Minolta XEb (1976)
The Minolta XEb is a 35mm SLR introduced in 1976 for the domestic Japanese market. It is a cost-reduced version of Minolta's celebrated XE. It shares the XE's basic body and aperture-priority automatic exposure, but trims features to reach a lower price. The XEb differs from its export sibling, the XE-5, in keeping the multi-exposure lever of the full XE. It was offered in chrome finish only.
The cost-cutting shows in the construction. The pentaprism cover is all plastic, and Minolta left out the eyepiece shutter, FP sync contact, aperture direct-reading window, and film signal indicator. The camera is still capable. The shutter runs from B and 4 seconds to 1/1000 second. It is manual focus, uses the Minolta MD mount, and takes two LR44/SR44 batteries for its electronic light meter.
The original retail price was around ¥54,000 in Japan (roughly $300 at the time). Beyond that, the documented record is thin. The owner of one example, looking for value information on a forum, reported finding "ANYTHING about it online when it comes to value" and wondered whether that silence meant the camera was rare or valuable. The answer is that the XEb is a lesser-known variant of a famous camera, a domestic-market model that never drew the documentation the XE and XE-5 did. It turns up on the used market periodically, often with a Rokkor lens attached.
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