New old Minoltas

Here are a few pictures of and comments about the recent acquisitions I mentioned in my last short blog.

To start with, the black SR-1 (d) complete with its correct lens (with the black rear ring on the mount). Nice condition but needs ‘a bit of work’: The first curtain runs fine but the second does not follow… and the mirror stays in the up position. Cock the shutter, the mirror drops and the same happens again.


Then another back one, this time the Japanese market XE, fitted with a contemporary lens, which works fine and accurately. Will get a clean inside and out and then run a test-film:

Then there was this 1949 Minolta-35 model D that I came across, one of about 1,900 made. OK, so I bought a Rather nice later 50mm 2.0 lens (about 1954 manufacture) to use with it, please forgive me. I’ll keep a lookout for the ‘correct’ 45mm 2.8, but in the meantime this will do nicely for my test shots to check the accuracy of the shutter. The third picture shows the small piece of the leatherette covering that is missing, which is invisible inside the case, which I will initially be making myself, especially in view of the larger lens 🙂

Minolta produced the earliest cameras with a central ’hot’ flash-contact in the shoe (introduced on the first -35 model A). They interestingly replaced it with a cable-connector on the next, ‘E’ model of the Series and with a coax connection à la Leitz on the model ‘F’. The ‘D’ model is purportedly the first with flash synchronisation (for bulb flash only, electronic flash synchronisation was first added to the Minolta-35 model II) but I find that hard to believe. Canon only offered Flash synch two years later in 1951 with their Canon IV.