Minolta XK, pound for pound the best 35mm SLR ever made.

[Huss]

Seriously, this thing is very heavy!
😀

Just picked one up and I love it. I don't have a Nikon F2 to compare it to here at work, but it seems like it is a lot heavier. What a phenomenal camera, the mirror damping seems superior to that of any of my Nikons apart from the F6.
Auto exposure too! F2 doesn't have that. I can hand this to my nephews to use without having to explain too much, well, as long as their knees don't buckle under the weight..

This is gonna be a lot of fun.

p.s. this thing with it's bulbous meter head reminds me of Herman Munster.

 

[CameraQuest]

The XK was one of the cameras made from the collaboration of Leitz and Minolta.

A full 35mm pro system camera aimed squarely at Nikon and Canon at the time.

Fine lens line, interchangeable finders, interchangeable meters, interchangeable focusing screens, AE capable, unfortunately with a fixed pro motor instead of Nikon's detachable motor.

Compared to Nikon and Canon, the Achilles heel proved to be reliability and metering accuracy. Not a big sales success, no XK2 ever made it to the marketplace. The XK did arguably hurry up Nikon's introduction of the AE capable F3.

Stephen

 

[Dwig]

The XK was and is a good camera. Solid and very well built.

The Nikon F2 did have AE when an F2 Photomic S, SB or As finder's AE servo attachment was added. It created a rather bulk shutter priority arrangement that was, admittedly, somewhat slow in its reaction to changing light. It did work well for remote operations.

 

[Huss]

Question about the exposure compensation. The numbers are in yellow or green.
So which one is +, which one is - ?
I could not find an answer in the owner's manual.

Also.. I want to get a light seal kit for it. No-one makes one for the XK. Are the seals on the door the same size as a Minolta SR series camera?

Thanks!

 

[Huss]

Bought a light seal kit for an XE-7, looks like it should be very similar.
Bought a Rokkor 100 2.5 MD lens.
Shot two rolls of film through it. I got some unintentional mirror lock ups on the first roll when I forgot to keep pressure on the meter switch as I took the pic. The camera is designed to do that (if I flip the switch to keep the meter on all the time it does not do that).
I noticed that the meter in my Nikon F2As reads down to much lower light levels. I also noticed that I took some shots on my last roll (not sure how many) with the exposure compensation dial accidentally set. There is no warning flag in the VF, and I'm not sure when/how I turned it to that setting, especially seeing that it takes a very deliberate action to do so.

 

[locheeboy]

The XK was one of the cameras made from the collaboration of Leitz and Minolta.

AAAhh .....No.

The XK was conceived and built long before the Minolta/Leica co-operation. In fact, when Leica came tae choose a camera for their partnership with Minolta, Minolta said "Here, how about the XK?"

To which Leica replied " Good wan, yer havin a laugh? No, no we want that wan there... the XE 1/7"

My mate's dad was a pro photographer, who won a decent pile of money on the football pools. He bought himself an XK with about 3/4 different finders. As he said, impractical for many of his purposes as a pro but the best built and engineered camera he ever had .

 

[Addy101]

You may be interested in XK page on the Rokkorfiles.

 

[Huss]

You may be interested in XK page on the Rokkorfiles.

Thanks, that's what got me hooked!

 

[locheeboy]

Everyone and his brother/sister goes on about the weight of the XK. Called my mate and asked him tae weigh it...682grammes (body only). My Sony A700? 690 grammes (body only).

Now ah reckon that's about average for a DSLR in the past 8-10 years. Don't know what kind of DSLR others are using but ah defy them tae tell me that 50-100 grammes lighter is noticeable...

Obviously the motorised version will be much heavier but some folk just have tae man up...😎

 

[Huss]

Everyone and his brother/sister goes on about the weight of the XK. Called my mate and asked him tae weigh it...682grammes (body only). My Sony A700? 690 grammes (body only).

Now ah reckon that's about average for a DSLR in the past 8-10 years. Don't know what kind of DSLR others are using but ah defy them tae tell me that 50-100 grammes lighter is noticeable...

Obviously the motorised version will be much heavier but some folk just have tae man up...😎

Aye laddie ah'll need tah eat some haggis dripping' in Glenkinchie tah bulk up.
Ah mae even toss me caber maw than ah usually dae, tah build up mah wrist strength tae..

Yah admits tah hav'in ah Soohny dae yae? Whut kinda Scott are aye? Digital lah-da-freakin dah bae-bee's toy. Where's ya wet plate camera?

 

[Nokton48]

Here's Mine.

I really like it. I've had plenty of Nikon F2's in my time, I prefer the XK.
Essex Camera rebuilt mine and it is holding up very well. I have most of the finders and screens for this, as well.

Last weekend I held in my hands the XK Motor, but the battery packs were broken so I wasn't real interested in buying it.

Great Camera! 😎

 

[Nokton48]

If you leave it on accidentally, it will drain the batteries. Just like my XE-7 same vintage
With the rubber eyepiece on it is hard to tell if the switch is on or off.
Usually I remove the rubber eyecup to see what position the switch is in.

Suggestion: Carry extra batteries in the Minolta battery holder, on your neckstrap.

 

[JP Owens]

I had a friend back in the day who used XK's professionally, preferring them to Nikons we all carried then. He beat them up pretty good and they just kept going. My only experience with the X cameras was an XE-7 I bought new for my wife (who had some Minolta glass from her SRT-101). She tried to use it for over a year, but it kept failing with various electrical problems, and finally picked up another SRT-101 at a camera buy/sell we went to.