousand 35mm slides taken by my family starting in the 40's.<br>

So, I figure I'd pick up a Minolta camera body off of ebay. They are so cheap that I bought two, a $2.95 MAXXUM 3000i and a $6.95 MAXXUM 7000 <br>

I probably didn't get the best thing, but for less than ten bucks, It is a start....</p>

<p>So, what should I be looking for? What is the best Minolta body for use with Sony AF lenses. I only plan to shoot 35mm slides.<br>

I guess either of those will work, but should I be watching ebay for something special? </p>

<p>I don't have much experience with the later ones, but the Maxxum 7000 makes very good pictures. The meter should be fine for slides. However, the AF is very slow and gobbles batteries. If you use it on manual focus, it's very nice. My wife had one of these for a long time, and found that, odd as the all-pushbutton controls seem, they work very well and intuitively. The camera itself is hefty and well made, and nice to handle.</p>

<p>The Maxxum 7000 also has an "aperture base plate" that can fail, and when it does so, it's game over, as no parts have existed for a long time. The cameras are so cheap it's hardly an issue until they're all gone. <br>

I'd try the ones you have first, and upgrade if the AF is a problem. Otherwise, I suspect the 7000 will take very nice slides. </p>

<p>Is the Sony Alpha you bought full frame? If not it's lenses will not work properly with the older Maxxums. Also some Sony lenses have built-in focus motors so they will not work with Maxxums. If you want better AF performance look for a Maxxum 7 or Maxxum 9. Both are well-made and have excellent metering systems. You're still limited to AF with mechanical couplings rather that built-in motors.</p>

<p>Actually, the Maxxum 7 (at least) <em>should</em> autofocus with the full-frame SSM/SAM lenses. The 9 came out before the 7 and only supported SSM/SAM with an upgrade performed by an authorized service center, so some have the update and some don't. Other cameras that came out after the 7 (the 5, 4, 60 and 40) should support it as well.<br>

There's a good resource for the body capabilities here:<br /><br />http://www.mhohner.de/sony-minolta/bodies.php</p>

<p>Just a followup - I just threw my APC-C Sony SAM lens (18-135) on my old Maxxum 5 - it didn't have a full field of view, obviously, but it WAS able to autofocus the lens. Sony FF Alpha lenses should work on that last generation of film cameras with autofocus support.<br>

So you want (in my opinion - declining order of desirability) a Maxxum/Dynax: 7,5,60,4,40. If you can find a 9 that was re-chipped to support SSM/SAM, that's arguably better, although I believe the AF speed in the 7 beats the 9.</p>

<p>Maxxum 7. I have used one for over a year and it's great. I use a Meta35, www.meta35.com, to keep up with the shooting data.</p>

<p>Am looking to sell little used Maxxum 5 camera body. Bought it for my daughter, who really wan't very interested. </p>