Well done !

Regards

Donna-Michelle

The X-700’s svelte build was possible because of miniaturization of electronics, and as a result it’s easy to work on–and quite roomy inside compared to the SRT. Then the Alpha 7000 arrived (or perhaps I should say: landed from Outer Space), with its internal winder and momentary-contact switch controls, and suddenly the SLR was thicker and again complicated in almost every cubic centimeter of its interior. Then technology advanced; Minolta added motorized iris operation (in apology for the whacky lever on the 9000, I like to think), larger LCD displays, and electronically-released pop-up flashes.

By the time the 700si came out, a wave of miniaturization cleaned up things under the hood, with less hard wiring and more stacked flex PC connectors. (And also by off-loading functionality to those infernal add-on cards, like the ones that are required to do certain repairs, but were accidentally shipped to Atlantis, never to be seen again.) Within a couple of years, the “letter” xi models shrunk and things took a turn toward the complicated. I was astounded by how jam-packed the seemingly simple QTsi was when I opened it up–this with a discrete shutter assembly, sophisticated ICs and a battery chamber with stacked 3 volt cells that occupy about the same space as one double-A.

I pulled apart a Maxxum 70 this past weekend, and was surprised to find how much miniaturization had accomplished in less than a decade. So little was under the top (because of the scale of electronics integration), that I could actually see the prism.

A set of problems had to be overcome to bring the digital SLR to the general consumer market, and you have to admire how engineers did it. There were early attempts, like the RD-175, but the Alpha 7D and the subsequent Sony models were much more compact. I’ve seen exploded diagrams of the Sony’s mirror box and shutter assembly, and it’s a piece of work. Think about this: the film winder motor provided locomotion to everything but the AF motor and the pop-up solenoid; suddenly it was gone, and engineers had to find a way to move the iris lever, the shutter and the mirror in a *much* smaller space.

That Alpha took a hit on the right side of the flash for sure. A lot of the body panels came off because it apparently has a mirror prism that collapsed, as opposed to a traditional glass block one. Interestingly, it acted like a crumple zone. I doubt the camera is as wrecked as it appears. The chassis looks good, the mount looks square with the sensor, and the main PCB appears to be intact. I bet it would be salvageable with a few body panels, an LCD, the stop controls and the prism and various parts surrounding. The multi-part chassis seems to be pretty tough.

Geez, how could this guy resist the urge to hook it up to a power supply to see what is does? :o)