Description
Minolta XG-1 Camera
Beautiful and clean Minolta XG-1 camera (Serial 1362263) after an extensive rebuild/refurbishment.
Camera is clean throughout and fully serviced and tested.
Custom leatherette applied and supplied with a fully refurbished MD series 45mm f2.0 lens (Serial 1993259). Lens will be supplied with a good quality 3rd party lens cap.
This camera featured in our article ‘The Revenant’ which covers its history and the work done to bring this camera to superb overall condition. The lens featured in our lens rebuild guide for the 45mm f2 Rokkor.
There is a scratch on the side of the prism housing but this is purely cosmetic see last photo. The lens shows some signs of wear but its optics are perfect and it operates extremely well with a light and smooth focus throw and a suitably snappy aperture.
The camera and lens shoot and operate perfectly. Please be aware metering on this camera is only active in Auto mode. This is NOT a fault – it’s how the camera was designed to work.
The Minolta XG-1 camera was the second in the XG series launched in 1977 as a budget camera to complement the top of the line XD series. Unlike its predecessor the SRT series, the XG series was all electronic. By the time the XG series came to market the SRT series was looking tired but would soldier on until 1981. The XG series would continue to use the outdated CdS metering cells (unlike the XD which was using the latest silicon cells) but it had an all electronic shutter.
In the aperture-priority automatic mode, the electronically governed shutter provides stepless speeds from 1s to 1/1000s.
The XG-1, like others in the XG series was geared for those on a budget or the beginner and was designed to operate mostly in aperture priority auto mode. The XG series also introduced a touch sensitive shutter release which would be carried over onto the X-x00 range. With the camera turned on the lightest touch of the shutter button would activate its electronics which would turn off again after 15 seconds of no activity. All XG bodies featured an ±2 EV exposure compensation dual.
One of the oddities of the XG series was the fact that the meter was inactive in manual mode and only comes alive in Auto Mode.
The XG-1 was originally sold with the, at that time, brand new 45mm f2 lens.
Complete CLA with deep cleaning through the camera. Many replacement parts sources including custom leatherette. New seals and bumper.
Lens completely rebuilt and re-lubricated – see the rebuild in our rebuild guide HERE
Fully tested both with professional test equipment and by shooting two rolls of live film.
For a complete view of the work on this camera please see the article ‘The Revenant’ link here.
Please be aware that the cameras and lenses for sale can be up to 50 years old. They have been serviced and/or checked and are always as good as they can be made, but please don’t expect them to be flawless as if they were made yesterday.
All lenses of this age exhibit some small particles of dust and coatings are not up to modern standards. Cameras will exhibit some wear signs and likewise may have small dust specks in their viewfinders or focus screens. These do not affect the picture in any way.
ANY problems or issues will be described in the main text which you are advised to read carefully.If you are unfamiliar with film cameras we suggest you do some online research and read the manuals which are freely available from online resources.
We are enthusiastic film fans and spend our time hunting cameras and lenses that have been or are being unloved. We then spend hours to bring them back to fully working and clean condition, ready for a new lease of life with you We always change the film seals, give the camera a clean/service and make sure its fully working before we sell it on to you.
Most lenses are cleaned, re-lubricated and all of their functions checked prior to sale so you know they will work, full details will always be in the text. All items are packed safely for transit using proper packing material NOT something the cat was sick in. Having been stung both on eBay and by dealers alike who often know very little about film cameras we decided to offer people a chance to experience film using a camera that will last for many years and which we can say for sure works reliably
Mel & Claire