Minolta AL

The Minolta AL is a well finished, sturdily built heavyweight rangefinder. It’s slightly smaller—but heavier—than the first generation Hi-Matics and has a superior shutter. The Citizen fires all the way up to 1/1000, and aperture closes down to f22 which is rare in this generation of cameras and adds extra versatility when shooting. There is an EV scale on the shutter speed ring which is handy if shooting without a meter. (EV is equivalent to LV at ISO100 see glossary).

Like the Konica Sii the focusing action is satisfyingly solid and smooth and the focusing ring design feels like an SLR lens of the same period. The lens itself, the Rokkor PF found on the Hi-Matic 7s & 9 is slightly slower at f2 (same as the Konica Sii) and delivers needle sharp professional performance. The viewfinder is bright and has a moving frame for parallax compensation. Unlike the Konica Sii the meter needle isn’t seen in the viewfinder and is only visible on the top of the body.