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Photo Of The Day: “Strong Coffee”

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“Strong Coffee” 2015. Mamiya C330, Mamiya-Sekor 65mm f/3.5, Tri-X 400 developed in Caffenol straight scan, no enhancements. Messy, dusty, but it worked! 🙂

If you’re in the blizzard zone and stuck home this weekend, I hope this will give you extra reading material 🙂

I’ve been developing film for quite a few years and although I don’t consider myself an expert at all, I’m familiar with traditional developers such as Rodinal, D76, T-Max, HC-110, etc, etc.

One developer that I’ve heard about, but never tried till recently was a home brew called “Caffenol.”

This is a process where you use instant coffee, washing soda, and vitamin C powder to concoct a mix that actually develops film.

When I first heard about this years back, I laughed it off thinking it was a big joke. When I investigated further, I was totally shocked that you can develop film with instant coffee!

The photo above is a result of my first Caffenol experiment. Now I know it’s far from an award winning result, probably not the kind of result anyone wants, but to be honest with you, I’m just thrilled that it worked! 🙂

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A 100 percent crop of the above image. I am unsure why, but I am not getting the option to show the image full size as I used to have. I am trying to get to the bottom of this and will fix it, if possible. If you could see it, you would see the glitter around the glasses well resolved.

Above is a 100 percent crop of the original scan. I adjusted the contrast levels to better show the details. I was quite amazed that the result, while messy, actually holds a lot of details!

The image was shot in 2015 with a Mamiya C330 and a banged up Mamiya 65mm f/3.5 lens that I got for $23. The film was Kodak Tri-X 400 which is my go-to for an easy to develop, classic film.

If you search the web, you will find many fine examples from Caffenol connoisseurs who have posted results much better than this.

As I said, I’m no expert at this. The hardest part is finding “washing soda” so I made it myself by heating up baking soda, not certain whether I did everything right. Also in the darkroom, I made the mistake of turning on the lights when I didn’t have cover on the tank with film in it, allowing for possible light contamination. Something I’d never done in all the years that I’ve developed film. Because of these issues, I was even more amazed that it actually gave me something at all!

I am now eager to experiment more and to perfect this process. However, that would mean I would have to waste a lot of rolls of precious memories so I have to be sure that each roll I process with Caffenol is really “disposable” to me, so to speak.

If you haven’t tried this process, take a roll of film that you think you could part with and try it out. It’s a lot of fun and could potentially save you money from buying traditional developers. It’s quite a kick to take the instant coffee on your kitchen shelf and turn it into a film developer, it really is! 🙂

Have a blessed day and I hope you stay safe in you’re in the zone of this major blizzard.

Best, Sam

Note: I’m not sure if I’m doing something wrong or something changed with WordPress, but people used to be able to click on the photos to see a larger version, but now it doesn’t give me that option. If anyone can tell me why, I would appreciate it!

Tuesday Titans: The Minolta 9xi

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The Minolta 9xi is a 35mm film SLR introduced by Minolta in 1992.

I got this camera in 2007 when I found one real cheap (less than $100) at that time. Today, you could probably get two of them for $100 if you try hard enough.

This was a camera I lusted for since the 90s, but they were too expensive for me at the time when film still dominated the market.

I was going to do a long write up on this, but I saw that Wikipedia has an awesome and unusually informative page up on this one. It must’ve been written by an enthusiast because a lot of Wiki or Camerapedia pages on cameras are not this in-depth! Here is a link to the Minolta 9xi page on Wikipedia.

After reading this, I feel that there is very little I can add other than to give you my impressions and post some photos.

MINOLTA 9xi IMPRESSIONS

I must admit, this is one of those cameras I loved simply because of its looks. I know people who think this camera is ugly, but I’m not one of them. It’s squatty, but its thick and strong profile is strangely attractive to me 🙂

The 9xi was apparently another attempt by Minolta to get to the top of the pro market and the 9xi is built to high quality standards. At the time of its release, it was touted as having the “world’s fastest autofocus” system.

While the outer shell appears to be polycarbonate, the innards contain a metal frame, reenforced shutter/mirror box, and the camera is sealed for dust and moisture protection.

When I first got this camera, I was pleasantly surprised at its swift, speedy, and accurate AF! It didn’t feel like AF you would expect from 1992 and I felt it was better and more accurate than the original Canon EOS-1 pro camera I recently reviewed.

Ergonomically the camera felt great in the hands, beefy with the right proportions, but like the EOS-1, controls can be a bit confusing as it relies on mostly buttons and the front dial to make inputs into the camera. I prefer cameras where shutter speeds and other controls are easy to find and these cameras usually have dedicated knobs and dials for such functions. The 9xi does not, but that does not make it a bad camera.

The 9xi has the usual P-S-A-M (with shift) modes. It also had a headline grabbing 1/12000 top shutter speed!! That was great for people trying to film a golf swing or water dropping into a cup, but I’ve never used that shutter speed although it was great to know the 9xi had it.

Minolta was a very innovate and creative company and that creativity sometimes led them to strange “innovations” such as the “eye-start” feature on the 9xi. What happens is you put the camera to your eye and it triggers a sensor to start the camera right away. Sometimes I forgot about this and it would freak me out when the camera started focusing as soon as I put it to my eye! Fortunately, you can stop this by using your fingers to cover the sensors on the front grip, although I’m not sure there is a dedicated control to turn it off.

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“Don’t Tase Me Bro” 2007. Minolta 9xi, Minolta 50mm f/1.7 AF, Kodak BW400CN. The gimmicky “eye-start” feature on the 9xi actually helped me get this fleeting moment when I was about to be “tasered” by the kid’s stinky socks 🙂

Another example (and perhaps a negative aspect) of Minolta’s creativity  was that with earlier cameras they tried to sell you on their “creative cards” which were basically pre-programmed expansion cards with modes (i.e., Sports, Portrait, Night) that we all take for granted today because they’re included in almost every camera.

I personally never liked these “modes” because I find them gimmicky and I never want to give total control to the camera, especially a sophisticated camera, but I can see how it can be useful for beginning and casual photographers. There was apparently a “custom function” card for the 9xi though I never had or used one.

The good news is apparently many advanced functions can be accessed without any cards, through the camera’s “Quick” button. There’s a lot you can do with it, bracketing, multiple exposures, etc. Do a little research if you’re really interested in this.

Despite some of these innovations, they were eventually seen, as I said, gimmicky. Totally unnecessary stuff for an already great camera. As I mentioned in other articles, while I admire creativity, sometimes being too creative might not be such a good thing 🙂

The highly touted 14 “honey-comb” pattern metering provided nearly perfect exposures in all the rolls I put into this camera. Minolta was known for their superb metering and the 9xi did not disappoint in this respect.

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“Jon Butcher” 2007. Minolta 9xi, Minolta 85mm f/1.4 G lens, Fujicolor Press 800 film. I had a dedicated film scanner at the time vs the flatbed that I use today. If you ever doubted that film could get as sharp as digital, this photo might be a good advocate for film! Sharp right down to the pores! The colors may seem a little funny, but the man’s skin is actually a deep shade of red/brown 🙂

The camera is also able do wireless flash with dedicated flash units such as the 5400xi, but the camera does not have a built-in flash unit.

BOTTOM LINE

If you don’t mind fidgeting a little to figure this camera out, and you love electronic cameras, the Minolta Maxxum/Dynax 9xi is one of the best bargains you can get today for a high-spec, speedy, and interesting 35mm autofocus SLR.

The Minolta 9xi may be largely forgotten today, but its high spec and high performance makes it one of the best auto-focus 35mm film cameras ever released by any manufacturer. The camera consistently provided me with sharp focus and accurate exposures.

It is a modern classic that reminds us to never forget the Camera Legend of Minolta, a company long gone but was at one time, one of the world’s greatest camera manufacturers.

PS: People tend to forget that (if you think about it) Minolta very much lives on in the Sony A system (not the mirrorless E system) cameras. If you block out the Sony name in your mind for a minute, you can appreciate that the lens mount is the same as that on the Maxxum 7000 of 1985!

WHERE TO BUY?

If shopping for the 9xi, prices are trending at $30-130 with an average of around $50 for one in decent condition.

These cameras tend to stay in decent shape, although like many Minolta AF cameras and lenses, they tended to develop this nasty looking white “film” thingy, kind of like dried milk.

The cheapest ones can be found on eBay where they used to be plentiful, but now seem less so and the ones that are there tend to be a little on the pricey side.

As you can see in my pages, camera collecting can be fun and doesn’t have to be expensive. You don’t need to pay over $100 for this camera, so be patient.

For a safer purchase than eBay, you can find them HERE and HERE in the USED section. In fact, there’s one in the first link for $13 plus shipping!

***NEW LEICA CAMERA ALERT***

The new Leica X-U (Typ 113) is out and it looks like another killer cam from the German rangefinder giant.

Photo Of The Day: “Magic of Ramen Noodles”

 

“Magic Of Ramen Noodles” 2011. Minolta CLE with Canon 50mm f/1.5 Serenar ltm lens on Kodak Tri-X 400 developed in T-Max developer in 2011.

It might not be the best thing for you, but it sure feels good in the tummy 😀

Yes, it’s instant ramen, the ultimate poor man’s comfort food. Perfect for those times when you’re absolutely starving or when you have very little time to concoct a fine meal. Once the craving is satisfied, hunger is gone 🙂

The Casio QV-10

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The Casio QV-10 is a digital point and shoot camera released by Casio in 1995.

Even with a paltry resolution of 320 x 240 dots, the QV-10 consistently comes up on lists and polls of the “most important” digital cameras of all time.

And the reason for that is simply because the QV-10 is considered the first digital camera with an LCD on it. Wow, why didn’t anyone think of that?! 🙂

All kidding aside, I’m sure someone must have, but the ever quirky and interesting Casio, better known for their watches, were the first to put one on a mass market consumer digital camera and as you know, that back LCD changed digital cameras forever.

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The back LCD of the Casio QV-10. A feature that has become standard on all digital cameras and as the first camera to feature an LCD for composition and playback, it is the LCD that made the QV-1o a Camera Legend.

As a camera, the QV-10 features a 5.2mm (60mm full frame equivalent) f/2.8 lens that swivels, another innovation in 1995. The revolutionary LCD viewing screen is a 1.8 inch TFT screen with a resolution of 61,380 pixels.

The camera runs on four AA batteries and stores about 96 images on the built in 2mb flash memory.

You need a special serial cable to transfer these images, and with today’s technology, you probably need an adapter too for viewing these low resolution images.

I don’t have one unfortunately, but trust me, viewing these super low resolution images would simply be fun for novelty and nothing else.

If seeking one of these, be aware that there is a QV-10A and QV-10B. I couldn’t find much about the differences, if any, online. Just know that the QV-10A is the one you want for camera collecting purposes.

Prices on these are trending at $10-60 and the only place I’ve ever seen them is on eBay. While not particularly valuable monetarily, they are somewhat rare, but they do show up sporadically.

The Casio QV-10 was the first digital camera to feature an LCD that could be used to compose and playback pictures. This is a feature that has become standard and expected on all digital cameras. As a pioneering camera in the history of digital photography, the first to implement the now essential digital camera LCD, the Casio QV-10 is without hesitation a Camera Legend.

***DEAL ALERT***

Some new and exciting Leica lenses have been released! They are:

LEICA SUMMICRON-M 28MM F/2.0 ASPH BLACK.

LEICA SUMMICRON-M 35MM F/2.0 ASPH BLACK.

LEICA SUMMICRON-M 35MM F/2.0 ASPH SILVER.

LEICA 28 2.8-M ELMARIT-M ASPH BLACK.

For any Leica M shooter, this is awesome stuff!

 

 

 

Photo Of The Day: “Faded Love”

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“Faded Love” 2009. Rolleiflex 2.8C Xenotar lens, Kodak Portra 400 color film for this near monochromic scene. Just like the roses once bloomed and that Sun that was once bright, the love is fading into the night 🙂

In celebrating twenty years (1996-2016) on the net, I will be sprinkling photos here and there, hopefully to enhance your Camera Legend experience. The images may contain cameras and lenses not yet profiled, but which may be in the near future. Thanks for looking and I wish you a year of great photos 🙂

Best, Sam

Celebrating Ten Years Of JuJu

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JuJu @ Six Months. 2006. Nikon D1X. Cannot remember the lens, it just shows as 300mm on the exif viewer. A straight jpeg from the D1X, no treatment done. Although it was only 5mps, I really loved the D1X!

No “Tuesday Titans” today. Instead, we are celebrating a “titan” of our personal world. He is the first kid of the new generation of our family. Today, we celebrate my nephew JuJu who just turned ten recently. He was, in a way, my first beta tester for so many of the cameras that came into my possession in the years following his birth. Thanks for joining me in the celebration and for my fellow gear heads, take comfort in the captions which will reveal some the cool cameras used during this ten year period. Happy Birthday JuJu!! 🙂

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“Boy From NYC” 2006. Bessa R3a, CV 40mm f/1.4 Nokton Classic, Kodak BW400CN. I had just fixed the rangefinder on this camera, it was the first rangefinder adjustment I’d ever done. Shortly thereafter, I sold this camera, but now looking at the results from this combo, I kinda regret it!

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“Order & Chaos” 2009. Olympus Pen FT, Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 Pancake lens, Kodak Tri-X 400 developed in T-Max developer. Two frames from the half frame Pen FT camera showing how order can turn into chaos in a minute 🙂

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“My Brother’s Keepers” 2014. Nikon D1X, 35mm f/2.4 MIR Russian lens.

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“Rockabilly Ju” 2013. Fuji X-Pro 1, Canon FD 55mm f/1.2 Aspherical lens. JuJu rocks around the clock! 🙂

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“Happy” 2014. Panasonic DMC-GF1, Lumix 20mm f/1.7 ASPH lens. Go ahead people, clap along if you feel like a room without a roof! 🙂

 

The Best Camera I Never Knew Part V: The Ricoh FF-3 AF SUPER

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The Ricoh FF-3 AF SUPER. One of the great vintage Ricoh cameras that I’ve heard a lot about. One of the best cameras I never knew 🙂

The Ricoh FF-3 AF/FF-3 AF SUPER is a 35mm point and shoot camera introduced by Ricoh in 1982.

The camera featured a fixed lens 35mm f/3.2 Rikenon lens, shutter speeds from 1/8 to 1/500th of a second. As indicated in its name, the FF-3 AF is an autofocus camera and runs on two AA batteries.

THE RICOH FF-3 AF SUPER IMPRESSIONS

The camera looks retro cool, yet somewhat ugly, but not unlike many cameras from the late 70s and early 80s. Cameras from Nikon, Canon, and Minolta from this era also have a similar look.

It’s small, but not entirely pocketable unless you’re thinking of a coat pocket. As far as I can tell, it’s an autoexposure only camera as expected from most point and shoots of its day. The camera also does autowind and auto rewind.

The 35mm f/3.2 is supposedly very sharp with interesting character. Many wonderful images from this camera can be found on the internet, especially on Flickr.

WHY IT DIDN’T JIVE WITH ME

Why? Why, pray tell, do you ask? Because the three of them I tried didn’t work or didn’t work properly 🙂

Two suffered from “aging motor” syndrome where the autowind motor is super slow or ceases to work at all. The other one had a corroded battery compartment that I couldn’t fix. To be fair, the battery compartment issue is not likely the camera’s fault, but rather the fault of users who left batteries inside the camera for prolonged (sometimes years) periods of time.

BOTTOM LINE

Before Ricoh struck gold in the 90s with the GR-1 film camera, before they won the hearts, minds, and eyes of a large and loving cult, they were making crap cameras like this 🙂

No, seriously, no offense. I’m as big a Ricoh fan as anyone, if not bigger. I’ve had more people tell me how I help trigger their purchase of the original 8.1mp GR Digital than any other camera from this GRD Review I put up a year ago. Ricoh is now a niche company that has a high degree of respect from a world-wide mass of camera lovers.

But there IS a reason why Ricoh and their Rikenon lenses were once thought of as one of the “low end” brands such as Chinon, Yashica, etc, etc. This camera is one of those reasons. I know Contax/Yashica made a lot of great cameras, so I’m not talking about that. The “regular” Yashica 35mm SLR’s were not known to be of the finest quality and had a history of reliability problems.

All that said, I’m perfectly willing to accept that I got three lemons and I’m currently looking for a usable one.

I don’t think the FF-3 AF has a reputation for a stellar lens or anything. I think most people buying these cameras just love old cameras like I do and perhaps there’s a bit of that cool nostalgia factor in there as well.

I imagined taking cool, vintage looking photos with the Ricoh FF-3 AF. I imagined that, simply out of my love for organic film photography, but knowing in my heart I’d get better pictures with an iPhone and Instagram filters than this camera.

Yet I persisted in getting three of these only to find none working properly and losing sleep trying to fix them, to no avail.

There is the FF-3 AF and a slightly updated one, the FF-3 AF SUPER. I know I have two SUPERS and one “regular” FF-3, but I can’t find it to tell you the differences, if any. There may be some very slight differences, but they’re pretty much the same crap cameras.

Again, there IS a reason why Ricoh was not all that well known or highly regarded before the GR-1. The FF-3 AF is probably one of those reasons and without a doubt…one of the Best Cameras I Never Knew 🙂

WHERE TO BUY?

If seeking one of these cameras, and I’m not sure that’s a good idea, prices are trending at $5-30 so the low prices on these may be tempting too. I never spent more than $15 on these. So if you get a junker, you won’t be out all that much.

Your best source for the Ricoh FF-3 and FF-3 AF SUPER is obviously eBay. You can also find them once in a while HERE in the USED section.

Breaking News: The Nikon D5 and D500

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The Nikon D3 of 2007. Nothing quite like shooting with a pro Nikon body.

Sure we love classic cameras here on Camera Legend, but we also love the latest and greatest. After all, some of these will become the Camera Legends of tomorrow.

And wow, they’re here…

The Nikon D5 is the newest flagship camera from Nikon. It features a 20.8mp FX (full-frame) sensor, a redesigned 153 point AF system, and features such niceties as 4K UHD (Ultra High Definition) video and (what?!) ISO 3,280,000!!

It’s nice to see Nikon keeping the megapixels at a comfortable 20.8mp, much like Canon did with their 18.1mp 1DX flagship camera. That’s more than enough megapixels for most purposes and is a good balance for all aspects of photography, especially for the press and sports pros to whom this camera will most likely cater to most.

You can see all the specs and pre-order the Nikon D5 HERE.

Also be sure to check out the Official Nikon D5 Video.

Perhaps even more exciting than the D5 is the surprising release of the new Nikon D500! This is the successor to the Nikon D300s that Nikon DX (APS-C) fans have been asking for, waiting for, begging for…for years!!

The Nikon D500 features an all new 20.9mp DX sensor, inherits the same 153 point AF system from the D5, as well as 4K UHD video, and other goodies.

It may seem strange, but even with such capable cameras as the D7000, D7100, and D7200, many hardcore Nikonians never considered these cameras the true successor to the Nikon D300/D300s.

For years, their pleas to Nikon seemed to have fallen on deaf ears, but apparently Nikon has been listening all along. They just took their sweet time with it 🙂

I think it all boils down to build quality and in a historical context it all dates back to the Nikon D100 of 2002. Then you had the D200 of 2005 which improved even further with superb build quaility.

I used the D300 when it came out in 2007 and I know why the D300/D300s “cult” feel this way. In fact, now that the D500 is out, I may start looking around for the old D300s 🙂

The fact that there was no successor to the D300s, till now, is probably what has kept the prices on these cameras high.

If you want to be one of the first to get your hands on the D500, you can pre-order it HERE.

Nikon flash lovers, the new Nikon SB500 Speedlight is also coming and you can pre-order it HERE.

This is very much like that day nearly nine years ago when Nikon released the D3 and D300. Exciting times for Nikon fans!!

Tuesday Titans: The Mighty Minolta XK Motor

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The Legendary Minolta XK Motor of 1976. Sorry for this funky Instagram pic, I’ll probably replace it 🙂

Hi everybody. Let’s start 2016 off with a bang with this ultra-rare Camera Legend, where info is scarce even on the best Minolta/Rokkor sites…

Somewhere in the deep, dark corridors of my camera memory lurks a giant. A giant that frightened and fascinated me at the same time. That giant is the Minolta XK Motor.

The XK Motor is a 35mm SLR introduced by Minolta in 1976. It was marketed as a professional camera and was Minolta’s answer to the Canon F-1 and Nikon F/F2.

The XK Motor is ultra-rare and hard to find in today’s market.

MY MEMORIES AND DREAMS OF THE MINOLTA XK MOTOR

As a kid, I still remember seeing this gigantic brute of a camera in magazine articles and ads. It was a camera that seemed frighteningly large, muscular, and complicated to a young boy. Yet at the same time, for a skinny young kid, this camera’s muscular build signaled “power” in my mind.

I wanted it bad, but I knew I’d never get one. Or so I thought…


HOW I CAME ACROSS THE MINOLTA XK MOTOR CAMERA

Fast forward some thirty plus years. About four years ago in 2012, I saw two XK Motors listed on KEH Camera in BGN (bargain) condition, priced at about $500 each. Right away, knowing the rarity of these cameras, I had to get one!

Fortunately, it was one of those rare times when I actually had enough in the bank. Sure it still hurt to part with $500, but hey man, this was the Minolta XK Motor! Gotta have it! 🙂

So I got one, and if I had the funds, I’d probably have gotten the other too, but I didn’t have any funds left and it quickly went to someone else.

Though I can’t check 24/7, I do check KEH’s site fairly often. I’ve never seen the XK Motor before or since on KEH’s site. My theory is someone sold these two from their collection to KEH and it quickly went up for sale.

THE XK MOTOR BODY

When I first got the camera, I was in awe. This thing was solid, heavy, and just as in my dreams, seemingly powerful.

The body feels blocky, much like other cameras of its time such as its slated competitors, the Nikon F/F2 and the Canon F-1.

Unlike those two cameras, the motor drive is permanently attached on the XK Motor. The motor drive was capable of a (then) “high” of 3.5 frames per second at its top speed.

The camera required two EPX-76 or S-76 alkaline or silver batteries for the body and ten, count ’em, TEN AA batteries for that motor drive. With batteries installed, this camera got heavy fast!

The camera had electronic shutter speeds of 16 seconds to 1/2000th of a second and mechanical shutter speeds of 1/100 and B.

ISSUES

Shortly after I got the XK Motor, I realized it is not without issues. While my first roll of film went off without a hitch, I quickly realized there was one glaring achilles heel (or heels in this case) with this giant.

That fault is…the battery clips that hold the epic ten batteries are brittle and worse, they eventually break rendering the great “motor” portion of the camera virtually useless. They broke off on both sides of my XK Motor and believe me I did not do anything rough to cause it.

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“Chipped Clips” The battery clip issue is the main thing that ruined my XK Motor experience. If seeking one of these cameras, be aware that this is an unfortunately common thing with these cameras.

And if that wasn’t enough, trying to find a replacement for these clips is harder than finding a needle in a haystack!

Sure, I have tried the old fashioned method of taping the broken clips. As you can see from the pics, that is exactly what I did but it didn’t work well. The tape would eventually come off and one time the battery compartment on one side got incredibly hot and I had to quickly remove the batteries for fear of fire.

If you think the broken battery clips were just my error, take a look at this link from KEH BLOG from 2011.

They had an XM Motor for sale in EX+ condition for $1950 with one catch…”battery door broken” 🙂

WHY I SOLD THE XK MOTOR

I recently sold this camera to a private buyer who was willing to buy it as is for the same price I bought it for. The great thing about these old legendary cameras is that you could almost always sell them without much of a loss.

It may seem unscrupulous to sell the camera in worse condition for the same price I bought it, but these babies are rare and the last one I saw was on eBay where it was sold as a parts camera. Bidding went over $500, so I definitely think I gave a fair price.

It became an unusable paperweight for me and the climax of a dream that became a nightmare.

This camera could have easily become one of my “Best Cameras I Never Knew” but it’s such a rare camera that I was honored to have had a chance to hold and use one in the flesh, fulfilling one of my childhood fantasies.

X-1 XK XM DIFFERENCES

There is actually a non motor driven version of this camera. The ones sold is the USA are known as the XK and known elsewhere around the world as the XM or X-1.

While the XK Motor is ultra-rare, the standard XK/XM/X-1 are not as rare. Many people mistakenly buy these thinking they are the XK Motor, but they are not, and they do not command the same high prices.

Cool you say, couldn’t I just buy an old motor drive and turn my XK/XM/X-1 into an XK Motor? In theory, you could’ve, but sorry there was no motor drive option for these cameras which is one of the reasons the XK Motor still holds its place among the Camera Legends of Minolta.

BOTTOM LINE

The Minolta XK Motor was a dream camera for a young boy that turned into hard reality for a grown man.

It was Minolta’s answer to the Canon F-1 and Nikon F/F2. Unlike the Canons and Nikons, the Minolta XK Motor had one glaring and seemingly incomprehensible fault…weak battery clips!

Despite their ability to make some of the world’s finest cameras and lenses, there IS a reason why Minolta never made it to the top in the world of Canon and Nikon pro bodies. A flaw such as weak battery clips is totally unacceptable for a professional grade body such as this.

If you search the internet for the XK Motor, you will find precious little information from actual users. You will not see much on the battery clip issue either. Why? Because there is not much info on this camera in general, it’s that rare.

In usable form, the Minolta XK Motor is a dream camera to hold and use. It was a culmination of Minolta’s dream to rule the professional camera world. It was a dream ruined by flawed execution, but that doesn’t matter in the end. The Minolta XK Motor represented the power of Minolta and what could have been. It is, without a doubt, a Camera Legend.

WHERE TO BUY?

If looking for an XK Motor, and I’m not sure that’s a good idea, prices are very hard to calculate due to its rarity on the market.

I got mine for $500 at KEH Camera in Bargain condition. But they also had one five years back in EX+ condition for $1950. The last one I saw on eBay was an “as is” parts camera which went for over $500 in 2013.

So I would say in pristine working condition, these cameras could easily fetch anywhere from $1500-2000 and maybe more.

If you want a taste of the XK Motor without using a fine toothed comb, you could easily get the ‘regular’ XK/XM/X-1. Prices for these can go anywhere from $50-300. I would not pay more than $100 for one. In fact, I got one of these for $56 bucks! 🙂

Note: I do have pics from my test roll with this camera and the 50mm f/1.2 Rokkor. But it’s not on a hard drive, it’s on a photo CD and I can’t find it. I do not think these test pics are worthy of your time, but I am still looking for them and may or may not post them. But it is proof that at one time, the Mighty XK Motor worked and gave me some nice pics!