My maxxum 7D takes great pictures indoor, flash or no flash. Outside it will not take pictures.It sounds the same as it did inside except no pictures.

SOURCE: CAMERA PROBLEMS

This is a known design defect with the 7D - it's called the "First Black Frame". Sony will repair it free of charge.

http://www.dyxum.com/columns/other/First_Black_Frame/First_Black_Frame.asp

Sony will claim not to know what you're talking about, but here's the service advisory to refer to when you tell them it's supposed to be free.

http://ca.konicaminolta.com/information/20070202/01_en.html

They repaired mine for free after some persuasion.

SOURCE: Minolta Maxxum 7D Lithium Battery Replacement

To change this battery you need to dissasemble the back of the 7D, the metal frame behind this one, the front and the right cover and the PCB that support the compact flash reader/writer.
You can see the top of the battery if you remove the compact flash card and look right on top of the connector. The silver rounded portion behind the connector is the battery (5mm diameter soldered on the back of the PCB).
This is quiet difficult job, wit a few delicate connectors, and the flat cable coming from the gyro near the lens is very difficult to reconnect.

SOURCE: troubleshooting

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}Same thing happened for me after I did not use the camerafor a while with the dead battery left in the camera for a long time. After a while of reloading camera firmware and resetting defaults, I came tothis conclusion. You need to do a mock CCD cleaning on the camera which abuilt-in feature of the 7D, in which the camera locks up the mirror momentarilyso you can clean the CCD. But of course you do not need to clean the ccdat this point. Below are procedures to help get your camera back inoperation.

1.Try turning the camera off, then take out the battery.

2.Then replace the fully charged battery back in and turn the camera on but donot take any pictures.

3.Go to the menu of your camera and activate the CCD cleaning, which willactivate mirror lockup.

4.You will hear a mirror lock up/half exposure cycle sound.

5.One you hear this, take the lens off and make sure you can see the CCD but donot touch the CCD or allow dust to get on it.

6.Now place the lens back over the camera and turn the camera off.

7.You will hear the mirror unlock itself, then the camera will shut down.

8.Now turn the camera back on and start taking pictures.

This worked for me and my camera started taking better pictures; however, thesame problem came up again when I let the camera sit too long with a deadbattery. So I repeated the procedures and my camera is back.

My advice is never leave a completely dead battery in the camera. Alwaysstore fully charged batteries in the camera.

-Jay

SOURCE: BLANK (BLACK) PICTURES

Yes this is a common problem. Set the camera to take a long exposure shot (5 seconds) and with the lens off take a photo. Can you see the ccd or just the shutter (black)? If its just the shutter the shutter is jammed. It's basically a question of persisting with rebooting the camera and taking shots until the shutter frees itself.

SOURCE: My minolta maxxum 7d won't take a picture....The

Precision Camera picked up the responsibility for fixing the 7D and 5D Konica-Minolta cameras when Sony bought out K-M. I contacted them when my 7D wasn't functioning, and sent them my camera. Fortunately, on of the problems was "First Frame Black". Precision completely refurbished my camera and returned it to me in better than new condition. Sony picked up the full cost for the total refurbishing; all I paid was the shipping cost to Precision. I might add that my 7D was not in warranty. The URL for Precision Camera is:
http://www.precision-camera.com/ . Give it a shot.