Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/08/20

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: recoating, & Minolta mystery camera
From: "Charles E. Love, Jr." <cel14@cornell.edu>
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 23:21:52 -0400 (EDT)

At 12:53 PM 8/20/96 PST, you wrote:
>** Reply to note from Jack Campin <jack@purr.demon.co.uk> Tue, 20 Aug 1996
00:09:12 +0000 
> 
> 
>> did the Minolta XK people are talking about here have another  
>> designation for the European market?  While the SRT-series are common  
>> here, I've never heard of that one. 
> 
>I doubt it. That was back in the days before the grey market was a big 
>problem. The XK was a 70s vintage camera that lasted into the 80s. 
>There's a copy of one at our local camera store in the historical 
>section. They were bricks. Big as an F2 with a massive prism. They were 
>built as tough, or tougher, than a Nikon F according to one guy I talked 
>to who used them, and they had a seperate versoin with the motor 
>permanently attached on the bottom, and that was massive! 
> 
>Great camears, lots of accessories. It really could have changed the 
>Leica's future if the R system had been based on that, but the price? Oi! 
>The Minoltas were more expensive than the Nikon or Canon pro cameras.
>
>Regards, 
> 
>Eric Welch 
>Grants Pass, OR
>

Interesting thought--base the R3 on the XK.  I owned an XK once, and the
body was the same as the R3 and its Minolta ancestor, the XE5-7.  The
difference was on the top where the finder was added.  I wonder if the XK
really had any better mechanics, or whether it differed primarily in the
addition of the removable finder and the unusal manual/electronic shutter?
Charles E. Love, Jr.
517 Warren Place
Ithaca, New York
14850
607-272-7338
CEL14@CORNELL.EDU