Minolta Autocord L / LMX

Minolta's own history puts the Autocord L in October 1955, the same month as the plain Autocord, so the line arrived as a pair: one body that expected you to bring a meter, and one that carried its own. On the L the meter hides behind the nameplate. Flip the plate up and a selenium cell looks out at the scene, powered by nothing but the light landing on it, which is why a roll of 120 and a clear afternoon are all this camera asks of you.

It does not read in f-stops, though. The needle gives you a Light Value, a single number, and the manual has you split that number between a shutter index and an aperture index that add up to it. A reading of 13 might become 8 on one side and 5 on the other. Each aperture from f/3.5 to f/22 carries its own index, 3.6 at the wide end and 9 at the small end, so the numbers you need to add are printed right next to each setting. You still do the sum in your head, and on a first roll, with the light going, that feels slower than metering ought to feel. By the third roll your hand goes to the right pair without much thought.

Looking down into the hood you get the usual TLR view, a bright square of ground glass fed by an f/3.2 viewing Rokkor that sits above the taking lens. That taking lens is the reason to own any Autocord: a four-element, fully coated Rokkor 75mm f/3.5 that draws crisp, contrasty squares. Hoods and filters go on a Bay I bayonet, the same fitting Rolleicord owners use, so accessories turn up easily. The Seikosha leaf shutter runs B and a full second up to 1/500, with the dial marked 1, 2, 5, 10 and on up, and like most leaf shutters it is quiet.

Pay attention to the suffix when you shop. The 1955 L used a Seikosha Rapid, and collector tables list that first shutter with F sync only, which means flashbulbs. The 1958 LMX moved to a Seikosha-MX, with a small lever beside the lens that picks M, F or X. Electronic flash needs the LMX. Set it to X and it syncs at every speed up to 1/500, so a small flash can fill a backlit face in full sun without the slow-sync compromises a focal-plane camera forces on you.

Where the L shows its age is the cell. Selenium fades over the decades, and seventy years on plenty of these meters read low or not at all. An uncoupled meter that reads wrong is worse than no meter, because the needle still swings with total confidence. Check yours against Zone Light Meter on your phone before a roll that matters; if the two disagree by more than a stop, let the app do the metering and treat the nameplate as decoration. Expect the focusing to want fresh grease too, as it does on most TLRs this old.

The obvious rival is the Rolleicord, and the shared Bay I fitting means one filter kit serves both. The Rokkor gives nothing away in that company. A daylight shooter can live happily with an L whose cell still answers. Anyone carrying a modern flash should hold out for an LMX and check that the sync lever really reaches X before handing over money.