Minolta Dynax 7000i

An earlier Minolta model than this, the 7000 AF, released in 1985, was the first popular autofocus SLR camera. Before then, several companies had experimented with autofocus systems with the motor in the lens, but Minolta put the autofocus sensor and motor into the camera body, and also added motorised film transport. I bought this Dynax 7000i in around 1988 after my Fujica started playing up, and it served me well as my regular camera until I got my first DSLR.  The main innovation with the 7000i was the expansion card system.  There's a card in the photo - it looks very like an SD card. I had one for sports, one for close-up, and one that let you re-programme some of the camera functions. What I particularly remember doing was changing the film rewind to stop with the film leader left outside the cassette.  This made it so much easier to swap films half-way through a reel.