The Minolta 9000 AF is a professional

Single-lens reflex A single-lens reflex camera (SLR) is a camera that typically uses a mirror and prism system (hence "reflex" from the mirror's reflection) that permits the photographer to view through the lens and see exactly what will be captured. With twin le ...

autofocus An autofocus (or AF) optical system uses a sensor, a control system and a motor to focus on an automatically or manually selected point or area. An electronic rangefinder has a display instead of the motor; the adjustment of the optical system ...

camera, introduced by

Minolta was a Japanese manufacturer of cameras, camera accessories, photocopiers, fax machines, and laser printers. Minolta Co., Ltd., which is also known simply as Minolta, was founded in Osaka, Japan, in 1928 as . It made the first integrated aut ...

in August 1985.Durniak, 25 August 1985 It was both

's and the world's first professional autofocus SLR. It was called Minolta Maxxum 9000 in the US and Minolta α-9000 in Japan. As the first professional autofocus SLR system ever made, the Minolta 9000 AF sports a number of unique features showing the transition from electro-mechanical cameras to the next generation of fully electronic cameras. For instance, it is the only autofocus system ever made with a manual film transport rather than automatic electronic winding.

History

In the early 1980s, Minolta was developing several ranges of autofocus SLR cameras, with the

Minolta 7000 The Minolta MAXXUM 7000 (7000 AF in Europe and α-7000 in Japan) 35 mm SLR camera was introduced in February 1985. It was the first camera to feature both integrated autofocus (AF) and motorised film advance, the standard configuration for late ...

aimed at the advanced amateur market, and the Minolta 9000 aimed at the professional market. Development on the Minolta 9000 was completed before that of the Minolta 7000, but for marketing purposes, the 9000 was held back and the 7000 was launched first in February 1985. For this reason, the 7000 is often considered to be the first ever autofocus-capable SLRNotwithstanding earlier SLRs retrofitted to incorporate autofocus capabilities such as the 1982/1983 Nikon F3AF; the poorly-performing

Pentax ME F The Pentax ME F was an amateur level, interchangeable lens, 35 mm film, single-lens reflex (SLR) camera. It was manufactured by Asahi Optical Co., Ltd. of Japan from November 1981 to 1984. The ME F was a heavily modified version of the Pentax M ...

; and prototypes by

Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

and Contax, such as the Yashica Contax 137 AF In any case, the Minolta 9000 AF was the first professional SLR system featuring a wide range of autofocus-capable accessories, with the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

calling it "The first 35-millimeter automatic-focusing camera built for professional use" and "revolutionary",Durniak, 12 January 1986 and

Leif Ericksenn Leif is a male given name of Scandinavian origin. It is derived from the Old Norse name ''Leifr'' (nominative case), meaning "heir", "descendant". Use in the Nordic countries Spelling and prevalence Across the Nordic countries, the most com ...

, editor-in-chief of ''Photo Methods'' magazine calling it "one of the most astonishing cameras of the decade". At the time of its introduction, the Minolta 9000 retailed for $684 (circa $1580 in 2017).

Characteristics

The body of the Minolta 9000 is a robust all-metal construction, with the

pentaprism A pentaprism is a five-sided reflecting prism used to deviate a beam of light by a constant 90°, even if the entry beam is not at 90° to the prism. The beam reflects inside the prism ''twice'', allowing the transmission of an image through a r ...

being the only component not to be completely encased in metal. The shutter was capable of the then-extremely short exposure time of 1/4000 seconds, as well as of 1/250 second synchronisation. The exposure meter provided the user with the usual range of automatic exposure modes: automatic, shutter priority, aperture priority and manual mode. As

metering mode In photography, the metering mode refers to the way in which a camera determines exposure. Cameras generally allow the user to select between ''spot'', ''center-weighted average'', or ''multi-zone'' metering modes. The different metering modes all ...

s, it was capable of centre-weighted integral metering and spot metering; spot metering could be further refined with light and shadow corrections, which used an exposure memory to correct exposure by up to 2.3 EV. Furthermore, an optional back "program back super 90" (PBS-90) provided multi-spot measurements, with optional automatic weighting by average (AVERAGE), mean (CENTER), highlight (HIGHLIGHT) and shadow (SHADOW), as well as user-definable program curves. The backs also provided automatic bracketing. The autofocus allowed not only quick focusing on static subjects, but also continuous focus. The Minolta 9000 also accepted a variety of focusing screens, a lockable button for

depth of field preview Depth(s) may refer to: Science and mathematics * Three-dimensional space * Depth (ring theory), an important invariant of rings and modules in commutative and homological algebra * Depth in a well, the measurement between two points in an oil ...

, lighting of the viewfinder and a built-in eyepiece to protect the eye of the photographer from lateral light. The Minolta 9000 was compatible with Minolta AF accessories, including a full range of lenses in Minolta A-mount, flash units, and various other accessories such as a 5-frame/second motor winder,Motor/Winder
9000.org a 100-exposure magazine and several backs. One of these, available only in Japan, was a 0.38 mega-pixel digital sensor, called the "Still Video Back" ( SB-90 / SB-90S ), which recorded images on Video Floppies.

Specifications

* Type: Fully automatic SLR camera body (exception: manual film advance) made of aluminium, brass and steel. * Manufacturer:

* Year of launch: 1985 * Film: DX-coded 35mm film with speeds from 6 to 6400 ASA * Lens mount:

Minolta A-mount was a Japanese manufacturer of cameras, camera accessories, photocopiers, fax machines, and laser printers. Minolta Co., Ltd., which is also known simply as Minolta, was founded in Osaka, Japan, in 1928 as . It made the first integrated autofocu ...

* Focusing: TTL phase detecting autofocus * Shutter: Aluminium focal plane shutter with speeds 30 sec. to 1/4000 sec. * Metering: TTL through combined ambient and flash metering cells located at the bottom of the mirror box (therefore, not influenced by the focusing screens used), center-weighted or spot-metering metering characteristics for ambient light, center-weighted for flash light * Exposure: Program controlled mode, manual mode, aperture priority or shutter priority mode * Flash: PC-socket plus TTL-enabled hot shoe for Minolta AF-flashes, shutter synchronized for speeds up to 1/250 sec. * Finder: Pentaprism finder, diopter correction, 94% coverage at 0.81x magnification * Display: LCD displays on body and in the view finder * Film advance: Manual lever and rewind crank, add-on winder (2fps, manual rewind) and motordrive (5fps, motorized rewind) units available * Weight: * Dimensions: 53×92×139 mm

Sources and references

Notes

Citations

External links

Minolta Maxxum 9000 manual
The unofficial Minolta 9000 information central
Minolta 9000
cjo.info

tammesphotography

tinkeringwithcameras

John Durniak, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', 25 August 1985
CAMERA; CANON HAS ENTERED THE HIGH-TECH AGE
John Durniak, ''

'', 12 January 1986
70 years of Minolta
photoclubalpha.com
9000.org
Magnus Wedberg

Bibliography

*''Minolta 9000'', LA Mannheim, Munich, Laterna Magica 1986. *''Minolta's camera technology. From the Nifacalette to Riva and Dynax'', AR and J. Scheibel, G + G Urban 1990. {{Minolta 9000 135 film cameras