Just picked up this gem and put fresh batteries in it. Everything works ok except the meter. The LED's don't light up in the view finder. Shutter and camera advances fine. Any ideas? The camera came to me in the original box and appears hardly used.
As often as I try to find a nin-electrical solution for getting an older Minolta rolling, I think this one can definitely be chalked up to a bad capacitor. I haven't come across this problem in any XG-M I have owned/picked up so I can't think of anything else that would cause such a specific problem.
If the XG-M is anything like my XG-7, the meter will only function in the Automatic (A) mode. The meter does not work in manual mode. This is why I like my XD-11 better. The meter on the XD series works in all modes.
Automatic mode doesn't seem to work either. When the shutter is fired in automatic the mirror stays up and the shutter stays open until i take it out of automatic mode. My guess would be that it has dirty contacts or a bad capacitor.
Is the shutter button on that the type where your finger makes the circuit? I mean your finger actually shorts across the contacts to make the meter work.