Minolta XG1 (two duds from Ebay)

[teslas_moustache]

I got a couple of dead Minolta XG1s from ebay just a little while ago. Description said "shutter works, light meter does not". Well, the shutter would probably work if the film-advance lever worked! They were cheap, so I'm not going to complain too much.

I was wondering if there is a wiki here that could help me out with fixing these things. I'm new here, so sorry about wasting space on the forum for something that's obvious.

If not, can anyone help me out? Neither of them have batteries (which might explain why the light meter doesn't work. ). The film-advance lever only goes about halfway on one of them and won't budge. On the other one, the lever goes all the way, but won't move the take-up reel.

 

[donkee]

ship em off to garry's camera repair.

http://www.garryscamera.com/

He does a good job (so far) and is reasonable. Those Minoltas will be good to go for quite a while after that.

 

[BMbikerider]

It may be a bit simplistic, but have you changed the batteries? If the batteries are dead and the shutter will will not wind on, then it is already wound on and fitting new batteries will enable the shutter to fire enabling you to wind on again. The magnets on the shutter train sometimes get 'sticky' to and a good clean is all that is required.

 

[dmb]

http://www.butkus.org/chinon/minolta/minolta_xg-1/minolta_xg-1.htm for manual which states shutter will not operate without battery

 

[wblynch]

Most XG-1's are not working now. I got one a year or so ago. It wouldn't work. So I set out looking for a replacement body since the lens seems very nice. But 80% of the XG-1's I see listed are for parts/repair. (meaning junk)

I gave up. Maybe there's a better model to seek out?

 

[ic-racer]

You can get the service manual here:
http://www.lensinc.net/images/min04.htm

 

[Terry Christian]

From my limited experience, most of the XG series won't fire their shutters if they don't have batteries in them. Most cameras that have automatic modes are the same way: the only ones that will do everything without batteries are the ones that are fully manual and don't need batteries for anything except a meter that's uncoupled to the exposure system.

 

[Chan Tran]

Most XG-1's are not working now. I got one a year or so ago. It wouldn't work. So I set out looking for a replacement body since the lens seems very nice. But 80% of the XG-1's I see listed are for parts/repair. (meaning junk)

I gave up. Maybe there's a better model to seek out?

Like others said there must be good batteries for the XG-1 to work. If you want to use the lens that came with the XG-1 you can get the SRT-101, 102 etc.. series cameras.

 

[David Lyga]

I am surprised at the comment by wblynch. All the XG-1 bodies I buy are fine. But, one small caveat:

With the electronic Minoltas that have not been used for some time there is a 'sometime tendency' for them to need to be 'booted up' before they will perform. My experience has been that you need fresh batteries and then proceed to play with its shutter for about 15 minutes. The LEDs do, eventually 'wake up'. The body can be reluctant at first but when it seems to get used to being fired, it then seems to remember and then all is well.

Being quite stupid with electronics I had to anthropomorphize here and equate the Minolta body with a reluctant person, but that has been my true experience, many times, over the years.

Long live the SRT series but the electronic Minoltas are truly not dogs. I love them. - David Lyga

 

[CGW]

Gave up on Minolta electronic manual focus cameras after two X-700s died from strokes caused by bum capacitors. There are survivalist fixes but it's obviously a baked-in problem suffered by no Nikon I own from the same era. The old SRT series and later AF models are tough but not these.