Got myself a free Minolta X700, now what

Avotius

Avotius

Some guy
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So my girlfriends uncle gave me a minolta x700 and a MD lens (28-80...? was that what is was?) and asked if I could fix his lens, I looked through one end and there was a small forest growing in it. No I said. He said ok, keep it then. His camera was perfectly fine, hehe...yummy, so now I got this camera sitting here which I really like, it is very neat to use and has a lot of great features, I love the old style slr build style before hand grips and 1000 point metering came along. So the lens I thought maybe I can clean it a little and tinker with it as a toy, then I turned it over and 4 glass elements came spilling out the front before I could do anything. Woops. I put it all back together, I think, but its probably toast.

Anyway, back to the camera, I like it, pretty neat, my recent nostalgia with my canon ae1 out street shooting has me wondering if I might not pick up a 50mm lens for this minolta too and play with it. I saw a lot of lenses on ebay from 50mm 1.2 to 50 2.0's. I like speed a lot so the 50 1.2 caught my eye. 1.4 is also perfectly fine. Prices seem ok I guess, but I never priced out slr lenses online before, let alone know anything about minolta cameras except that it seems to have a smillilar cloth shutter as my ae1 and its made of plastic, which stucks compared to my metal ae1 but is a lot lighter, with a harsher less dampened shutter crash.

Ok, enough blabering, what do I do, what do I get, do MD, MC, MCx Mdx or whatever lenses all work on this body? Help please :)


ah...old slr's, makes me all rubbery inside just like old rangefinders....they dont make em like they used too....


ps. I know I have enough cameras already, but I just bought a box of Era 100 film (400 rolls) and the gf and I are splitting it and part of our "shoot a roll a day for 3 months" adventure is to use different cameras and become accustomed to different systems.
 
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OK, any 1.2 lens will run you a bit of $$$. Minolta MD 50/1.4 and 50/1.7 lenses are excellent. I prefer the 1.4, the 1.7 should be a little sharper and therefore a lot of folks prefer it, and it is cheaper. You would like MD lenses to use the fully automatic feature on the x-700. Lenses with MD Rokkor-X on the front ring are said to be a little better built. MD Rokkor X 24/2.8 and 28/2 are great as is the 35/1.8. Looking for a short tele? MD 85/2........ I think you will like the performance and price of all MD lenses.
 
rover said:
OK, any 1.2 lens will run you a bit of $$$. Minolta MD 50/1.4 and 50/1.7 lenses are excellent. I prefer the 1.4, the 1.7 should be a little sharper and therefore a lot of folks prefer it, and it is cheaper. You would like MD lenses to use the fully automatic feature on the x-700. Lenses with MD Rokkor-X on the front ring are said to be a little better built. MD Rokkor X 24/2.8 and 28/2 are great as is the 35/1.8. Looking for a short tele? MD 85/2........ I think you will like the performance and price of all MD lenses.
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I just had a look at KEH, there are a lot to choose from, ex condition 50's for less then 30 bucks sounds great.


The lens that came with the camera, the MD lens, was plastic, light, chincy, and I hated it. A little quality in build would be great, metal lenses espcially as it seems the MC's are?

Could you maybe post a picture you took with some of your minolta lenses so I can get an idea of what im looking at? 50 1.4 especially. I will check flickr later I guess.
 
www.rokkorfiles.com is a great resource for Minolta MD, MC glass.

The MD Rokkor 50/1.4 would be a good start.

The X-700 likely has one of the brightest VFs available. I've got a couple of them.
 
The X-700 was one of the cameras I always wanted and never bought. If it's fully working it would be worth getting a lens for. I may even have a test report of it. i'll have a look and let you know.
 
The rokkorfiles site has lens reviews which may help you. I have an X700, which I've used extensively (although in recent years I've been doing more w/ rfs). I particularly like its compact size for an slr. The MC lenses are older, and sometimes heavier, than the more recent MD versions. As has been pointed out, only the MD lenses can be used in "program" mode on the X700, but MC lenses otherwise fit fine and can be used in the camera's aperture-priority mode as well as manual.

The 35/2.8 MD lens is very good: I've successfully enlarged shots taken w/ it (both hand-held and tripod) to 11x14. I've also found the 28 mm MD to be useful for interiors; it is also v. cheap. Two additional lenses that have received a lot of praise are the 25 mm MD, and the 85 mm in 1.7 and 2.0 variants (MD and MC); I don't have any of these, however, so I can't give you a report. The 135/3.5 mm MD, although slowish, is very compact and sharp, and makes a good travel lens. I don't use my 50/1.7 mm MD much.

I have the 35-105 mm macro MD zoom. It's nice, and the ability to focus v. close is useful, but its size was what prompted me to return to rf cameras for travel purposes.

As an all-purpose slr, though, the X700 is a great camera. Congrats on your acquisition!
 
x700 :)
it's the first SLR I've ever owned, I bought it last year on ebay ;-)
Take a MD 1,7 or even 2 if you want compactness and sharpness (they've some plastic, yes, but they're solid enough). MC lenses have more soft bokeh, but some of them suffer flare.
 
One further thought: avoid the 45 mm MDs? I researched these awhile ago, and learned that they were "mass market" consumer lenses that are probably not as sharp as the 35s and 50s.

If you're looking for a faster wide, Minolta made a 35/1.8 MD, which is supposedly pretty good. The rokkorfiles site has a review of Minolta manual focus 35s, among others.
 
Yes, the 35/1.8 is an excellent lens, but it's rather remarkably large (long). The 45/2 MD is actually quite a good lens. Plasticky, yes (as are many of the MDs) but optically fine and very inexpensive. Look for the 85/1.7 too, or the 100/2.5.

Rokkor lenses are excellent values these days. I don't think they yield anything optically to the other brands, and as someone noted above they're known for having particularly nice out of focus characteristics.
 
Sent you a PM Avotius, here are two shots of my 3 unused MD lenses. They served me well through college during their use (will try and find some old photo's but no promises) before the MD body packed up and I upgraded to a MAF body and set of lenses.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y43/second-belated/DSC00940.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y43/second-belated/DSC00941.jpg

No rear cap for the 58mm (unless I can find the old spare one) so the aperture blades are showing. I remember it having nice bokeh, but hey it's no Rokkor. I think some of the telephoto is plastic, but the 58mm and the Vivitar are both metal, and feel nice in the hand.
 
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I have the 45/2, and sharpness wise up to 8x10, it's as good as the 50's.

For whatever reason, the 100/2.5 seems to go cheaper than the 85's, which don't show up very often.

The 35-70/3.5 and 70-210/4 are also reputable but cheap.
 
I sold my 50/1.4, something I need to fix. I use SRTs and MC lenses, my fav being the 58/1.2. Check out my flickr for samples from the 58 and 35/1.8 (MD).

Avotius said:
I just had a look at KEH, there are a lot to choose from, ex condition 50's for less then 30 bucks sounds great.


The lens that came with the camera, the MD lens, was plastic, light, chincy, and I hated it. A little quality in build would be great, metal lenses espcially as it seems the MC's are?

Could you maybe post a picture you took with some of your minolta lenses so I can get an idea of what im looking at? 50 1.4 especially. I will check flickr later I guess.
Click to expand...
 
I love the 45mm f2, MD mount. Small and with the 28mm a great kit.
 
wow so many choices and its amazing, I can get a full kit and spend less then 100 bucks if I shop carefully, of course the last thing I need is yet another system, maybe I will pick up one or two lenses, a 35 and a 50.
 
My grandfather bought a X-370 (because of its beautiful bright viewfinder and he was legally blind), I received it after he passed away. The little brother of the X-700, amazingly small (for an AE SLR) and accurate exposure.

The lenses I have are quite excellent.... 28mm 2.8 Rokkor MD-X is an excellent light weight wide lens

the 50mm 1.7 MD Rokkor is a great inexpensive normal

I also have the 135mm 2.8 Rokkor MD, sharp ... not too heavy

I don't use it as much as I would should (have a roll of Porta VC that needs to be developed using the 28mm)

If I were to recommend one ... I would state the 28mm Rokkor MD-X would be a great pickup
 
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