Minolta XG1: Review

Posted to 35mm Cameras 2009-08-18

Minolta XG1 Review:

The Minolta XG1 35mm camera was an SLR film camera with aperture priority automatic exposure introduced by Minolta in 1979. Quite advanced for its time, it featured TTL (Through-The-Lens) center-weighted metering, an electronically timed shutter, exposure compensation and a full manual mode. It also included TTL flash auto-exposure, a rubberized horizontal focal plane shutter with speeds from 1 second to 1/1000 second, an external hot shoe and PC connection for flash sync, and an ASA range of 25 to 1600.

The XG1 used a manual film advance, and was featured with a 50mm f/1.4 Minolta MD-mount Rokkor-X kit lens. This lens featured an aperture range of f/1.4-f/16 in half-stop steps and a focus range of 1.5 feet to infinity. Minolta was known for value and the camera/lens combination was available at a very attractive price.

Rating:

3.4 out of 5

Features

The Minolta XG-1 had most of the features common to the 35mm SLRs of its day. You set the aperture on the lens, depressed the shutter button halfway, and the display used LED's to indicate the chosen shutter speed. Exposure compensation of +2 to -2 EV was available. The viewfinder used a matte focusing screen with a horizontal split image spot in the center. The image was in focus when the horizontal split image became perfectly aligned.

Performance

The Minolta XG1 was capable of producing excellent images. Of course this depended a lot on the lens used with it, but the Minolta MD mount lenses made to be used with this camera featured excellent optics. The camera controls were conveniently placed, and the camera was very easy to learn to use. There was a motor winder, the Winder G, available for the camera which mounted on the bottom and provided for automatic advancing of the film. There was also a data back available, which would imprint date/time and exposure number on the film.

Summary

The Minolta XG1 was, for its time, a compact, full-featured 35mm SLR. One measure of its success is that it remained in Minolta's lineup from 1979 to 1984. Many older photographers owned one of these cameras when they were younger, and quite a few of them are still around today - a testament to the quality that went into producing one.

Pros

Aperture priority automatic exposure
TTL metering and flash auto-exposure
Electronic focal plane shutter
Viewfinder indication of selected shutter speed

Cons

Lacking good manual exposure