Minolta XG 9 chrome with Rokkor MD 50mm F1.7 lens and winder D.

The Minolta XG series was launched together with the much more sophisticated Minolta XD series in 1977 as a budget line of small, lightweight and easy-to-use electronic SLR with an automatic exposure mode. You cannot purchase this camera anymore. As a first in the line-up of Minolta SLRs, these cameras were in need of a battery. They still used the outdated CdS metering system and had a competitive amazing shutter. In the aperture priority automatic mode, the electronically governed shutter provided stepless speeds from 1s to 1/1000s. The big news was the so-called “Touch Switch”: After powering the camera up via the main switch, it was in stand-by mode. By just slightly touching the release button, the photographer activated the electronics and the LEDs lit up for about 15 seconds. All XG bodies featured an ±2 EV exposure compensation. The XG series had a dedicated motor drive, the Winder G and the flagship of the series, the XG-M, could even be mounted on the 3.5-fps Motor Drive 1. Also a data back, the Data Back G was available. This series can be seen as the ancestor of the most successful of all manual Minolta SLRs, the famous Minolta X-700. The XG-SE is a rebadged XG 1 in black finish and equipped with the new ‘Acute Matte’ focusing screen. It was put on sale shortly after the XG 1. It is said that the “SE” stands for “Special Edition”. Like the XG-1 it was an export model.

In late 1979 Minolta revealed the XG-S. Outside Japan, this model was known as XG 9, and with its improvements, it addressed some weak points of the XG-E, which it replaced. Both bodies were available in chrome or black finish.

The XG-S has all the features of the XG-E, but with some changes:

• The viewfinder shows the set aperture at the bottom
• A stop down button is added
• The new and much brighter “Acute Matte” focusing screen replaced the Fresnel field screen

This was a big leap and left only one major drawback of all XG models: The meter still does not work in manual mode.