SRT-200: From the late, lamented mind of Minolta

<p>Sometimes on the bay, I have an idea what I want. Other times, I'm open to impulses. A lot of you have been praising the Minolta SRT series here lately. I've never owned a manual focus Minolta. I know that the lenses are really cheap now, I gather because with their short film register distances, they're difficult to adapt to digital. So I kept an eye out for a possible deal.</p>

<p>This auction listing was a bit of a gamble. SRT-200, Rokkor-X 50/2, Celtic 135/3.5, flash and bag. Looked good in the photos but the seller wouldn't represent anything except that it made camera-like sounds when wound and fired. The $25 postpaid that it took to win the item seemed a reasonable gamble to me, considering all the things that could be wrong.</p><div></div>

<p>Among the foam peanuts, things looked promising. Cosmetically the camera looked good, apart from some scuffs on the bottom plate. Light seals and mirror bumper needed replacing; half a lunch hour took care of that. Some odd parts were missing. The DOF preview button was gone. Preview still worked if you jabbed something into the hole, but a new button needs to be fabricated. Also, the plastic thumb pad on the winding crank was gone. Now that I know to look for it, I see this missing on other SRTs up for auction as well. Did this tend to fall off, or did users take it off so the crank could be folded closer to the back? The good news was in the usual trouble spots: the fabric shutter curtain looked fine, and no battery compartment corrosion (a fresh PX625A alkaline was in there). </p>

<p>The lenses both were in good shape. The flash was a common but quite good Kmart Focal M500T with tilt/zoom head. Again, it came with fresh batteries and no corrosion. It worked great in the hot shoe; I'd like to try using it with some of my cold-shoe and no-shoe classics, but the sync cable wasn't included and it takes a non-standard 2-pin connector. Oh well.</p><div></div>

<p>On the day I replaced the light seals, the weather in New York was just too beautiful not to go out and shoot some pictures, especially with cold and rain in the forecast. I replaced the alkaline with a zinc-air and spent an enjoyable half hour in midtown, enjoying the heft of the old camera and the attention it got. I'm not sure this is a camera you fall in love with, but certainly it's a classic. The controls do what they should, everything feels solid and has the right amount of resistance. The match-needle metering is intuitive; I've heard some objection to the fact that the needle goes down with more light rather than up, but it's a snap once you figure that when the hoop is high, you're overexposing, and when it's low, you're under. </p><div></div>

<p>Anyway, the thing takes pictures, right enough. With the zinc cell, the meter nailed the exposures. Compared to the old German glass I've been using, the photos crackled with contrast. It's an obvious difference even just looking at the negatives. I had some concern about the 135mm Celtic, having read varying opinions on here about how Celtics differ from Rokkors and how much worse they are. All I can say after looking at the scans is that I'm in no hurry to replace my Celtic. It doesn't give much away to the Rokkor from what I can see.</p><div></div>

<p>I was thinking of getting something like an X-370 or X-700 to go behind any Minolta optics that might catch my fancy, but I'm glad I opted for the SRT instead. It's much more my kind of camera.</p>

<p>Thanks, for the trip down memory lane. I was a Minolta dealer in the seventies, selling many SRT cameras including the 200 to happy owners. I never heard anything but praise for all of them. Your examples are very good! I'm glad you're enjoying this find.</p>

<p>Every time a new Minolta user shoots an SRT, an angel gets his wings :)</p>

<p>Very nice. Interesting that you've got a MD lens - that's somewhat newer than the camera and allows use in S and P modes on some later models. Next on my list of Minolta things I need are a PX series flash and a 58/1.4 Rokkor.</p>

<p>miniman swap meet may have some of the parts<br>

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MinMan-SWAPMEET/</p>

<p>unfortunately his aol page( minolta manual focus ) is down<br>

aol killed all the personal pages without warning a while ago.<br>

the moderator may eventually get it back up.<br>

our contact in the photo industry always said thet the folks at minolta were " good people"</p>

<p> </p>

<p>August,<br>

Congrats on your SRT find! They're wonderful cameras that you do fall in love with after you've used them for a time. The plastic tip on the film advance lever apparently was notorious for coming off; in fact, the one on my second SRT-102 looks like it was glued back on by a previous owner. Your pictures look great, btw. One of the areas I feel the SRTs shine is when you're taking pictures in tricky lighting. In my experience so far the CLC metering system has done an excellent job of metering the scene and producing very well exposed shots. I'll be interested to hear what you think. As far as lenses go, the Celtics are amazing! My first Minolta lens was an MD Celtic 28/2.8 which has turned out to be one of the sharpest lenses that I own of any kind. I have since acquired an MC Rokkor-X 28/2.8 and it's amazingly sharp as well, but I couldn't tell the difference between the two in the shooting I've done with them so far. The Rokkors have a better build quality but they use the same optical formula as the Celtics but with better coatings in most cases. I'm really very impressed with the SRTs and the Minolta lenses and I hope you enjoy your SRT as much as I enjoy mine. It really is a fantastic camera. Wait till you try one of the XE-series cameras, though...</p>

<p><strong>Andrew</strong> --I just got a 58/1.4 Rokkor and it's well worth finding one. It's becoming a favorite to mount on one of my SRT-102 bodies.</p>

<p>Excellent shots. Welcome to the Minolta club.<br>

If you want to expand your Minolta (manual focus) collection, you might find the XE or XD models to your liking, aside from the SRT. You might find the X-370 or X-700 plasticky, although they are more modern, lighter and have brighter viewfinders.<br>

I've always heard the Celtic lenses have excellent optics, using the same formulas as Rokkors, but might be a small notch below the Rokkors in their coatings and physical build quality.<br>

I would highly recommend the 24mm Rokkor lens. It would be perfect for NYC.</p>

<p>The X-370 and X-370n are great cameras. But, so are the SRT's. Great find and photos!</p>

<p>i hav the x370 and x700 i like the features of the x700 best buti use the x370 more because its more ergonomic and has a better feel</p>

<p>Great buy and photos. The plastic tip disappearing was a common malady in the srt line. Thanks for the photos.</p>

<p>Great find, August and very nice shots. Good to see another classic put to use.</p>

<p>Great photos and great find. Back in the 70's my family's camera shop sold the SRT 200 as a kit including the 50mm f2, 135mm f3.5 Celtic, Auto 25 flash, and a bag. Later, the kit came with the 45mm f2 and the Celtic MC was upgraded to MD specs. Sold a ton of 'em. A few people here in town that bought from us are still using there SRT 200's today.<br>

One SRT 200 had a homecoming of sorts last year. The one we sold to the local high school was about to be discarded in favor of digital so the Vocational director gave it to my oldest so who attend school there. He got the camera wtih 45mm and 135mm lens. Still looks and works great.<br>

Enjoy and take lots of photos.</p>

<p>Thanks for all the responses and advice. Walter, I'll probably check out that swap meet, although it sounds like another dangerously expensive place to hang out. I've already fabricated a DOJ preview button that looks and works great, but haven't yet come up with a way of anchoring it to the camera so it won't fall out. The plastic wind crank tip I can do without. I might apply a coat of liquid rubber to the top just to make it a little easier on my thumb, but probably not. Most of my cameras are wound with a knob, so just having a crank at all is a luxury!<br>

Ben, I will be looking for that Rokkor 24. I have decided to avoid 28s, preferring instead to have a 24 and a 35. </p>

<p>Definitely check out the XE series. The XE's and Leica R3 were the result of a collaboration between Minolta and Leica. If you google and look at pics you will see the resemblence. They share the excellent Copal-Leitz shutter which works steplessly from 4s to 1/1000 and will work w/o batteries at B and 1/90. Silky smooth film advance and one of the quietest SLR shutters. Like the SRT, these cameras are solid. You also get split image focusing in the viewfinder.<br>

As I mentioned in another thread, Minolta SLR's are like potato chips because it's hard to have just one.<br>

I agree with Andy on the 28mm Celtic. My parents gave me one for Christmas in 1978 to go with my SRT 201. Still use the lens today and it is sharp. Should be a real bargain now. Regrettably, Minolta never offered a Celtic version of the 24mm so you'll need deeper pockets to snag one, but still cheap compared to some other brands. Be careful with the f2.8 35mm lenses, though. I've had two with sluggish diaphragms and a couple of other posters have mentioned a similar problem. I don't know if the Celtic version had the same problem. AFAIK, I haven't heard anyone make a similar complaint about the 35mm f1.8, but of course it is more expensive.</p>

<p>Like the Lexington Avenue crispness, framing, depth and careful perspective.</p>

<p>SrT's black plastic advance lever tip was just held on by two pegs, heat flared on their ends. Pegs broke. There's been an eb*y seller who does parts and has had these. Found that epoxy gluing does make for a more durable assembly.</p>

<p>For the 35/2.8's: theirs was a long line with nearly a dozen versions (including Celtics). The earlier short-metal-barrel 7-elements-in-6-groups MC Rokkor-HG version seems to be the problematic one (have had 4-5 of these and all with either slow/oily diaphragms or scratching/scuffing on soft coatings). Am now using a long-metal-barrel HG version with 52mm filter size, which was originally sold as a 'budget version', and it's clean, clear and snappy. The later 5-in-5 MC Rokkor-X, MD Rokkor-X and Celtic versions didn't seem to have the glitches the short metal barrel version had. Have had 2 of the MD Rokkor-X versions and both were good.</p>

<p>And will also praise any of the XE's. If you like the 'tankness' of the SrT, you'll really like an XE.</p>

<p>Good grief, I'll have to look into these XEs now.</p>

<p>By the way, if any of you is looking to add a Minolta 135/3.5 to your collection, KEH is essentially giving them away. The Celtics are priced at $6.00 to $9.00 depending on condition, and the Rokkors reach all the way up to $16.00. </p>

<p>August, one more vote for the XE-7, it is my main shooter. Not sure if you saw my post recent;y, but here it is for your convenience: <a href="http://www.photo.net/classic-cameras-forum/00Sqy3">http://www.photo.net/classic-cameras-forum/00Sqy3</a></p>

<p>I took the lens off a XE7 and gave the camera away as it was brassy but took good pictures. I put the lens on my Dad's old Minolta 101 and I am guessing the glass might be as good as the Leica R3 glass. The pictures have come out as good as my RF Canons, and almost as good as my Summicron on an M6. Lucky me, but its a heavy lug to carry around. The light meter on the 101 has gone out and that is why my father gave it to me but I am using a CV meter on the top and it really works good for exposure.<br>

Joe</p>

<p>The SRTs are fine cameras. The culmination of the CdS meters came with the XE series that used 1.5v batteries easily found today. But the real star of the lineup was the somewhat more recent XD series, especially the XD11. It also used silver 1.5 batteries but had a silicon light meter and could be used in manual, aperture priority, shutter priority (with MD lenses), and is a form of program mode.</p>

<p>The one thing I never understood was that the more recent XD11 did not retain the CLC function of the XEs, nor did half depression "lock" the exposure value. Minolta was a great and innovative manufacturer andI miss them</p>

<p>I am interested in acquiring an XD-11 since reading about it and how good of a camera it is, however the SRT series always appeals to me because it's all mechanical, aside from the meter. If the batteries die the camera will still function fully, albeit without a meter. It's the same reason I love my original Canon F1 and the FTbn.</p>