MAD TO THE MAX MINOLTA XM MOTOR

After Nikon set the formula for a professional-grade 35mm (full-frame) SLR in 1959 with the legendary F, and Canon followed it up in early 1971 with the original F-1, it was game-on for other would-be rivals. Most of the major brands had a shot at one time or another – most notably Leica, Contax, Olympus, Pentax and Rollei – but certainly one of the most ambitious attempts was the Minolta XM Motor.

Launched in June 1976 – by which time Nikon had the F2 and Canon had upgraded to the F-1n the XM Motor was a motor-driven version of the XM that Minolta had introduced in 1973. It was known as the XK Motor in North American markets and the X-1 Motor in Japan, and was the first professional 35mm SLR with a fully integrated motor drive – an arrangement Minolta adopted for reliability and durability. Both the Nikon F2 and Canon F-1n still had bolt-on accessory motor drives, and it wouldn’t be until the early 1980s that the built-in motorised film transport started to become common on consumer-level 35mm SLRs. Incidentally, the standard XM/XK/X-1 never had the option of fitting an accessory motor drive, so it was a case of all or nothing. And Minolta had been here before… back in 1970 with the SR-M which also had a fully-integrated motor