Minolta Maxxum 9 Professional 35mm SLR Camera (Body Only)

This camera has worked on my mind for a few years now ever since its introduction in 1999. As a long time Nikon owner, I avioded buying one. I mean it's not the most beautiful camera in the world. But at last it began to look good to me, I mean really good and I decided I must own one. But, alas, they are nearly out of production. I had to settle for a well cared for used one. The camera works like a dream. The controls are easy to locate and easy to use, even in the dark. They glow. There is a limited production still available in stainless and titanium and I think the Dynax european edition is still available if you can locate one. The limited edition sells for ahefty $2500. and is currently back ordered. Get one if you can and the heck with anyone who tells you its not pro and ugly.

I have owned the Maxxum 9 for about a year now and have no complaints. I bought it because of the good reviews I read on the internet. Very tough camera. I use it frequently. I purchased 2 interchangeable lenses for it and I am satisfied with the operation and the outcome of my pictures, which I also need to include is the are 21 Custom Funcions.

I have spent a lot of time in camera stores and I have always thought Minolta products always got unfairly shoved to the side. The notion that Minolta cameras and lenses are inferior to Nikon and Canon is crap, and is perpetuated by certain camera snobs and self-proclaimed experts. I shoot regularly as an advanced amateur and I own and use the Maxxum 9. I feel that it is the most intuitive 35mm professional camera out there. The quality of construction is first rate, on par with the best that Nikon and Canon have to offer. The camera has a solid feel, everything about it is high quality. The control layout is so self-explanatory that most photographers can learn to use the camera in 5 minutes without flipping through the manual. With respect to lenses. I still run into narrow-minded people who ask me which "Nikkors" I use upon seeing my photographs, and then these self-proclaimed "experts" simply refuse to believe me when I inform them that my images are all created with Minolta AF cameras and lenses. No, I am not kicking Canon and Nikon products, obviously they are very good, several million pros using those systems cannot be wrong about them. But pretentious "camera aficionados" who slight the Maxxum 9 don't know what they are missing out on. I am sold on the Minolta Maxxum 9. When choosing lenses go for the G-Series, optically they are cut every bit as good as the very best lenses Nikon and Canon make. I've shot pictures with all these brands and even established pros who shoot with other systems admit that my images are just as sharp as any they've seen or made. And they absolutely love the 9's layout. Minolta would do well to stay with the Maxxum 9's basic concept when designing their future pro cameras. Now if they would only make a full frame digital body based on the Maxxum 9...........

I have owned the camera since April 2003 and it has produced some wonderful images for me. (...) . A lot of camera aficionados claim that the Maxxum 9 is not as good as the other true pro-level cameras by Nikon and Canon. On paper, there may be some merit to this argument. Going by pure specs alone on paper, the F5 and EOS1V certainly are more electronically advanced than the Maxxum 9, and the devoted pro following for these two excellent machines is a huge statement for these two brands. By the way I'll be the first to say that Nikon and Canon both make excellent products, so if all you diehard loyalists expect me to badmouth your beloved brands just because I love Minolta, I ain't that kind of guy. But in real-world shooting situations, and taken on its own merits, the Maxxum 9 is no less of a professional machine than the F5 or EOS1V. The ease of use of the Maxxum 9 shines through. Admittedly, the Maxxum 9's AF system is more basic, but the hidden beauty is that it is simple to comprehend and use, and is plenty fast to boot. The 14-segment honeycomb metering is an older design than Canon's, and certainly not as sexy-sounding as the Nikon 1005pixel RGB sensor. But the bottom line is that it produces well-exposed images on slide film at a success rate at least as good as the other two. Simply put, the Maxxum 9 is no F5 or EOS1V, nor should it be. The simple fact is that it is a very reliable, extremely easy to use picturemaker, and as long as you mount top-quality Minolta G-Series optics on it there is no reason to feel inferior standing next to someone with an F5 or EOS1V. The popular belief that Minolta optics are inferior is also undeserved. I've watched many times over as store sales people used entry level Minolta SLRs and lenses to illustrate Minolta's "inferior" build quality against a pro-level rig in the form of a Nikon F5 with an 80-200 f/2.8 AF-S !!! I still run into snobby brandname "camera collectors" who ask me this: "Why use Minolta?" upon seeing my Maxxum 9 slung around my neck. I simply say "Why not?"

The Minolta Maxxum 9 is the the best camera I have had the joy to use. It's built rock solid and has not let me down.