Sony Diaries: A Recent Wedding in January, 2022

 

I bought the Minolta XE-5 for its looks, I kept it for its heart

My decision to buy the XE-5 in 1977, with the first paycheques from my first job, was an easy one to make. It was the best-looking camera in the store that I could afford.

It was later on that I learned that:

It was the first SLR Minolta produced together with Leica, as a result of co-operation between Minolta and Leitz. The Leica R3 has the same basic construction, although at least the electronics, metering system and aperture mechanics are different to facilitate spot metering and the use of Leica mount lenses.

The Minolta XE is an extremely well built top quality SLR camera. Its mechanical quality exceeds everything Minolta has made ever since - including its successors, the XD-series, and IMHO also the present top model Dynax 9. Basically it is electronically controlled single lens reflex camera that offers both metered manual and aperture -priority automatic exposure controls with full aperture TTL metering. The body is all metal and designed to hard use. All controls are placed where a photographer is used to have them - there is no such individually placed controls that would require a manual to be learned, like there is in the Minoltas pro SLR, the XM. (http://satnam.ca/cameras/minoltaxe/xemain/xemain.html)

 

The Minolta XE-5

In November1977, with some cash from my first 4 paycheques working in Housekeeping at Sunnybrook Hospital, I went to Black's Cameras at the Don Mills Centre, then a nondescript strip plaza. We had arrived in Canada in early July 1977, and I landed a job at Sunnybrook 2 months later.

I can't really say what compelled me to spend most of my hard-earned cash on an advanced SLR camera. This was my first camera; no Kodak Instamatics in my past. My Dad was an inveterate photographer with his Canon Canonet QL17, and he also was a collector of other people's photographs. 

I settled on a Minolta XE-5. I would have preferred the Minolta XE-7 but that was more expensive. I hadn't done any research; I just knew that the Minolta XE-5 was a good-looking camera.

In the years since then, I have owned medium-format Hasselblads, Mamiyas, and Yashicas and Bronicas, 35mm Rolleis and Nikons, and even a Leica R3, 110 Kodaks and Rolleis, and 4x5s from Toyo, Graflex, and Nagaoka. I've had to sell gear to acquire other gear. I was never into collecting cameras and associated gear. The gear I had was the gear I used. But my heart always went back to that Minolta XE-5.

Over the years, I've looked on Kijiji and Craigslist for a well-preserved XE-5, to no avail. I don't trust eBay; if I can't feel it in my hands before purchase, I won't consider the purchase.

Recently, I came across a near-mint-for-its-age XE-5. Here it is, with an MC Rokkor-PF 58F1.4!

I will never part with this camera!