A friend gave his old Minolta Maxxum 7000 camera with two zoom lenses. Great old camera, came out in 1985 with one of the first autofocus systems, as well as auto film advance and rewind, etc.
It has about as many bells and whistles as modern digital cameras.
The only problem is that the battery is dead. It takes a 6V lithium battery, and they are really difficult to find. My searches turned up a lot of similar ones, but they don’t seem to be exactly the same size, and some don’t have just the two contacts.
The few I found range in price from $35 down to $10. As I am not certain that the thing will work (NOTHING works without a battery), I hesitate to order one unless I can be sure it will fit.
Anybody have one of these? Know where to get a replacement battery? At a reasonable price, that is.
Do you live in an area that has a brick-and-mortar camera shop? I knew someone who worked at one and I suspect they could help you. Maybe they’d be willing to take a battery out of stock, and let you see if the rest of the camera works before making you buy. If repairs were needed, they’d be in a position to assess the problem and perform the work.
Of course, these kind of shops are rapidly closing - they used to pay a lot of the bills with photo developing, and even the people looking for hardware are increasingly turning to the Internet. All the more reason to take business to one when you can.
That one takes a 2CR5 lithium battery, which you can find for about $5-10 at Amazon, and a CR2016 coin cell lives under a “secret” metal plate in the battery compartment. This one’s almost certainly gone dead in your camera - just be sure to note that the longer screws are at the back side of the camera, and that the plate can only slide over - as shown in that pic, there’s wire attached to it. This battery is good for 5-10 years. You’ll need a #00 philips screwdriver.
The 2CR5 used to be a common battery for the early AF 35mm SLRs. IIRC, the Canon EOS Elan line used the same battery, and 15-20 years ago, you could find them at any camera shop. Something’s rattling around in the back of my head that not all 2CR5s were physically identical and certain brands fit better than others, so you may need to shim the battery a bit for best contact.
Supply is easy. Processing will be tricky - I doubt the local drugstore can handle the cartridge, even though the film itself is probably bog-standard C41 process - but there are labs who are set up to handle it properly. Here’s one I found who can process and print Minox film “enthusiastically” and even put the images on CD.
Wow, thank you gotpasswords, you really came up with some really good info. I have searched Amazon.com and came up with one I think is right for a fair price. You are right about them being different sizes and shapes, so will keep my fingers crossed.
Also many thanks for the heads-up about the “secret” hiding place where the coin cell lives, and the link to the pictures. I never in a million years would have thought of looking there. I’ll open the thing and replace that once the 2CR5 arrives.
I have 1 -7000, 2- 9000, 2- 700si, and 1 7D. Just bought another 7000 on ebay.
Are you sure this is a 7000, and not a 7000i - the 7000i uses the 2CR5.
The 7000 used AAA (adapters for AA and Li available)
p.s. - the 7000 WAS THE first real autofocus camera. I think it was Pentax who introduced an IR “focus Assist” in 1980, but it was Minolta who took it to the the step of integrating the IR signal to a focus drive.
p.p.s. - that first generation of Maxxums came loaded for bear - it had some of the best lenses ever made - see photo do’ ratings - some of them match Leica ratings,
As I said, those first gen maxxums came loaded - the 9000 was specifically aimed at the Nikon F line (they could never get the rental stores to stock their $1000.00 + lenses, and went downhill - but their last camera - the Maxxum 9 had the old class of the first gen,
Anyway – the EB-90 is a 100-exposure back for the 9000 (yes, you loaded a spool with about 20’ of film and shot all day)
Does anyone know why I cannot get the magazine to pop up as it should? It can’t be the dear batteries, right?
I took a Dremel to one of them and found a spike on the back which was engaged by a spring on the magazine - pushing the little button was supposed to disengage the spring from the spike.
I’d think the chief value of Minox cameras today is as a collectible and for nostalgia purposes. Having used one myself a long time ago, I can say that the image quality is marginal at best (the camera was cool-looking, and you could imagine yourself as the hero of a Len Deighton novel, secretly photographing plans for the new Soviet super-weapon). There are mini-digital cameras now that far surpass what the Minox was capable of in terms of quality and ease of use.