[Astro-Baby]

Cant speak for the 300 but it may resemble either an XG1 or XGM both of which have some extra caps under the top cover. I seem to recall one of the X series has some caps under the top cover to the side of the prism on the opposite side to the shutter speed dial. I can vaguely recall seeing a pic of one that had a cap problem caused by electrolyte caps causing part of the camera to fail. I am sure a Google search would turn up info on it. Its a curse with most electronic cameras that if stuff fails it often a headache to identify whats at fault.

[Sam_I_am]

You made me curious so I took the base plate off and found a little blue bead. It's a wonder how little things like that make you more confident when you pull a camera out.

Oh, and two of the lenses have that little locking tab on them. The XG-M and the X700.

[Astro-Baby]

Yep thats tantalum, they last forever pretty much.

The lock tab is on the very last series of MD lenses. The idea was that non experts could lock the aperture at max and set the camera to Program mode and then they could just use it as a point and shoot job. The generation just before this had the max aperture marked in green (same as the P mark on the shutter speed knob) and the pitch was ‘green for go’ minnies tend to favour speed over DOF.

Its odd that all the Minoltas I have handled, and I never used one back in the day, have an amazing quality of engineering, very often technically ahead of the game and sometimes streets ahead and yet they never succeeded. Technically ahead of Nikon and Canon and yet did not end up on top.

So there you go....a better title for this thread would have been ‘Minolta.....gone but not forgotten’

[Sam_I_am]

Ha! That lock tab sounds like it was made for people like me. 😄

Speaking about their technology, I picked up a 7000 just for that reason. Can't believe how cheap it was. I cleaned it thoroughly, put fresh batteries in it and it came to life. The lcd was even in perfect condition. In my quest to find a few more lenses for it, I picked up a 2xi (that is where my sticky lens thread came from). It was even cheaper than the 7000. I put a battery in the 2xi and was amazed with it. The viewfinder was huge and the brightest I have ever seen, the af was lightning fast and the ergonomics made it feel like an extension of my hand. I have used plastic bodied generic slr from the same era, canon, pentax, and minolta. This 2xi has the best feel of all of them. To put in perspective how unimportant that camera is in people's eyes, it came with it's original lens, the zoom lens, original flash, all paperwork, and nice bag. All for a whopping $18 and change shipped. The battery was just under $8...which was two dollars more than what the kits opening bid was, which is what I got it for.

[Astro-Baby]

Minolta are a lesson in the flaws of a meritocracy.....they always had good tech and oft times were ahead of the pack yest despite their technical elegance and great feel they were always trumped by Nikon with their plodding and aged tech and Canon with their ‘bugger the base’ approach of constantly chopping and changing ‘whats that ? You just bought a load of FD glass....sorry ‘bout that we just changed mounts (again)’

The sad thing is back in the day I worshipped at the church of Zuiko until I was hit on the head by a Nikon F rather like the conversion of St Antony, I repented and saw the one true light of Nikon I never used Minolta as they always seemed a bit of a camera for the amateur and oddly not a single shop ever pushed one at me.

I never went AF as it was something for sissies

[LesDMess]

Speaking about their technology, I picked up a 7000 just for that reason. Can't believe how cheap it was.

it really is advantageous to scavengers like me that the Minolta lineup flies under the radar. On a local CL listing I spotted a "free box of camera parts" that had a picture. I could almost make out what looked like a corner of a Minolta XK finder. Heck it was free so I went to get it and it was not only a finder but it turned out to be three brand new in a box of XK finders.



---------- Post added 05-20-20 at 09:46 PM ----------

The sad thing is back in the day I worshipped at the church of Zuiko until I was hit on the head by a Nikon F rather like the conversion of St Antony, I repented and saw the one true light of Nikon I never used Minolta as they always seemed a bit of a camera for the amateur and oddly not a single shop ever pushed one at me.

I never went AF as it was something for sissies

I was very late coming into a "proper" camera. Prior to getting my first SLR - Canon EOS3 + L lenses, I Kodamatics, 110 plastic cameras, Polaroids and then digitals. Then out of curiosity I picked up a "vintage" Minolta Hi-Matic 9 and was just so impressed at the build and condition of a camera from 1966 that it piqued my curiosity and started me on the path to learning about vintage cameras.

[Sam_I_am]

Right place, right time. Good for you!.

I went and looked at the XK prices on ebay...I probably wont be able to get one anytime soon, but It sounds like that you two really like yours.

I am also glad that, other than certain pieces, the Minolta brand does not draw a big price, and even those pieces are not as expensive as other brands can get.

Back to that 7000 for a moment. I was so pleased with it that I thought I would get a comparable Pentax. I just picked up an SF1 for comparison and that 7000 will run circles around it.

I am looking forward to when I can sell/trade on here. I might be able to turn some of my non Pentax stuff into more Minolta.

---------- Post added 05-20-20 at 08:08 PM ----------

I think the vintage aspect draws me as well, since I prefer old cars, motorcycles, etc.

[Astro-Baby]

Les I am hating you

Shouldnt complain as someone handed me a bag of ‘broken cameras’ last week. Most of it was tat but lurking in the pile was an X500 and an XGM. I was sure the 500 was a goner but turns out its a runner, the XGM looked dreadful, strap lug pulled out but still attached to strap, easy to fix and some elbow grease and TLC has bought it up like new.....both had very dirty and seized up lenses but both have cleaned up lovely, a MK2 and MK3 MD 50mm f1.7. One of them had dried out and focus was stiff and grindy the other had a dried out focus and a jammed aperture due to oil, both cleaned up beautiful, glass near mint and thankfully no fungus.

Also in the pile was a Yashica Electro which is something to work on as well. I tend to favour Minnies for restore work as they are mostly fairly simple to fix ( apart from the XD ) and the electronic timed shutters means the shutter speeds are reliable usually.

[Sam_I_am]

You guys and your free boxes of cameras. 😄

I just got confirmation that my XG-A shipped today and I should see it this Wednesday. I can hardly wait to find out what the mystery lenses are.

[Astro-Baby]

Well theres a 360PX flash in there worth at least £50 or more so thats worth having.

[Sam_I_am]

I dont hold my breath on the flashes. Sometimes people have left alkaline batteries in them for 15 years. One was bulged out so bad that I could not get the door off all the way and what I could see of the batteries they were split open. So if the flash is clean and works, or I can clean it and it works, it is a nice bonus.

[Sam_I_am]

The other thing that I like is that all these older af Minolta lenses work on my Sony a100.

[Astro-Baby]

Heres my humble collection of Minnies

Top row l-r - 'Minnie' first production run SRT101, 'Sophie' late production run SRT101
Middle row l-r - 'Xenia' first type XD7, 'Xara' Last type XD7
Front row l-r - 'Geno' late model XG-M, 'Xavia' very early X-700, 'Sven' early model X-500

All of them bought as 'bangers' and restored and all of them have their original kit lenses plus original lens caps.
Minnie, Geno and Sven are all scheduled for sale as soon as film comes back from the lab so I can certify that they are fully film tested.

[Sam_I_am]

Nice little collection Mel. Do you find it difficult to let them go after you name them?

---------- Post added 05-25-20 at 09:03 AM ----------

Oh, and one question. Is an untested black bodied srtmc with original lens, untested, worth $50 u.s. plus shipping? I am looking at one and wondered.

[Astro-Baby]

I find it hard to let them go always if a lot of work has gone in to them. Minnie was a nightmare and in truth if I had known how many problems it had I would probably have just broken her up for parts. She had a lot of work plus a pro camera tech cost of £50 to calibrate her afterwards.
Geno and Sven (XG-M and X-500) have probably had about 20 hours work each to bring them to pitch perfect, Sven has a small mark on the focus screen but as I am selling this one on I wont replace the screen. The screens near perfect just with a small ring at the extreme top edge. They bot needed a fair amount of elbow grease to get the finish to come up to snuff, internal and external cleaning, new capacitors for the XG-M, lenses both utterly filthy with oil apertures and solid grease in the focus, aperture readouts snacked, battery compartments corroded etc etc etc. Because I have OCD nothing is ever left to 'good enough' and I tend to obsess easily and only when its as perfect as it can be made do I tend to sit back.

After all that - yes its hard to let them go and I sometimes wonder if the new owner will ever respect the tool and the work that I have had to do to make it like new.

Cost for an SRT - it would depend on its cosmetic condition. The black ones can brass in an attractive way or a horrid way. It would depend on a number of things like is there a lens included. Whats the shipping cost. - sometimes on eBay people ask for ridiculous shipping (some of that is down to the GPS program). SRTs vary enormously and even I get confused by the naming and numbering so had to look up the MC.
The SRT MC was a kind of budget version of an SRT 1010 manufactured for exclusive sale through K Mart. Would I pay anything for it ? Nope because I would want a thoroughbred not a slugged version - YMMV.

Big question would be what is it overall condition - generally I find if they are cosmetically good they are generally ok. tests on an SRT would be -
Does the meter run accurately - non functioning can be something simple but it may indicate the light cells are dud - and that happens with these.
Does the speed indicator in the VF work reliably - if not the camera may have had some serious use (the cord that drives these gets slack and the numbers dont register well)
Does the match needle indicator work - thats the big circle looking thing in the VF. If it doesn't some of the internal pulleys and springs may be out of whack and its a painful job to work with these.
Battery chamber clean ?
Prism clean and free from fungus ?
Mirror clean and not showing any de-silvering
Focus screen ok and new clean ?. If not the focus screens are easy to manage - you can whip prism out of an SRT in about 60 minutes of careful work and blow out any crud.

Light seals and mirror bumper are a doddle on the SRT to replace, you can snooze through it

Oh winder lever - watch out as lots of them have broken plastic grips and a spare is likely to end up costing around £10 if you can find one.

IF your one wa clean, looked good and seller seemed honest and you really anted it I would suggest $50 would be a good price - to give you some scale here;

I paid £25 for Minnie complete with a Minolta 50mm f1.7 MC,Vivitar 135MC lens, 35mm MD lens, Minolta Electroflash 20, some filters, complete set of Minolta extension tubes. Camera was in a complete mess but the target was the 35mm MD lens and the 50mm f1.7. Minnie ran ok but her slow speeds was off by a mile and her light meter was non running plus she was full of crud and decayed foam.

Sophie was acquired for £77 and is a complete minter with a minty 58mm f1.4 and case, none off it looked like it had ever been used at all and the seller told me it was bought as a wedding gift and they had never used it. I would believe it. Light seals and bumper were perished but other than that she is sparkling.

Last year paid around £45 for an SRT101 with a Minolta PG 58mm f1.4 which was mint. The target was the lens. Follow dup by a Minolta SRT101 which was near mint which I bagged off for £25 no lens as far as I can recall. The two bodies were refurbed by me and handed to my sons for xmas presents complete 1.7 lens each, owners manual, pack of film etc as a special present from me.

I also bagged a non runner for £4.99 as I needed some parts - it could have been returned to working condition with some (a lot) of effort but I needed some trim parts for another one so it was stripped for spares.

Hopefully that gives some clue as to value - if the camera was clean(wish) and winds on and fires I would consider $50 a good price.