Minolta SR-2
The Minolta SR-2 was a purely mechanical SLR camera body, and it was a large step towards the userfriendly modern SLR cameras. It had been developped in 1958, and reached the market in the following year. The new bayonet it had made exchange of its lenses as easy as possible. After advancing the film for the next exposure the aperture of the lens had been opened as far as possible. So the photographer could focus quite exactly with help the bright the viewfinder image. With pressing the exposure release button he did release the lock on the lens' aperture mechanics. Before the shutter opened for exposure the mirror had been up and the aperture had the value selected by the photographer. Afterwards the mirror got automatically back in to its working position. The photographer could get an impression of depth of field after the exposure since the aperture opened to maximum first after film advance.
The evolutive quantum leap done with the SR-2 was the fact that it combined several features of modern SLR cameras. The lens mount system which connects camera's and lens' mechanics so easily was revolutionary, and Minolta's new mirror mechanics it was giving the photographer best control over his work, it had a quite bright pentaprism viewfinder, and exposure times downto 1/1000 sec.
