I have had this camera sitting around the house for about four years now that was left by the previous owners. It has a case that says Minolta, but didn't feel that substantial so I put it in a corner and sort of forgot about it. Yesterday as I was cleaning up, I stumbled upon this camera again and decided to open up the case. What did I find?--An all black Minolta 7 SII. Very cool find you say. Well yes, but....there is a problem with the lens. The shutter speed dial does not change. I put a battery 1.35 v hearing aid battery, not knowing what battery it takes, and loaded up a roll of film after being inspired by Craig at photo.net and his minolta succeses. The exposure was a bit off but the meter worked fine and in fully automatic mode, was capable of taking pictures. This is a very fine camera indeed with a better lens than my Canon QL17, IMHO. The shutter turned out fire around 1/30 or so. I took some shots that turned out fine, as long as no one was moving. These ended up being blurry. I love the camera so far, especially the sharpness of the lens, but I am not sure if I should send it off for repair, or just buy another one. The problem is that I looked on e-bay and couldn't find this particular model. There are others but not the all black version for sale. I might just have to have a full stable of these.






This negative was scanned in backwards. Did you notice the chains on the bikes? I would never have noticed this but someone did. He called me on it, and I feel ashamed. Not really, but I do think he has more time on his hands than I do. I really should get it right. Thanks for looking.