Minolta Maxxum 9

Occasionally I will post some older reviews of cameras for the purposes of saving these archives for future searchers and researchers. Some of these were published prior to content being saved on the Internet; most are fairly arcane and I trust of some historical interest.
Here's a review of the Minolta Maxxum 9, one of the last full featured camera 35mms from that company and indeed in its class. This was written in August, 2000.

The Minolta Maxxum 9

by George Schaub

Every time you turn around another 35mm SLR manufacturer plays "top this" with its competitors and perhaps with the electronic imaging medium as well. This is great news for photographers and has resulted in some rather amazing photographic instruments of late. We've seen cameras with 10 frames per second framing rates, metering systems that measure both light intensity and color influence on exposure and now, with the Minolta Maxxum 9, a top shutter speed of 1/12,000 second and truly easy wireless remote flash. It makes you wonder just what SLR makers might have up their sleeves next.

The Minolta Maxxum 9 is one of those instinctive cameras that feels right at home the moment you take it up in your hands. It weighs lighter than it looks, which is quite sturdy, and apparently can take some punishment, due to its stainless steel and zinc body. Like some of its recent competitors, the Maxxum 9 has a decidedly analog look, although the insides are hardly driven by springs and wind up gears. Virtually every override and extra control is done via these "analogish" dials, while the basic choices of aperture and shutter speed and some custom functions are the work of the front or rear control dials.

While thinking that there is logical placement of controls may be the work of a rationalizing mind, the Minolta Maxxum 9 does seem to have been designed by, and for, people who actually take pictures. After a ten minute drill there's little confusion how to work the camera. The really good thing about it is that controls that are too often buried inside submenus or require near-impossible feats of dexterity on some cameras are right up front on the Maxxum 9. And these are the controls that most experienced photographers will use every day in their work.

Let's talk flash and exposure compensation controls. Both are located on stacked analog dials on the photographer's left side of the camera body. You first unlock the dial and then turn plus or minus 3 EV. The flash exposure dial is on the bottom of the stack, placed there because it probably will be used less than the ambient exposure compensation dial on top. The flash exposure compensation dial can be moved in half EV steps. The ambient exposure dial can be twirled so that it can compensate in either 1/3 or 1/2 EV steps. That right, no custom function to apply, just a manual changeover in how the dial functions. And yes, the dials do lock well into place. In a week of trials I had no misfires there.

There's an equally ingenious and stacked dial on the right side of the body for changing exposure mode (the usual suspects of manual, aperture- and shutter-priority and program) and for setting up an autobracketing sequence. You know about these exposure modes. One thing you might be used to is a Program shift mode, but the shift here is actually in manual mode. You get the exposure you want, hold in the AEL (autoexposure lock) button and then turn the control dial to get equivalent exposure while changing aperture and shutter speed relationships.

The dial beneath the exposure mode dial handles a number of functions including multiple exposure, drives (continuous and single shot, with 5.5 frames per second in single AF or manual focus and 4.5 fps in continuous AF) and autobracketing in both single and continuous drive modes, as well as a self timer. This may seem like a lot of controls on one dial but it's really easier and more efficient than it may sound. There's no lock per se on either of these dials and once I did move the exposure mode dial accidentally while setting up a bracketing sequence. I did that because I grasped the dials somewhat clumsily. When you get used to how they move, as I did quickly, you'll probably not make the same mistake twice.

I kind of glossed over the 1/12,000-second top shutter speed, and it is worthy of extra note. While I'm not certain what I would have to photograph at that speed I know it's certainly a bragging right for this camera. You may have great use for that speed and if you do the Maxxum 9 is for you. Just remember to pack some fast film. (Using the sunny 16 rule with ISO 400 film you'd get 1/12,000 second at f/2.8.) A few pro cameras do have higher framing rates, and for those who do sports having more than 5.5 fps available might be necessary. For those of us who photograph more sedentary subjects the 5.5 fps is sufficient.

On the back of the camera are the flash controls for the built in flash (more on that shortly), the metering pattern selector (14 segment honeycomb for ambient, 4 segment for flash, center-weighted and spot), the slow sync selector (actually the AE lock), the AF lock and the AE lock. You also get a rear control dial and a little switch that allows you to light up the very basic LED. The LED gives you frames shot, aperture and shutter speed. It also helps you set up bracketing sequences and change Custom Functions. That's it, and that's okay. For more info gaze into the viewfinder, where the information should be anyway, and you get a meter index, indications of flash status and mode, a focus signal, aperture and shutter speed, an AEL indicator and a countdown when less than ten frames remain on the roll. Of course you also get the AF indicators and spot metering circle. By the way, a nice and rare treat is that the viewfinder gives you 100% coverage.

These indicators and controls are for those who know their way around a camera and who understand the cause and effect of it all. In other words, readers of this magazine. There are no pictographic modes like people running or little flowers to guide you on you way, or to get in the way of your work. Please join me in a round of polite applause for this return to sanity. But Minolta still has kept "eye start" on the 9, a feature I am at a loss to appreciate. It certainly doesn't get in the way and can be turned off when desired. For those who haven't experienced it the camera powers up when eye start is on and you move the camera to your eye, saving you the great effort of having to flip the on/off switch.

Camera makers have increasingly added built-in flash to their upper end camera models, which I think is a great idea. The Minolta Maxxum 9 does not insult the user by automatically flipping the flash up in low light, like lesser models, but allows you to raise the head manually when you want the extra burst of fill. For some assignments and social events the built in flash might be all you need. It has a nice little GN of 40, which at 6 feet with ISO 100 film gets you between f/5.6 and f/8. The little flash also allows you to shoot with slow sync, red-eye reduction, rear curtain sync and to use the very neat flash exposure compensation and flash bracketing feature that's built into the analog controls. Sync speed is 1/300 second, by the way.

The flash capabilities of the system are truly exploited, however, when you get the Minolta 5400HS shoe-mount flash. The GN varies with film and focal length, but at 50mm with ISO 100 film at a 1/1 power level the GN in meters is 42, 140 in feet. That's enough to get you between f/11 and f/16 at ten feet. You get direct TTL OTF metering in all exposure modes, the ability to set power ratios controls (or levels) from 1/1 to 1/32, an AF assist illuminator for low contrast or plain old low light and power zoom head coverage between 24mm and 105mm. The HS in the moniker stands for High-speed sync, which means you can get flash sync without loss of edge information at shutter speeds up to that incredible 1/12,000 second. This is great for fill flash in bright light when you want to work with a shallow depth of field.

The multi-flash capabilities are easy to apply. You mount the 5400 HS on the camera and turn on the camera and flash. You then slide a lever on the camera to "wireless" and do the same by advancing the mode button on the flash unit. You then disengage the 5400 HS from the camera (leaving it powered up) and raise the built in flash. Because you have it set on wireless the built in flash does not fire but acts as a signal device to fire the flash. You can work with any exposure mode as well as manual where you can set power ratio controls. You can also activate the built in flash to fire along with the 5400 HS to provide a 1:2 fill, the built in flash delivering the lesser output of the two.

This multi-flash capability with wireless worked well in just about every situation I tried it. The trick is to rotate the AF illuminator on the 5400HS toward the built in flash. When you see a double blip from the AF illuminator you know you have communication. If in doubt you can do a test fire before the actual exposure. The 5400HS must be within peripheral "vision" of the built in or the signal will not work.

There are Custom Functions that you can use to customize the camera to your liking. There's the usual film rewind options (leader in or out) but there's also something very neat called Mid Reload. Here you reload a film you've shot to, say, frame 18. You load it as usual, then you use CF 3-3 to put in the frame number to which you want it advanced and the camera does so automatically. Other useful CFs include one that allows you to select the local focus area with the AF button and another that lengthens the display on the selected focus area. You can also make Program exposure mode make action or depth priorities and have flash metering be the default 4-segment, averaged or spot according to the focusing area selected.

The Maxxum 9 fits right in with the extensive line of lenses and accessories that make up the Minolta SLR family. The AF lenses include everything from a 17-35mm f/3.5 G zoom to a AF 600mm f/4 APO G and a AF 200mm F/4 macro APO G. The G lens group, by the way, is Minolta's large aperture, high performance series. You can also interchange focusing screens and use a data memory back.

The Maxxum 9 proved to be an excellent field shooting and travel companion. The flash setup is intriguing, and should be considered by those doing wedding candids with 35mm SLRs. All in all, the design offered many meat and potatoes functions and creative options while basically getting out of the way when pictures were being made. To me, that's the mark of a good camera.