Minolta 5000

Minolta 5000 AF with AA-battery grip image by Uwe Kulick (Image rights)

The Minolta 5000 (called Maxxum 5000 in the USA and α-5000 in Japan) was a "budget" version of the Minolta 7000. Many of the more advanced features of the 7000 and 9000 were left out on the 5000.

The Minolta 5000 uses Minolta A-mount lenses and has both Program and Manual exposure modes. A remarkable fact is that this camera seems to have been sold together with a Minolta AF 50mm 1:1.7(22) lens (6 elements in 5 groups), probably an autofocus relative of the famous 50mm 1:1.7 Rokkor. Most later autofocus SLR models where sold with a zoom lens.

A special feature of this AF Minolta is that it can be switched to a manual focusing mode in which additional red LED indicators in the viewfinder assist setting correct distance. Correct distance of the image centre is indicated by the green autofocus-confirm LED that also works in autofocus mode.

A weak point of some of these old Minolta AF bodies is the locked rewind switch which sometimes can't be brought into effect any more so that a darkroom would be needed to remove exposed film from the camera. Some of the old cameras may have the bigger grip holding 4 AA-batteries instead of four little AAA-batteries. That's an advantage concerning energy but really good only for the big-handed ;-)

Maxxum 5000 AF image by digital-analog (Image rights)

Links

• Minolta 5000 manual at Photo-Manuals.com
• Minolta 5000 AF on www.collection-appareils.fr by Sylvain Halgand (in French)