The lens is the greatest asset of this camera. Equipped with Minolta Chiyoka Rokkor 75mm f3.5 taking lens and Seikosha MX shutter, the camera is a great performer for it's price. Starting off with the humble Minolta Autocord, which one could purchase for around USD 250 to 370 or so for a decent used copy. I will be doing reviews on every single of it and share my thoughts and experience shooting with these beauties. becoming a lost art.I am a huge fan of rangefinder and TLR cameras and I am thankful to have these few awesome cams in my collection.The photos were taken on the 7th Anniversary Toronto Photo Walk mostly in Toronto's east end. I might improvise a Gordy's Wrist Strap until I can find the OEM neck strap. Unfortunately, I don't have a camera strap for it, again in Minolta's infinite wisdom went with a proprietary lug system which is a pain in the ass. Turns out there was foam between the waist level finder and the dead meter, I replaced that and cleaned the mirror and carefully dusted out all the debris. Now I did have to clean the focusing screen, which requires patience and steady hands. I was brave and decided to use a roll of Kodak Portra 400 as my test roll, my Autocord's speeds are bang on. How does it handle? Different, the ergonomics take some getting used to if you are used to the world of Rollei. If I find that link I'm posting it for sure as a public service. Now I remember one photographer/tinkerer posted on his website how to make a replacement lever in brass, a much sturdier metal. There are a lot of Autocords out there with broken levers. The engineers at Minolta made the fatal mistake of using "Pot Metal" alloy which is pretty weak.
The dreaded lever, if you're to stumble across an Autocord chances are that lever is seized up, don't force it. You load the film up top instead of the bottom and you don't have a focus knob on the side but a lever on the bottom. Well, I found one at Burlington Camera, everything worked except the meter which is no surprise.Īutocords are a different beast than Rollei and Mamiya TLRs. Now I was always curious about Minolta Autocords because of their reputation for amazing lenses. I like my Twin Lens Reflex cameras, owning a pair of Rolleicords, a Series E 3.5 Planar Rolleiflex and a Mamiya C220f is testament to that. There is no cure, only temporary remission. Photographers suffer from a disease called Gear Acquisition Syndrome or GAS for short.
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