Pepsiman Loc: New York City

A friend of mine passed away.l His wife gave me his Minolta Maxxum 9000.I didn't know that on a film camera you can change the ISO... 25 to 6400..
Reading the manual, it states that it can use DX or regular film... I never heard of DX film...

Can someone please tell me what DX film is?
THANK YOU...

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Greg from Romeoville illinois Loc: Romeoville illinois

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DX film has a code on it. It informs the camera of the ASA. It can be more of a headache than benefit. I always taped over the camera contacts that make it work. I think youve misunderstood the ISO setting on a film camera. Best to google about that. The camera cannot alter any aspect of the film.

BebuLamar

DX works fine. I never have problem with the DX on my camera. I do understand that some cameras only work with DX and only allow DX to be full stop. But the Maxxum 9000 supports 1/3 stop DX and manual ISO setting. Not a problem.
Along with the Maxxum 7000 the Maxxum 9000 was the first system AF camera. Before that yes there were AF camera but they are one of, took a few special lenses like the Pentax ME-F, Canon T-80, Nikon F3AF, Olympus OM-77AF.

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For advanced users DX encoded film was really a PITA. Its a P&S feature that has no place in better cameras.

Fortunately a simple piece of plastic tape fully disables it.

BebuLamar

I wouldn't use the tape. I simply switch the camera to manual ISO if I want. But DX works well for me almost all the time. And if you tape it you have to switch to manual ISO any way with camera that can. With camera that can not it simply defaut to something like ISO 100.

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Every DXing camera Ive encountered (without taping) allows setting your personal EI after the DX code sets the "factory" ASA. But you hafta do this dance every time you load a roll. IOW the DX function takes over at every reload.

If the camera had any smarts it would not cancel your EI if it sees that the reload has the same ASA rating as the immediate previous load. Back then, a reeeeeeally smart camera had an 8-bit brain. IOW, not smart.

BebuLamar

Neither the Nikon F4 or F5 take over if I set it for manual ISO. There is no need for tape.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Hopefully, the other responses have clarified that DX-encoded film canisters have nothing to do with cropped sensor sizes of digital cameras.

Personally, I spend a lot of time investigating usage recommendations on the internet for how to override the ISO / DX code of the film (aka box speed). I consider the review recommendation and confirm those ideas when shooting that same film.

If you consider running some rolls through this camera, consider the following ideas:

For Kodak Ektar, override the ISO-100 to ISO-080 (1/3 stop)
For Kodak Portra 400, override to ISO-200 (1 stop)
For Kodak Tri-X 400, override to ISO-320 (1/3 stop) in bright light, to ISO-250 for indoor usage / overcast outdoors (2/3 stop)
For Kodak Gold 200, override to ISO-100 (1-stop)

For Ilford Delta 400 or HP4+ 400, override to ISO-200 (1-stop)

All the recommendations are to slightly 'over expose' the 35mm negative film, typically by a minimum of +1/3 stop. Most online comments will say these overrides are actually the 'proper' exposure for the actual speed of the film rather than the box-speed specification. You just process the film as normal, that is: the official box-speed of the film, regardless of the ISO override you used.

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... and since its a Minolta rather than a Nikon, tape over the DX contacts.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Our OP noted they can override the ISO read from the DX canister. Pretty easy task, done once when the film is loaded, remaining in place until the film is removed.

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Thaz very good of Nikon. I wonder if the "consumer level" Nikons were like their flagships, or like Minolta. Did you ever use any lesser models ?

I had EOS film cameras, too, and IIRC I taped those as well, but maybe just cuz of my Minolta experience. IOW maybe it was necessary for EOS or maybe I just did it without testing. (I quit film a long time ago.)

Anywho, the OP has a Minolta, so tape it.

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Exactly. Poor design.

BTW, dont know about "recommended", but I do agree about exposing chromes a "1/3 stop under". OTOH I routinely went 2/3 stop OVER" for all neg films. Works great, especially for fast color neg, cuz it reduced graininess.

BebuLamar

The only other Nikon I have with DX is my N2020 which is the bottom of the line AF camera. It has the ISO dial you can set any ISO you want or you can set it to DX which automatically set the film speed by reading the DX code from the film cassette. Once again you don't need to tape it. In this respect it's similar to the F4 that is when you set it to DX you wouldn't know which ISO it's set to. If the coding is on the cassette you may have the wrong ISO. On the F5 it shows which ISO.