Minolt x700 noobie problems

Hello,
Noobie to this forum and kinda to film photography (I took photography in high school 10+ years ago). I am by no means a professional but I wanted to make my life difficult and start shooting again with film.

Anyways, I bought a Minolta x700 recently at a local photography store and the first 2 rolls of film have been developed and they came out blank, the negative was see through. The first time I realized it was user error (I didn’t load the film right). I took it back to where I got it from which is the same place that has been developing my film and they showed me how to load it and then checked every setting to see if the shutter would open which it did. I’m on my 3rd roll and I’m really hoping it actually has photos on it lol.

My question is, if anyone has had this camera, had these issues and could point me in what’s wrong with it? Could it be the lens since it seems like all the settings open the shutter? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for such a long post lol.

1. download, read the manual. http://www.cameramanuals.org/minolta_pdf/minolta_x-700.pdf
2. 3V lithium batteries use to fail while showing good. Silver oxide and alkaline are more reliable. I have not kept up with the battery technology so the failure may be moot.
3. when the film is loaded, back closed, turn the rewind in the direction of the arrow until it becomes snug. Now as you advance the film the rewind knob should turn opposite the arrow.
4. take the lens cap off.
5. Are the frame numbers and film type visible in the edges of the blank film? Yes - film loading or other camera problem. No - improper processing.
6. bad camera.

Hello Cmolinary, and welcome back to film!

The fact that the film was clear and not black means that the film was never exposed to light at all. This means one of several possibilities:
One is that it was loaded incorrectly again. That's the best possible scenario since it mens there's nothing wrong with your camera.
One is that the shutter is not functioning properly. That can be checked easily enough by opening the back of the camera while it's empty and firing the shutter at a slow speed with the aperture wide open and a light-coloerd background behind the lens. A speed of, say, 1/15 or slower will be slow enough for you to see it opening.
Another is that the mirror is not flipping up correctly, but you'd see that if you checked the shutter. You can also hear whether or not the mirror is flipping up.

That's about it. The X-700 is a fairly simple camera and there aren't really a lot of things to look for.
It's unlikely to be a problem with the lens because if the lens were blocking light from reaching the film (lens cap on, for instance) you wouldn't be able to see through the finder.

Here's something to try; ask the fellow at the shop who showed you how to load the camera to load the next roll for you and shoot the first few frames. Then you take it from there. If the roll goes okay then you know it was another loading error. If it doesn't, then his frames will be lost as well and you'll have proof that the camera's not working correctly. From there you can ask them to help you address the problem.

The X-700 is a nice, solid camera. It's what I learned on almost 30 years ago. Hopefully it was just misloaded again and the camera's okay.

EDIT: Shutterfinger types a lot quicker than I do! Look at his item #3 carefully! That will tell you if the camera is loaded correctly.

Grrrrrrrrr ... X-700 also has safe load signal, above film advance lever, which monitors correct film advance !!!

I have one of these I bought when they first came out. Others have mentioned things to look at for proper film loading. I guess one more thing to check is if the shutter is firing properly ( or at least opening ). Without film, open the back and point the camera at a light. Look through the back and fire the shutter at a fairly slow speed 1/30 or so. You should be able to see through the lens. On bulb, the shutter should just stay open until you release it.

Just another thought.

The OP did state that the shop that he bought it from tested the shutter. In front of him, sounds like.

I think Cmolinary just made a rookie mistake and didn't properly load the film. It's happened to us all at one time or another. The camera sounded like it's good to go. And I'll bet that these next three rolls will come out looking good.

Cmolinary, I recommend that, whoever you get to do your film processing, they return your negatives. Most places these days send the film off for processing, and most of these places don't get the negatives back. I've inquired about this where I live -- at length -- and found there's only a single pro lab left in Houston which will develop film and return negatives. There are a number of mail order places that will return your negs. Probably the best known is Dwayne's:

https://www.dwaynesphoto.com/

Having the similar X-500 model, I can say that there is a right and a wrong way of loading the film. It should be loaded so that the film is wound contrary to its natural curve. The film should be pulled from the cartridge just far enough to reach the left side of the take up spool and lodge it there. It can also be incorrectly loaded into the take up spool by doing the same, but on the right hand side of the spool. I am unsure what effect this would have.

Reread Shutterfinger's #3 and make it a habit.

I did the same as you with my first roll of 35mm film many years ago. I improperly loaded the film and the negative came out completely blank.

After you first load the film into the camera watch the rewind knob on the left top of the camera. Every time you advance the film it should spin. If it doesn't then you need to open the back of the camera and reload it.

Someone taught this to me and I got into the practice of watching the rewind knob when advancing the film for the first couple of times after loading it. I never had this problem again.

Yep, that's a very simple pointer to follow, never mind that little film wind indicator that Minoltas have. I also like to wind on the rewind knob to remove any slack from the canister, that way the knob will spin from the very first image. Otherwise, it might take several shots before sufficient slack has been taken up.

shutterfinger said:

1. download, read the manual. http://www.cameramanuals.org/minolta_pdf/minolta_x-700.pdf
2. 3V lithium batteries use to fail while showing good. Silver oxide and alkaline are more reliable. I have not kept up with the battery technology so the failure may be moot.
3. when the film is loaded, back closed, turn the rewind in the direction of the arrow until it becomes snug. Now as you advance the film the rewind knob should turn opposite the arrow.
4. take the lens cap off.
5. Are the frame numbers and film type visible in the edges of the blank film? Yes - film loading or other camera problem. No - improper processing.
6. bad camera.

Click to expand...

I find that the 3v lithium batteries work great in the X-700