[Sam_I_am]

You saw the pics of the XG-A with four lenses, three are a mystery, flash, manual, all caps plus extras, and bag. Do not know history or condition other than pics. there are more pics of film door open and it looks very clean inside. Total cost with shipping was $37.11 I will get it in the mail tomorrow or Wednesday.

Here are pics of the XG-M, it was dirty on the outside, clean on the inside. It came with the original lens plus the sigma 28mm. All I did was clean all external surfaces with a soft damp towel, and soft toothbrush, used lens cleaner on the glass. VF has minor specs in it. I had to replace seals and bumper. Again, no history. Total cost $34.25 I just replaced the seals and loaded an old roll of film, just need to take a walk.

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[Sam_I_am]

Here is the SRT101. Purchased in same condition as the XG-M, dirty on the outside, clean on the inside, came with mc 50mm that might be original, and a mc 135mm. Installed fresh batteries (in both) and light meters came to life. XG-M meter appears to work great, 101 is hard to see but the VF probably needs cleaning. Cleaned this one the same way as the XG-M. I need to replace seals and bumper before testing. Total cost $33.35

[Astro-Baby]

Sweet....they look good. The SRTs are mostly a doddle to work on, quite sweet. The only real horrors are the light meter cells decaying and the strings and springs system that drives the meter, the match needle and the shutter speed display. I messed about with mine endlessly and got it close but in the end as she needed calibrating I let a tech sort it out before I went insane.

Yours look lovely, you can drop the focus screen out of an XGM easy enough if you want it clean but careful putting it back in. All of the X series are a mare to get the screens in plus the screens are VERY fragile.

You look very well equipped with your workshop.....I am guessing from prices you are in the US. I swear if ai ever get out there I am going to pack a suitcase with cameras on the way back. In the UK most of this stuff is quite pricey.

I started woek on my Yashica Auto Electro spidey cam today but it looks like its going to be a much bigger job than I expected oh well it will keep me occupied until the next Minolta is located

[LesDMess]

Agree that those are some good looking gear you got for not too much money!

Todate I've only worked on a couple of my cameras. With retirement looming over the horizon, I may need to start opening some of them up.

[Sam_I_am]

Thanks so much guys. I really appreciate all the input and knowledge you have shared. Honestly, I am scared stiff to crack one of these open. As you can tell in the pics, my other hobby is building model cars. I can turn a pile of parts into a finished model, I can also disassemble an old 1:1 car, rebuild it and put it back together, but working on these cameras scares me to death. I am afraid I will permanently destroy it. I tell you, I was tickled pink when I put new seals and bumper in that XGM. I did not get that srtmc. It was a beautiful looking camera with original lens, and it went for $54 plus shipping. Next one I am looking at is an X370, any input on that one is appreciated. Oh, and Mel, yes I am in the states.

Here is my "giddy like a schoolgirl" acquisition. A minty X700 that I traded for from the original owner, lightly used and well cared for with original lens, flash, manuals, zoom lens, bits and pieces, and bag. All purchase brand new in 1988 by the original owner. I have new seals on order because the original ones are just starting to go away. I am into it about $75

[Astro-Baby]

Wow that is clean !! They normally show a bit of brassing on the shoulders. Its a late one somsorry to scare you but the later ones can have capacitor issues. Take the bottom off and have a look to see if it has tantalum capacitors in the base. If it does its fine but if they are can types they can be a problem. On your side of the pond Garys will fix it for 50 bucks so its not like a disaster.

The bottom capacitor is easy, the top one is a monster pain to do. Its a stunning deal though as its so clean.

Careful, the old collecting hobby can get to be a real monkey on your back.

The 370 was the budget one of the line, never even looked at one. If you want to open one up I would advise get a complete banger for a few bucks and practice, ditto with lenses, get a complete wreck and mess with it, that way if it all goes wrong its no loss so see its as a ten buck training program, if it all works out then you have bagged a bargain.

The firts lens I took to bits and was successful on was a Minolta 55mm f1.7 which was wrecked to start with. Got it all going again and clean. Most of the Minolta lenses are easy enough to work on, they are very simple construction. Other manufacturers not so easy....Nikon can be awkward, Pentax can be fragile, Olympus and Canon....forget it. Early Canon FD and FL are doable at great pain, later FDs nigh impossible.

[Sam_I_am]

Already looked after you mentioned it before and it has blue caps. It also has a lower serial number, so even though he purchased it new in 1988, it might have been on a shelf for awhile, or he remembered the year wrong.

How about third party lenses? Any one brand easier than the others?

[Astro-Baby]

Dont really know on 3rd party lenses. Only off brands I have worked on are;

Chinon 50mm f1.7 twice, both easy enough, have a few traps for the unwary but not too hard.
Tokina 24mm an absolute horror to work on, weird internal construction, never again !
Vivitar 135mm a breeze, very straightforward to work on
Tamron 135mm very simple and easy and obvious

Looking at most of the Tamron primes I have I doubt any of them would be too hard, they mostly seem to have very simple and obvious construction. If you want a lens to learn on the 55mm f1.7 Minolta MC is an easy beast.

Avoid zooms like the plague, they are always a major headache and awkward. I have messed up three and wont risk it again.

[Sam_I_am]

I have not acquired a Yashica...yet.

😁

[Sam_I_am]

Ok, the XGA came in today. A little dusty but not bad. First picture is of what was in the bag. Bonus was three rolls of film. Mystery lenses were a Vivitar 2x teleconverter (which was what I guessed) a 50mm 1.2 which is spotless, an Albinar 28-80 zoom with sticky blades, and the 1.7 which was on the body. It has a lot of dust specs on the inside of the lens. The flash had a clean battery compartment and worked well with new batteries, so score! I noticed it has three contact points and the Xseries has two, so is it designed for a slightly newer series? Body cleaned up well, new battery brought the light meter to life and it appears to be fully functional. It does need seals. I noticed that a previous owner lost the screw under the hard case...and improvised.

[Astro-Baby]

You could get the dust out the lens easy enough. The little ball of horror in any Minolta lens is a tiny ball bearing which provides the click for the aperture. When you remove the back end of the lens this thing can propel itself out as its on a spring and once lost you wont ever find it again. Its a 1.1mm bearing in case you ever lose one.
I always disassmble and reassemble the back end with my hands deep inside a large tupperware box so there is a good chance of finding the bearing. Other than that most of the MDs are simple to get apart with a few tools, you dont even need a lens spanner. There are some good you tube vids on it.

The flash is a find and worth what you paid on its own. Frankly I would be happy with the flash for the price, with the two lenses With it I would be very pleased and with a working camera as well I would be ecstatic plus a free paperweight in the Albinair The extra contact on the flash is for the X700 which has programmed mode for flash, set the shutter speed dial to P, set lens to minimum aperture, the green aperture marking, turn flash to TTL and the camera and flash wil do all the work on setting aperture and flash power.

[Sam_I_am]

Thanks again Mel for all the info. I will go looking for lens videos. I also will replace the seals in the XGA and hopefully find a new home for it. Now if I can just find a cheap XD....

As far as SRT's go, which model do people consider the best of the bunch?

[Astro-Baby]

Youtu.be

Youtu.be

There you go for a good video of a minolta MD repair. This guy has loads of videos on lens repairs and his are the best I have found. He doesnt cover resetting infinity on a lens after strip down but its simple enough to work out. If lost pip up and I will explain how to do it.

Best of the SRTs....many would say the 303 / super as it had the most features and was the last rendition. There were a great many versions as Minolta juggled names and specs but for money the second version of the SRT101 (chrome shutter speed dial) as its solid....to be honest any of the non budget ones is a good bet but I prefer earlier as there is more metal and my experience is earlier models seem better made than later ones where cost cutting came into play. This is true of many things.
At the start its all about quality, later on it becomes about getting the price down and that almost always means cutting corners.

XDs be very careful, they are generally reliable but if they are suffering problems they can be a nightmare as they are very complex and dense inside. Watch out for mould, the XDs have a soft velvet applied on the interior walls next to the mirror and this can mould up if its not been well stored and of course contaminate the mirror and prism. Getting the prism out is a no no as the top of the camera under the top cover is one monster load of electronics and pulley wires. Best bet is find one with shrinking leatherette which scares off most people as the camera ends up looking junky and replace the leatherette...its a simple enough job. I got leather from Asahi cameras in Japan and they fit beautifully.

[Wasp]

Looking for ways to finance new-to-me Pentax gear, I reached out to a dealer a few months ago. I offered up a minty fresh STR303 with 58mm f/1.4. The generous reply amounted to about $50, which I declined. Looking at the guys catalog it seems that he sells for about four to five times his buying price.

[Astro-Baby]

I’ll double that offer