Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Minolta SLR When I was young, Minolta was a very common camera brand, and because of its cooperation with Chinese camera manufacturers, it can be said to be a very popular Japanese camera brand in China.

Today, Minolta SLR cameras have long been history. After the merger with Konica, the camera division was acquired by Sony. Over time, the alpha mark on Sony cameras still retains the grand power of Minolta cameras for half a century.

Minolta also cooperated with Leica in Germany to contract and modify a batch of Leica R series SLRs, and Minolta did not directly stick to the skin at that time, but would make certain improvements to Leica cameras.

Minolta released its first SLR camera SR-2 in 1958, and it has probably experienced three eras of SR series, X series and alpha series until it withdrew from the market, and successfully entered the digital market. Their camera division, after being acquired by Sony, continued to use Alpha as the name of the camera family.

Minolta's X700 camera, known to film buffs for about 20 years, is a model for practical manual cameras. Until 2023, it is still the choice of many entry-level film fans.

Minolta SLR development is not smooth sailing, but also experienced some setbacks, and actively adjust its own camera positioning.

SR series The world's earliest development of pentaprism 135 SLR camera is not yet split Zeiss company, product Contax S, in 1948, soon Japanese manufacturers began to follow up imitation, the earliest is Asahi optics, followed by Minolta and Nikon, in fact Canon also quickly followed up, even earlier than Nikon.

Minolta's first SLR SR-2 was already a highly finished camera compared to Asahi Optics 'early explorations, although it was not Japan's first pentaprism camera (the first was Pentax AP), but it was the earliest modern operating 135 SLR.

The so-called modern operation 135 SLR has several basic indicators:

(1) Equipped with pentaprism viewfinder

(2) bayonet design, quick lens replacement

(3) Integrated shutter, exposure adjustment only one shutter ring and aperture ring

(4) The wrench is used to pass the film, and the handle is reversed.

The biggest problem with Pentax's early SLRs was the use of M42 screw ports, which made it inconvenient to replace lenses. Minolta uses SR bayonet, which is called MD bayonet after digitalization, and this bayonet has been used until the digital era.

Due to functional reasons, when Asahi Photography selected the Japanese MF SLR Classic, the first one was the SR-2 instead of the AP, the second was the Imperial Optics ZUNOW SLR, and the third was the Nikon F.

Now it seems that SR-2's functions are very simple, pure mechanical camera, no light measurement, no electronic components, about 90% viewfinder, 1000 speed horizontal curtain.

Minolta later introduced the SR-1 and SR-3, the SR-1 being a simplified version, while the SR-3 made a major adjustment to the full-aperture viewfinder, which was called AUTO on Nikon.

After completing the basic modern operation, the task after the 135 SLR is how to entangle photometry, as well as the linkage of photometry and aperture, which is related to the framing of the 135 SLR.

Finally, in 1962, Minolta launched a representative mature product, the SR-7.

The Japanese call SR-2 these cameras the first generation SLR, while SR-7 is called the second generation SLR, the key is the integration of photometry, and the core technology of the second generation SLR is TTL photometry linkage, SR-7 as a 1962 product has not yet achieved this function.

However, SR-7 realizes body photometry, which consists of a separate CDS photometry module, and realizes the function of maximum aperture viewfinder, photometry and body operation linkage.

It also belongs to early photometry, photometry observation is on the top of the camera, in fact, similar to the camera is also a photometric meter, first photometry, and then framing photos. TTL metering is therefore more advanced and accurate than this independent metering technique.

As you can see in the above picture, the camera body brass body weighs 670 grams and the material is very solid.

Minolta's first TTL camera was the SR-T101, which was retired in 1966, and was also a very classic SR camera, which led to a simplified version of the SR-101 and an upgraded version of the SR-T SUPER.

From the mechanical indicators, SR-T101 and SR-7 are the same, but in fact the internal parts structure, reflector structure are different, SR-T101 reflector made a new bracket support, can obtain better stability than SR-7.

The biggest selling point of the camera is that it has two CDS photometric elements installed in the body, and both elements are above the pentaprism, one in front of the other to achieve average photometry. The SR-T101 is disassembled in the figure below. The two parts connected by red lines are two CDS photometric elements.

Because of this special design, the SR-T101 reaches a weight of 705 grams, and the roof also appears larger. Although Pentax and TOPCON both released TTL cameras first, in fact, the time when each entered TTL was very close.

By the 1960s, SLR camera development fell into the first bottleneck, when Nikon, Minolta, Pentax, TOPCON, Konica and so on SLR highly homogeneous, performance differences are very small.

Faced with this situation, Minolta turned its attention to electronic control and automation technology, and it took several years for Minolta to release an epochal camera in 1971 (actually delayed until 1973), which became the biggest failure in Minolta's entire camera history.

MINOLTA X-1 The Minolta X-1 is a super camera that deserves a chapter, and I have introduced this camera to you in the past that is completely ahead of its design concept by nearly 10 years.

It could even be said that this was one of the few special cameras in camera history where users could not keep up with the camera, and this avant-garde design doomed the X-1 to failure. The X-1's failure also revolutionized Minolta's positioning of the X-Series cameras.

The Minolta X-1, released after the Canon F-1 and Nikon F2, was originally scheduled for release in 1971, but was delayed until 1973 due to development of auto-exposure features.

In the 135 camera market in 1970, the core users were professional users, news agencies, and journalist groups, so stability and efficiency became the main demand for top news cameras. Although Nikon F2 is only one shutter speed faster than Big F from the index, its internal film, reflector and shutter have all been redesigned, and its stability is far better than that of Big F based on SP paraxial in the 1950s.

As for functions, Nikon F2 and Canon F1 both focus on auxiliary, that is, the two cameras are mechanical in foundation, guarantee stability and durability, and electronic functions are added through.

In contrast, the X-1 was fundamentally different from the F2 and F1. The X-1 itself was a fully electronically controlled engine. In 1973, the fully electronically controlled machine was introduced, and on this basis, the automatic exposure function was added, and even the fully automatic film passing function was added, which was beyond the understanding of the camera at that time.

To this day, many people think electronics are fragile, let alone the people of 1973. Although few journalists would use a Nikon F2 without a photometric dome, an all-electric camera is unlikely to make them feel safe.

The X-1's electronic functions were integrated atop the original photometer, an operation that was later largely imitated by the 120 camera. As can be seen from the above picture, although the X-1 can be disassembled and replaced with a viewfinder, it does not have a separate shutter disk, and the shutter disk is on the viewfinder.

The X-1 was equipped with six viewfinders and was very versatile. It looked like a product from the 1980s, but it was actually a 1973 system.

In addition, X-1 viewfinder does not have hot shoes, hot shoes are inserted into the fuselage through accessories, you see below.

Is this operation familiar? Yes, later Nikon F3 also adopted this design, thus simplifying the viewfinder function. This feature was accepted on the Nikon F3, but was criticized on the X-1.

In 1976, Minolta seemed to want to further emphasize the X-1's professional functions, selling the X-1 MOTOR with a special motor, and the lettering position of the camera changed from left to right.

This MOTOR system allows the camera to come with 3.5 continuous shots per second and comes with a high-life battery case. If the X-1 concept was advanced to the 1980s, then the X-1 MOTOR concept was even more advanced to the Nikon F5 in the 1990s.

However, the price of 220,000 sets made many news agencies prohibitive. You know, the later Nikon F3 was only 130,000 yen a set. Coupled with heavy and cumbersome systems and all-electric operation, the X-1 MOTOR could only be a fiasco.

By 1978, however, the X-1 was completely discontinued.

Since then, Minolta has never produced cameras aimed at journalists and professional users.

The X Series Minolta X-1 was the beginning of the entire X Series, and although the X-1 had a bad start, the X Series itself was successful in taking the electronic and automated road. The X-Series also spawned Leica R-Series SLR cameras.

Although the X-1 was a fiasco, the XE, a secondary camera to the X-1, was a great success, making the X series a good base for ordinary user environments.

XE is a secondary unit of X-1, which cannot replace viewfinder, but can also realize aperture priority A position, and is equipped with direct aperture reading function.

In terms of aperture priority mode, Minolta is later than Nikon, but in terms of functional perfection, XE's photometry is much more advanced than Nikon EL, and the aperture is also a reading rather than a tracking rod. XE is actually equivalent to Nikon FE camera, and its technology is much more complicated than EL.

XE, like X-1, inherited SRT101's dual CDS averaging system, internal pointer operation, using a new control module to achieve aperture limited mode, logic and X-1 are the same.

Of course, XE is very expensive, reaching 70,000 yen, the same price as a Nikon F2.

But even more outrageous is that XE camera was released in 1974, Leica began to cooperate with Minolta in 1975, Minolta gave Leica XE camera, photometry changed to central focus, this is Leica R3, launched in 1976. However... it was such a Japanese part, Portugal assembled XE change, the price actually sold for 290,000 yen! It was four times more than normal XE!

I think it's pretty outrageous.

By 1977, Minolta had introduced a lightweight XD camera, as well as a castrated version of the XE XG-E.

XD camera already has MAS three gears, and the size is relatively small, only 560 grams, while XE has 770 grams. XD metering has also been changed to more advanced SPD metering originals.

In contrast, the XG-E is also very small in size, with A file, greatly simplified photometry, and still uses CDS photometry. In 1979, an improved version of the XG-S was introduced.

The XG-S was further simplified into an X-7 camera with only A files in 1980. This kind of SLR with only A files is stupid. I don't know if you still remember this concept.

But speaking of this, there is a question to explain, such as the above, XE-1, what is this camera?

Minolta brand is special, its cameras in North America and Europe when shipped to the market, the camera is to change the name, XE-1 is the European name for XE, in fact, is the same camera.

Let me give you a comparison.

X-1, North America XK, Europe XM

X-E, North America XE-7, Europe XE-1

X-D, North America XD11, Europe XD7

XG-E, North America XG7, Europe XG2

XG-S, XG9 in North America and Europe

Since X-7, it has been basically synchronized.

Also note that the entire Minolta X Series camera is all electrically-controlled cameras, with no mechanical cameras.

In 1981, Minolta introduced a popular camera X-700, but added a program exposure function to it, which was the first time Minolta added this function to an SLR.

The X-70, X-500, and X-600 were simplified and did not include programmed exposure.

In this batch of cameras, X-700 has been produced until 1999. In the 1990s, it was imported into China in large quantities, and in that era, X-700 was a very professional camera.

The X-700 had the most complete functions among the four divine machines. It had AP and two automatic gears, making it the most convenient to operate. In fact, it was also the one with the most users among the four divine machines. Because of its simplicity, it has been popular since the 1980s.

Around 1985, Minolta began to develop autofocus SLR cameras, but X cameras did not withdraw from the historical stage, but were exported to China in large quantities, becoming the Japanese brand most contacted by Chinese camera enthusiasts in the 1990s. Minolta also teamed up with seagull in china to develop and produce SLRs, though it was later thought to have fallen into a Japanese trap that allowed the chinese to buy many outdated technologies at high prices. Until the end, let alone digital, even autofocus SLR has not been created.

This article comes from Weixin Official Accounts: Film Fan Club (ID: jiaojianmi), by Shanghai Old Dirty Turtle

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