Rokkor Files - Does anyone know why the Minolta XE is not talked about there?

68degrees · Apr 18, 2018

It seems odd to me that on a site dedicated to all things minolta SLR that he doesnt talk about the XE series. He seems to have moved on from his interest now but has stated that he leaves the site up for those who are interested. I love the site but am mystified why he talks about everything but the XE??? Is this a case of "if you have nothing nice to say, dont say anything"? Anybody have any insight? No I have not contacted him because he has moved on from Minolta SLRs to pursue digital.

BradS · Apr 18, 2018

The whole site is just one person's labor of love...it could be that he just didn't have an XE or any brochures or....that he lost interest.

I really don' think its a case of having nothing nice to say though. The content seem to be objective and factual. Most of it seem to be paraphrasing Minolta owners manuals and marketing materials.

Les Sarile · Apr 18, 2018

I seem to recall that Anthony Hands - owner of Rokkorfiles, was asked why and he said that it was because another site had done such a good job reviewing it at -> http://web.archive.org/web/20091027105423/http:/geocities.com/mikkonis/xemain.html

IMO the XE/XE-1/XE7 has to be experienced. Minoltas in general are such smooth operating cameras - except for the XK/XM, but I found the XE to be the smoothest. Malaysia Photography gushes over the Nikon F3 film advance mechanism stating, "Through the use of eleven ball bearings in its shutter and film winding assemblies (most cameras use only one or two) the F3 represents a big advance in smooth 'and quiet operation. And to reduce film winding torque even more, Nikon created a completely new film winding mechanism and interconnecting gear trains for the most efficient transmission of energy." The XE is smoother throughout the full stroke then even the F3.

AndroclesC · Apr 19, 2018

I agree wholeheartedly! I absolutely love the F3...it's one of my favorite cameras, but I also think the advance on the XE is smoother than the F3. It's simply a beautiful camera to operate.

Andy

Huss · Apr 21, 2018

I find the film advance on all F3 cameras too light, loose and floppy feeling. I currently own perfect condition F3P and Limited cameras and feel the same about those. It's one of many reasons why I prefer the F3 with the motordrive.
The film advance on my XK feels much better - heavier, smoother and more solid. I even prefer the feel of my F2 cameras as well as Leicas, FM2 etc etc.

Chan Tran · Apr 21, 2018

May be he doesn't have one as I don't have one either.

ciniframe · Apr 21, 2018

I don't think the XE ever sold in large numbers. At the time Nikon and Canon probably sold 20~30 of their professional bodies for every 1 XE that Minolta sold. Another factor was that Minolta's SRT series was a workhorse that was reliable and inexpensive. There were several professionals locally who made their living using this model. They just didn't need the extra features and weight and expense of the Minolta top professional model.

BMbikerider · Apr 21, 2018

I have just bought an XE1 simply because I like them. It will work alongside my XM which I think is an acquired taste to use properly. Honestly I don't think that Minolta ever made a bad SLR jut that they didn't sell in the numbers to keep the company afloat. The production was innovative. -They made the 1st workable SLR with AF that was quicker than manual. The lenses were well made and almost without exception of very high quality, but at the same time the prices were kept reasonable. The XE1 was so good that Leitz adapted it for their R3 SLR (with a few modifications and the XD models were part used in the Leica R4 and onwards. No, the XE1 has to be my all time favourite film camera.

Huss · Apr 21, 2018

If the Leicas were base on the XE (R3, R4? not sure), why were the Leicas so unreliable? Were the XEs reliable?

Les Sarile · Apr 21, 2018

BMbikerider said:
It will work alongside my XM which I think is an acquired taste to use properly.

You do have to acquire the other XK/XM finders to make better use of it . . .

Theo Sulphate · Apr 21, 2018

Huss said:
I find the film advance on all F3 cameras too light, loose and floppy feeling. I currently own perfect condition F3P and Limited cameras and feel the same about those. It's one of many reasons why I prefer the F3 with the motordrive. ...

A friend who has been in the camera repair business for his whole life, and a certified Nikon tech, once told me that all Nikon F3's have a sloppy wind lever. I doubted him and then checked one of my F3/ T's which I bought new in 1988 - yep, it does wiggle a bit. I was astonished, as I'd never noticed it before.

My other F3/T has the MD-4 drive - it's kind of cool.

BMbikerider · Apr 21, 2018

Huss said:
If the Leicas were base on the XE (R3, R4? not sure), why were the Leicas so unreliable? Were the XEs reliable?

I am not sure why you think the R3 and R4 Leica were unreliable? I have been in and around photography for over 50 years and I have never hear that claim from anyone. The ones I owned were certainly not. The XE1 was taken by Leica and the body-shell strengthened. Then they added a spot meter, but kept the same shutter. Similar changes were done to the XD series to create the body shell for the Leica R4, but the exact changes have never been clarified. However but if you compare them side by side, the profiles of both the XE1/R3 and XD7/R4 are almost identical. The R3 was also Leica's first foray into auto exposure systems as the previous Leica reflexes before were all manual.

I doubt if the XE1 cameras were unreliable or they would not have be used by Leica for the basis for their models, so yes they were reliable.

Apart from the 2 previous XE1's I have owned, I have also had a couple of R3's and there was no operating difference between them that the general public would notice. (apart from the spotmeter) The only reason I sold the R3's, was the cost of extra lenses required a King's ransom to be able afford them. The R4 I owned, came with a 35/70 constant aperture short zoom lens which in itself an optical design originating from Minolta. The principal difference being the barrel was barrel 'beefed' up, but the optics were identical. Likewise the Leica 70/210/F4 zoom was a copy of the Minolta version. Likewise the R4 was sold because of the cost of extra lenses.

There was also a liaison between Minolta/Leica in the electronics used to operate the TTL flash as used in the Minolta X700. I believe (but cannot confirm) the Leica TTL flash will also work with Minolta TTL flash guns.

BMbikerider · Apr 21, 2018

Les Sarile said:
You do have to acquire the other XK/XM finders to make better use of it . . .

No I don't think so, not for me anyway. I am quite happy with the standard eye level viewfinder. It is quite adequate for landscape photography.

Theo Sulphate · Apr 21, 2018

BMbikerider said:
I am not sure why you think the R3 and R4 Leica were unreliable? ...

The R3 and R4 (up to a certain serial number) had a reputation for unreliable electronics. What percentage of these cameras had issues, I don't know. However, the reputation is there for these models and not the Leicaflexes or later R bodies.

I have SL's and the R8; so far so good.

BMbikerider · Apr 22, 2018

But to answer the original question why the particular camera is not talked about here is almost certainly down to the relatively few that are used. very much the same reason why the likes of Fujica, Konica or even Yashica don't get a mention, unlike Canon, Nikon etc.

Chan Tran · Apr 22, 2018

I remembered back in the days XE-7 were sold in K-Mart.

Les Sarile · Apr 22, 2018

BMbikerider said:
But to answer the original question why the particular camera is not talked about here is almost certainly down to the relatively few that are used. very much the same reason why the likes of Fujica, Konica or even Yashica don't get a mention, unlike Canon, Nikon etc.

The OP meant why the XE was not covered in the Rokkorfiles website and not here on Photrio.

ciniframe · Apr 22, 2018

in my earlier post that said the XE didn't sell in large numbers I was thinking of the XK, (brain fart) there are a lot of XE models. My favorite was the XE7, a smooth little gem with the best wind on of Japanese cameras of that time period.

Les Sarile · Apr 22, 2018

ciniframe said:
in my earlier post that said the XE didn't sell in large numbers I was thinking of the XK, (brain fart) there are a lot of XE models. My favorite was the XE7, a smooth little gem with the best wind on of Japanese cameras of that time period.

The XE, the Pentax K Series - except the K1000, the Nikkormats and other similarly large bodies, all had shortened production cycles with the release of the Olympus OM series. They all quickly scrambled to introduce smaller form factor bodies.

Rokkor Files - Does anyone know why the Minolta XE is not talked about there?

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