How Good are Minolta MD-series Lenses?

[pbromaghin]

Just how good was/is the XE series? I am looking for an X body and have found an XE that might become available in a couple weeks. The owner is trying to sell it as part of a hodgepodge lot and will sell it individually only if unsuccessful. Up thread, Fred de Van (former top-notch pro, since deceased) simply raves about how good they were.

[fstop]

The XE series are competant solid cameras. The XE-7 is a full featured body with everything you need.Metered manual,aperture priority, multiple exposure,metal shutter, full view finder info,safe load signal,memo back,view finder shutter.

No winder capability.Heavy and large, compared to an XD-11.BUT a very nice body to use.

[clayne]

The XE-7 has the smoothest shutter advance in my collection. You just have to experience it to believe it.
The XK was so far ahead of it's time. With MLU, it has the quietest shutter of all MLU capable bodies in my collection which I believe has the least vibration.

Les, how do you feel the XE advance rates against the F2? I consider the F2 to have one of the most satisfying advances of any camera I've ever used.

On another note, anyone ever remove the flash shoe from an SR-T 101? They annoy me and I wouldn't mind taking them off.

Here's one of my SR-Ts:



Attachment 47332

[fstop]

The XE beats the F2 hands down for smooth advance.

[clayne]

In what way though? Maybe I don't actually mean smooth, but pleasurable. :-) For instance, as an F3 owner you know how the F3 advance feels, and you probably know how the F2 feels compared to the F3. To me the F2 is better than the F3 even though the F3 advance may feel more "fluid."

[Les Sarile]

I have the F, F2 & F3 but I have nothing in my tool box that has as smooth a full stroke as the XE-7. In the review of the Nikon F3's film advance, it points out the number of ball bearings used makes the others seem like they need lubrication but he's just kidding. Well if he had tried the XE-7 he would think the F3 needs lubrication . . . and he would not be kidding! Like I said, it has to be experienced.

[fstop]

I have 4 F2's and 8 XE bodies. After a couple decades of use the XE is still smooth as silk and is more satisfying than the F2. I also have one each mint- F2 and XE-7 (this body has never shot a roll of film)bodies to eliminate wear from skewing the results of feel tests on the wind mechanism.

[ath]

[...] the XD7 is superior in every way. And the shutter is faster than 1/1000 (in AV mode it goes up to 1/1600 or so).

It's been a while but I want to follow up this topic. Since I found no hard data about this I decided to generate them.

Setup is a shutter speed test with a laser beam through the shutter hitting a photodiode. Curve is traced with a digital (professional) oscilloscope.

DUT: 2 XD-7, 2 X700
first XD-7 (a bit worn and sometimes slightly erratic): M 1/1000 is 1.5ms (1/670 s), fastest in A: 0.6ms (1/1666 s)
second XD-7 (in really good shape): M 1/1000 is 1.3ms (1/750 s), fastest in A: 0.5ms (1/2000 s)
first X700 (a bit worn, late model from China): M 1/1000 is 1.5ms (1/670 s), fastest in A: 1.15ms (1/870 s)
second X700 (in really good shape, pre-China): M 1/1000 is 1.0ms (1/1000 s), fastest in A: 0.7ms (1/1430 s)

Three cameras are faster than 1/1000 and the worn X700 probably would be after a CLA.

[Steve Smith]

Three cameras are faster than 1/1000 and the worn X700 probably would be after a CLA.

Or slower with the results you posted above.

In aperture priority, the shutter speed does not need to be a 'normal' number.


Steve.

[ath]

Steve, the whole thing was about the max. achievable speed in A-Mode. Three cameras can be faster than 1/1000 in A-Mode.