Minolta Hi-Matic 7s (1966)

Minolta Hi-Matic 7S

I purchased this Minolta Hi-Matic 7s from a second-hand goods store in Christchurch for a very reasonable price. It is in excellent condition apart from a slightly loose film winding lever. The most impressive feature of this camera for me is the top-quality Minolta Rokkor PF 45mm f1.8 lens. It is one of the sharpest lenses you will find on any of these old Japanese rangefinder cameras.

One thing you will notice straight away with the Minolta 7s is that it has a fair bit of bulk to it. At 720g it is also quite heavy. An advantage of a larger rangefinder camera is that you generally get a large bright viewfinder. The Minolta 7s is no exception. The frame is big and the yellow bright lines are very sharp and clear. I have no trouble at all focusing on this camera. However, this is not what you could call either small or compact.

It comes with a high-quality black leather “ever-ready” case which is very well made and affords the Minolta good protection however it makes the camera seem even bigger still! Many of these old rangefinder cameras have been kept in their leather cases since they were new. Those that have been looked after in this way are spared the usual bumps and scratches and often look almost brand new. You can read about a quick and simple fix to rejuvenate the leather case of the Minolta 7s here. 

The only differences between the Minolta 7 and the later 7s are that the later model has a hot shoe for flash use and the light meter has been improved. I found the light meter to work very well indeed. The meter seems to be consistently accurate over a wide range of conditions. I am often tempted to use my Nikon 801s as a meter when determining the correct exposure with these old cameras. Not so with the Minolta 7s.

Sometimes with old cameras, you will get a roll of film back only to find the images just don’t quite look right. With slides, they will be either too dark or too light. With negative film, there is a greater margin for error during the developing process. This means your pictures still come out OK even when the camera exposure wasn’t quite right. However, when pushed too far the negatives don’t look right and there is often considerable loss of shadow detail. So getting the exposure right really does matter!

These old rangefinders all fit into one of two types: those that will only function properly with a battery-powered exposure system such as the Yashica Electro; and those that will also operate in full manual mode even without a battery. In full manual mode, you can still take pictures with the Minolta 7s by setting correct exposure with the aid of a separate light meter. Although the Yashica

The electro exposure system is surprisingly accurate. There is no way to check the exposure is correct against another camera or light meter before firing the shutter because there is no way of knowing the shutter speed it has selected. Therefore I prefer the rangefinder cameras that work in manual mode even when they do have automatic exposure. Such a camera will be quite functional even if the light meter has completely failed.

The needle in the Minolta 7s viewfinder shows EV numbers, not shutter speeds or f stops. To set the camera to “Automatic” turn both the shutter and aperture rings on the lens barrel so their “A” marks line up with the arrow mark on the outer side of the lens. The slowest speed the camera sets in automatic mode is 1/15th of a second so you would have to hold the camera still in poor light.