Like its ’90s and ’00s SLR comrades, the Dynax comes with an incredibly long feature list.
#MINOLTA CAMERA REVIEWS PROFESSIONAL#
The Dynax is a truly professional camera, made to the highest standards. The body has no play to it, doesn’t bend or make noises when stressed like other plasticky cameras. That doesn’t mean they didn’t hit that home run, though.įrom the moment I picked up the Dynax 9, I was convinced that I have never felt a more sturdy SLR in my life. Unfortunately, as we know now, Minolta didn’t do enough to stick around. Despite Minolta pioneering practical AF SLRs, they had lost that edge and needed a home run to have any chance.
#MINOLTA CAMERA REVIEWS PRO#
Minolta’s other pro AF offerings, the 9000 and 9xi, failed entirely to capture the market. The camera reviewed incredibly well, but never achieved the success of cameras like the Nikon F5 or Canon EOS-1 because Canon and Nikon did a better job of catering to professionals from the beginning. The Dynax 9 (known in Japan as the a9 and in North America as the Maxxum 9) was Minolta’s final attempt to capture the pro market after their Maxxum/Dynax/Alpha line sputtered a bit in the 1990s. I see a pile of gold photos waiting to happen, and on top of this pile I see the Minolta Dynax 9. I see James’ iconic article on dorky AF SLRs about why we should all love them. I see the best deals in film photography today. They have ironed out the kinks of older cameras. I see their incredibly long feature lists, I see their low weight, I see the consistency of the shots from their modern lenses.
I wanted to take good photos despite my gear, to have people say “You took this with that?” It feels a little childish now, but that’s how I felt when I was 19 years old.īut now, I look at plasticky 1990s and 2000s SLRs and I see potential. The challenge of figuring things out and the journey of overcoming a camera to make good photos was enticing to me.
I wanted something different, something quirky, and honestly, I wanted something difficult. They were too similar to the Canon Rebel T3i that my sister used or the chunky DSLRs I saw around everyone’s necks. When I first started in photography, I wanted nothing to do with plasticky SLRs.