Recently acquired SRT101 & XG-M

fancied trying my hand at some fully manual film photography and managed to get hold of both of these in seemingly good condition:

does anyone have any advice or tips for regarding usage and potential problems. I’ve read its a good idea to replace light seals on the rear doors. Im currently testing them both with some black and white film (because it was cheap)

Those are both in beautiful shape!

The XG-M is a much newer camera and supports an aperture priority auto exposer mode (With an MD lens which you have) as well as a manual exposure mode. I would start working with the XG-M in A priority (set the aperture and the camera will set a matching shutter speed) .

The SRT-101 is a all mechanical tank and is one of the few Minoltas with a mirror lock up which was valued for astro photography where every little vibration counts. The metering in the SRT series is a needle match in the view finder exposure system. The XG-M might be a little more intuitive in A Exposure mode. The SR needle match becomes very intuitive after using it for a while though.

The SRT-101 comes from the era of MC lenses where there was no camera lens coupling for aperture priority auto exposure modes (enabeling the camera to set the aperture)... the MD lenses were introduced to add this capability to the MD camera/lens pairing. MC and MD lenses are both SR mount and can be interchanged between MC and MD era cameras but MD era cameras won't support auto exposure with an MC lens.

Both are excellent cameras! The XG-M is newer and the SRT-101 has a more robust build with no dependence on a battery for anything other than exposure metering.

P.S. The little lever on the top right of the camera is for advancing the film between taking pictures.

MikeInOr wrote:

Those are both in beautiful shape!

The XG-M is a much newer camera and supports an aperture priority auto exposer mode (With an MD lens which you have) as well as a manual exposure mode. I would start working with the XG-M in A priority (set the aperture and the camera will set a matching shutter speed) .

The SRT-101 is a all mechanical tank and is one of the few Minoltas with a mirror lock up which was valued for astro photography where every little vibration counts. The metering in the SRT series is a needle match in the view finder exposure system. The XG-M might be a little more intuitive in A Exposure mode. The SR needle match becomes very intuitive after using it for a while though.

The SRT-101 comes from the era of MC lenses where there was no camera lens coupling for aperture priority auto exposure modes (enabeling the camera to set the aperture)... the MD lenses were introduced to add this capability to the MD camera/lens pairing. MC and MD lenses are both SR mount and can be interchanged between MC and MD era cameras but MD era cameras won't support auto exposure with an MC lens.

Both are excellent cameras! The XG-M is newer and the SRT-101 has a more robust build with no dependence on a battery for anything other than exposure metering.

P.S. The little lever on the top right of the camera is for advancing the film between taking pictures.

thanks for the tips. ive put a few black and white rolls through the xgm now… i did 2 because i likely ruined the first roll by popping the back open by tripping the catch trying to wind the film back in… noob mistake. i actually used it in fully manual rather than aperture priority to force me to really pay attention to what i was doing. I’ll be putting a roll through the srt101 next. once i get them developed and confirm the working condition of the cameras i may try some colour film… possibly fuji provia if i can get any. I actually managed to use the self timer to do a selfy so interested to see if thats worked. I also used the dof preview button a few times. I’m a big fan of things that are well engineered and I’m really impressed with the mechanics of these old cameras

Cool,  I hope you post a comparison of your impressions of both cameras when you have time.

I think everyone has popped the door by mistake. 

The SRT101 was my first SLR and I loved it.  As I aged, focusing became difficult with my eyesight as the focus screen doesn't "snap" in as on some later cameras--especially with slower zoom lenses (which you probably wouldn't use anyway).

The battery was a mercury cell which gave good voltage, hence metering, stability, but are no longer sold at least in the USA.  I understand there is a sub that works reasonably well, but don't know what it is.

Thanks

FrancoD wrote:

Gesture wrote:

XG-M one of the later film era cameras. Bright viewfinder. Even takes a motor wind.

Needs electronic cable release.

Forgot what batteries it takes. No manual shutter speeds, I believe.

The XG M did have metered shutter speeds.

Took the very common ,then, S76/ LR 44 batteries (x2)

the meter in the viewfinder is actually a shutter speed indicator. so in manual mode the little LEDs that make up the meter will indicate what shutter speed you should set for correct exposure. I think it works this way because they intended the camera to mostly be used in aperture priority mode. It might be the only XG model that allows fully manual shooting. very different from the srt-101 which has a more traditional needle indicator and is completely mechanical.