The 1977 XG-7 was the first in Minolta's XG line of cameras - they were consider simple, cheaper, consumer cameras - the XD line being more sophisticated and expensive. My first camera was the 1979 XG-1 which was an even farther stripped down version of this camera. I bought this camera mainly because it came in the original box and I'm a little Minolta obsessed. The thing I find super annoying about the XG line is that there is no metering in full manual mode. I know these were meant to be shot in "auto" but still... Thats why I stick to my X-700.
