If you look around the web for information on repairs to newer electromechanical SLRs, such as the first generation of AF cameras from Minolta (9000, 7000 and 5000 AF), you will find little concrete information.
Batteries should be exchanged with fresh ones, replace the backup battery for the settings, thorougly clean battery contacts or the camera should be switched on and off again after a certain procedure.
All good and sensible advice, but often it doesn't get us anywhere.
Often it is not a cryptic error in the electronics when an electronic SLR does not work.
The most common advice is
„Buy a new used one, repairs are too expensive, spare parts are rare“.
Posts about repair attempts are almost non-existent.
The same is probably true of other cameras from this 80s generation.
And that is why many former family favorites will probably end up in the electronic scrap yard.
Such interventions on a complex camera look worse than they actually are.
Which is a shame
because once again it has been shown that it is not usually „the electronics“ that fail, but rather banal reasons that cause the cameras to malfunction that have nothing to do with the electronic control system:
Dirty magnets, stuck shutter blades, decomposing contact elements on LCDs, misaligned mirror devices for displaying data in the viewfinder, damage due to force, corrosion and dirt.
All of this can be remedied with good chances of success if you are willing to invest time and effort in a repair.
Once the mirror box is removed, you have access to the heart of the camera and can troubleshoot.
The key to many repairs
is removing (and reinstalling) the mirror box from an SLR. From there you have access to the shutter, aperture control and mirror mechanism. Spare parts are available from discontinued cameras of the same type.
You just have to want it.
In the case of an unknown electronic error, you can replace the entire circuit board.
Yes, even some AF systems can be adjusted without the use of measuring devices that have long since disappeared, as Larry Lyells explains in the C & C Troubleshooting Guide for the Minolta (Maxxum/Alpha) 7000.
Not just those of the first AF cameras from Minolta.
Let's look for solutions and report on them
A lot is possible if we as DIYers are prepared to get to the bottom of things.
We don't need to have any special talents or be camera technicians. We just need to be curious and willing to pay attention to details and learn.
Information and sources are available, as our forum shows
Let’s try it today and not tomorrow
+++
All information provided without guarantee and use at your own risk.
Batteries should be exchanged with fresh ones, replace the backup battery for the settings, thorougly clean battery contacts or the camera should be switched on and off again after a certain procedure.
All good and sensible advice, but often it doesn't get us anywhere.
Often it is not a cryptic error in the electronics when an electronic SLR does not work.
The most common advice is
„Buy a new used one, repairs are too expensive, spare parts are rare“.
Posts about repair attempts are almost non-existent.
The same is probably true of other cameras from this 80s generation.
And that is why many former family favorites will probably end up in the electronic scrap yard.
Such interventions on a complex camera look worse than they actually are.
Which is a shame
because once again it has been shown that it is not usually „the electronics“ that fail, but rather banal reasons that cause the cameras to malfunction that have nothing to do with the electronic control system:
Dirty magnets, stuck shutter blades, decomposing contact elements on LCDs, misaligned mirror devices for displaying data in the viewfinder, damage due to force, corrosion and dirt.
All of this can be remedied with good chances of success if you are willing to invest time and effort in a repair.
Once the mirror box is removed, you have access to the heart of the camera and can troubleshoot.
The key to many repairs
is removing (and reinstalling) the mirror box from an SLR. From there you have access to the shutter, aperture control and mirror mechanism. Spare parts are available from discontinued cameras of the same type.
You just have to want it.
In the case of an unknown electronic error, you can replace the entire circuit board.
Yes, even some AF systems can be adjusted without the use of measuring devices that have long since disappeared, as Larry Lyells explains in the C & C Troubleshooting Guide for the Minolta (Maxxum/Alpha) 7000.
Not just those of the first AF cameras from Minolta.
Let's look for solutions and report on them
A lot is possible if we as DIYers are prepared to get to the bottom of things.
We don't need to have any special talents or be camera technicians. We just need to be curious and willing to pay attention to details and learn.
Information and sources are available, as our forum shows
Let’s try it today and not tomorrow
Photo equipment of the 1980s: Suffering from surprisingly banal problems
It is interesting that - as far as my experience so far - the complex and sophisticated electronic photo devices of the 1980s often suffer from surprisingly banal problems. In the case of the Minolta 7000 AF it is evidently a slight contamination of two contact surfaces of a switching magnet...
www.photrio.com
Minolta (Maxxum/Alpha) 7000 AF: Aperture issues resolved/shortcut; LCDs, aperture ring, shutter unit replaced; aperture solenoid cleaned
With the Minolta/Maxxum/Alpha 7000 AF Minolta ushered in the autofocus era in 1985. Similar to the Minolta 9000 AF, the Minolta 7000 AF can have problems with the aperture control. No matter what aperture is set, the 7000 always creates the smallest aperture. I suspect that the contact...
www.photrio.com
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All information provided without guarantee and use at your own risk.
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