My dad passed away in the hospital five years ago this morning around 4:43am in NYC.

Although the years have passed by quickly, it still feels like yesterday to me. We had been keeping vigil, spending all nighters at the hospital for about a week. From diagnosis to death, it was the saddest six weeks of my life.

Just a few days before he passed, he had a day of unusual liveliness, talking about good times and how he was hungry for his favorite dishes. The next day his condition took a turn for the worst and he seemingly slipped into a deep sleep from which he never woke from. It really does happen as people say…they get a second wind right before they pass away.

His passing from terminal lung cancer taught me a very hard life lesson because it was the very first death of someone so close. I mean, I’ve had relatives, grandparents, uncles, aunts who passed away before, but their deaths seemed distant. It didn’t hit me the way dad’s death did.

It made me see my own mortality in a completely different light. In a positive way, it helped me to make healthier lifestyle changes. I quit smoking, I ate healthier. But in a negative way, I’ve been secretly obsessed with the thought of dying. It’s better now with the passage of time, but at one point, it was almost as if I was not living because I was always obsessed and worried about every little thing regarding my health.

I worked with the geriatric population on a daily basis for years. Seeing their quality of life in their golden years and seeing how my dad died makes me think that there’s not a lot of hope in getting older. If you live long enough, you’re probably going to come down with something and the thought of that is locked in my mind and to be honest with you, it scares me.

When you see someone close to you dying of cancer, it’s one of the most difficult things to witness because you just see the life going out of them. They get frail, they get weak, they get to the point where they can’t do anything for themselves. I used to think cancer was something “somebody else” got until cancer came to our home.

I’ve often heard older and otherwise healthy people tell me “If the time comes, I’m ready.” After seeing my dad die, I’m not sure these people really know the true meaning of what they’re saying. It’s easy to say that when you’re feeling ok, but when your body is dying and you know it, hmm, that’s a tough one.

All I know is that even though dad was 78, (which is the average lifespan of a male in the USA) he did not want to die. He often expressed how he did not want to sign the DNR (do no resuscitate) clause. He wanted to live. I’m not even sure he knew how bad his cancer was. That was such a sad thing to witness.

We all know that no one lives forever and everyone will die someday. I only wonder, when that time comes and you know it, how will you really feel? Will there be a sense of relief that your pain will come to an end? Or will there be a deep fear of death and leaving this world and your loved ones?

My dad was a good man who loved his family more than anything else. Today, I’m just taking this moment to remember him. Sorry for the long discussion, there’s more to life than cameras 🙂

Rest in Peace my Papa. We love you and we still think of you ever day. Thanks for everything you gave to us.

***NEW ITEMS***

Our friends at Adorama are proud to introduce a new line of exciting house brand products! Not only are they of very high quality, but they also have the benefit of lower cost versus brand name items. Be sure to check it out.

A LIST OF NEW ITEMS.

 

 

The Minolta 9xi is a 35mm film SLR introduced by Minolta in 1992.

I got this camera in 2007 when I found one real cheap (less than $100) at that time. Today, you could probably get two of them for $100 if you try hard enough.

This was a camera I lusted for since the 90s, but they were too expensive for me at the time when film still dominated the market.

I was going to do a long write up on this, but I saw that Wikipedia has an awesome and unusually informative page up on this one. It must’ve been written by an enthusiast because a lot of Wiki or Camerapedia pages on cameras are not this in-depth! Here is a link to the Minolta 9xi page on Wikipedia.

After reading this, I feel that there is very little I can add other than to give you my impressions and post some photos.

MINOLTA 9xi IMPRESSIONS

I must admit, this is one of those cameras I loved simply because of its looks. I know people who think this camera is ugly, but I’m not one of them. It’s squatty, but its thick and strong profile is strangely attractive to me 🙂

The 9xi was apparently another attempt by Minolta to get to the top of the pro market and the 9xi is built to high quality standards. At the time of its release, it was touted as having the “world’s fastest autofocus” system.

While the outer shell appears to be polycarbonate, the innards contain a metal frame, reenforced shutter/mirror box, and the camera is sealed for dust and moisture protection.

When I first got this camera, I was pleasantly surprised at its swift, speedy, and accurate AF! It didn’t feel like AF you would expect from 1992 and I felt it was better and more accurate than the original Canon EOS-1 pro camera I recently reviewed.

Ergonomically the camera felt great in the hands, beefy with the right proportions, but like the EOS-1, controls can be a bit confusing as it relies on mostly buttons and the front dial to make inputs into the camera. I prefer cameras where shutter speeds and other controls are easy to find and these cameras usually have dedicated knobs and dials for such functions. The 9xi does not, but that does not make it a bad camera.

The 9xi has the usual P-S-A-M (with shift) modes. It also had a headline grabbing 1/12000 top shutter speed!! That was great for people trying to film a golf swing or water dropping into a cup, but I’ve never used that shutter speed although it was great to know the 9xi had it.

Minolta was a very innovate and creative company and that creativity sometimes led them to strange “innovations” such as the “eye-start” feature on the 9xi. What happens is you put the camera to your eye and it triggers a sensor to start the camera right away. Sometimes I forgot about this and it would freak me out when the camera started focusing as soon as I put it to my eye! Fortunately, you can stop this by using your fingers to cover the sensors on the front grip, although I’m not sure there is a dedicated control to turn it off.

Another example (and perhaps a negative aspect) of Minolta’s creativity  was that with earlier cameras they tried to sell you on their “creative cards” which were basically pre-programmed expansion cards with modes (i.e., Sports, Portrait, Night) that we all take for granted today because they’re included in almost every camera.

I personally never liked these “modes” because I find them gimmicky and I never want to give total control to the camera, especially a sophisticated camera, but I can see how it can be useful for beginning and casual photographers. There was apparently a “custom function” card for the 9xi though I never had or used one.

The good news is apparently many advanced functions can be accessed without any cards, through the camera’s “Quick” button. There’s a lot you can do with it, bracketing, multiple exposures, etc. Do a little research if you’re really interested in this.

Despite some of these innovations, they were eventually seen, as I said, gimmicky. Totally unnecessary stuff for an already great camera. As I mentioned in other articles, while I admire creativity, sometimes being too creative might not be such a good thing 🙂

The highly touted 14 “honey-comb” pattern metering provided nearly perfect exposures in all the rolls I put into this camera. Minolta was known for their superb metering and the 9xi did not disappoint in this respect.

The camera is also able do wireless flash with dedicated flash units such as the 5400xi, but the camera does not have a built-in flash unit.

BOTTOM LINE

If you don’t mind fidgeting a little to figure this camera out, and you love electronic cameras, the Minolta Maxxum/Dynax 9xi is one of the best bargains you can get today for a high-spec, speedy, and interesting 35mm autofocus SLR.

The Minolta 9xi may be largely forgotten today, but its high spec and high performance makes it one of the best auto-focus 35mm film cameras ever released by any manufacturer. The camera consistently provided me with sharp focus and accurate exposures.

It is a modern classic that reminds us to never forget the Camera Legend of Minolta, a company long gone but was at one time, one of the world’s greatest camera manufacturers.

PS: People tend to forget that (if you think about it) Minolta very much lives on in the Sony A system (not the mirrorless E system) cameras. If you block out the Sony name in your mind for a minute, you can appreciate that the lens mount is the same as that on the Maxxum 7000 of 1985!

WHERE TO BUY?

If shopping for the 9xi, prices are trending at $30-130 with an average of around $50 for one in decent condition.

These cameras tend to stay in decent shape, although like many Minolta AF cameras and lenses, they tended to develop this nasty looking white “film” thingy, kind of like dried milk.

The cheapest ones can be found on eBay where they used to be plentiful, but now seem less so and the ones that are there tend to be a little on the pricey side.

As you can see in my pages, camera collecting can be fun and doesn’t have to be expensive. You don’t need to pay over $100 for this camera, so be patient.

For a safer purchase than eBay, you can find them HERE and HERE in the USED section. In fact, there’s one in the first link for $13 plus shipping!

***NEW LEICA CAMERA ALERT***

The new Leica X-U (Typ 113) is out and it looks like another killer cam from the German rangefinder giant.

In celebrating twenty years (1996-2016) on the net, I will be sprinkling photos here and there, hopefully to enhance your Camera Legend experience. The images may contain cameras and lenses not yet profiled, but which may be in the near future. Thanks for looking and I wish you a year of great photos 🙂

Best, Sam