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 introduced in 1958. 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 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 to its working position. The photographer could get an impression of depth of field after the exposure since the aperture didn't open to maximum until the next film advance. In 1959 Minolta made a series of that new type of SLR by introducing the Minolta SR-1, and added the SR-3 to that series in 1960.

The evolutive quantum leap done with the SR-2 was the fact that it combined several features of modern SLR cameras:

• Penta prism
• Instant return mirror
• Bayonet lens mount with aperture operating lever
• "Fully" automatic diaphragm (from a todays view, it would rather be considered as a semi automatic diaphragm)
• All speeds available on one shutter dial and were almost evenly spaced
• Non rotative shutter dial (marketed as a worlds first on focal plane shutters)
• Automatic frame counter (is resetted by opening film door)
• Rewind crank
• One hand operation film door releas (simply raise the rewind crank)

Although most of those features already had been seen on other SLRs, the SR-2 combined all these, making it a unique and sophisticated camera of its time. The lens mount system which connects camera's and lens' mechanics so easily was revolutionary, and Minolta's new mirror mechanics was giving the photographer best control over his work. It had a quite bright pentaprism viewfinder, and exposure times up to 1/1000 sec. While on other cameras, the mirror stayed up after release, and had to be brought down by winding the film, the instant return mirror of the SR-2 snapped back directly after exposure. As for the shutter dials, it was pretty common to allocate the speeds on two dials, which not seldomly rotatet while the shutter ran. Again the SR-2 shone in this respect with its single non rotative shutter dial.

Links

• The SR-2 page at the Manual Minolta website