My Photo Booth Photo Blog

MINOLTA Dynax (Maxxum) 7D

Type: 35mm SLR digital camera.

Lens Mount: Minolta A mount.

IMAGE CAPTURE
Image Sensor: Interline primary color CCD (23.7 mm x 15.6 mm) with interlace scan.
No. of Pixels: Total 6.3 million; Effective: 6.1 million.
Sensitivity: Auto / 100 /200 / 400 / 800/ 1600 / 3200 equivalents.
White Control Balance: Automatic, Preset (Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Flash), Custom, Color temperature setting available

RECORDING
Recording Media: CompactFlash I and II Cards / Microdrive, SD*Memory Cards / Multi Media Card*.
* with optional SD-CF1 in use
File Format: JPEG, RAW, RAW+JPEG, (DCF 2.0 compliant, DPOF supported by printing functions in ver.1.1, Exif 2.2).
Format Function: FAT 12, 16, 32.
Folder Name Formats: Standard, Date.
No. of Recorded Pixels Storage Capacity (with 256MB CF card in L: 3008 x 2000, M: 2256 x 1496, S: 1504 x 1000 size): STD: 138 / 235 / 463, FINE: 81 / 141 / 292, EXTRA-FINE: 41 / 72 / 157, RAW+JPEG: 19 / 21 / 23, RAW: 26 / - / - .
Color Mode: Natural (sRGB), Natural+ (sRGB), Adobe RGB.
Image Quality Mode: Standard, Fine, Extra-fine, Raw, RAW+JPEG.
Contrast / Saturation / Sharpness / Hue Adjustment: -2, -1, 0, +1, +2 steps.
Noise Reduction: Available at shutter speed longer than 1 s.
Delete Function: Single, multiple, or all frames in a folder / memory card can be deleted
*selectable in the Menu, except single frame deletion.

PLAYBACK
LCD Monitor: 2.5-inch TFT color, Total pixels: 207,000.
No. of Frame Displayed: 1, Index (4, 9, 16 selectable).
Display Mode: Image only, image + text, image + text + histogram.

AF SYSTEM
Type: Minolta’s TTL phase-detection system with CCD line sensors\ (9-point, 8 lines, center cross-hair sensors.
AF Sensitivity Range: Ev-1-EV18 (at ISO 100 equivalent).
Main Functions: Wide area with local area selection, AF-A/C/S/MF switchable, predictive focus control for moving subject, auto-tracking focus-point display.
AF Illuminator: Activated with the built-in flash in low-light / low contrast situations; Range: between 1m and 5m (between 3.3 ft and 16.4 ft).

AE SYSTEM
Metering Type: Direct TTL metering; 14-segment honeycomb-pattern metering, Center-weighted metering, Spot metering.
Metering Cell: 14-segment honeycomb-pattern SPC.
Metering Range: between EV 0 (EV 3 with Spot metering) and EV 20 (ISO 100 equivalent, with f/1.4 lens).
Exposure Modes: P/Full-auto program (Programmed AE with program shift), A, S, M.
Exposure Compensation: +/- 3EV (1/2 EV increments), +/- 2EV (1/3 EV increments).
Flash Compensation: +/- 2EV (1/2 EV increments).
Flash Metering System: Multi-segment ADI / P-TTL flash metering, Manual.
AE Lock: Automatically activated with AF lock. Available with AEL button.

BUILT-IN FLASH
Guide No. 12 (in meters at ISO 100), 17 (ISO 200).
* with 24mm lens cover in use
Recycling Time: 3s (approx.).
Control: Manual switchover; lift-up for Fill Flash, push down for Flash Cancel.
Flash Mode: Fill Flash, Pre Flash with Red-eye reduction. (Rear flash sync, Wireless/Remote off-camera flash, High-speed sync: Flash available with external flashes).

SHUTTER
Type: Electronically-controlled, vertical-traverse, focal-plane type.
Range: Between 1/4000s and 30s, Time-exposure (Bulb).
Flash Sync Sspeed: 1/160s (Anti-Shake OFF), 1/125s (Anti-Shake ON).

VIEWFINDER
Type: Eye-level fixed system with optical-glass pentaprism.
Focusing Screen: Spherical Acute Matte (G-type as standard).
Field of View: 95% (approx.).
Magnification: 0.9x.
* with 50mm lens focused on infinity, at -1 m^-1
Eye Relief: 25mm (approx.) from the eyepiece, 21mm from the eyepiece frame in -1 dioptor
(-1m-1), Eyepiece cup removable.
Diopter Control: Between -3.0 and +1.0 m^-1.

DRIVE
Drive Mode: Single,Continuous, 10 s / 2 s Self-timer, Single bracket, Continuous bracket.
Continuous Advance: Max. 9 frames (RAW / RAW+JPEG), max. 12 frames (JPEG, L-EXTRA-FINE), max. 15 frames (JPEG, L-FINE).
Interval: 2-240 frames; Interval time:0.5/1-10/15/20/30/45/60 minutes; Start timer is equipped (Settings: 0.5 to 24 H, in 0.5 increments).
Self-timer: 10s / 2s delay selectable, with time display by LED.
Exposure Bracketing: 0.3 / 0.5 EV increments, 3 / 5 frames.

ANTI-SHAKE
System: CCD-Shift mechanism.
Shake Display: LED indicator in viewfinder.
Shake Compensation: Equivalent to 2 – 3 steps in shutter speed (varies according to the lens used & shooting conditions).

BATTERY:
Type: Lithium-ion battery NP-400.
Battery Performance No. of frames recorded: Approx. 400 (CIPA measurement),
approx. 600 (Konica Minolta measurement).
External Power Source: 6 V DC (with specified AC adapter AC-11), Vertical Control Grip VC-7D (possible to adopt two NP-400 batteries, or six AA size Ni-MH batteries).

OTHERS
Other Functions: Instant playback, zone matching, remote-storage function*
*Requires firmware update (firmware updater and DiMAGE Transfer software are available for download since January 2005)
PC Interface: USB 2.0 High-Speed.
Video Output: PAL / NTSC.
Operating Temperature: 0 to 40 degrees centigrade / 32 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
Printing Output Control: Exif Print, PRINT Image Matching III, PictBridge.
Dimensions (WxHxD): 150 mm x 106 mm x 77.5 mm / 5.9 in. x 4.2 in. x 3.1 in.
Weight: 760 g / 26.8 oz.
* without batteries and recording media

COMPATIBLE COMPUTERS
- IBM PC / AT compatible computers: Windows Me, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP (Home / Professional), Windows 98, or Windows 98 Second Edition.
- Apple Macintosh computers:Mac OS 9.0 – 9.2.2, Mac OS X v.10.1.3 – 10.1.5, v.10.2.1 – 10.2.8, v.10.3 – 10.3.5.

My comment:

You know I’m not a great fan of digital photography; not a secret. However, I had an opportunity to work with this camera when shooting wedding photos with my friend. Hi, Maciej! I had some more SRL in my hands and I am sure that if I had to choose a digital SRL camera, it would be Dynax/Maxxum 7D.
Every photographer has its own, inspected stuff they trust; we are accustomed to makes. Maybe this is the explanation of my praise for Minolta. If you were using Minolta’s film cameras of Dynax/Maxxum series, you will easily get used to 7D, that’s certain. But this camera works really great. All the often used functions are easy to get, and the menu is simple but more than sufficient. Anti-shake system workd really good; and the idea of allocating it in the camera is brilliant (the great solution for photographers, but worse for company: with its innovations, Konica Minolta seemed to gain followers and lose income). The company’s retired, thus I won’t convince you to buy 7D but I can assure you that it’s a great equipment.

All data from www.konicaminolta.com.

This is not the first time when I say this words. However, I decided to gather my thoughts in one and come up with the problem. And the problem is: the crucial moment in history of photography we are living these days: its end.
The conditions which arts must live in today are not promising, under my conviction. I really do believe the art is losing its battle with reality to face with. Adopting a political ideas, the world seems to support an utilitaristic way of being: what is good for the majority becomes the norm. As a not-supporter, to be euphemistic, of democracy, I can agree with the principle. How does the world of arts looks in my eyes then? Say, there is a large terrarium with hundreds of chameleons inside - how can you tell the one who didn’t change its colour and the rest adopted it? This is the art in our materialistic reality. There is a bunch of ‘artists’ which are supposed to represent something with their work. However, there are not many of them who really have a message to transmit to the world. Unfortunately, the tip of the iceberg they constitute, the real artistic world, is sinking, pulled by the chameleons that are not even intending but pretending to be the good ones. And it’s hard to tell one from another frequently.
I believe the reason why I see the state of reality this way is not that the art has decreased in sense of number of people interested in it. On the contrary, the amount of pseudo-artists increased tremendously last century. Due to progress which we like to see as our victory over the whole universe, God included; an apple of our eyes. You type in “how to be an artist” in search engine and you get the receipt. Thanks to the miracle of global communication everyone can be an artist or a specialist in whatever you like. Right… We are becoming so superficial that we will soon be able to compete with a sheets of paper: let’s see which one is flatter.
Photography, in particular, is endangered by some other factors. There are some chameleons too, of course. But the most worrying fact is the huge group of people who shoot photos like they were preparing breakfast. I mean, they don’t even consider photography as an art because they don’t bother themselves with considerations about art at all. As biologists would like all the world to be interested in their domain, sometimes I’d like all the world to be interested in what’s my domain. I know it is impossible and on the second thought I’m glad of world’s plurality. Nevertheless, I cannot accept the fact that the work photographers did and do is slowly becoming directed toward narrow group of recipients like magazines (I mean serious ones, not the glossies and the crap). Maybe I am too demanding, but isn’t the ignorance consuming us gradually? When I put them on the scales together - the ignorance and ‘chameleonism’ - the scales get crazy. I don’t know which one is worse.
But I do know which one is more dangerous. Art kept on surviving for such a long time with its fake side by side that it is impossible to give up now. Photography, then, will make it. But I am afraid it may be lost among the sea of so-called-photography that consists in ’shooting pictures’ and not ‘creating an art’. And its the photography itself that helped it happen. The evolution - or revolution (?) - of digital technologies, the one of the aspects of transforming the world into a global village, implanted in imaging lead to what is happening.
Is it possible that the real photography is maybe not dying, but somehow decreasing into ghetto, a niche for outcasts? No. I would rather say ‘the chosen ones’.

Here goes another one: Nikon retires film cameras lineup. The one of the companies that constitute a core of photographic equipment producers decides to give up on standard cameras. As Konica Minolta example shows, this branch of market is unprofitable. However, the production of high-end cameras F6 and FM10 will continue, together with eight of most popular Nikkor lenses. Nikon statement says that company decided “to focus management resources on digital cameras in place of film cameras.”

After shock caused on me when Kodak materials and Konica Minolta photography section became history, I suffer another heart attack. I like being witness of historical events, it’s inevitable, but not these days. Photography as I liked it is becoming a part of the world that has to do more with past tenses than MY reality. I believe we are able to make reality as we like it to be. If so, and I’m quite sure of it, I’m in minority. I’m not the one to judge whether MY minority is better or not or whether the right is ours or not. What I can say is that I don’t like reality like this one.

Sad but true, the shape of today’s civilization is sculpted by majority. And this fact lets me repeat once again: democracy is rubbish.

Feelings fuel my thoughts.
This is the fire that creates me.
I am NOT a flame.
I am oxygene.

From now on I start a new category: Kaleidoscope. The idea is simple: One photo - One thought. Each post will contain a picture and it’s description, rather like a “Stream of consciousness”. The image and thought will fulfill the entirety and by completing each other create a new idea, new vision.

Why Kaleidoscope? Because every thought is unique. You can think all of the time - what we do, in deed - but every time it will be different. Cause: space-time continuum implanted in our consciousness. “This word” and “this word” aren’t the same.

Enjoy my consciousness…