Is it broken really bad.

papisa · Jul 13, 2006

The owner at my local watering hole today just gave me this older Minolta XG-M heavy silver body camera and lens, said something is maybe broken on it and i can have it, it is a 35MM Manual SLR.

It has a battery in it, though i do not no how Old it is, all the dials on top work, ASA, shutter speed Etc, every thing on the lens works, it opens and closes when you move the Preset Aerture Ring on the lens.

The only thing is when you look thur the Veiwfinder, Yes the lens cap is removed, all you see is Solid Black when you move the Aperture Ring it still is Solid Black.

Do you need a fresh new battery for this to work? The lens is a minolta 50mm 1.2 with a 0 and a slash thur the zero=49mm
Here are some serial #'s. On top of the passed is # JC11 1 5. on the bottom is JMDC
On where you mtg the flash is the # 2285746. Hope all of this helps you out, if you need any more information let me no. And the film door closes nice and tight.

Mike.

naturephoto1 · Jul 13, 2006

Mike,

Is the camera SLR mirror visible, in the up position, or is there even a mirror even in the camera?

Rich

colrehogan · Jul 13, 2006

Sounds like you might need a fresh battery, though I am not familiar with the camera.

joeyk49 · Jul 13, 2006

Remove the lens and check the position of the mirror. As said, is it locked in the up position or is it missing. I tend to think the former rather than the latter.

XG-M was a decent camera in its day. It might be a simple repair, worth a couple of sheckels to get it back in the game...although don't start put out too much...$35-50.00 or so will get you a worker on the auction site.

Markok765 · Jul 13, 2006

That lens is great! F1.2!

DBP · Jul 13, 2006

I have seen other XGs where the mirror locked up when the battery failed. Try a new battery.

papisa · Jul 13, 2006

Rich, i took the lens off and there are two mirrows, on top the one mirrow comes down when i move the level at the bottom but it keeps going up when i release the level, will not stay in the down position.

Mike

naturephoto1 · Jul 13, 2006

I would be surprised if there are 2 mirrors, but I do not know this particular camera. I would suspect what you think is the second mirror is actually the underside of the camera focusing screen. As others have suggested, I would next try to change the battery. That may solve the problem. If not, the camera may need to at least be checked by a camera repairman. SLR mirrors are very delicate, and unless you are very familiar, I would not want to chance damaging the mirror, mirror assembly and mirror box.

After you replace the battery fire the camera shutter release to see if the mirror will swing down and remain in the normal down position.

Rich

papisa · Jul 14, 2006

Thank You all for your help, it takes two batteries, will do that tomorrow and let you all no what happened.

Mike

Dave Parker · Jul 14, 2006

Normally on the XG-M it is the battery that causes this, I used to pick them up on ebay all the time for about $5 put a new set of batteries in them and sell them for about $45 was a great way to pick up pocket cash for a while, when to market was better.

R.

papisa · Jul 18, 2006

Hi naturephoto 1, Rich i put in two new batteries and nothing, when you move the film winding lever it does nothing, pressing the shutter button nothing again, when you take the lens off and on the camera body where the lens screws onto the body down below on the inside of the body there are two points that are sticking out of the camera body, when i move them to the right all the way the mirrow comes down only 3/4 of the way, on my old canon book it tells you how you can lock up the mirror by turning it to the m position on the front of the camera body, on the camera that is uses for photomicrography, it says the mirrom can be locked independently from film advance and shutter speed operations, and the aperture is now stopped-down and controlled manually, when the mirrow is locked in the up position SLR veiwing is not possiable.
I think this is what is going on maybe, but cannot find any M or a lock down on
it that says lock down, think i will take it to maybe one of the guys like he just can look at something and fix it.
Cant find an old booklet for it any where, no even on KEH, they were made from 81 to 87.

Thanks every one for you help and time.

Mike.

Nathan Smith · Jul 18, 2006

You can see if the battery connection is good by testing the batteries. This is from the XG-M manual:
"Depress the Auto-setting release/battery-check button. If the red battery-check indicator on the front of the camera lights, batteries are serviceable."
If you have fresh batteries installed and it's not showing a good charge then try cleaning the battery contacts - if that doesn't work then you're going to need to open it up and see if the wires inside are corroded. The wires coming directly off of the battery holder often get corroded by battery leakage.
BTW - I found the manual at http://www.lensinc.net/freeuser.html
Nathan

naturephoto1 · Jul 18, 2006

Mike,

I am not sure what to suggest at this point. The camera will probably need to go in to a qualified repairman unless someone else has more knowledge about the camera. By the way, and again I really do not know this camera, but I thought that the XG-M was one of the simpler Minolta cameras and lacked a mirror lock-up.

Rich

papisa · Jul 18, 2006

Hi Rich and Nathan, fresh batteries in, red light shows in the front of the camera, so i will just put it on the shelf and when i get a few extra dollars take it in.
Rich would you no if the Minolta lens will fit on my AE-1, that is a nice lens to have the 1:2.
Thanks every one for all of your help.

Mike.

naturephoto1 · Jul 18, 2006

Mike,

Unfortunately no the Minolta lens will not fit your Canon AE-1. With the exception of the Pentax Screw and some of the Pentax K mounts, there were very few lenses that could be interchanged between cameras. The independent Tamron T and T2 series lenses had the ability to change the mounts to be put on different makers cameras, but they are an independent maker.

Rich

Is it broken really bad.

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