Luck of the Irish, I got a Minolta X-570 yesterday!

[br1078lum]

Pete's gonna hate me for this, but while I was waiting for some film to get developed, I swung by the Goodwill store, and found an X-570 in the display case.  I'd been looking for one ever since I got the X-700 last year.  It had a sticker that said the shutter was stuck, but I was hoping it was only dead/non-existant batteries.  It was kind of dirty, but the winding lever was locked, and not loose.  The insides were clean, and no one had put a finger through the shutter, like on the Yashica YF I found at the same store.  And I figure for $12.55 total, I couldn't go too wrong.

Got it home, and put two 675's that I took out of the Lynx in it, but there was no joy in Mudville.  I took them out, cleaned the connections in the well, and tried again, but still no luck.  So I put two 357's in their place and Bingo!  Guess the 675's are thinner than the 357's, and weren't making contact.  Coulda swore that's what I put in the X-700.  So I cleaned it up, and here is the result, with a link to the other photos on Flicker.


Capped by br1078phot, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7699588@N07/sets/72157629228360542/

PF

[LarryD]

Oh I did not know you folks were looking for one... I would have offered the last 2 to you....  I had them pass through my hands in the last 2 months... That is a fine looking one.

[br1078lum]

I don't know that Pete was looking for one, Larry.  I just meant the fact I found it at Goodwill.

PF

[LarryD]

OK cool.

[Nick Merritt]

Man, the Goodwill stores by me never have anything even halfway decent.  Nice pickup!

[radiophoto]

Yeah, well, I don't hate you, Phil.  I am jealous that the Goodwill store here has no cameras, however.  And smells like pee.  What's up with that, it's a fairly new building?  But I digress.    Nice find, my friend, and I'm glad you got it working.

[Ronald Bishop]

Well congrats PF, I hope that it turns out to be a good find.
  I just stopped by Sallie's today. There was a real nice X700 there with a few lenses. Had some that I never heard of but there was one 20mm ? and a Solingar zoom, all clean. They are asking $80.00 for the bag. Also a few filters and  a doubler. Everything was 30% off but I still passed it up.
     I did buy a HP scanner, a G4010. It wasn't in the box but it is brand new, all the connections are still new  in the bag..
I got it for half off, $8.78 out the door. And it will scan 35 mm film :cool:

[br1078lum]

I'd ask you to go back and buy that kit for me Ronald, but I'm strapped till the first of the month, and I already have a 20mm for the Nikon.  But one can't have too many X-700 bodies, I've found out.

PF

[Austintatious]

But one can't have too many X-700 bodies, I've found out.

Hold that thought PF ! Got you covered .
Reinforcement is on the way  :rolleyes:

Charles

[Ronald Bishop]

PF, PM me.

Ron B

[br1078lum]

PF, PM me.

Ron B

Sent one PM.

PF

[br1078lum]

Got to looking at the original X-700 I got from Goodwill that started this whole thing.  I was thinking if it's got a busted winder, then I'll just use some parts off it on my former donor body I'm going to change caps on.  Now, I think I may be able to fix it too.  Turns out the shutter will fire on it, but the winding doesn't quite work right, therefore not allowing the shutter to fire.  There might be a catch that is not doing it's job, or something else is out of adjustment in the winding drive. 

I printed out some pages of the service manual, but it does not specifically mention my problem.  After winding to the next frame, the winding lever is loose, and will act like the gears are stripped.  But if the motor drive boss on the bottom of the camera is backed off, or advanced and then let go, the levers inside will latch up, and the shutter can now fire.  So I'm thinking adjustment.  Unfortunately, all the adjustments shown in the manual are done on a camera body that has not been assembled completely.  But first, I have to determine just what lever is not latching up when it should.  And looking at the exploded drawings is like playing 3 level chess.

PF

[br1078lum]

I still had some time last night to look at the first X-700 again (the one from Goodwill), and thought it broke for good.  After a couple of shutter trips, it hung right in the middle of a firing, with the curtains in the middle of the frame and the winding lever locked up.  

Took the bottom off, and couldn't find a way to manually trip the shutter from that direction.  So I checked the motor drive boss, and it could turn, but reluctantly.  Going backwards didn't get me anywhere, so I gave it a good turn in the proper direction, and the shutter completed it's travel.  After that, everything was normal again.  Fired it through a simulated complete 36 exp roll, and it performed as designed.  Next is to mount the G winder to it to see if the jam happens again, then I'll run one of my Test rolls of film through it.

The $3 Minolta lives again!  Thanks for the tip, Larry!

PF

[LarryD]

No problem. Glad it worked for you.