XD-11 question

[jon_shumpert2]

<p>I posted about my new XD-11 about a week ago and got some responses. I finished a roll of film today and dropped it off at the lab. The meter readings matched my hand held meter that I used for comparing, so I am not concerned about the exposure. I noticed a lag in the shutter operation. I know that with an slr the sequence is the lens stops down and the mirror goes up before the shutter opens. With every other slr I have, the 3 things seem to happen almost simultaneously. With the XD-11 I can physically see the lens stop down to the selected aperture before the mirror moves and the shutter fires. Has anyone else experienced this with the XD-11 or other slr's? It is like the sequence happens in slow motion compared to all my other cameras.</p>

[jon_shumpert2]

<p>Hi Les, I have tried it in aperture priority, manual and set at "X". The aperture coupler noticeably moves before the mirror does. The mirror does not move until the aperture coupler completes its movement. I have never seen this occur before. I have compared it to my Nikon F3 and FM2N and also to a Pentax MX and K1000 and with all those cameras, the mirror movement is much faster. There is no noticeable time difference between the lens stopping down and the mirror moving . The shutter seems to be accurate and exposes the film properly, but it sounds like I am shooting about 1/8th of a second. I set my other cameras to 1/8th and the sound is close. Looking through the Minolta with the back open, I can see the shutter is probably close to whatever I set it at manually, so the reason it sounds slow is due to the mirror and aperture coupler time difference.</p>

[John Seaman]

<p>Jon I believe this delay is caused by sticky lubricants causing the slow operation of a pneumatic mirror damper. There's a thread here which should help, scroll down the post by Rokkor Fan.</p>

<p>http://photo.net/sony-minolta-slr-system-forum/00BH9j</p>

<p>Also scroll down to the bottom of the thread where another contributor suggests an alternative approach.</p>

<p>I recall when I first had an XD, the operation seemed fast enough but when I returned to it many years later it had a noticeable delay. It does not seem to affect the exposure, however it may be annoying if it causes you to mistime action shots.</p>

[Mike Gammill]

<p>Could the extra delay (at least part of it) be due to the fact that the XD series takes a last second meter reading at shooting aperture before the mirror goes up and shutter opens. This is an exposure safeguard to prevent overexposure should a lens fail to stop down to the proper f stop.</p>

[Member69643]

<p><a href="/photodb/user?user_id=541403">John Seaman</a>'s post has the correct info.</p>

[simon_platt1]

<p>Lots of half correct information going around on various forums<br>

The Xd series actually has two exposure metering systems, one gives a meter reading in the viewfinder and one actually controls the exposure.<br>

When you press the shutter release the aperture closes down and the mirror rises. The mirror rise is controlled by a small dashpot to regulate the speed. The exposure control is metering the light at this point and the value once the mirror stops at the top of its travel is held in a capacitor and controls the exposure. This is necessary because different lenses stop down at slighlty different rates and you need to make sure that the lens is stopped down correctly before storing the exposure reading.<br>

This is also why you should only use MD lenses not MC lenses in shutter priority, they fit okay and won't cause and damage but the apertyre mechansim is different and may not stop down corectly in time.<br>

It is this damper that gets bunged up as the lubricant hardens over time, this is age and use related and every one I have ever had (around 30-40) needs this cleaning. <br>

Mostly when people refer to the shutter delay on an XD7 it is this that they are refering to.<br>

As an aside the capacitors in an XD-7 are not the same as the ones that fail regulary in an X-700<br>

The other exposure related item is the shutter priority exposure automation. If you set a shutter speed that the camera cannot set a corect exposure for by varying the aperture it will alter the shutter speed up or down until it can get a corect exposure.<br>

So lets say you set 1/125 but even at f22 the shot would be overexposed the camera will ignore the 1/125 setting and may use 1/250 or 1/500 instead. Equally if you set 1/125 and your lens is an f2.0, if that would under expose the camera will slow the shutter speed down. Unfortunatley you won't actually know what speed was selected.<br>

If you need instructions on how to use it this site is very good<br>

http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/minoltaxd711/basicimages/basic3.htm</p>

<p>Have fun its great camera</p>