Minolta XG-M with 50mm Minolta MD f2 Lens

The Minolta XG-M was a 35mm single-lens reflex camera introduced in 1981 by Minolta of Japan. It was also known as the X-70 on the Japanese market, in which it was not available until 1982. When released, it was the top model in Minolta's XG series of consumer-grade manual focus SLRs, replacing the XG-9.

The XG-M supported both aperture-priority auto-exposure and full manual mode. For aperture priority shooting, the shutter speed dial was set to the A (auto) position. The photographer would set the aperture on the lens, which would be visible in the viewfinder by means of a small periscope beneath the image. The camera would decide on the correct shutter speed according to the reading of its center-weighted average metering. This would be displayed in the viewfinder: a column on the right of the image showed all the shutter speeds, and an LED would light next to the chosen speed. The automatically selected exposure could be adjusted by means of the exposure compensation dial on the left; compensation of plus or minus 2 stops could be selected in half-stop increments.

In manual mode, the XG-M would use that LED to display its recommended shutter speed. However, to select a shutter speed, the camera had to be removed from the eye; the speed selected was not shown in the viewfinder. Speeds between 1 second and 1/1000 second could be chosen, and there was a BULB mode for long-duration exposures.

The camera was battery-dependent, needing 2 LR44 or equivalent button cells to operate.