Electrolytic capacitor replacement on a Minolta X-300s

[hap]

excelent post, I think camera repairs have to start working more and more on electronics, is a pitty to lose all those wonderfulls 80s and 90s SLR. And their electronics are not the most advanced thing you can find in consumer electronics, is just that most of camera techinicians doesnt have an electronic background.

Scott Nielsen Photography___Scott is a trained Minolta tech with the Minolta repair station in Signal Hill , South California. He is now in central CA and owns a number of professional testing and calibrating equipment. He might have some ideas for you folks who want to work on the cameras.

 

[Andreas Thaler]

Scott Nielsen Photography___Scott is a trained Minolta tech with the Minolta repair station in Signal Hill , South California. He is now in central CA and owns a number of professional testing and calibrating equipment. He might have some ideas for you folks who want to work on the cameras.

Thanks!

Scott will probably own all the exclusive Minolta camera servicing test equipment we can only dream of. Apart from his abilities, of course.

 

[hap]

He recently worked on my CLE

 

[Kenny Harrelson]

I've fixed about a dozen of these Minolta X-300 cameras and the Chinese-made clones, and every one I was able to fix was because of the bad capacitor issue. (A couple others had winding issues that I wasn't able to fix.) Something I've learned, and that I have not seen listed anywhere else on the internet, is that there is a test you can do that will let you know if it's the bad capacitor issue. For every one of these types of cameras I acquire, (I have about 30 of them now, Minoltas and several different brand of clones), the first thing I do is to put batteries in the camera and see if it will fire. If it doesn't fire, here's what I do to confirm whether it's the bad capacitor issue or not. I'll turn the camera back off, turn on the self-timer and then turn the camera back on. Then I click the shutter button and if the timer light flashes for the 10 seconds, but then doesn't fire the shutter after that point - the tells me it has a bad capacitor and all I have to do to fix it is to solder in a new capacitor. This test has worked 100% of the time for me to confirm it was indeed only a bad capacitor. What I mean by that is every time it behaved like this, it turned out to only be a bad capacitor and not something wrong with the circuitry.

Like I said, I haven't seen this test mentioned anywhere on the internet. I'm surprised that somebody else hasn't stumbled upon this little trick. But it sure works for me!

The picture I have attached was a Carena DF-300, one of the clone brands sold in Germany.

 

[Andreas Thaler]

I've fixed about a dozen of these Minolta X-300 cameras and the Chinese-made clones, and every one I was able to fix was because of the bad capacitor issue. (A couple others had winding issues that I wasn't able to fix.) Something I've learned, and that I have not seen listed anywhere else on the internet, is that there is a test you can do that will let you know if it's the bad capacitor issue. For every one of these types of cameras I acquire, (I have about 30 of them now, Minoltas and several different brand of clones), the first thing I do is to put batteries in the camera and see if it will fire. If it doesn't fire, here's what I do to confirm whether it's the bad capacitor issue or not. I'll turn the camera back off, turn on the self-timer and then turn the camera back on. Then I click the shutter button and if the timer light flashes for the 10 seconds, but then doesn't fire the shutter after that point - the tells me it has a bad capacitor and all I have to do to fix it is to solder in a new capacitor. This test has worked 100% of the time for me to confirm it was indeed only a bad capacitor. What I mean by that is every time it behaved like this, it turned out to only be a bad capacitor and not something wrong with the circuitry.

Like I said, I haven't seen this test mentioned anywhere on the internet. I'm surprised that somebody else hasn't stumbled upon this little trick. But it sure works for me!

The picture I have attached was a Carena DF-300, one of the clone brands sold in Germany.

The camera will also not be triggered via the shutter button because a defective electrolytic capacitor cannot supply energy to the solenoid that activates the mirror/shutter. And the self-timer must also go through this circuit.

 

[cmacd123]

turn on, press the shutter botton, if the LEDs in the viewfinder go out and the shutter does not fire, BUT turning the Camera off then on lets the LEDs light then you are most likly looking at a capacitor.

also the DF-300 series and their friends are slightly closer than "Clones" Seagull built the Chinesse X-300 and X370 Minoltas, and the DF variants are under a licence from Minolta from the same factory.

 

[xkaes]

also the DF-300 series and their friends are slightly closer than "Clones" Seagull built the Chinesse X-300 and X370 Minoltas, and the DF variants are under a licence from Minolta from the same factory.

On all of the Seagull clones with the same numerical designation, Seagull changed the "X" to "DF", so for example, the Minolta X-370 became the Seagull DF-370. ("DF" just means "SLR" in Chinese.) There is one exception to this "rule", however. When Seagull started making the Minolta X-9 with the Seagull name on it, they labeled it the Seagull X-9 -- NOT the Seagull DF-9.

 

[cmacd123]

yes, and going way back, Shanghi Seagull DID clone some of the Very early Minolta SLRs. which is probaly how the got the Business to make the X series cameras.

 

[xkaes]

yes, and going way back, Shanghi Seagull DID clone some of the Very early Minolta SLRs. which is probaly how the got the Business to make the X series cameras.

Yeah, the original Shanghai Seagull even retained the motor drive connections that the Minolta SR-2 had -- years AFTER Minolta gave up on the idea.