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| The venerable Minolta XE-7 |
I know I have too many cameras when I have no space to put them in the cupboard. Running out of cupboard space has led me to sell the Olympus IS-1000, a Praktica LLC and the two Minolta SRT-101/100x, together with a few lenses in an attempt to make some space. Soon after, an Olympus 35 ED and a Pentax MV-1 came along which meant that space was limited again. I am trying to be very disciplined and stay away from online shops, car boot sales and charity shops but when this came along, I just couldn't resist.
This XE-7 is a charity shop find - they were initially asking for £30 but someone commented that it was not working so they let me have it for £10. The switch was stuck to the Off position, the mirror was up and you couldn't advance the film or press the shutter button.
Having read the manual, I knew that you cannot press the shutter button when the switch is on the "Off" position. Thinking that I have nothing to lose I - firmly but carefully - rotated the switch to On and I heard the self timer mechanism engaging and releasing the shutter and the mirror. I put a set of fresh batteries and it works fine. Forcing the On/Off switch like I did is (in the best of cases) a very bad idea - it usually breaks and then you have a camera permanently off. I was lucky this time but I have decided to leave the switch permanently on and just remove the batteries.
I admit that the XE-family of Minolta cameras was deliberately off my radar for a number of years now (like the Nikkormats which for a non-sensical reason I still avoid). A few years ago I turned my back on a nice XE-5 which was priced very competitively and did not feel I missed something. This is, no doubt, due to the amount of posts on minolta groups from people asking for advice on their malfunctioning XE. It always felt like a risky purchase although on the other hand, there were also people praising the reliability of their sample.
I am not going to go into details about the history of this camera and I am not going to repeat the Minolta/Leica love affair story - these are very well documented online. I will just go straight into my experience of using this camera and compare it to the SRT and XD-series.
Ergonomics
If you are an SRT-series user, the XE-7 will feel instantly familiar. It is only slightly bigger than the SRT-303 (mostly slightly thicker) and your fingers fall naturally on all important buttons and switches just like the SRT. The XE-7 is noticeably heavier thought - and I mean by a good 200 grams. While there is a lot of SRT DNA in the XE-7, it also feels somewhat different. First of all, the combined shutter button/advance lever of all SR/SRT cameras -a feature I really liked- is now gone. The XE-7 improved in many areas such as the viewfinder which now shows shutter speeds, aperture and meter readings (the SRT has a set of matching needles but no indication of recommended shutter speed). The film advance is so much better - gone is the loooong stroke of the SRT - it has been replaced with an exceptionally smooth, short stroke advance action that puts to shame many other cameras. Unfortunately it is not a ratcheted level so you cannot advance it in smaller strokes. Also the On/Off switch is positioned on a place where you can actually see it - not on the bottom plate like the SRT-303.
The XE-7 came with a number of features such as battery check, depth of field preview, film advance window, viewfinder shutters, exposure compensation, multiple exposure lever and last but no least - an unconventional exposure counter at the back of the camera (?). Taking into account that we are talking about a 1970s camera then you should consider the XE-7 a feature-rich camera.
One thing that deserves special mention is the Copal-Square ES shutter. This is indeed a marvelous shutter, smooth and reliable used in Leicas and Nikons. In auto mode, the shutter becomes stepless. In the case of the XE-7, if batteries are depleted, the shutter operates at 1/90th of a second.
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| The battery check lever |
The viewfinder displays everything you need to know. There is a needle pointing at the recommended shutter speed on the right and on the top you can see the aperture and set shutter speed. The viewfinder is nicely bright with the Rokkor 50f/1.4 and easy to focus. My only criticism revolves around how slowly the shutter speed needle adjusts to changes. Unfortunately the CdS cells react slowly to light and suffer from temporary blindness if pointed suddenly to a bright light source. Another point of criticism is the lock to the exposure compensation - it is quite fiddly to press.
Another thing that needs mentioning is that, depending on how you hold the camera in portrait orientation (i.e with the self timer up Vs the self timer down) you can get an exposure value difference up to one stop. My recommendation is to turn the camera so that the bottom part of the viewfinder is placed on the shadowy part of the frame.
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| Exposure was accurate. Picture taken with the Rokkor MD 50f/1.4 |
Did I say that the meter is always on if the switch is on "On"? Just like most cameras from the 1970's the meter is on and meters light all the time - if you forget it on, it will meter the cupboard door until it runs out of battery.
Finally, I need to mention that the frame counter is quite big and this makes easy for me to see even without my glasses.
Reliability - repais
There are only very few cameras online which attract so much controversy when it comes to reliability - in the case of the XE-7, views range from shear disappointment to being a paragon of toughness. The most common faults reported are:
* Broken frame counter
* Desilvered prisms
* Fried electronics
* Seized mirror on the up position
* Shutter firing at one speed
* Broken On/Off switch
* Seized self timer
* Jumpy light meter needle
* Shutter capping
Some of them (like in my case) are an easy fix once you know what has happened. Others such as damaged electronics or desilvered prisms are much harder problems to tackle. Another problem with these cameras are leaking batteries which have corroded the electronics - always remember to remove the batteries.
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| Despite the high contrast the meter did well. Picture taken with the MD 50f/1.7 |
Going on a slight tangent, one thing that I learnt with the Minolta X-300 I own is that dirt or corrosion on the battery cap threads will affect the camera's performance. So I tend to remove the battery cap and the whole bottom plate and leave them overnight in a container with white vinegar. The following morning I clean everything with a cotton bud including the threads on the bottom plate and the battery cap. I rinse well with IPA to displace any water and leave them to dry well before reassembling.
My sample came with a "lazy" meter coupler pin. This is typical of old Minoltas - usually dirt accumulates under the ring and slows it down. The best solution is to remove the mount, remove the ring from a spring, clean it and put it back. I've done this with my X-300 and it was a fiddly process so with the XE-7 I took another approach. I cut strips of paper and placed them under the ring, dropped a few drops of IPA and pulled it out. The equivalent of mopping under the bed. This worked remarkably well - I managed to remove quite a bit of dirt and now the ring moves freely again. *Do not* attempt to put any oil - you will do things worse. Please note that the meter coupler link is metal - I can't remember for sure but I think the XD-7/11 had a plastic ring and tab. The X-series definitely has a plastic one.
Whilst I was removing the old light seal foam from the back of the camera I had this idea: I noticed how dry the foam was, almost like a thin lead gasket, that was crumbling into small pieces. I noticed online that the foam used on the mirror prism looks very similar. My sample is the US market one. I was thinking whether the cameras that were stored in a warm and dry environment had the foam drying up very quickly into this solid state without giving enough time to mess up with the prism? Hm... just saying...
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| A beautiful looking camera too |
The Minolta XE-7 Achilles heel
Many people will wonder, how come there are so many non-working XE-7 out there when their battery compartment seems to be clean. Unfortunately, the XE-7 's Achilles heel is the ceramic substrate of the metering PCB, housed just under the plastic viewfinder cover. This ceramic PCB is quite thick but still is prone to cracking during impact - dropping this camera will probably lead to severe damage. If the crack is small, an experienced technician might be able to bridge the gap. In most cases though it just becomes unrepairable. Treat your cameras nicely, they are precision instruments, don't throw them around.
Using the Minolta XE-7
As I said already, in many ways the Minolta XE-7 feels and behaves a lot like its predecessor, the SRT-303. The XE-7 is very well behaved in terms of vibrations and noise - it feels very smooth when you release the shutter and advance the film to the next frame. What is also noticeable is how responsive the shutter button is - for an electronic camera that adjusts the shutter speed just before exposure, it is pleasantly responsive. The picture snaps quickly into focus in the viewfinder - even with my aging eyes it is easy to focus.
Overall, using the Minolta XE-7 is a very pleasant experience. With a heavy lens on, the whole setup weighs more than 1.1kg which is a considerable amount of weight to carry around your neck all day long. Avoid using thin straps and go for a wide one.
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| Taken with the Rokkor MC58f/1.4 |
Minolta pulled the plug 3 years after going into production and replaced it with the Minolta XD-7 which I also used to have (scroll down to older posts). The XD-7 has a jewel-like quality, like an Olympus, smaller dimensions and a beautifully bright viewfinder. Offers aperture and shutter priority but the shutter button feels less responsive due to Minolta's "Final Check" system. As it is a much smaller camera, ergonomics feel much different - I always struggled with the mode switch on the XD-7, especially turning it from manual to aperture priority. Having said all these, the XD-7 was very quiet and vibrations were minimal - it was a very pleasant camera to use.
One thing that I miss in the XE-7 is an exposure lock in Auto mode. I wish I could meter with the camera held in landscape position, hold the metering and recompose in portrait orientation. Since the camera is not using a centre-weighted system, an exposure lock would have been very useful in auto mode.
As expected pictures came back fine. I see a slight tendency to 1/2 - 3/4 stop overexposure when compared to my hand-held metter but it is very acceptable taking the camera's age into account. Anyway, with b&w film, a slight overexposure is always welcomed.
Finally - on the subject of Rokkors
I cannot say I am an expert in Rokkor lenses - other than an 28f/2.8, I have only tried the 50mm - 58mm focal length. In general, it is quite a difficult task to find a bad Rokkor - yes, you can find some unnecessarily hyped ones like the MD 45f/2; but not a bad one. I have used the old 55f/2, the MC-III 58f/1.4, the MD 45f/2, the MD 50f/1.4, the MD 50f/2 and last but not least the MD (III) 50f/1.7. All great lenses, some are an acquired taste for sure (55f/2 and 58f/1.4) but all good. If you want one Rokkor which is best value for money and has an excellent optical performance, go for the later MD 50f/1.7 (I think it is called a "mark-iii" on the internet) - a beautiful lens by any account. Do I have a favourite? Yes I do, it's the MD 50f/1.4.
At the moment I use the 55f/2 on my black SR-2, the MD 50f/1.7 on my X-300, the 58f/1.4 on my SRT-303 and the 50f/1.4 on the XE-7.
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Postscript: half way through this review, I went for my usual lunch break walk at the local charity shops and the lady who runs the one I got this Minolta XE-7 from, came to speak to me. She found the lens the camera came with and asked whether I wanted to have a look. Hoping that it would be the 58f/1.2 I got a bit disappointed seeing the Rokkor-X MD 50/1.7 (1977 version or Mark I). They were asking £20 for it and I wasn't terribly convinced I needed it but then I thought it would be unfair to separate them after working together for almost 50 years now. So I caved in and paid to have it.
I unscrewed the camera's bottom plate just to see what the production code is for this camera - it's not very clear but it looks like "P-7". According to Minolta's production code, this was assembled in December 1977, making it one of the last XE-7 leaving the Minolta factory. Then it makes sense that it was paired with a 1977 Rokkor-X MD 50f/1.8
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| The "P-7" production code |
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Summary
Well, if it was the mid-1970s you would definitely want to upgrade from the SRT-303 to the XE-7: everything Minolta did was an improvement over an already excellent camera.
The problem is that 50 years later the electronics did not age as well. A Minolta SRT remains a safe bet these days as they are still easy to repair. I find the XE-7 to be a better camera but that is only if you find one that it is working well. I really enjoy mine and probably is staying with the rest of the Minolta gang in my collection but if you are out there to get one, you might have to go through a couple of these before you find one that works. I am planning to send mine for a service and hopefully this will add many more years of good fun.
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