Minolta Dark Focusing Circle

[aaronmichael]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[vpwphoto]

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]

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.