I am blessed enough to have a nice size collection of cameras, and even further blessed that most of my collection came from friends and family. One of those cameras is my Minolta XE-7 that was given to me by my friend Alex Luyckx. If you are an active member of the film community I’m sure you know him from his podcast The Classic Camera Revival or his informative website on all things film. Alex was kind enough to pass the camera on to me when he found out I had still never tried a Minolta camera. Here are my first thoughts on the Minolta XE-7.
First Thoughts on the Minolta XE-7
I’m not going to get into specs and history here. That will be for my actual review of this camera. Today I just want to share a few thoughts and photos I’ve accumulated so far.
The smooth shutter and advance on the XE-7 stood out to me right away. Kind of like the smooth system on my Nikon F3 I’ve talked about, this can be dangerous when trying to save money on film. Otherwise I find myself just taking photo after photo.
The lenses also are great. They’re affordable, fast, and I love the look they render.
Photos from the Minolta XE-7
I shot these with the Rokkor 50mm f/1.7 on Kodak TX 400 pushed to 800. This film has replaced Ilford HP5 as my go-to for some reason as of late.
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This lens has a great shallow depth of field wide open.
Final Thoughts
I’m excited to start really shooting with this camera. Right now because of my health, my reviews have been put on hold, so I haven’t been able to shoot much more.
I really like the results I got even on these test rolls. That’s always a great feeling when you first get a camera. Thank you Alex for sending this one my way!
What about you all? Do you have or have you ever tried an XE-7? Do you recommend I pick up any specific lenses or accessories for it? Chat with me in the comments.
Until next time, stay motivated and keep shooting.
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