Stumbling Across the Ultimate Minolta SRT-101
I spend far too much time browsing the photo equipment section of Craigslist looking for killer deals or rare, vintage or otherwise interesting photography-related items, particularly ones with “Minolta” written on them. Last year, when I dove back into film photography, I was hunting around for additional lenses for my Minolta X-700. On one of my mindless Craigslist cruises I stumbled across a post for a SRT-101 and a Minolta XG-7 with a bunch of lenses and accessories “free to a good home”.
I had been wanting an SRT-101 for quite a while but had pretty much given up on finding one locally that was cheap and in decent shape. But I figured you can’t get much cheaper than free and when it comes to Minolta gear, I’m arguable the best home. Plus, if this particular SRT was in rough shape, I won’t be in the hole for anything other than gas money and I’d have a bunch of new lenses to use with my X-700. So I reached out to the owner right away and made the trip down ASAP.
A Brief History of the SRT-101
The SRT-101 first premiered in March of 1966 and went to market the following April. It was so successful that it remained in production, largely unchanged, for 10 years. What made it so successful was that its many innovative features made photography much simpler and more accessible. One such feature was Minolta’s through-the-lens “Contrast Light Compensator” meter system. Basically, the camera uses two separate light-sensitive cells that measure the bright and dark areas of a scene and averages them together to produce an evenly exposed photo. This was the world’s first metering system of its kind.
The SRT-101 is an absolute beast of a camera with its all-metal construction and fully mechanical operation. Pressing the shutter button is one of the most satisfying sounds on the planet. The only electrical component is the battery-powered CLC light meter which isn’t required for the camera to function. To this day, a year later, I am yet to put a battery in my 101. This means I could take this camera to Antarctica and still be able to take photos where the cold would have sucked the life out of more modern, battery-reliant cameras. This was the main reason I had been wanting one; winter was fast approaching and the cold weather would be the death of my X-700.
When I arrived at the owner’s house, everything went pretty routinely, like any of the other Craigslist sales I’ve done. He opened up the camera bags and quickly showed me what everything was, bagged it all back up and walked me out to my car. I thanked him and shook his hand at which point he said “I hope you enjoy it, it was my camera when I was working as a photojournalist in Vietnam during the war”. I was stunned. I had so many questions, namely, “why are you just GIVING this away then?”. But partly out of shock and partly out of fear that he’d change his mind if I started asking questions, all I had the wherewithal to muster out was, “oh wow, that’s awesome, thanks again”. Insert facepalm here, what a dipshit.
A few days later, with this very blog in mind, I reached back out to the owner to see if he would share his story with me. I emailed, called and texted with no success.
The camera was in amazing shape, I could tell he took proper care of it by the service sticker inside the camera that indicated it was professionally cleaned December 1, 1977. It was a little dusty, a little dirty, but nothing that some white vinegar, Q-tips and microfiber cloths couldn’t clean up. After an hour of careful scrubbing, I had the cleanest example of an SRT-101 that I had seen. Everything functioned as it should including the mechanical self-timer which is notorious for binding up and killing these cameras. A couple more hours later and I had all the lenses and filters cleaned up too.
With the cleaning done, I decided to research the date of manufacture for this camera to see if there was any credibility to the owner’s claim. Based on what I found, the camera was manufactured sometime between 1970 and 1972. The U.S. began withdrawing troops from Vietnam in 1973 with the very last being pulled out on April 30, 1975. Those dates combined with the fact that being a wartime photojournalist is a really odd thing to lie to a complete stranger about, especially when the camera is being given away for free, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Besides, it’s just a really cool, unique story to go along with this piece of camera history.
The very next day I had to take it for a test run around my town. But first, I had to go buy some film, the only film worthy of this camera’s first photowalk in who knows how many decades, Kodak’s Tri-X 400; the very film used by the gritty photojournalists of its day. Shooting with it was a dream. The viewfinder was big, clear and bright. Its clockwork-like operation was deeply satisfying and hearkened back to a time when quality and craftsmanship were a company’s priority. Shooting with such a minimalist camera was liberating. The uncluttered view finder, prime lens, and metering the light with nothing but an exposure value chart forces you to slow down and focus wholly on the scene in front of you.
The SRT-101 has become one of my favorite cameras and I’ll make sure this one lives on doing what it does best for decades more to come, making photos.