Minolta X-300 Reviews

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Minolta X-300
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Latest Reviews

“"Oldy But Goody"”

★★★★★

written by jezztech on 13/07/2012

I own two Minolta X300`s with prime lenses, and still like to put slide film thru them occasionally,with good fuji velvia film and those "MD" lenses i still find the projected results FAR better than modern digital cameras, i like to create a 3D image by exploiting depth of field, the Minolta lenses were definately the best of the manual focus 35mm SLRs!

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“I agree!! ”

★★★★★

written by on 01/09/2010

I agree!!
I bought my Minolta in the mid 80's with a beautiful 35-70mm F3.5MD lens with macro. Although I knew very little about SLR's at that point it became my buddy. It was strong, simple, reliable and always gave beautiful pics. I lost it in Sweden on a bus in '96. I still lament our parting. I have replaced with others, but so far I haven't had the same bond with a camera as I did with it.
Yesturday I bought a dig Nikon with a 18-70 lens. I wonder if this one will move my heart.

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“Minolta manual focus lenses make the system so good -...”

★★★★★

written by on 27/12/2009

Minolta manual focus lenses make the system so good - in my opinion, they're not far short of Nikon lenses at a fraction of the price (I own both). The X300 is a fine entry-level camera, offering aperture priority AE (like the over-rated Olympus OM10) and also fully manual control. No-one needs shutter speeds faster than 1/1000 (ask the pros..). Only possible downside is lack of TTL flash, though my Nikon FE doesn't have that either. When the time comes to upgrade, you can keep the wonderful lenses and move to a better spec/more rugged body - forget the X700, but consider the XD and XE series (and even the X500), they're serious kit!

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“Actually I have had this Minolta X-300 camera for at...”

★★★★☆

written by on 16/07/2009

Actually I have had this Minolta X-300 camera for at least scince I was 18 years and I am 43 years old and I don't use it much now as I cannot get good quality film for it especally the Ilford ASA1000 and the batteries are now very hard to come by but I find if I can get a battery I do manage to get a lot of good pictures with it, a real good camera

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“Beautiful body (built, tough, look), and ease of use....”

★★★★★

written by on 29/10/2008

Beautiful body (built, tough, look), and ease of use. Very good choice for amateurs and pro, especially those who engaged in outdoor activities. Well recommend Minolta X-300.

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“I've had a Minolta X-300 since about 1987 and although...”

★★★★☆

written by on 03/09/2008

I've had a Minolta X-300 since about 1987 and although I'm now almost exclusively Nikon digital, I still carry the X-300 if I'm going somewhere rough.

Why? Because I know that when I really need a versatile but simple camera that will give me excellent quality 35mm prints the X-300 simply won't let me down.

It's manual focus, so no drive motors or gears to go wrong; produces excellent quality in its Auto setting; and is built like a proverbial brick-out-house.

The small down-side: although battery life is good (after all, it's only metering and showing you the results in the viewfinder) it isn't using AAAs or anything similar, so you'll need to make sure that you pack a few spares. Not too difficult as they're button-type batteries and (on mine at least) there's a holder on the strap that's as robust as the camera!!

You'll be able to get newer and more complicated 35mm SLRs, but you'll be hard pressed to find better.

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“Someone mentioned the OM-10 - the Minolta X-300 is...”

★★★★☆

written by opopododo on 28/07/2008

Someone mentioned the OM-10 - the Minolta X-300 is much better laid out - like the OM-2 - the advantage with an OM-2 or OM-10 would be lenses available but the controls on the OM-10 are a nightmare - you turn a knob and you accidentally turn another at the same time.

The X-300 is well engineered with everything having a good positive feel.

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Jjmeeker's Response to opopododo's Review

Written on: 09/07/2017

I've been using an OM10 since 1979 and have never encountered any problems with accidentally turning a dial as described here. In my experience the OM10 is a light, stylish, well laid out camera with a ready supply of lenses and batteries. Images are crisp and I enjoy using it in both automatic and manual modes. Admittedly I have never used any other make of SLR because I've never felt the need to. I currently have two OM10s and use one for colour and one for monochrome and am delighted with the results.

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“My dad has a Minolta X-300 I have a Panasonic Lunmix...”

★★★★★

written by bob1234 on 24/02/2008

My dad has a Minolta X-300 I have a Panasonic Lunmix TZ3 at the moment best compact camera in the world but I would love to have a manual slr zoom like the Minolta X300

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“My best camera ever! After that I had Minolta 8000i...”

★★★★★

written by kicuch on 06/10/2007

My best camera ever! After that I had Minolta 8000i now I use D80 - still miss performance of my good old X-300!

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“A very good camera. Quite large for an SLR compared to...”

★★★★☆

written by RUBBER2405 on 14/07/2007

A very good camera. Quite large for an SLR compared to say, the Olympus OM10, which is in greater supply.
the Minolta lenses are great. I have bought a 70-210mm Minolta MD lens (fantastic quality for a zoom lens), a sigma 28mm wide angle, which has half stops on it and is very good quality for build and photo quality, and a rubber eye cup.
That lot cost me about £250 about 7-8 years ago. The Minolta lenses are hard to get hold of now, they have been looked after anyway. It has full manual controls which gives it great versatility. The light meter that is built in is very accurate (tested against an Olympus OM10 and a Weston Master 2 Light Meter), when used with the Olympus lenses. My camera is around 23 years old and I am not exaggerating when I say it still looks like brand new, which is a show of its build quality. Highly recommended.

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Rubber2405's Response to RUBBER2405's Review

Written on: 16/07/2007

I have just finished some Ilford Professional 400 black and white film, with various kinds of still life, portraits and landscape shots, all shot on the Minolta X300.
<br/>Hope to have the results early next week, so I will upload them to flickr as appropriate and anyone looking to view them can look at Yahoo Flickr, and search for photos by GTAVALANCE.
<br/>
<br/>At the moment I have some shots on Flickr taken with Fuji Sensia ASA 200 Colour slide film in the X300.
<br/>I had them pro-developed and scanned, which was expensive, but got some good results.
<br/>For reference if anyone is thinking about shooting on slide, the film is reasonably priced at around £6 per roll of 36 exp, but developing at 9x6" with pro scanning (onto a photo CD - allowing viewing on your PC & sending by e-mail) at a professional independent developer cost me £40!
<br/>
<br/>Recommended for special occasions as the detail and colours are excellent and beat most DSLR's under £1000 (certainly the DSLR photos I have seen without any 'callifudgery' with software).
<br/>
<br/>The only filters I used with the X300 on colour slide film were a circular polariser or a 1A Skylight filter.
<br/>Feel free to leave constructive feedback on my photos on Flickr, I am always looking to improve.
<br/>Cheers, Rubber.

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“I agree this Minolta X-300 is a good 35mm SLR camara...”

★★★★☆

written by kavindu on 24/03/2004

I agree this Minolta X-300 is a good 35mm SLR camara but it needs more shutter speeds only problem is I have to depend on the battery always.Picture quality is excellent.

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180278_Migle's Response to kavindu's Review

Written on: 25/12/2004

I agree, that this camera is a good one, I got it as a present and I am very happy, that the quality of pictures is excelent, how much does it cost now?

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“I bought my Minolta X-300 (the older one with metal...”

★★★★★

written by Stanley Wong. on 03/03/2003

I bought my Minolta X-300 (the older one with metal body) sometime in 1995. I sold it for SGD$250 and bought a X-700 (big mistake!). Several cameras and many years later, I bought back the same X-300 for SGD$125. The difference is that this time, I recognize the quality of the lens and camera body.


The Minolta X-300 is a metal body, manual focus camera with Aperature Priority (AUTO) mode. It does not have DOF preview and does rely on batteries (no battery-no click). It has a shutter speed range of B, 1 s to 1/1000s. Full information (full range of shutter speed with LED indication) is displayed in the viewfinder. I feel this is superior to the +/- exposure readings that can be found in some Nikon bodies. The X-370 is current production camera with a plastic body. I have not used it but the features are the same.


My camera comes with the standard 35-70mm zoom. And for a zoom lens, it is very sharp. I hear that original Minolta lenses are mostly really sharp. Metering is spot on. The controls are simple and intuitive. It feels as solid as my FM3a (and more so than my 500N). I have not seen the need to send it for repairs as yet.

It loses out somewhat due to the (slow) top shutter speed of 1/1000 s, no DOF preview and it depends on battery. But on the battery point, I must add that it has the same battery now as when I bought it in 1995.

My 2-cents:
If you are looking of a learning camera that doubles as a quick point and shoot, the Minolta is a great choice. The second hand lenses can be had for a song and the quailty is fantastic.

Did I mention I got mine for SGD$125 (or USD$70)?
:)

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88879_Jasmin Wong.'s Response to 76952_Stanley Wong.'s Review

Written on: 14/04/2003

I agree that the Minolta X-300 is a great camera to learn with. I got it as a gift and it is currently 11 years old but still as good as new. I love the manual functions and the ability to "construct" photographs. It's definitely one of the best cameras I've had the chance to play with.

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Radiobread's Response to 76952_Stanley Wong.'s Review

Written on: 12/07/2010

I found this review very helpful because... I've just bought a Minolta X-300 with extra lens for &pound;12 from Michael Sobell House Charity Shop

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294719_Dachlady64's Response to 76952_Stanley Wong.'s Review

Written on: 24/06/2007

I bought my Minoltax 300 at a yard sale and no one will probably believe me but I got it for $5.00. It came with the strap and the 35 -70mm lens I am looking for a owners manual or something so I will know how to get better pictures. I have taken pictures with and it does work if any one knows where I might get a book on it please email me [email protected]. Thanks.

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Ceres's Response to 76952_Stanley Wong.'s Review

Written on: 25/06/2004

Thanks heaps guys, very helpful! :-)

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121621_Peter25's Response to 76952_Stanley Wong.'s Review

Written on: 24/06/2004

Hi Ceres,
<br>
<br>If you follow this link
<br>
<br>http://www.biowriters.com/emmanouil/images/x-300en.pdf
<br>
<br>it should take you to a page with the complete x-300 manual, (the page takes a while to load-there are about 40 pdf pages)

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Stanley C Wong's Response to 76952_Stanley Wong.'s Review

Written on: 24/06/2004

Addressed to Ceres.
<br>
<br>The X-300 is a really basic camera. You could probably figure the controls by yourself. But just in case...
<br>
<br>I once got a copy of the X-300 manual from the Internet for free. But I can no longer find the website and I have since lost the file. However, I did find a copy of the Instruction Manual for X-370s. This is essentially the same as the X-300. I flipped through the manual to make sure.
<br>
<br>You can download a free copy at:
<br>
<br>http://www.minoltausa.com/eprise/main/MinoltaUSA/MUSAContent/CPG/CPG_SupportCenter/ManualResults
<br>
<br>At the courtesy of MinoltaUSA. Have fun!

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Ceres's Response to 76952_Stanley Wong.'s Review

Written on: 23/06/2004

Not so much a comment as a question, but i have recently been given a X-300, but without a manual. As i have no experience in photography yet, but really want to get started with it, i was wondering if anyone could help me out with how to get my hands on a manual for this camera.
<br>Suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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Lirezig's Response to 76952_Stanley Wong.'s Review

Written on: 14/06/2004

I own 3 camera's my first SLR being the X300. What a beauty!! It has given me some Top slides-esp closeup macro lenses.I now have the X700 (its good- and I was supposed to get rid of the old X300 - but NO - its with me. Minolta lenses esp fixed lenses are better quality than zoom...and 2nd hand they are quite reasonable-compared to Nikkon.

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Varmar's Response to 76952_Stanley Wong.'s Review

Written on: 28/02/2004

I have owned my X-300 camera since 1985. It has really sharp images if used with the original Minolta lenses. I do not think the battery is a negative point as replacement is not required very often. I have carried the camera in a fighter aircraft cockpit and can report that it works flawlessly from 0 to 50,000 feet!

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Esagol's Response to 76952_Stanley Wong.'s Review

Written on: 14/01/2004

Ýts one of the greatest cameras for beginners of photography ... I bought it from istanbul-Turkey nearly 130$ with the original 50 mm lens (second hand)... It gives me reasonable slides and photos from the most beautiful city of the world -istanbul- ... But lens's imaging quality is not as sharp as new minolta lenses...

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93252_G.'s Response to 76952_Stanley Wong.'s Review

Written on: 29/04/2003

I agree the x-300 i lways thought was a good camera. Its nice to have some confermation.

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90578_Roel.'s Response to 76952_Stanley Wong.'s Review

Written on: 20/04/2003

Agreed. I own my X-300 since 1987, and it never let me down, although operation conditions have been harsh and I made thousands and thousands of pics. Minolta lenses are perfect. Keep this one for ever!

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Asked by dav1454 on 16th June 2014 Report this content
What is the battery size for X-300s?

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