The photos above were taken at the Zilker Botanical Garden in Austin, TXwith a new Tamron 18-200mm XR Di II zoom lens and the Maxxum 7D. All of the photos were hand-held. The insect photos are ok when viewed at normal size, but of course get kind of blurry when they're enlarged. But then again, this lens isn't really a close-up lens.

The photos below were also taken at the Zilker Botanical Garden, and they were taken with a true macro lens; the Tamron 90mm macro. Some of the photos were taken while the camera was on a tripod, and some were hand-held. No flash or other artificial light was used, although there were some situations where it would have helped to use flash, or at least a reflector or something to re-direct the sunlight. But hey, I'm new at this.

The Maxxum 7D is a 6-megapixel camera. This camera is in the same general class as the Canon EOS 20D (8mp) and the Nikon D70s (6mp). All three brands include something that Minolta calls "anti-shake". Canon calls it image stabilization and Nikon calls it vibration reduction.

In the Canon and Nikon systems this is built into the lens; with the Maxxum 7D it's built into the camera body. Basically these systems compensate for camera movement at slower shutter speeds. So a photograph taken at a slower shutter speed with the anti-shake active should not be blurred, or should be less blurry than a photograph taken without the anit-shake system active.

Since Minolta builds this system into the camera body it will work with almost any lens that will fit the Maxxum 7D. I have two old zoom lenses that I use with my 400si 35mm camera, and they work on the Maxxum 7D, and the anti-shake works fine with them.

Since Canon and Nikon build this into the lenses, I suspect it makes the lenses more expensive than they would be without it, and of course you have to have one of these lenses if you want the IS or VR system.

When I first started using the camera most of the pictures were way overexposed. I almost always had to dial in -1 to -2 stops of exposure compensation to get correct exposures. I thought something was wrong with the camera.

Then I bought a Tamron 90mm macro lens. Perfect exposures every time. It turns out that the problem was the old lenses I was using. I have a 28-80mm zoom and a 70-210mm zoom that I bought about 10 years ago to use with my 400si 35mm camera. I know there's an integrated circuit in these lenses that tells the camera the f-stop and focal length the lens is set to. Maybe the camera isn't interpreting this data correctly or something. Anyway, this problem doesn't occur at all with the macro lens.

I've also just acquired a Tamron 18-200mm XR Di II zoom lens made just for digital cameras. Exposures with this lens are also correct, no compensation needed. So the old lenses go back into the closet, to be used with the 35mm camera if I ever use it again.

Here are four photos taken with the 7D and the old 70-210mm lens. The first is a butterfly, cropped from the original image. The crop is at 100% resolution. The next two were taken when on vacation in Hawaii. The third one was taken here in Texas, and the fourth one was taken just up the road from where I live, showing part of the town of Lakeway, TX, along hiway 620.

Your web browser may resize these photos to fit your monitor. If so, be sure to expand them to full size to really see them. Oh, these photos are anywhere between 4mb and 6mb in size. They were taken at the full 6mp reolution, and no compression.

butterfly
hawaii1.jpg
hawaii2.jpg
photo1.jpg
photo2.jpg

Here are some photos taken with the 18-200mm Tamron zoom. These were taken from what's really just a hill here in Austin, but they call it Mt. Bonnell. It overlooks Lake Austin and downtown Austin.

The first photo is looking back towards the hiway 360 bridge. The lens was set at the maximum 200mm focal length. The second photo is a wide-angle (18mm) photo looking in the same direction, where you can barely see the 360 bridge in the distance. You can also see some of the houses that are built right on the water. The third photo was taken at 200mm and shows part of the downtown Austin skyline.

Lake Austin 1
Lake Austin 2
Downtown Austin

My Minolta History
My history with Minolta cameras goes back to around 1977:

1977 - 1978        SRT-101, SRT-102, SRT-202
1979 or 1980       XD-11
1983               X-700, XG-M                  Vivitar Series 1 28-90mm and 70-210mm macro zooms,
                                                Minolta 28mm and 50mm fixed lenses
1995 or 1996       Maxxum 400si                 Minolta 28-80mm and 70-210 AF zooms (these also fit
                                                the Maxxum 7D, but cause the camera to overexpose
                                                most photos)
2005               Maxxum 7D                    Tamron 90mm macro, Tamron 18-200mm XR Di II zoom
          

So you can see it's usually 10 years or so in between major camera purchases. I only hope the 7D holds up as well over time as the old 35mm cameras. How long does a CCD sensor last? Who knows?

I still have the X-700, XG-M, 400si, and the four Vivitar and Minolta lenses. They all still work just fine. I also still have various accessories: MD-1 motor drive, 280px flash, a Sunpak Auto 30DX flash, data backs for the X-700 and 400si, and sundry other items for the old cameras.

I doubt I'll ever use the old cameras for photos that I want to keep, but I try to load each one up once or twice a year and shoot a 12-exposure roll of film just to say I used them.

Macro Photography
I've always been interested in macro photography but until now I've never owned a true macro lens. The old Vivitar lenses have some close-focusing ability, but I don't think they're true 1:1 macro lenses.

I haven't had enough time yet to really use the new Tamron macro lens and I have a lot to learn about taking good macro shots. Hopefully over the next few months I can spend some time using this lens.

Wireless Flash Photography
Minolta's wireless flash technology has been around for several years. The Maxxum 7D in combination with the 5600HS or 3600HS flash units.

If the 5600HS didn't cost around $300 I'd like to buy one or two and experiment. Check the links on the left side of the page for descriptions of Minolta's wireless flash technology.