Minolta Dark Focusing Circle

aaronmichael · Mar 11, 2011

I've been having a problem where when using high powered lenses on my Minolta XE-7, such as a 400mm, 500mm, and 1000mm, the focusing circle in the middle turns black on the top or on the bottom or sometimes both. Does anyone have any information on if this would be a camera problem or I'm figuring it's more likely something to do with the lenses. I don't have the problem when using lower power lenses such as a 28mm or 50mm.

Ian C · Mar 11, 2011

It’s perfectly normal for the central split-image rangefinder to go dark with lenses of f/5.6 and slower on most SLRs. The slower the lens the worse the effect.

benjiboy · Mar 11, 2011

If you move your eye about in the viewfinder it dissipaters, as the previous poster says it's because it's a small aperture for the focal length.

aaronmichael · Mar 11, 2011

Thanks for the replies. Glad to hear it's not a specific problem with my camera or lenses.

vpwphoto · Mar 11, 2011

That's why there are changeable focus screens for some cameras... if you shoot a lot with those lenses and it's available for this Minolta swap it out for one without split image. I wish they would put split image screens in these new "digicams"... sorry bad work here.

Les Sarile · Mar 11, 2011

You might consider other Minolta bodies with changeable focusing screens like the XK or the X-700. I'm only familiar with these two but there might be others.

Minolta Dark Focusing Circle

aaronmichael

Ian C

benjiboy

aaronmichael

vpwphoto

Les Sarile

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