Confused by a black SR-1

Frankly Unsharp · Jan 23, 2015

Can't find much information about my black Minolta SR-1. Not only has it changed color (if black is a color?), it has adopted some items from the SR-7, like the shutter speed dial with a top speed of 1/1000 (shouldn't have that feature before the SR-1s is released as the last in the SR line). Also the film rewind crank says SR-7.
it has a bracket for the exposure meter (the fat, older version), but there is no corresponding knob on the shutter speed dial, so trying to attach a meter will do no good.
Is this thing rare, or is it just good at hiding?

Richard S. (rich815) · Jan 23, 2015

Seen this page?

Dead Link Removed

goros · Jan 23, 2015

Here there is one like yours:

https://www.cameraquest.com/minsr1b.htm

In yours, the shutter speed dial knob was probably replaced at some time, as well as the rewind cranck.

Frankly Unsharp · Jan 23, 2015

Richard Sintchak (rich815) said:
Seen this page?

Dead Link Removed

Yes, if only it was a SR-2...
Thank You, i've read that one before, but it doesn't explain what an SR-7 shutter speed dial is doing on a SR-1

Frankly Unsharp · Jan 23, 2015

goros said:
Here there is one like yours:

https://www.cameraquest.com/minsr1b.htm

In yours, the shutter speed dial knob was probably replaced at some time, as well as the rewind cranck.

Yes, read that one too, thanks.
If any parts would have been replaced, the best solution would have been to put in parts from the chrome version, since there was probably not that many black spare parts around. And no after-production paintwork or DIY can be spotted.
Besides, why change to a shutter speed dial of a different kind, in this case it also means loosing the ability to use the exposure meter when there is no knob on the dial.
How easy is it to replace these parts, if that extra 1/1000 is what You are after?

gone · Jan 23, 2015

Actually, black is not a colour. It has absorbed all the visible light rays, and allows none to reflect back to the eye. Which is why a black car will be so much hotter than a white car out in the parking lot. That light energy has to go somewhere, so it is turned into heat instead of being reflected. It's for this reason that painters seldom use pure black, we mix it up from other colours. Used by itself, it kills the painting in that area. It's just too strong, and throws all the other tonal values off. By the way, if you're ever having difficulty getting the values correct on something, take a B&W photo of it. It will display only the values and not confuse things w/ those pesky colours.

Nice camera! Simple, basic design. Reminds me very much of my Nikkormat FTn, except that the Nikon has the shutter speed dial around the lens where it belongs:} Oh, and your lens focuses and mounts backwards of course.

snapguy · Jan 23, 2015

olde

How old is your camera? I think that is the answer. Things happen to cameras along the way. Not everybody carefully puts them away in a shoebox for 50 years like somebody did with a Canonet I bought a short while ago.

Frankly Unsharp · Jan 23, 2015

momus said:
Actually, black is not a colour. It has absorbed all the visible light rays, and allows none to reflect back to the eye. Which is why a black car will be so much hotter than a white car out in the parking lot. That light energy has to go somewhere, so it is turned into heat instead of being reflected. It's for this reason that painters seldom use pure black, we mix it up from other colours. Used by itself, it kills the painting in that area. It's just too strong, and throws all the other tonal values off. By the way, if you're ever having difficulty getting the values correct on something, take a B&W photo of it. It will display only the values and not confuse things w/ those pesky colours.

Nice camera! Simple, basic design. Reminds me very much of my Nikkormat FTn, except that the Nikon has the shutter speed dial around the lens where it belongs:} Oh, and your lens focuses and mounts backwards of course.

Thank you for showing us the light! It didn't really answer my questions, but I sure feel smarter now.

John Koehrer · Jan 23, 2015

I believe that black IS a color, but only in reflected light. BUT! In Transmitted light it IS the absence of all flavors of the spectrum.
An example would be to take any or all of the pigmented paint you have lying around and combine them. They don't become clear or transparent they become an opaque ummm, black.

It seems you're camera has some features used on models 4, 4a, 5 and 1s.
If the rewind and SS dial were replaced the only choice was likely to be availability of black parts and the cosmetics would be seriously compromised if chrome were used.
Leica of course sells panda and Anti panda cameras in their ala carte menu.

It may be the disc for the speed dial was replaced with one from a SR1s and the technician didn't notice the wrong part. Assuming the camera was serviced at one time.

In any case it seems that the black SR's were pretty hard to come by. That's a good thing.

Frankly Unsharp · Jan 23, 2015

snapguy said:
How old is your camera? I think that is the answer. Things happen to cameras along the way. Not everybody carefully puts them away in a shoebox for 50 years like somebody did with a Canonet I bought a short while ago.

Age? I might be wrong, but the different SR bodies/models seem to share the same serial numbering, and that might help. I put four of my SR-1 and SR-7 bodies according to their numbers
1. SR-1 2047793 Meter bracket of early (fat) model, film-advance lever has a long, polished (or chrome) tip, rewind crank has small circle on the arm
2. SR-1 2106296 Black , shutter speed dial the same as on SR-7, goes to 1/1000. Everything else like the SR-1 above.
3. SR-7 2139551 CdS -meter, shutter speed dial to 1/1000. Meter has no on/off button.
4. SR-7 2165368 In every way the same as the SR-7 above

In the first year of production (1962) the SR-7 had no On/Off -button. Since neither of my SR-7's has the button/switch, then 1962 is probably the year they were made. And that would put the black one in 1961 or 1962. Any comments?

Confused by a black SR-1

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