Fun with a Minoltina AL-s

I've recently acquired a Minoltina AL-s (for $36 on ebay), which

is in excellent shape (after replacing the light seals, of course).

This is a mid-60s 35mm rangefinder camera, with a Rokkor 40mm 1:1.8 lens.

It's quite compact, and has a built-in selenium meter (no batteries needed),

coupled to the aperture, shutter speed, and film speed, though the meter

value is not displayed

in the viewfinder. Quite nice to handle.

 

I got back a roll of film (Kodak Gold 100, new version 7) today, and

scanned it with a Nikon Coolscan V.

Here's one of the shots (not sure of the aperture, probably between

f/5.6 and f/11. I'll follow up with a 100% crop...<div></div>

(That caption should be "Minoltina AL-s", of course, though it

was indeed built by Minolta.)

 

The 100% crop is below. The lens looks to be pretty sharp.

The meter seems to have done a pretty good job too, in other

shots as well as this one. All in

all, I'm quite pleased with this little camera, which actually

fits in a pocket in my pants.<div></div>

I had a couple of these back in the late '90s, and found them enjoyable cameras to use and the images to be excellent. In fact, that little camera is the one that turned me into a Minolta fan. It may not have had the features of my Canonet QL17 (like parallax correction or metering in the viewfinder), but it didn't need a battery and I could carry it anywhere and not worry about it providing a fine image. I still have one and it looks nearly perfect, but it's a parts camera as the RF mirror has lost a lot of its silvering. I'll eventually get another as a carry-anywhere camera, or get a wrecked one and repair mine.

Nobody should expect less from any Rokkor lens. By the way, the Citizen shutter it uses, is the same than the Yashica III I have.

 

Congratulations.

Mark, I have an extra, non-working and disassembled AL-s body which I used for parts. If you want the mirror (the one which rotates), let me know by email and I'll send it to you. The viewfinder beamsplitter on mine has lost some silvering and is not usable.

Warren,

Thanks! The rotating mirror is the one that's desilvered.

Good to know there are other Minoltina AL-s users out there!

 

One slight question for you... The needle in the meter on mine will

go all the way to the top in bright light, but in dim light (eg,

covering the sensor with my hand) it goes

down only to about halfway from the middle line to the bottom. Is this

how they all have always behaved, or could mine be slightly out of

adjustment? (Even though setting exposure so that the needle is on the

middle line seems to give good exposures, with colour print film,

it could easily be out a bit without drastic effects.)

 

Thanks.

Fitting in a pocket is good!

Radford,

As I mentioned earlier, I had a couple of these. The meters did not agree, so I did some exposure tests and I marked a spot on the meter on the bad one where the needle would be for good exposures. I didn't bother trying to adjust it as at the time it was beyond me to do that. One was accurate enough for slides (really!), but the off one I used for negative film only. I didn't trust the meter in that one because it was far enough from where the user's manual said it should be, whether I marked a spot on it or not. I certainly had no complaints about shots from it, though.

I should add something about the Minoltina AL-s. It's a great camera for carrying along outdoors in daylight conditions, but it's a different matter for indoors. The rangefinder isn't as bright as my Canonet or (now that I remember it) my 7s, so in indoor conditions you may have problems. Also, if you get one from an auction source, you should also know that you may have to clean the viewfinder glass to brighten the view (I wouldn't touch the half-silvered mirror if it becomes desilvered as easily as mine - I never even got near it!), and the shutter can get sticky with gunk on the blades. It's a VERY easy camera to work on, though.

Thanks for the comments. The viewfinder on mine is quite clear,

and focusing is no problem indoors even in somewhat dim rooms.

(I do realize that a selenium meter is unlikely to be very accurate

in low light.) Seems I may be lucky in this respect!

 

So all I'm (slightly) worried about is the fact that needle on the

meter never goes all the way down. Does does the needle go all the

way down when you cover the sensor, or just a bit below the mark?

The meter needle on mine (the Minoltina-S variant) performs the same as yours, and does not go all the way down when covered.