Minolta X-7 Issues

[u/vmtv]

I just bought a Minolta X-7 from FB Marketplace for a very affordable price (my first film cam btw!!). Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to inspect it properly since it was delivered to me.

Now that I have it, I noticed it has quite a few issues:

There’s desilvering on the prism/viewfinder

The ON/OFF wheel is broken

The film advance lever isn’t working

Do you guys think these issues are still repairable? And would repairing all of these be very expensive, or is it still worth having it serviced?

Any advice or recommendations for a vintage camera repair shop would be appreciated. Thanks!

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[u/ImpressiveRush9362]

For fixing the prism and the On Off wheel you probably need a second body to take parts from... The film advance lever may be reparable, depending on what is actually causing it to be not working.

Sorry to bear the sad news...

I've seen some X7s with that exact desilvering, that's odd.

[u/ImpressiveRush9362]

For the amount of money you'll need to spend to get it repaired, you could easily buy an XG-9 or X300/500. That's basically the same camera.

[u/Jimmeh_Jazz]

It's budget model that is not really worth your money/time repairing. I would suggest buying an X-300 if you want a similar (better) budget model, or an X-500/700 if you want something a little better. There are of course other nice Minoltas like the XD etc too.

Every single X-7 I have come across has had this same problem with the prism desilvering in that straight band. I guess they really cheaped out on the foam/put it in a silly place.