[Wasp]

That 250mm f/5.6 is indeed very special. I found this example of its work.

It is actually a reflex lens, hence the relatively slow aperture and the special bokeh.

All of a sudden I want one...






---------- Post added 2020-05-14 at 11:56 ----------

Here is another one:

[Sam_I_am]

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.

Nice to know the details. I will look at my serial numbers. I have not researched any of the Minoltas I have. Would appreciate anymore insight or being pointed to the best online sources for more info. I did install my first seal kit, on my XG-M, and loaded a roll of film. Now I just need the rain to stop.

[Neuse River Sailor]

Back in the 1970s when as a teenager I first got serious about photography, the lusted-after cameras among my friends and me were the Pentax Spotmatic, the Nikkormat Ftn, and the Minolta SRT-101. Nikons were for professionals and Leicas were way out of our price range. I bought my Pentax Spotmatic 1000 with SMC Takumar 55mm f/2 lens, and later an SMC Takumar 105mm f/2.8, out of money made cutting grass and working at the tennis center. I still use the Takumars on a daily basis. A friend with a Nikkormat got his from his daddy trying to make restitution for abandoning the family. Another friend got an SRT-101 for consistently maintaining honor roll level work at school. It's a strange and varied world. We all turned out pretty good.

[LesDMess]

Would appreciate anymore insight or being pointed to the best online sources for more info.

Rokkorfiles.com is a great manual Minolta resource.

[Sam_I_am]

Rokkorfiles.com is a great manual Minolta resource.

Thanks, I will check it out.

Oh, and that auction is now at $556 with ten hours left...

[Sam_I_am]

Wow, $923.55...

[Jonathan Mac]

I believe that 250mm f5.6 lens fetches a pretty penny . . .

Wow, $923.55...

I saw one of these for sale on the website of a photography shop recently and wondered why it cost so much for a lens which isn't that long and is slow. I just checked now and they have two of them, each £925.00. Crazy price for such a lens.

[Astro-Baby]

I saw one of these for sale on the website of a photography shop recently and wondered why it cost so much for a lens which isn't that long and is slow. I just checked now and they have two of them, each £925.00. Crazy price for such a lens.

Back in the day they didnt make many of them as people tended to buy the 500mm and as a result there are fewer 250mm ones. I cant speak for the quality it produces but people seem to like what it does which drives prices higher.

---------- Post added 05-17-20 at 06:44 AM ----------

Nice to know the details. I will look at my serial numbers. I have not researched any of the Minoltas I have. Would appreciate anymore insight or being pointed to the best online sources for more info. I did install my first seal kit, on my XG-M, and loaded a roll of film. Now I just need the rain to stop.

The Rokkor files is a good source also the Vintage678 blog.

My current workload is an XGM that was given me, had various problems but now fixed and working, an X500 I got off eBay for £12 as a non runner but it turns out it just needed the battery chamber cleaning out and an X700 with blown caps.

Had to to put all that down while I beaver away with a Yashica Electro suffering the ‘pad of death’ syndrome.
One day I might actually get to take some pictures with some of this stuff.

Most of my Minolta knowledge has been from just reading endless blogs, watching you tube videos etc when ai am repairing them. Thats not to say they are less reliable but I tend to collect them as broken and fix them because mostly they are pretty easy to work on and often are sold as dud when in fact they have a simple fix.

My own favourite is the XD as is so slick and so well designed from an ergonomics point of view but its a close race between it and the SRTs for their all mechanical, bomb proof design.

[Sam_I_am]

Back in the day they didnt make many of them as people tended to buy the 500mm and as a result there are fewer 250mm ones. I cant speak for the quality it produces but people seem to like what it does which drives prices higher.

---------- Post added 05-17-20 at 06:44 AM ----------



The Rokkor files is a good source also the Vintage678 blog.

My current workload is an XGM that was given me, had various problems but now fixed and working, an X500 I got off eBay for £12 as a non runner but it turns out it just needed the battery chamber cleaning out and an X700 with blown caps.

Had to to put all that down while I beaver away with a Yashica Electro suffering the ‘pad of death’ syndrome.
One day I might actually get to take some pictures with some of this stuff.

Most of my Minolta knowledge has been from just reading endless blogs, watching you tube videos etc when ai am repairing them. Thats not to say they are less reliable but I tend to collect them as broken and fix them because mostly they are pretty easy to work on and often are sold as dud when in fact they have a simple fix.

My own favourite is the XD as is so slick and so well designed from an ergonomics point of view but its a close race between it and the SRTs for their all mechanical, bomb proof design.

I just finished perusing those two sites. Very informative, thanks! I am now happy with my SRT101, XG-M, and X700. Now to find an XD, lol. The XG-A that is in the mail looks like it really isn't anything to write home about, but the lenses should be worth it.

---------- Post added 05-18-20 at 01:04 PM ----------

Rokkorfiles.com is a great manual Minolta resource.

I found this a great source for figuring out (I hope) which lense series came with what camera. It looks like the MC series lenses came with the SRT line, and the MD series lenses came with the X series cameras. I have three 50mm MD series lenses. One is a Minolta / Rokkor 1:1.4, then a Minolta 1:1.7, and finally a Minolta 1:2. If I understand what I have read correctly, I also have them listed in order of quality?

[Astro-Baby]

The 1.2 has its fans as being quite sharp. I havent used one. I have an a whole flock of Minnie 50mm,

The nicest in build are the MC series PF and PG type Rokkor 1.4 types.

After the MC series most of the MDs are very plastic and the very late ones are entirely plastic. One of the nice things with all of the Rokkors though is quite simple and straightforward construction so they are quite easy to strip down and fix.

SRTs usually shipped with MC lenses and the best one that looks the nicest is definitely the PF 1.4 which was made dor the SRT in style terms. on an XD the PG looks nice but as its MC it cant use shutter priority mode ( in fact it can but the camera doesnt display the selected aperture in SP as the MC lens lacks the tab that tells the camera its an MD type lens).

The x700 looks funkiest with the very late model MD types while the XD and XGs look better with the first generation MDs.

[Sam_I_am]

Since I purchased my SRT101 and XG-M both in kit form, who knows their history. The 101 came with the Rokkor 50mm and a sigma mini-wide 28mm, the XG-M came with 1.2 and a MC Celtic 135mm. The XG-A that I am waiting on has a total of four lenses, the only one I know for sure is another 1.2. Who ever took the pictures for the auction showed the mounting ends of the other three lenses but not the front. They "look" like a tele-converter, pancake, and zoom of some kind. This kit comes with a flash and bag as well as extra end caps.
My X700 I traded for and the whole kit was purchased new from the person I got it from. It came with a 1.7 and a vivitar 70-210 with flash, bag and all paperwork. It looks brand new. I believe the serial number is a low one, 1726821, so I hope it never has the capacitor issues.

[LesDMess]

I had to hop up my X-700 with motor drive, intervalometer and IR remote . . .





And some fast Rokkor lenses . . .



BTW, I have critically tested all my bought used primes - history unknown, and I can say without a doubt that in the overall system, these will not be the reason you cannot capture all the details in a scene!

Also, the fisheye is another great lens . . . in case you were looking to acquire one . . .

[Sam_I_am]

Now, that's just showing off....but I really don't mind. 😄

Nice package...s !

[Astro-Baby]

Thats a well cool collection, love the XK and XE.

The SRT probably came with an MC lens, the standard lens for it was the 1.7 but customers could upgrade to the 1.4.

X700s normally had a 1.7 MD as the kit lens

The XGM standard lens was usually a 1.2 MD as the kit lens.

Bear in mind there are two common MD series lenses....the ones with the small switvh to lock aperture at max aperture and ones without it. The ones with the tab are later models.

My X700 has a late model MD with the locking tab, its such a low serial is probably originally shipped with an earlier MD without the tab, I have an earlier one without the tab on an XD.

I have a second X700, an X500 and an XGM all under rebuild at the moment.

You can easily check if you are likley to have capacitor issues by taking the bottom plate off. Its a simple job to remove 4 screws. If you look underneath and see what looks like a small blue bead attached to ghe circuit board in the base then thats a tantalum capacitor you are looking at and they are incredibly unlikely to fail. If you have what looks like a small coke can on the end of the board than thats an electrolytic capacitor and a source of possible problems. The 700 has two caps, one in the base and one under the top cover. If the base is a Tantalum cap the one under the top cover will be the same.

[Jonathan Mac]

Thats a well cool collection, love the XK and XE.

The SRT probably came with an MC lens, the standard lens for it was the 1.7 but customers could upgrade to the 1.4.

X700s normally had a 1.7 MD as the kit lens

The XGM standard lens was usually a 1.2 MD as the kit lens.

Bear in mind there are two common MD series lenses....the ones with the small switvh to lock aperture at max aperture and ones without it. The ones with the tab are later models.

My X700 has a late model MD with the locking tab, its such a low serial is probably originally shipped with an earlier MD without the tab, I have an earlier one without the tab on an XD.

I have a second X700, an X500 and an XGM all under rebuild at the moment.

You can easily check if you are likley to have capacitor issues by taking the bottom plate off. Its a simple job to remove 4 screws. If you look underneath and see what looks like a small blue bead attached to ghe circuit board in the base then thats a tantalum capacitor you are looking at and they are incredibly unlikely to fail. If you have what looks like a small coke can on the end of the board than thats an electrolytic capacitor and a source of possible problems. The 700 has two caps, one in the base and one under the top cover. If the base is a Tantalum cap the one under the top cover will be the same.

Thanks for that. I replaced the lower one in my X300 and that allowed it to fire the shutter once before being switched off and on again to reset it for another shot. That was some time ago and, as I only bought it for the lens and I like the SRTs more, I never went back to have another go at fixing it. At some point I'll open it up again and see what can be done.