Michael was the husband of prominent oil portrait artist Sharon Hopper. Generally when Sharon and I were exhibiting at the same art festivals, I would see Michael. One of the things Michael liked to do was to jump out of airplanes with a parachute at high altitudes. This Minolta Maxxum 3000i was his. He would strap it to his helmet so that he could shoot film on his way down.
Michael developed Parkinson's. When it got bad enough he gifted his camera to me, knowing I loved these things. That was shortly before Michael passed away, a few years back.
Some consider the Maxxum 3000i to be the first "point and shoot" SLR. Most everything is automatic except for composing your frames. You drop in a roll of film, close the door, the camera takes care of the rest until the end of the film, and then it automatically rewinds. The camera body is well made and reliable, and the lens you choose to mount determines much of the quality of the photos.
Last week I loaded it with Kodak 200 color film, thought about Michael, and went around the house and yard until I reached the end of the roll. (The set of overgrown utility meters is the next door neighbors', not mine.)
Then I developed it with Caffenol chemistry, using safe home ingredients and rendering the images in monochrome.
The lens Michael had on there had just a bit of internal fogging after the years, lending some frames a kind of dreamlike look.

Please click on thumbnails to see enlarged.
All images are ©2023 E.J.Kowalski.
Thanks, Ed