Questions about the Yashica Minister 700

[defconfunk]

I've got a Minister 700 on the way. It'll be my first RF. I'm hoping some people with hands on experience can help me out.

1 - Reading up at Yashica-Guy, he said it uses the 625A battery. But the scanned manual I found online (for the Minister D) says specifically that it uses a mercury battery. Since I don't expect the camera will come with a battery loaded, can anyone tell me which it is?

2 - What size filters does the lens take?

Thanks, I'm really excited and looking forward to playing with the new-to-me toy (had to call something manufactured twenty years before I was born "new").

 

[btgc]

I believe, Yashica Guy did mean battery size is of 625 type, and probably he got good enough meter readings with alkaline cell - many people say their negatives look OK using alkaline cell instead of mercury cell. Sure it were designed for mercury cell.

Some go into trouble of building diode into circuit to drop voltage of silver oxide 1.5V cell down a bit to have voltage closer to original.

Minister 700 is quite a rarity. Technically has nothing over Lynx 5000 but man, 700 is not common model. Seen listed only once over 4 years.

 

[defconfunk]

My plan for the battery is to order one of the adapters for lithium-air hearing aid batteries. I just don't want to order it until I know for sure.

I pretty much decided that I wanted an inexpensive RF, didn't want the headache of a Russian built, wanted full manual control (which knocked out a dozen of otherwise cool little RFs) and wanted it to be sufficiently different from my AE-1 with 50mm F1.8 that I wouldn't spend forever trying to decide which I wanted to shoot with on any given day.

Because the Minister 700 was up when I was looking it didn't seem as rare as reading suggested. Given than I'll probably be only one of two people I know who even own an RF, I could have gotten a Canonet 28 and felt like I had a rare camera 🙂

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

Welcome aboard.

In your shoes, I'd spend less on a Wein cell (assuming we are talking about replacing a mercury PX 625 cell). That way you can play with it and see if it works for a while (up to a year with luck).

Go for the adapters when you're sure about the camera working OK. BTW, I'm the first to recommend the adapter but it's a lot of money to pay out before you're 100% certain of the camera.

Regards, David

 

[defconfunk]

Thanks for the recommendation. I'd read up on those but forgotten about them. I have one on order now. I figure the mercury battery is a pretty safe bet, since all the RFs I found really appealing seemed to need them anyways...

 

[Aapo]

Minister 700 is quite a rarity. Technically has nothing over Lynx 5000 but man, 700 is not common model. Seen listed only once over 4 years.

In fact I came here to look more details about 700 and D models since one guy is selling both models. After brief google I found out that 700 comes with f 1,7 and D with 2,8. Few months back saw one D model which was sold cheaply and I have always admired a bit Minister / Lynx bodys.

 

[Frontman]

Don't be broken hearted if the meter in the 700 doesn't work. I have come across a few of them here in Japan, but I have yet to find one with a good meter. That said, I don't usually bother with built in meters on old cameras anyway.

You'll find the 700 an interesting camera to use. Choose the shutter speed you prefer, then take a reading with the meter to get an EV number, as you turn the EV ring on the front of the lens, the aperture ring will move in the opposite direction, stopping at the correct aperture setting when you turn to the indicated EV number.

 

[defconfunk]

For the record, the lens takes 46mm filters.

Also, having never used a RF before, the lack of tactile feedback (no mirror clanking) is really disconcerting... despite dry firing the camera dozens of time before putting film in it, I still wasn't sure if the shutter had actually fired when I pushed the button.

Now I'm just waiting on some batteries so I can use the camera without having my DSLR along as a light meter...