Minolta XG-A with 50mm f/2 Lens

The Minolta XG series was launched together with the much more sophisticated Minolta XD series in 1977 as a budget line of small, lightweight and easy-to-use electronic SLR with an automatic exposure mode.You cannot purchase this camera anymore. As a first in the line-up of Minolta SLRs, these cameras were in need of a battery. They still used the outdated CdS metering system and had a competitive amazing shutter. In the aperture priority automatic mode, the electronically governed shutter provided stepless speeds from 1s to 1/1000s. The big news was the so-called "Touch Switch": After powering the camera up via the main switch, it was in stand-by mode. By just slightly touching the release button, the photographer activated the electronics and the LEDs lit up for about 15 seconds. All XG bodies featured an ±2 EV exposure compensation. The XG series had a dedicated motor drive, the Winder G and the flagship of the series, the XG-M, could even be mounted on the 3.5-fps Motor Drive 1. Also a data back, the Data Back G was available. This series can be seen as the ancestor of the most successful of all manual Minolta SLRs, the famous Minolta X-700.