camera reviews
At the beginning of this year, I resolved to review at least one of my cameras per month. November is the 11th month of the year. I have written 5 reviews. How likely is it that I will be able to write 7 additional reviews before the year is out?
If you’re interested in (the history of) film photography, check out my review of the wonderful Leica R3.
I am happy to announce that I have now published my review of the Minolta XE-5 35 mm film camera, little brother to the XE/XE-1/XE-7.
Here’s an overview of my ongoing project to review all the film cameras in my collection.
Several weeks ago, I was drawn to investigate Minolta cameras after learning about the historical collaboration between the Japanese manufacturer and Leitz, which, beginning in the early 1970s and spanning approximately two decades, birthed the XE and XD cameras as well as the Leica R3-R7 series of SLRs. Having spent about 18 months shooting the R7 quite religiously—with varying results—and a couple experimenting—pleasantly—with the radically different R8 (review to come), I was intrigued to discover what the Japanese siblings of the R3 and R4 had to offer, both technically in their own rights as picture-making tools and as lessons in the history of Leica photography. Therefore, I went ahead and purchased decent, though not mint, copies of the Minolta XE-1 (1974; badged for the European market, marked XE in Japan and XE-7 in North America) and XD (1977; badged for the Japanese market, marked XD-7 in Europe and XD-11 in North America). I do not yet own R3 and R4 bodies with which to compare them (that’s a topic for another article), so I will review them independently of the Leica cameras. This article deals exclusively with the Minolta XE.
The Leica R7 was the last in the line of electromechanical SLR cameras descending from the German-Japanese collaboration that produced the Leica R3 in 1977. That camera, which shared much of its DNA with the Minolta XE (released in 1974 as the XE-1 in Europe and the XE-7 in North America), was the lighter, smaller, and less-expensive-to-manufacture successor to the famously over-engineered and unprofitable Leicaflex SL2 that was produced by Leitz from 1974 to 1976. The partnership between Leitz and Minolta culminated in the release of the R7 in 1992, twenty years after the two companies had signed an agreement of technical cooperation. In 1996, the R7 was succeeded by the R8, which was designed exclusively by Leica and was a radical break from the R3–R7 line.
My father’s Nikon EM mounted with a 35 mm f/2.5 E Series lens. Not clearly visible in this photograph is the fact that the rewind crank is missing.
This is not a review. This is the story of a camera. Not of a camera make and model, but of a particular camera in the world, a camera that made its way by route and hands unknown from Japan to sub-Saharan Aftica, a camera that found itself amidst the history of a country in turmoil, a camera that touched the life of my family. This is a story of life after death. And it’s an unfinished story that I intend to keep telling for the rest of my days.