Minolta X-700: 18 Years of Continuous Production One of the Greatest Cameras Ever Made?

[baachitraka]

The Minolta X-700 remained in production from 1981 until 1999, an impressive 18-year run in a highly competitive camera market...

 

[ic-racer]

18 years; likewise also the Mercedes R107 body style. 1971 to 1989. This is the 1989 model.

 

[ic-racer]

Some more approximate durations:

Nikon F: 13 years
Nikon F3: 20 years
Rolleiflex 2.8F: 21 years
Nikon FM 10: 23 years

 

[xkaes]

The Minolta X-370 wasn't far behind with 16 years (1984-1999) -- and if you include the numerous Chinese clones (made on the same Minolta manufacturing lines after 1999), such as the Seagull DF-300, Phoexix DF-3000, Safari DF-300, Revue DF-300, Argus DF-300, Carena DF-300, Centon DF-300, Zenit DF-300, etc. it's probably more than 20 years.

Then there is the Minolta SR-1 with 13 years -- not far behind -- 1959-1971.

 

[Alan Townsend]

The Minolta X-700 remained in production from 1981 until 1999, an impressive 18-year run in a highly competitive camera market...

I still use the one I bought back in 1992 and it still works, but compared with the earlier SRT 101, not such a great camera from the photographer perspective. That period of time was a sort of malaise period for 35mm manual focus cameras as they were being phased out by autofocus. When I bought my X700, there was no Ebau, otherwise I would have bought a used SRT-101, the camera I had owned earlier and was very happy with.

The X700 was a sort of niche camera in its time. It was also an economy version of a camera that employed electronics in lieu of mechanical design. It was a good camera from a marketing perspective, not so much from a photographer perspective who owned previous SRT series Minolta's. Let me list its failings compared with the SRT-101. The only advantage was light weight, ushered in by the Olympus OM cameras, and automation level so that people with no knowledge cam use it easier.

1. Reliability was not as good due to electronic failures.

2. Focus screen were plastic rather than glass and much more difficult to use therefore.

3. Much harder to use for people with poor eye site.

4. Nearly useless in metered manual mode, the favored mode of many experienced photographers.

5. Viewfinder shows a smaller percentage of the image, and the image is smaller than previous models.

6. Cable release socket is way too close to body, making it nearly impossible to use.

7. Lack of mirror lockup yields fuzzy photos when camera is on tripod. This camera was designed for hand held use, and not for use on tripods.

Mine still works, but I use my more recently aquired SRT-101 cameras for important work, and the X700 is used for non critical things, like film testing where it's aperture priority mode is more useful. It made sense commercially for Minolta at that time, but like many other models, was not as good to use for those more experienced photographers who know what they want.

 

[4season]

Sony A6000: ~13 years IIRC. They even introduced white and charcoal variants late in the product cycle. Sony can be very thrifty when it comes to engineering resources.