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The Minolta XG-A is similar to the other Minolta XG series cameras in some ways. It's a mostly metal, Minolta SR-mount (also referred to as MD or MC mount) camera, offers aperture priority metering, uses a split image focusing screen and used a low quality leatherette that tends to peel from the camera with time. It also uses capacitors which have a tendancy to go bad over time. It offers no depth of field preview, mirror lockup, TTL flash metering or any other advanced camera features. The biggest drawback to the XG-A is that it does not allow user selected shutter speeds. You can set it in aperture priority (you set aperture, camera determines shutter and tells it to you in the viewfinder) and can adjust exposure (shutter speed) up to 2 stops from what the meter says. Given that all the rest of the XG series is just as dirt cheap as the XG-A, I would heartily recommend getting one of the other models. The XG-M is the best XG series camera, as it offers depth of field preview and readout of selected aperture in the viewfinder. The X-700 or X-570 are even better, as they both offer depth of field preview and TTL flash metering. I wrote a guide on the Minolta system that discusses relative merits of the different bodies more in-depth. You can also see www dot rokkorfiles dot com for a more in depth review of Minolta bodies out there. It should be noted for individuals new to photography that the Minolta manual focus/SR mount/MD or MC mount system is INCOMPATIBLE with the newer Minolta/Sony/A-mount/Alpha mount/Maxxum/auto focus system. There are adapters from manual focus to auto focus, but they are low quality and are best avoided. If you've got an XG or XD series camera and want to fix the peeling leatherette problem, www dot cameraleather dot com can sell you new leatherette (or even real leather, snake or lizard skin) for about $10-50 depending on what you get. You just peel the old stuff off and stick the new stuff on and its really easy if you read their tutorial.Read full review
Very nice camera for some fun film work. This camera can get any photographers creative side on over drive since shutter speed is automatically set by the aperture you select to use. You can make up to 2 stop adjustments +/- with a selector dial in order to correct for your particular lighting situation. I highly recommend anyone wanting to increase there knowledge base on photography own and lease one film camera and for around $20 there is no excuse.
Ive been working with digital slr cameras for 7 years and never owned any film cameras.. so lately, ive been blowing on some film cameras made throughout the years.. this one caught my attention.. compared to the other film slr cameras i bought, this one is pretty light and really easy to use.. i like it.. but this one i bought could deinatel use some cleaning.
I have not actually used this particular camera but am experienced with most cameras of it's generation. This unit is well built and takes all Minolta MC and MD lenses-that is a bunch of lenses. Made for primarily automatic shooting, it does this well, having a good light meter system. I particularly like the weight, nice and solid but relatively small. These are good shooters if found in really good condition.
Simple easy to learn controls, compactness, easy to hold due to body raised right end of camera. Dislikes-none. Minolta,s history of good value. I personally have had many SRT models and now have many X-series models witch I actually use are easyer due to weight and compactness.
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