Minolta X-700 camera
Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2025 5:41 pm
The X-700 was the flagship of the Minolta MPS manual focus camera group. It was very popular and won camera of the year in Europe in 1981. It worked in manual, aperture priority, and if you twist the MD lens to the green 22 and turned the selector knob to the Green P, you had a program mode that enabled the camera to pick a shutter speed and an aperture while you did the focusing. Not just a feature exclusive to Minolta but also sold around the same time by other camera manufacturers. Now days, on ebay, in advertised tested and in working order, they go for around $70 starting buy price. However the one I bought was for $17 and a mystery as to working condition. Mystery working condition expressed as "unknown condition and selling for parts" on Ebay. That usually means no way in hell it works and the seller more than suspects it has a problem. Me as buyer aware of that and bid accordingly.
As it turned out nothing turned on. I knew from my step down X370 experience the problem most likely was a burned out capacitor. Minolta had some crap capacitors through much of the production run but later in the run switched from the jug type that didn't work long to a more bubble looking thing. I had some capacitors from the last repair and then the easy to get to capacitor in the X370 was in the same place in the X-700. Only, the X-700 has another capacitor under a wiring board and requires major surgery. Oh well.. crap. Then I read another post online that said it could be the cap on the battery compartment and not anything to do with capacitors. Guy said he had a battery cap that looked just fine but somebody must have cleaned it up after a leaking battery, or batteries, it takes two, and some kind of corrosion got under the facing base of the cap preventing current flow. So.. I took a cap off of the X-370 that I knew worked and put in some batteries .... thinking this is probably a wild goose chase. Screwed it into the X-700. But...amazing and beyond all my expectations... the camera came to life.
As it turned out nothing turned on. I knew from my step down X370 experience the problem most likely was a burned out capacitor. Minolta had some crap capacitors through much of the production run but later in the run switched from the jug type that didn't work long to a more bubble looking thing. I had some capacitors from the last repair and then the easy to get to capacitor in the X370 was in the same place in the X-700. Only, the X-700 has another capacitor under a wiring board and requires major surgery. Oh well.. crap. Then I read another post online that said it could be the cap on the battery compartment and not anything to do with capacitors. Guy said he had a battery cap that looked just fine but somebody must have cleaned it up after a leaking battery, or batteries, it takes two, and some kind of corrosion got under the facing base of the cap preventing current flow. So.. I took a cap off of the X-370 that I knew worked and put in some batteries .... thinking this is probably a wild goose chase. Screwed it into the X-700. But...amazing and beyond all my expectations... the camera came to life.