Bottom line: A good manual focus camera with some frills; as my title indicates, it makes a good introductory model or an inexpensive backup to the higher-end X-series cameras like the X-700 and X-570.

If you owned an SLR in the 70's, you already know how to use this camera. Back when this model was designated as the X-370, it even looked like the classic SLR's of the 70's with its leather (leatherette?) body and chrome top and bottom. The design change to the X-370s removed some of this familiarity, however; the chrome body is now mostly plastic; you lose some weight, but also some durability.

The X-370s, aka the X-370n, has a lot of good things going for it. It features both manual and aperture-priority modes, as well as a bulb mode; shutter speeds range from 4 to 1/1000 second in "A" mode and 1 to 1/1000 sec. in "M" mode. Hot shoe, meter coupling, self-timer, accepts Minolta MC and MD lenses, works with accessories like the MD-1 and Winder-G motor drives and the infra-red units.

Its disadvantages are that it lacks many of the functions of the X-700: no program mode, no through-the-lens flash metering, no depth of field preview, no audible slow-speed warning, no exposure compensation, no data back capability, no aperture display in the viewfinder. However, these shortcomings are its raison d'etre. The reason the X-370s exists is to lack these features so it can provide a less expensive alternative to the X-700.



Recommended: Yes