When I started collecting cameras again I thought I might build a rangefinder collection. This Minolta Hi-Matic 7 was the first one I bought. When I picked it up, the first thing I thought was “brick outhouse.” If I were to put a neck strap on it and hide it under my bed, if someone broke in I could swing this sucker around and knock them out cold.  The Hi-Matic 7 started rolling off Minolta’s assembly lines in 1963, offering not just the aforementioned robust construction but also a six-element 45mm f/1.8 Rokkor-PF lens set in a Seikosha leaf shutter with a top speed of 1/500 second. It takes film from ISO 25 to 800. It also offers manual exposure and shutter-priority autoexposure. All that makes this a mighty useful camera even today. The cold accessory shoe is the only throwback, but the Hi-Matic 7 offers an X-sync flash contact; just connect your flash via cable. This is a mechanical camera, but the meter needs a dreaded, banned 625 mercury cell. I use a PX625 alkaline cell, different voltage be hanged, and always get fine exposures on negative film. By the way, if you like fixed-lens rangefinder cameras, also check out my reviews of the Konica Auto S2, the Yashica Electro 35 GSN, the Yashica MG-1, the Canonet QL17 G-III, and the Canonet 28. If you’re a Minolta fan you might like my reviews of the Minolta X-700, the SR-T 101, the SR-T 202, or the XG 1. Or just have a look at all of my camera reviews, listed here. The first time I shot this camera I didn’t have a battery, so I taped a Sunny 16 chart to the back, loaded some Fujicolor 200, and headed to the park. Holliday Park is on Indianapolis’s Northside. John Holliday founded The Indianapolis News in 1869 and, with the fortune the newspaper brought, built his estate on this land along the White River. After he and his wife died, the estate donated all 80 acres to the city to be used as a park and a place to study nature. Today, the park has expanded to 94 acres and includes a large playground, hiking trails, picnic shelters, a nature center, and these ruins. The Western Electric Company owned one of New York City’s first skyscrapers, the St. Paul Building, built at 220 Browaday in 1898 to 26 stories. It came down in 1958 to make way for an even taller building. Its entrance facade, with its statues of Indiana limestone, was moved here. All sorts of fun details await at The Ruins, like this column topper that now serves as a bench. Four statues of Greek goddesses that once stood above the facade of the old Marion County Courthouse were moved here, as well. Only two have survived vandalism and the elements. The next time I shot the Hi-Matic 7 I had a battery, so I installed it and relied on the meter. It seemed accurate. I got wonderful exposures, again on Fujicolor 200. It was my time to find some old parked cars while I had this roll in the camera. Second Presbyterian Church is always a willing and lovely subject. To see everything I’ve shot with this camera, check out my Minolta Hi-Matic 7 gallery. Normally when I show you photos I took with an old camera I tell you all about the camera’s quirks and failures. Not this time — the Hi-Matic 7 was a pleasure to use. The shutter fired smoothly, the film advance worked easily, and the focus and aperture controls moved with precision. This camera yielded photos limited only by my skill and ability. My Sunny 16 shots were uniformly underexposed, but I helped them look better in Photoshop. When I relied on the meter I got perfect exposures. It doesn’t get much better than that. Post script: While at Holliday Park, a fellow shooting with a vintage Leica camera approached me, interested in my old Minolta. An immigrant, he barely spoke English, but our wide smiles were all the communication necessary as we looked each others’ cameras over. I’ve had my Minolta Hi-Matic 7s for a year. I purchased it on eBay on January 5, 2020 and received it on the 9th. It’s the first camera I got when I decided to get back into film photography. It was also the first truly manual camera I owned: focus is controlled by me, and while I could set exposure to automatic, I much prefer manual control of aperture and shutter speed.* It’s the camera that got me hooked on film and learning everything I could about this dark art. But I was just gifted an Olympus 35 RD, another rangefinder. The lens on the 35 RD is equally as good, and also a hair faster (f/1.7 on the 35 RD vs f/1.8 on the Hi-Matic 7s). Not only that, the 35 RD is smaller and more compact. When I got the 35 RD I asked myself, “Is the Hi-Matic now redundant?” I wasn’t interested in amassing a large camera collection, and I didn’t see myself needing two rangefinders. The idea that I may give up the Hi-Matic 7s motivated me into getting a Minolta SRT-101: If I was going to get rid of the Hi-Matic, I still wanted something with nice Minolta glass. And now I’d have an SLR to boot, a niche that could be filled. I dropped off the Olympus 35 RD at Advance Camera in September to get a CLA. In the meantime I shot more with the Minolta Hi-Matic 7s to see how I felt about it. I even shot a bunch in color, as I had been shooting only black and white on it since February. I liked the shots I got. And since I know a bit more about how to shoot with the camera, the results were definitely better than what I got with my first four rolls last winter. I got the Olympus 35 RD back from the shop at the end of November. I immediately put a couple rolls through it. I enjoyed shooting with the camera, and the results I got back were also superb. It can take the place of the Hi-Matic, no doubt. Yet while it makes perfect sense to sell the Hi-Matic 7s, I’m keeping it, at least for now. Why is that? Well, I still like my Minolta Hi-Matic 7s. It’s a great shooting, great feeling camera. And while the general size and heft of it is a point not in its favor, there are things that the 7s has going for it:
Deep down, I realize that I still really like the Hi-Matic 7s. I shouldn’t get rid of a camera I like, even if it makes sense in a rational or even economic sense to do so. Even if the camera is now redundant. While I’m not wealthy, I’m not strapped for cash either. I don’t want to make a rash decision and then regret it. Perhaps the Hi-Matic 7s fills the same role in my camera stable as my Raleigh Crested Butte does for my bike stable: The slightly redundant machine that I can’t yet bear to part with. Both represent important milestones in personal journeys: the Hi-Matic for film photography, the Crested Butte for vintage mountain bikes and chunky 26″ tires. Both are functional and well-made. Both have sentimental value that’s hard to quantify. Both still make me happy. And that’s good enough reason to keep them around. And now I’m even thinking I might get the Minolta Hi-Matic 7s CLA’d (clean, lube, adjust) at some point. It’s just like how I almost sold the Crested Butte, then within a year I did a pretty major overhaul/re-envisioning. Maybe some things are just meant to be. For photos from the Hi-Matic 7s, see the dynamic flickr album below or click here. *I did own a rangefinder from about 1998 to around 2004, a Honeywell Visimatic 615. I had to focus, but it was automatic exposure control. **The XA2 was designed to not need a case, hence the clamshell design. While it’s a clever design, it could also be seen as Olympus finally admitting defeat. |
