The Minolta XD-7 was a 35mm

135 film

The term 135 was introduced by Kodak in 1934 as a designation for cartridge film wide, specifically for still photography. It quickly grew in popularity, surpassing 120 film by the late 1960s to become the most popular photographic film format...

 SLR camera

Camera

A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...

 manufactured by Minolta

Minolta

Minolta Co., Ltd. was a Japanese worldwide manufacturer of cameras, camera accessories, photocopiers, fax machines, and laser printers. Minolta was founded in Osaka, Japan, in 1928 as . It is perhaps best known for making the first integrated autofocus 35mm SLR camera system...

 and introduced in 1977. It was the first camera to feature both shutter priority

Shutter priority

Shutter priority refers to a setting on some cameras that allows the user to choose a specific shutter speed while the camera adjusts the aperture to ensure correct exposure...

 and aperture priority

Aperture priority

Aperture priority, often abbreviated A or Av on a camera mode dial, is a setting on some cameras that allows the user to choose a specific aperture value while the camera selects a shutter speed to match. The camera will ensure proper exposure...

 automatic exposure

Exposure (photography)

In photography, exposure is the total amount of light allowed to fall on the photographic medium during the process of taking a photograph. Exposure is measured in lux seconds, and can be computed from exposure value and scene luminance over a specified area.In photographic jargon, an exposure...

 modes. The camera also offered fully metered manual exposure as well as depth of field

Depth of field

In optics, particularly as it relates to film and photography, depth of field is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image...

 preview and an eyepiece shutter. Also included were fully mechanical "O" (1/100 sec) and bulb

Bulb (photography)

Bulb, abbreviated B, is a shutter speed setting on an adjustable camera that allows for long exposure times under the direct control of the photographer. With this setting, the shutter simply stays open as long as the shutter release button remains depressed...

 settings, which allowed it to operate without a battery

Battery (electricity)

An electrical battery is one or more electrochemical cells that convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy. Since the invention of the first battery in 1800 by Alessandro Volta and especially since the technically improved Daniell cell in 1836, batteries have become a common power...

. The XD-7 was the top-of-the-line Minolta camera when it was in production and retains a reputation for quality. It was Minolta's last metal

Metal

A metal , is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually malleable and shiny, that is they reflect most of incident light...

-bodied SLR design before the company switched to plastic

Plastic

A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...

 with the X-700

Minolta X-700

The Minolta X-700 is a 35 mm single-lens reflex camera introduced by Minolta in 1981. It was the top model of their final manual-focus SLR series before the introduction of the auto-focus Minolta Maxxum 7000...

.

There was also a less-expensive version of the XD-7 called the XD-5. Introduced in 1979, the XD-5 was mostly identical to the XD-7 but without some of the higher-end features like the eyepiece shutter or the display of the selected shutter speed in the viewfinder in manual exposure mode.

Specifications

• Exposure range of EV
  Exposure value
  In photography, exposure value denotes all combinations of a camera's shutter speed and relative aperture that give the same exposure. In an attempt to simplify choosing among combinations of equivalent camera settings, the concept was developed by the German shutter manufacturer in the 1950s...
  
   1 to EV 18 (ISO 100 and f1.4)
• Exposure correction from -2 to +2.
• Flash sync at hot shoe or terminal at 1/100 s.
• Electronic vertical-travel metal shutter with electromagnetic release.
• Mechanical shutter mode available at 1/100 s.
• Shutter speeds of 1 s to 1/1000 s. Stepless control of shutter speeds in auto-exposure mode.
• TTL center-weighted metering (silicon diode)
• 94% viewfinder coverage
• Acute Matte focusing screen with split image biprism surrounded by microprisms. Four screens available, replaced by technician.
• 0.87x viewfinder magnification.
• Viewfinder information depends on operating mode:
  • In aperture priority, shutter speed is indicated by LEDs.
  • In shutter priority, aperture is indicated by LEDs.
  • In manual mode, recommended shutter speed is indicated by LEDs. The chosen shutter speed is shown in a separate window.
  • With Minolta X-type flashes, flash-ready is signaled by blinking over-range LED.
  • Aperture setting is shown in all modes.
• Mechanical self-timer
• Film memo holder
• Safe load signal indicating film present and correctly spooled.
• Film advance release allowing multiple exposures
• Motorized rewind possible with Minolta Auto Winder D.

Many professional photographers used the XD-11, and one of the best known was Harry Benson

Harry Benson

Harry James Benson, CBE, born in Glasgow, Scotland, is a photographer whose pictures have appeared in publications including Life, Vanity Fair, People and The New Yorker....

, who published various books in the 1980s, often acknowledging the XD-11 in his books.