Minolta Hi-Matic 7s

[denmark.yuzon]

thanks gatewaycityca for the comment.. im still waiting for it. i hope it does work with no problems at all.. if it didnt, i guess i have to find a good repairman to have it CLA'ed and sell it off and get the konica auto S2 instead.. but, im crossing my fingers on this one.. i hope the meters work too..

[Galah]

I don't know...I have NOT had good luck with this camera at all.

I bought one on eBay after reading a lot of praise about it...how sharp it is, the fact that you can use it either in automatic or completely manual mode, etc. Well, I haven't had a chance to use it yet. The shutter only fires half the time. ....
...I've asked some people on Photo.net about this camera, and even the people who like it do admit that it does tend to have shutter problems and needs to be serviced periodically...

I really hope you have better luck with your Minolta Hi-Matic. And I hope you enjoy it and have a lot of fun with it. But I'm just totally turned off from them if there's a 50\50 chance that the shutter won't work.

OK,OK I already said that a sticking shutter is a common problem with this model (and -in my experience- aperture sticking with some Minolta lenses also)

However, if you have one, a CLA should not be exhorbitant.

You pays your money and takes your choice, as they say!

[denmark.yuzon]

Well, believe it or not, I'm still using the Mercury battery I installed in it when I got it (second-hand) a very long time ago: it still works

However, I'll be checking it out tonight to make sure everything is still OK.

The camera has an on-off facility: it is part of the ISO setting arrangement (a small lever underneath the lens) I leave mine on "Off" when not in use.

The camera has a delayed-release arrangement (the "V" position). I have heard that it is often best not to mess with this. It is a clockwork mechanism and, if it jams (through age/lack of lubrication) you are stuck as the shutter will not operate until this is cleared. (A common problem with vintage cameras).

thanks Galah.. i read about it somewhere not to mess with the self-timer option.. i will keep this in mind.. hehehe..

[ntenny]

By contrast with some other people, I've had quite good luck with my eBay 7s, though I've only put about five rolls through it so far. Using a 1.5V battery should affect the metering in principle, but I haven't found it to be a problem in practice (with print film, admittedly). The rangefinder/viewfinder is just great, a real breath of fresh air compared to my Soviet rangefinders.

The biggest problem I've run into, and I'm not sure if it's a design limitation or something wrong with my particular camera, is that there's no way to tell when you've exceeded the limitations of the autoexposure system. I shot a roll in low light using aperture priority and discovered afterwards that the whole roll was ludicrously underexposed, to the point of being almost blank (I can see faint images if I hold it at just the right angle to the light). I'm not sure what the camera was doing---perhaps defaulting to some standard shutter speed since it didn't have enough light to pick one properly. But other than that one incident, it's been very good to me so far.

-NT

[Chaplain Jeff]

Hello,

Of all the Minolta RF's, this is my least preferred - although I have friends who claim it as their favorite. I find the controls to be in all the wrong places on it as well as the Highmatic 9 and 11. I've owned three or four of these over the years and I have found that they break easily and are not as well made as other Minoltas.

For about twice the price of a good CLA'ed one you can get a 7sII, which is a MUCH better camera - more well built and more compact.

The glass is great of course, so go out and shoot it and enjoy! If you got a good one and you take care of it, it could last you the rest of your life.

And if it breaks, get yourself a 7sII so you'll never have to worry about it again.

[bvandrasik]

It will take up to 400 ISO film...
it works in fully auto as well as in aperture preferred semi auto

There's a little misinformation here from Galah.
1. It will meter properly with film from ASA 25-800
2. It does NOT have aperture priority (or shutter priority) mode. Fully auto or fully manual only. This is a common misconception. It seems like it "should" work because you can move either the aperture or shutter ring from the Auto position, while leaving the other at Auto, but it just doesn't work, and is not mentioned in the manual.

The manual is available at Michael Butkus's excellent site http://www.butkus.org/chinon/

The biggest problem I've run into, and I'm not sure if it's a design limitation or something wrong with my particular camera, is that there's no way to tell when you've exceeded the limitations of the autoexposure system. I shot a roll in low light using aperture priority and discovered afterwards that the whole roll was ludicrously underexposed, to the point of being almost blank (I can see faint images if I hold it at just the right angle to the light). I'm not sure what the camera was doing---perhaps defaulting to some standard shutter speed since it didn't have enough light to pick one properly. But other than that one incident, it's been very good to me so far.
-NT

It didn't work because the camera does NOT have aperture priority mode (see above).
When the meter needle enters the red area (high or low) you are outside of the auto exposure range.

Brad

[ntenny]

2. It does NOT have aperture priority (or shutter priority) mode. Fully auto or fully manual only.

Really? I see that this isn't mentioned in the manual, but the camera sure seems to do *something* in the "priority" modes---I opened up the back and dry-fired it a few times in differently lit conditions, and for instance, with the speed fixed and the aperture on A, I could see the aperture changing in a way that looked reasonable.

But maybe it's selecting the aperture based on what it would do in "full auto" mode, rather than based on the speed I've actually set it to?

Well, too bad, but no great loss---it's a perfectly good manual camera with a built-in meter, anyway.

-NT

[Galah]

oh.. ok.. thanks Galah.. what batteries do you use with yours? they say, hearing aid batteries works best as the 1.4V is close to the 1.35V from mercury batteries..

I know I replied to this post already, but you got me thinking and, when I got home, I straightaway checked to see what battery was in the camera.

As I said, believe it or not, it does appear to have the original battery I put in it about 15 years ago: it is a "Varta" made in Germany V625PX 1.35v mercury battery, which is still OK to go!:o. These were discontinued in 1998.

What made me rush home was the thought that the battery may have eaten through its case and leaked into the battery compartment but, as far as I can see, everything is still quite sound: no leaks, no mess, and still giving "full power". Amazing!

I guess I'll be looking for a replacement battery myself: this weekend.

(I have seen the mess they can make when they leak into the battery compartment : best avoided!)

[denmark.yuzon]

thanks you guys for all the inputs.. im excited to get this camera and test it out for myself.. i hope it will last me a lifetime.. otherwise ill get myself a konica auto S2 instead..

[bvandrasik]

I opened up the back and dry-fired it a few times in differently lit conditions, and for instance, with the speed fixed and the aperture on A, I could see the aperture changing in a way that looked reasonable.

Yes, it is probably just picking the automatic aperture it would use for that light.

A better test would be to see if the aperture changes for different shutter speeds in the same light, with the aperture in"A" mode. I strongly suspect it wont. (I can't check it on mine right now because I am in the middle of a roll of film)

Brad