Hi Michael,
BS.
Somebody's gotta stop this kind of erroneous smear tactic!
My two Minolta X-700's have been Motor Drive 1 run for years with NO PROBLEM.
Join
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/minoltax700club/ and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/manualminoltafree/ and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/manualminoltafree/ to chat with ~2,000 Minolta X-series users who can share lots of stories of function and failure WITHOUT DENIGRATING AN ENTIRE LINE OF CAMERAS based on their personal experience with 1 or 2 or 3 cameras. Failures, lots of failures in the archives there - yet no one claims that the entire line of X-cameras is incapable of proper function.
And if mine did ever fail, I'd get 'em fixed and keep right on usin' 'em!
Without complaining.
And without claiming that the entire line of cameras from Minolta are incapable of being motor driven.
Geesh, if I claimed that every car is incapable of being driven whenever my own one car needs repair, I'd never own a car, and I'd never get anywhere.
Shucks, even Rolls Royce has a service department - just because you've had a few failures doesn't mean much since these cameras have been in production for years with hundreds of thousands of them in operation (millions?). 2 or 3 out of ... anyway, all we're ever gonna hear about on the web is the failures since the working ones don't make us write in asking, "Help, my camera is working and I don't need any help!" Right? Ss even 100 stories on the Internet doesn't mean much, statistically.
And your investment in an XK costs how much compared to getting your X-series cameras fixed? And other than 1 additional stop of shutter speed ... anyway, if you wanna read horror stories about the expense and impossibility of camera repair, join the 165 members of
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/minoltaxk/ and read the archives! Scary! Yet, no one there claims the entire line of Minolta XK-cameras is incapable of proper function!
And why, oh why did you retire your first X-500?
I think you are telling us more about you as a camera handler than you are telling us anything useful or authoritative about the cameras which you handle.
The same thing happens with cars, or anything - "I had a Honda and it died on the highway once when I floored it trying to pass a truck- Honda's may be nice, but they can't take being floored!" Plug your own personal experience in here and all you hear is the pain of the person who owns something that needs service, not the quality service offering potential of the entire range of products from the supplier and their support services.
Geesh!
Click!
Love and hugs,
Peter Blaise Monahon Minolta Vivitar Tamron Fujifilm Ilford Kodak et cetera Photographer
peterblaise@yahoo.com http://www.geocities.com/peterblaise/minoltamf/