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Maxx
Tinkerer
Username: Maxx
Post Number: 1
Registered: 09-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 07, 2006 - 12:47 pm: | 
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okay, so I am taking photography in college this year, i took it in highschool aswell, and the camera I am using is a minolta x-370. my dad gave it to me, i can't rememeber when he said he bought it, but i think it was some time in the late eighties. its black, with a silver top.
so here's my problem, the aperture doesn't seem to move. i took of the lens, and turned the aperture ring, but it doens't close. its just stuck wide open.
does anyone know if this is fixable? or do i need a new lens? and if i need a new lens, what kind should i get? i know next to nothing about cameras, and this camera is kinda old, so i dont know if they still make lenses for them.
by the way, its a zoom lens, and on the end, it says 70mm. |
M_currie
Tinkerer
Username: M_currie
Post Number: 6
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, September 10, 2006 - 08:17 pm: |
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On the back side of the lens is a little spring-loaded pin. This is the pin that the camera engages, to stop the lens down when you shoot. Can you get any reaction from the aperture by jiggling or wiggling this lever? If you can wake it up, it might still work. But make sure that it is working freely, and not sticky. Look carefully at the diaphragm leaves for signs of oil. When the camera fires, the time allotted for the aperture to close is pretty short, and even if it works it might malfunction if it's stiff.
Off the camera, a minolta lens should stop down visibly, so if it is not doing this, it is indeed malfunctioning.
New lenses for manual focus Minoltas may be getting rare, but good used ones abound, and are often a better bargain than the same lenses in a different mount. The X-370 itself was made for a very long time, and any manual focus Minolta mount lens should work on it. If you can't scare your zoom back to life, I doubt it will be worth repairing, unless it's one of the better Minolta Rookor zooms, and maybe not even then.
Check out KEH.com, a reputable dealer of used equipment. Not that they're the only one, but they have a good selection and they're reliable. I've bought a number of lenses from them. For a manual focus lens, their "bargain" grade is usually very good, and quite adequate for anyone but a collector who needs minty-looking stuff. They have a large selection of lenses for your camera, both Minolta and third-party. While looking at zooms, don't forget to look for "primes" too (fixed focal length). You can get a 50 mm. 1.7 lens, faster and sharper than any zoom, in excellent condition for under 20 bucks! the X-370 came with a plain rather plasticky Rokkor, but it was optically decent, and either it or the higher-priced Rokkor X can be had so cheaply that it would be a real shame not to have one in your kit. |
Maxx
Tinkerer
Username: Maxx
Post Number: 2
Registered: 09-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 - 04:57 pm: |
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i tried playing with that little lever, but hte aperture still doesn't move. it seems to go from the widest opening, to the second-widest, and that's it.
and yeah, i looked on keh.com, my photo teacher told me about that one. i was just worried that i might get a lens that doesn't fit. they had pretty good prices too.
thanks for the help, i'll look on keh.com again, and at the local camera stores |
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