What's the Minolta Super A like?

[SimonPJ]

I have just received a 13.5cm f4.5 Minolta lens bought on eBay from a listing with a minimal description and a blurry photo. I bought it hoping it would be an LTM / M39 lens. It's not. A bit of Googling, and I discovered that it is one of the lenses for the Minolta Super A of 1959.

It is quite beautifully made, and came with a very nice 135mm brightline finder - which projects the brightlines from a separate illumination window.

So... now I'm looking to find a Minolta Super A so that I can try the lens. Apparently the camera had 35mm (f3.5), 50mm (f1.8, f2, f2.8), 85mm (f2.8), 100mm (f3.8) and 135mm (f4.5) baynonet mount lenses.

Does anybody know anything more about this camera? What are the lenses like? How good is the rangefinder (parallax and brightline, apparently)? How does it handle? What problems does it suffer from?

And, is the bayonet mount peculiar to the Super A alone?

Thanks for any info.

Simon.

 

[jeffmatsler]

Did You Ever Get a Super A?

Did You Ever Get a Super A?

Hello,

I'm thinking about getting a Super A and saw your post. Did anyone answer it? I didn't see any replies.

Did you ever get a Super A? If so, what are your thoughts on it? I prefer shooting Minolta cameras and don't want to spend right now for a CLE, so I'm looking at the Super A. The bodies seem to be available, but I don't see many lenses for sale. What has been your experience locating a body / more lenses?

Thanks and let me know.

Jeff M