I have taught children and disabled adults to use this camera in 15 minutes. They were very comfortable with it and took great pics. There are sooooo many lenses to choose from its unreal.

loading film can be tricky.

Best camera i have ever used. Wedding pics are awesome as well as well, anything you snap. I've had this for 26 years and never had a problem. To date i cannot find any camera [film or digital] that compares with the quality of my X370!!

Similar Products Used:

no. why? I have bought 5 more x370's for back up in case I ever need it.

Albinar, Minolta, Tamron and a dozen other lens manufacturers have made every conceivable glass for this camera, from an 8MM fisheye to mammoth F2.8 1300MM+ telescopes. Micrography attachments are available. While light, the camera will withstand considerable abuse. The shutter speeds to 1/1000 are adequate for everthing from lanscapes to football games. With reasonable care, it will produce images that rank with any other system on the planet.

The camera does not suffer fools well. It requires two S-76 constant voltage 1.3V mercury batteries, which are fairly, but not impossibly, rare. Radio Shack has recently reintroduced them. Novices who put LW44 or 76 1.5 alkalines in the instrument will experience chronic underexposures until the voltage drops with use. Then the shutter will no longer function, and the truly uninformed will attempt utterly unecessary repairs; usually destroying the focal plane shutter mechanism in the process.

The Minolta X-370 SLR, along with the Pentax K1000, may be one of the best beginners' cameras of all time. It is robust, reliable and has a huge selection of lenses and attachments. Its simple exposure meter and priority aperture control are suitable for novices and experts alike. I have been tracking them down in fleamarkets and hock shops for twenty years to give to my children, nieces, nephews and anyone I care about who expresses an interest in film photography.

Customer Service

Anybody who fixes SLR's fixes Minoltas. Spare parts and cameras that can be cannibalized are ubiquitous.

Similar Products Used:

This camera is the baby sister to the X-570 and X-700 Minolta SLR's, which use the same basic mechanism, with more bells and whistles.

Im a photo student at Stives School for the Arts,
and i was using my Minolta x-370 for a project and
contest for our area. We were supposed to go to
The Woodland Cemetary
and take photographs for my class and the constest.
At fisrt we went with our class, and my
Minolta kept jamming up, after i would press the relase
button to take a photo it would jam, and the shutter would stay shut.
then the lever would not push back, it would not work!
so when we got back to our school i talked to my teacher about it,
and she took a look, and said she couldnt find anything wrong
except for maybe the fact that the flim may have jammed.
When i got my flim back i had 3 photos on my negatives the
others were blank. So i figured, it may have been that. But in order
for my to get an decent grade on that project and enter into
the contest, i would have to go back in my own time.
So, the next day was a weekend, i went
back to Woodland, and my camera was working "ok"
untill maybe after the 8th shot. Then, it begain doing the same thing again.but i wouldn't do anything, what-so-ever, i had to open it and ruin
a bit of my film to see if it was that, but it wasnt, so i had no choice but to quit takeing the pictures and
roll up my flim, after i did that i opened the camera, and tested it a bit more, and it still would not move,
and i found out the problem was the small shutter screen, it jammed up
and when i tried to straighten it out, it poped out the whole way,
and i should my teacher, and the same thing had happened to
another girl who had the same camera in my class.
I have a new camera now, and it works just fine.

Very bright viewfinder.
Easy to focus with both the Spilt Image and the Fresnel-field.
Light and easy to handle.

Requires battery to fire shutter.

I feel the X-370 in the best value per dollar of any film SLR.
and I own over 70 vintage film SLR's.

Similar Products Used:

all of them

Manual....I can learn how to work with it

It gets heavy with a 200mm lens attached to it--makes for less than sturdy hands and I don't have a tripod

In fall 2008 I plan to be a techincal photography major. I had wanted a professional grade digital camera. However, since a vast majority of the photography classes require a 35mm camera, I opted for one. This morning, my dad got out a camera case from one of the closets in our house, and he started pulling our the X-370 with two compatible lenses and lens cleaners. As it turns out, the man that had lived with my great-grandmother bought this camera brand new and it had never been touched since. It's a great camera, I think, for beginners. Since the camera is manual, I can mess around with the aperature and focal lengths and shutter speeds until I know how to properly manage it. I'm so excited to own an old manual camera in great condition!

Similar Products Used:

N/A

sturdy body, GREAT shots, Fully Manual.

None that i can find.

Oh ma oh man oh man, this is one great camera. I Aquired it from my Step-Father and it is awesome. It is fully manual so you get to do all the work, which is great for professionals like myself.

Similar Products Used:

None compare

Sturdy body
Ease of operation
Easy to clean and keep clean
Totally Manual, or you can use the "auto" shutter speed
After 24 years still going STRONG!
Takes great photos, great optics

Haven't found any, and that's the truth!

I purchased this wonderful, fully manual X-370 way back in the dark ages of 1982! I will not let it go! I have taken some of the most incredable shots with this camera and have sold many photos taken through the lens of the incredable camera. I love fully manual cameras. If you don't have control of everything that your shooting, than the camera is doing the work, not you. Auto focus, auto this auto that, sounds like a Kodak point and shoot camera to me? Where's the individuality, YOUR work into your photos? Only with a true manual camera can you achive this and Minolta did it back in 1981 with the X-370. You can have your maxiums and your 15 megipexil digital SLR that do everything for you, even develope your shot. Me, I like the old days, the REAL FEEL of a REAL camera in my hands. I can click on any lens, telephoto, micro, macro, it dosn't matter, as long as I keep my equipment clean, as we all should, this fine tooled camera will still go with me from coast to coast, boarder to boarder looking for that perfect moment to freeze in history with only the control a manual camera like the MINOLTA X-370 can give.

Customer Service

Nver needed any. I did have it professionally cleaned once, when a factory rep. took the camera completely down to bare parts, clean, lubed and put back together and did all this for FREE!!!!! EAT YOUR HEARTS OUT CANON OWNERS!

Similar Products Used:

None, nothing compaired

Minolta X-370, Man,oh man! By far the best camera I have ever used. The different modes available on this camera allows both the novice, and the expert to get great results. Most of the time I use the "Auto" mode, but for special conditions, just a quick flip gives me full control. You can have your Canon EOS techno-crap, Give me a good old X-370 anyday. Todd Cline.

Durability Meter Old-school feel

My own weakness of slow focusing

I bought this camera to satiate my appetite for all-manual cameras, without busting my wallet. I first used this type waaay back in 1986, during my 7th grade photo class, and remembered how easy it was to learn how to take photos. This one I bought last year brand-new and I love it. I coupled it with a 50mm f1.8 lens and was ready to take sharp pictures. The metering system is top notch, and it just feels right hearing the click of the shutter, and advancing the film the old-school way with the film advance lever. I like the wieght and ruggedness of the camera as well. The body construction is tough, and I'm not afraid of taking this camera anywhere I go. It did take awhile to get used to the manual focusing again, and with more practice I think I can get fairly fast, I just have to start truting my own judgement and not second guessing, which I think is a lot of the problem.

Customer Service

I had to take the camera to the dealer and have the shutter hood realigned. For some reason it got off-track...no problems with service. Took shorter than anticipated and the camera works great...

Similar Products Used:

Rebel 2000,

This camera is the best camera i have ever use. Its age might throw some people off but this camera can take any picture at anytime. Out of all of the cameras I have use, the X-370 by minolta is the easiest one to use by far. All the buttons, switches, nobs, everything is right at your finger tips. It is a spectacular camera.