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01-30-2020, 01:20 PM   #16
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The SRTs are beautiful and quite hardy. I have a few SRTs and they are beautiful to shoot with and the engineering inside is very elegant and ingenious. Plus because they are so simple almost any camera tech can fix them if they go wrong.

01-31-2020, 06:03 PM   #17
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Check Ebay for prices, not worth high dollars here in USA, but there are a lot of Minolta fans. Check sold item prices, not just current listings. I have 5 Minolta cameras and a small collection of lenses, just received a Rokkor 45mm f2 MD lens today. I might be interested in a private sale, PM if you want
The meters might not work as long as shutter sounds ok I am interested.

Last edited by PWhite214; 01-31-2020 at 06:37 PM. Reason: Added text
05-08-2020, 03:21 PM   #18
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QuoteOriginally posted by Jonathan Mac Quote
I've picked up all of my SR cameras very cheaply and all work very well (light-meters aside) without any need of a CLA. I think they're just incredibly hardy cameras and that keeps their numbers up and their prices down.
I cannot agree more. I have bought all but one of my Minoltas from auction sites, knowing that you just don't know what you will get. I try and purchase bundles so that I can hopefully get something that will be worth the money.So far, every one of them works. They have all been dirty and neglected, but "cheap".

SRT 101 with two lenses, camera cleaned up well, both lenses are in great shape, light meter does not work but all shutter speeds seem to be there. Needs seals and mirror foam, but for $9.99 plus shipping, I couldn't go wrong, and it still takes pics.

Add to this an XG-M, Maxxum 7000, Maxxum 5, Maxxum 50, Maxxum 2xi, and one minty low mileage X-700. Clean, new batteries, film, go shooting. They just won't die.
05-09-2020, 04:32 AM - 1 Like   #19
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Well somethings rumbling out there because X700 prices are going off the clock. A few months ago I picked up a non-runner X700 for £30 with a lens. It was actually the lens I wanted so wasn't overly bothered about the camera. As it turned out the only thing wrong with the camera was some complete melon just didn't know how to carry out a simple fix. Hola and happy days I very nice running X700 for peanuts and its not a bad camera.
Recently I bagged off another non runner which has some complicated problems so will be broken up for spares but I still got it for £25. I wanted its perfect condition top plate and its focus screen.

All this week people have been paying nutty money on Ebay £59 for a non runner and a pair went recently for about £90 in untested condition. Bonkers - I still have no idea who Tom Arnold is - must get round to looking him up on Wiki

05-09-2020, 07:49 AM   #20
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QuoteOriginally posted by Astro-Baby Quote
Bonkers - I still have no idea who Tom Arnold is - must get round to looking him up on Wiki
This is Tom Arnold. The metaphor is lost on me. If this guys career is as dead as the Minolta camera brand, he must be retired. Or unemployed.



It just occurred to me that you can get two dead camera brands on your office equipment nowadays!

05-12-2020, 01:42 PM   #21
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I am an idiot...

The light meter on the SRT101 does work...all you have to do is turn the power on.

🙄
05-12-2020, 04:06 PM   #22
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Several times I have bought and tried Minolta manual focus SLRs and lenses.
Previously I used SR-T 201 and 202 models and I currently own an XE.

Thought they work okay and deliver good images IMO in use the cameras seem too "appliance-like",
especially in comparison to my Pentax and Nikon bodies etc.

I guess Minoltas are an acquired taste...

Chris

05-12-2020, 11:41 PM   #23
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The cult of Rokkor will be round later to take you off to a friendly re-education centre for some chanting, scented candles and the occasional beating
05-13-2020, 12:29 AM   #24
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I should clarify that when praising the hardiness of the Minolta SR cameras I was referring only to the SR models, not the later, lighter-weight models. To my knowledge, all the Minolta models after them have a very poor reputation for endurance and that has been my experience. Many of the electronic MF models have capacitor problems and every electronic Minolta I've ever come across and handled has been non-functional.
05-13-2020, 07:11 AM   #25
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QuoteOriginally posted by Jonathan Mac Quote
Many of the electronic MF models have capacitor problems and every electronic Minolta I've ever come across and handled has been non-functional.
As a tech in Vegas, I have repaired countless electronic devices with dried out caps due to heat and lack of humidity so it is a pleasant surprise my X-700 -originally bought new in Las Vegas 1982, continues to work perfectly. I understand that you can identify the bad batches by serial numbers.
05-13-2020, 09:53 AM   #26
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QuoteOriginally posted by Astro-Baby Quote
The SRTs are beautiful and quite hardy. I have a few SRTs and they are beautiful to shoot with and the engineering inside is very elegant and ingenious. Plus because they are so simple almost any camera tech can fix them if they go wrong.
That was my first SLR camera. Actually I think I was a SRT-201 which was a little fancier than the SRT-101. It came with a 50 mm f1.7 Rokor lens.

Last edited by hjoseph7; 05-13-2020 at 10:01 AM.
05-13-2020, 06:03 PM   #27
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One or more later Minolta MF models had problematic plastic gears as well.
I've been there and done that with Pentax ZX/MZ models, so no thanks...

Chris
05-13-2020, 07:57 PM   #28
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About X-700...

This one is at shopgoodwill.com Currently at $404 with over a day left. Must be the lenses...

Vintage Minolta X 700 Film Camera w Accessories - shopgoodwill.com
05-13-2020, 08:55 PM   #29
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QuoteOriginally posted by Sam_I_am Quote
About X-700...

This one is at shopgoodwill.com Currently at $404 with over a day left. Must be the lenses...

Vintage Minolta X 700 Film Camera w Accessories - shopgoodwill.com
I believe that 250mm f5.6 lens fetches a pretty penny . . .
05-13-2020, 11:48 PM - 1 Like   #30
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Yep they are for sure after the 250mm f5.6 lens.

Whoever buys it will probably offload the camera and the other lens.

Most minnies are very reliable, the SRTs are bombproof, they can suffer meter failure due to the light cells decaying, to be fair they can be 50 years old.
XEs can suffer electronics issues but mostly fixable cheaply, XDs very reliable, thankfully as they are very complicated inside, and some would say it was the best camera Minolta ever made, XG and X x00 series can suffer capacitor failures if they are above 300000 ( I think ) serial numbers but generally a pre 1985 one will be ok. Even if its a cap failure it can usually be fixed easy enough apart from the X700 which is a nightmare requiring nerves of steel, brass balls, eagle eyes and a very steady hand or three.

Avoid motor drives on any of the X series as they contain a lot of plastic gears and the strain can be too much for them being wound at high speed. Motor drives always put a lot of strain on the gear train and with plastic gears you are just asking for trouble IMHO.
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