Electronic rangefinder cameras: Yashica Electro, Konica C35, Olympus 35 & Minolta Hi-Matic compared

Cover image: Minolta Hi-Matic E. Photo: Joe Haupt, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

In a single decade, these cameras were everywhere. Between 1968 and 1975, every major Japanese manufacturer built a compact rangefinder camera with electronic exposure automation and a fast fixed-focal-length lens—Yashica, Konica, Minolta, Olympus, Canon. They sold by the millions, were the last generation before autofocus, and they were good. Very good, in fact.

Today, they’re the most affordable way to shoot analog with good glass. This guide sorts out the family: what each model can do, which ones are essentially the same camera inside, what to look for when buying used, and which ones you’re better off leaving alone.

If you’re here because of the battery: the table showing which cell belongs in which model is in Chapter 4.

Contents

1. What these cameras have in common, and which ones can still fire without power
2. The models at a glance
3. The family tree: who was built for whom
4. The battery problem and every solution
5. Typical defects and which ones can be repaired
6. Which one is right for whom, honestly, including “don’t buy that one”
7. Buying and checking: the checklist at the camera

1. What these cameras have in common—and which ones can still fire without power

What ties them together isn’t the brand. It’s the design.

All the cameras in this guide have a leaf shutter in the lens, a CdS photocell as a light meter, and an automatic mode that uses it to set the exposure itself. The viewfinder is an optical viewfinder, usually with a coupled rangefinder for focusing. No mirror, no prism, no interchangeable lens. That makes them small, quiet, and pleasantly unobtrusive in use—the reason they still have a reputation in street photography today.

Olympus 35 RC. Photo: Rama, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr via Wikimedia Commons

If the difference between a rangefinder and an SLR camera still isn’t completely clear to you, Arndt explains it in under ten minutes more clearly and vividly than we could put it into words here:

“The rangefinder camera. What is it, and how does it differ from the SLR?” — Arndt’s Analog Adventures

The difference that really matters when buying

And this is where the group splits. Some of these cameras have a mechanical shutter that the electronics only control. If the battery dies, you lose the light meter and nothing else. Set the shutter speed and aperture manually and keep shooting.

With others, the electronics do not just control the shutter—they hold it. Without power, either nothing happens or the camera falls back to a single emergency speed. This is not a minor detail: it determines whether a dead battery is an inconvenience or a total failure.

Camera	What happens without a battery
EUR 200–350	Fully usable manually, with a purely mechanical shutter
Olympus 35 RC	Fully usable manually; only the metering is lost
Olympus 35 SP	Fully usable manually; the battery powers only the meter
Olympus 35 RD / 35 DC	RD usable manually, DC only with automation
Minolta Hi-Matic 7sII	Fully usable manually, mechanical shutter
Konica Auto S3	Shutter works, but the aperture stays fully open
Canon Canonet 28	Locked at 1/30 s, aperture selectable manually
Yashica Electro 35 (G series)	Fires, but only at 1/500 s
Konica C35 / C35 Automatic	Practically dead, pure program automation
Minolta Hi-Matic E / F	Dead, with no mechanical fallback
Olympus 35 EC / ECR	Dead

One note that can save money when buying used: A Konica C35 without a battery and a Konica C35 with a broken ground wire behave almost the same. The difference is in the viewfinder: on the purely electronic camera, the needle responds as soon as power is applied. If it does not move even with a fresh cell installed, the problem is almost always in the contacts, not in the camera itself.

This ordering continues throughout the rest of the guide. If you never want to be without a light meter, buy from the upper half of the table. If you want automation and can live with the battery issue, the lower half has significantly cheaper cameras.

2. The models at a glance

The big table. Prices are rough ranges for used, tested-working examples in summer 2026; on classified-ad sites, expect the lower end, while refurbished dealer cameras are at the upper end.

Konica C35 Automatic. Photo: Joost J. Bakker IJmuiden, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Three things the table says between the lines

The Hi-Matic F isn't the successor to the Hi-Matic E. It's the cheaper camera below it, with a smaller body, a slower lens, and different technology. If you're looking for the E and are offered the F, you're not getting the same thing. Bob Janes has broken it down clearly on 35mmc.

Zone focusing isn't a flaw, but you need to know about it. The Hi-Matic G, Electro 35 MC, Olympus 35 EC, and EC2 don't have rangefinders. You set the distance using a symbol or by estimation. At f/2.8 and a few meters' distance, it works surprisingly well; in low light with the aperture wide open, it's a gamble. For under 50 euros, it's a fair deal, but it's a different way of taking photos.

The Yashica Electro 35 is big. It looks compact in photos, but it isn't in your hand; it weighs a good 750 grams and won't fit in a jacket pocket. That's the most commonly cited reason people sell it again. Image quality is never the problem.

The Yashica Electro 35 looks more compact in photos than it really is. Photo: Scott Akerman, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

3. The family connections: who built for whom

In the seventies, Japanese camera manufacturers produced for one another on a large scale. One factory built a body, several brands put their logos on it, and each fitted its own lens to the front. This was completely normal and was never widely publicized. For you, that means some cameras that are priced very differently on the used market are identical inside.

The clearest case: the same camera under three names

Take a look at these three.

Photos: Alfred, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons (Hi-Matic 7sII, Revue 400 SE, Vivitar 35ES)

Same body shape, same top plate, the same two rails on the hot shoe, the same arrangement of the viewfinder and rangefinder windows, the same lens ring with shutter-speed and aperture scales, and the same 40 mm f/1.7 lens. The differences are the lettering, the lens name, and, on the Revue, an additional flash socket.

This is not an impression; it has been checked. Bob Janes removed the top plates from several of these cameras for 35mmc and then matter-of-factly wrote that the Minolta, Vivitar, and Revue are the same camera under the skin. It was most likely built by Cosina; it also appeared under the name Prinz 35 ER. Mike Eckman reaches the same conclusion in his review of the Vivitar 35ES.

One common claim, however, is not true. In forums and sales listings, you regularly read that the Konica Auto S3 was also a relabeled Hi-Matic 7sII. That is false. After opening it, Janes explicitly writes that the Konica is an original design. You can also see it from the outside: The Auto S3 has a Hexanon 38 mm f/1.8, while the 7sII has a Rokkor 40 mm f/1.7—different focal length, different maximum aperture, different optical design. If someone sells you an Auto S3 as “identical to the Minolta,” they simply do not know better.

The question of whether Cosina actually built the 7sII also remains unresolved. Most sources say yes, while one reviewer strongly disagrees and considers the similarity to be the result of shared supplier components. What is documented is what can be seen: the three bodies are identical. Who assembled them is the less well-supported half of the story, and that is how it should be retold.

The second case: Minolta uses Yashica technology

Minolta Hi-Matic F. Photo: Alfred, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The Minolta Hi-Matic F is essentially a Yashica ME, with the same internals, supplemented by a coupled rangefinder. Remove the rangefinder again and you have the Hi-Matic G. What Minolta contributed was the Rokkor lens and the name; the electronics and shutter came from Yashica's parts shelf.

In practice, this means two things. First, it explains the shared battery compartment with two PX640 cells, which you otherwise do not find in Minolta cameras in this class. Second, it explains why the Hi-Matic F shows the same signs of aging as the smaller Yashicas, including its behavior with a weak battery.

What you can do with this knowledge: The Revue 400 SE almost always costs less than the Minolta Hi-Matic 7sII, even though it is the same camera. The German Quelle trade name simply lacks collector appeal. If you want the 40mm f/1.7 lens and the mechanical shutter but do not want to pay the Minolta premium, look for Revue 400 SE, Vivitar 35 ES, and Prinz 35 ER. The same camera, often eighty euros cheaper.

The rebadge overview

Camera	Essentially is	Documented by
Revue 400 SE	Minolta Hi-Matic 7sII / Vivitar 35 ES (Cosina)	Opening the top plate, 35mmc
Vivitar 35 ES	Same camera, without flash socket	35mmc, Mike Eckman
Prinz 35 ER	Same camera, British trade name	camera-wiki
Minolta Hi-Matic F	Yashica ME plus rangefinder	Rangefinderforum, independently confirmed several times
Minolta Hi-Matic G	Yashica ME without rangefinder	Rangefinderforum
Konica Auto S3	Own design, not a rebadge	Opening the top plate, 35mmc

There are more threads like this from this era, especially around Revue, Porst, and Quelle, where almost anything that was available at the time was bought in. But the ones listed above are the best documented. Where we could not find reliable evidence, we have therefore left it out.

4. The battery problem and all the solutions

Mercury cells were ideal for light meters. They delivered a constant 1.35 volts for almost their entire service life and only dropped sharply at the end. A CdS meter movement connected directly to this voltage therefore remained correctly calibrated for years. Since the 1990s, they have been banned because of the mercury, and the supermarket replacement supplies 1.5 volts, which gradually drops during discharge.

What this does to your image depends on the model, and this is exactly where advice is usually too sweeping.

First: which battery does your camera need?

Only the 1.35-volt models are truly sensitive to voltage. And there is a detail that hardly anyone knows about: PX675 and PX625 are electrically identical. Both deliver 1.35 volts; the difference is purely mechanical—PX625 measures 15.6 × 6.0 mm, while PX675 measures only 11.6 × 5.4 mm. A PX625 adapter is therefore essentially just a spacer that brings a small 675 cell up to PX625 size. For a Konica C35 or Auto S3, you do not need an adapter at all: the Type 675 zinc-air cell fits directly into the compartment. Anyone trying to sell you an adapter for these cameras is selling you air.

The battery compartment is located in the bottom of almost all models in this group. Photo: AADS, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

A connection hardly anyone knows about

The PX32 in the large Yashica Electro is not a standalone cell, but a stack of four PX640 cells in a sleeve: 4 × 1.4 volts equals 5.6 volts. The PX28 does the same with a different cell size—4LR44 is still exactly that today: four stacked button cells in one housing.

That is why this entire camera group essentially relies on just two cell formats, not fifteen. And that is why replacing the batteries in the 5.6-volt Yashicas is so straightforward: six volts from a 4LR44 instead of the original 5.6 is a difference of just over seven percent, and the Electro electronics interpret that differently from a needle meter that depends on 1.35 volts. In the Olympus 35 RC, by contrast, the same relative error directly affects the exposure.

The solutions—all of them, not just ours

There are six serious options. Which one is best depends on what matters most to you: accuracy, cost, or never having to think about it again.

Method	Accuracy	Cost	Downside
Type 675 zinc-air in an adapter	very good	low	lasts only weeks to a few months after removing the sticker
WeinCell MRB625 / MRB675	very good	medium	more expensive than the drugstore battery, but dies just as quickly
silver oxide + Schottky diode	good	very low	soldering required; the diode drops 0.25 V, germanium 0.3 V—not exactly 0.15
workshop recalibrates it to 1.5 V	exact	high	a one-time cost of 60–140 EUR, and never worry about it again
Raw 1.5 V alkaline (LR9, LR44 with spacer)	moderate	minimal	drifts as the battery discharges; errors of up to two stops are possible
External light meter or Sunny 16	as good as you are	none to moderate	only works with models that have a manual mode

The last option is often overlooked and is frequently the smartest choice for the Seven-Swords models. An Olympus 35 RC with an empty battery compartment isn't a broken camera, but a fully manual one. If you already work with Sunny 16, you never need to solve the battery question.

FAME CHeRRy independently tested how well adapted 675 cells actually perform, comparing them with a genuine, still-available PX625:

“PX 625 Battery Replacement for Vintage Cameras (Adapted 675 vs Native 625 Test)” — FAME CHeRRy

The diode method is underrated. If you can solder, you can get a permanent solution for the price of a cup of coffee: A Schottky diode in series with the silver-oxide cell reduces the 1.55 V to around 1.3 V. It remains stable as long as the cell lasts, and silver oxide lasts for years rather than weeks. You can find a well-documented guide for the Konica C35 at wemakethings.net. We don't earn anything from this, and if you already have a soldering iron at home, this is the most affordable option.

A word about our own products

We make battery adapters for these form factors ourselves. That's why this paragraph appears down here instead of above, and why the other five options are given equal standing in the table above; with the Konica C35 and the Auto S3, you don't need anything from us at all, and anyone who can solder will save money with the diode.

If you have one of these cameras and are simply looking for a suitable cell, we maintain overview pages by camera brand that help you find the right type directly — Yashica, Minolta, Olympus, Konica, Canon, Revue, and Vivitar. If your brand isn't listed, the Battery Finder covers all manufacturers.

If you are more broadly interested in the voltage issue, we examine it in three separate articles: the PX625 article contains the measurement series and a rechargeable long-term solution, the “Finding the Right Camera Battery” guide provides an overview of battery types across all camera brands, and our power supply FAQ covers troubleshooting when nothing happens despite a fresh cell.

5. Typical defects and which ones are repairable

These cameras are fifty years old. Wear and tear is remarkably predictable because all manufacturers used the same materials, and the same materials age in the same way.

The Pad of Death — only in Yashicas

The Yashica Electro 35 contains a small piece of foam that cushions the stop of a lever. After decades, it disintegrates into crumbs. The symptom is unmistakable: When you release the shutter, the satisfying “thunk” is missing; instead, it makes a hard, flat click. The exposure becomes unreliable, and the camera also draws power when switched off, which is why many owners first notice a constantly dead battery without realizing the underlying fault.

The good news: This is the best-documented repair in this entire camera group, it costs just a few cents in materials, and can be completed in under an hour. Mike Elek wrote the classic guide, and yashica-guy.com has the rest of the service information for the series. If you would rather watch than read, Fotofix has a calm, well-filmed demonstration:

“Yashica Electro 35 — Replace the PoD ‘Pad of Death’” — Fotofix

What else can go wrong

Gummed-up aperture blades. Lubricant in the shutter creeps onto the blades over the years. They become sluggish or stick together completely. You can tell because the aperture hesitates or fails to close when you release the shutter. Repairable, but it requires workshop work: the shutter must be disassembled and cleaned.

Corroded battery contacts. The most common “defect” that isn’t one. In the Konica C35, the black ground wire from the battery compartment to the circuit board often breaks through corrosion, while the red wire still carries enough voltage to operate the shutter. So a battery compartment that looks clean proves absolutely nothing. If you can solder, you can fix it in twenty minutes.

Decomposed light seals. This affects every camera from this generation without exception. The foam around the back door becomes sticky and black, after which stray light reaches the film. It’s the simplest repair of them all and the one with the biggest impact; we have a dedicated guide for it.

Dead or sluggish CdS cell. The photoelectric cell ages, especially if the camera has been left in the light for years. The light meter then consistently underexposes or responds slowly. The Olympus 35 SP is known for this. Replacement is possible, but usually only worthwhile on the more expensive models.

Yellowed or cloudy viewfinder. The semitransparent mirror in the rangefinder loses its coating, and the rangefinder patch becomes faint or invisible. On some models, simply cleaning the inside of the viewfinder windows helps; on others, the beam splitter is damaged beyond repair. Check before buying; see chapter 7.

What is almost never worth it: A Minolta Hi-Matic E with defective electronics is economically a total loss. The camera costs fifty to one hundred euros used, while a shutter and electronics overhaul costs several times that. With an Olympus 35 SP or a Konica Auto S3, the math is different: a €150 overhaul can definitely be worthwhile. The rule of thumb: repairs are roughly worth considering once the camera costs three figures used.

For anything beyond light seals and battery contacts, you need someone with the right tools and experience. That’s why we maintain a directory of more than 200 repair shops in German-speaking countries and internationally, including addresses and specializations. The list is free and contains no advertising.

6. Which one for whom—honestly, including “don’t buy that one”

First, some context to explain the used market. In 2014, photographer and collector Dan K coined the term “Seven Swords” on Japan Camera Hunter: seven compact rangefinder cameras he considered the best of their kind. Canon QL17 G-III, Konica Auto S3, Minolta Hi-Matic 7sII, Olympus 35 RC, Olympus 35 RD, Olympus 35 SP, and the Petri Color 35.

The article remains influential to this day, and you can see that reflected in the prices. Ever since, these seven have cost significantly more than anything else in the same class. That isn’t undeserved—they really are excellent cameras. But the premium now reflects familiarity more than substance, and several models right alongside them do almost the same thing photographically for a third of the price.

Konica Auto S3, the most expensive model in the group. Photo: Jacek Halicki, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

If you’re buying a camera like this for the first time

Get the Konica C35 Automatic or the Minolta Hi-Matic F. Both cost under eighty euros, both have a rangefinder, both are small enough for a jacket pocket, and both take decent pictures with their program automation without requiring you to set anything. If the format suits you, you can always upgrade later. If not, you’ve lost sixty euros instead of three hundred.

The catch with both: without a battery, they do nothing. That’s the price of the low entry cost.

If you want to shoot manually

That points you toward the Olympus 35 RC or the Revue 400 SE. The RC is the smaller and lighter option, with full manual control over shutter speed and aperture and readable values in the viewfinder. The Revue has the faster f/1.7 lens and, as shown in Chapter 3, is the cheapest way to get a Minolta Hi-Matic 7sII.

Both continue to work fully manually without a battery. That’s more convenient in everyday use than it sounds.

If the lens matters most to you

The Yashica Electro 35 GSN has the 45 mm f/1.7 lens, one of the best in this class, and costs only a fraction of the Seven Swords. The trade-off is size and weight: it weighs well over twice as much as a Konica C35, and you give up all manual exposure control. Even so, it’s hard to beat for available-light shots from a tripod or with a steady hand.

Yashica Electro 35 GSN. Photo: Alfred, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

If you’re willing to spend more: The Olympus 35 SP is the only camera in this group with genuine spot metering. 64 ASA has covered it in detail and explains well why that makes a difference in backlit situations:

“Olympus-35 SP, an exceptional camera at a glance” — 64 ASA

And now for the unpopular half

Don't choose a Konica Auto S3 as your first camera of this type. It is excellent, but it costs three hundred euros, is rare, and the number of well-preserved examples is declining. If its light meter dies, you have an expensive problem: without a battery, the aperture stays fully open, so you cannot simply continue shooting manually. For beginners, it is the wrong combination of price and vulnerability.

Be careful with the Minolta Hi-Matic E. Nice lens, but no mechanical fallback and electronics that are not worth repairing. It is perfectly fine as a cheap second camera; as your only camera for a trip, we would not take it.

The Canonet 28 is the weakest of the Canonets. Slower lens, no true manual exposure, and without a battery it only shoots at 1/30 second. It is often offered as an inexpensive QL17, but it is a different camera. If you want a Canonet, save up for the G-III.

The cheapest way to try out the format: You can regularly find a Minolta Hi-Matic G or an Olympus 35 EC for under forty euros. Neither has a rangefinder; both use zone focusing, so you set the distance according to a symbol. It sounds like a step backward, but it is the fastest way to take pictures there is, and at medium apertures the focus is reliably sharp. If you want to know whether compact viewfinder cameras are right for you at all, this is the cheapest test.

Olympus 35 EC. Photo: orion, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

7. Buying and testing: the checklist on the camera

Most of these cameras are sold without any guarantee that they work, at flea markets, in estate sales, and through classified ads. Ten minutes of testing will help you spot the duds.

This is what a healthy viewfinder should look like: the scale at the top is easy to read, and the rangefinder patch in the center is clearly defined. Photo: Peter Lindberg, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The eight steps

1. Look through the viewfinder. Is the rangefinder patch clearly visible in the center? A faint or missing patch indicates an aged beam splitter, which is expensive to replace.
2. Turn the distance ring. The double image in the rangefinder patch should move smoothly and align exactly at infinity. If it judders or jumps, the rangefinder is misaligned.
3. Release the shutter at every speed. Can you hear the difference at slow speeds? A shutter that sounds just as fast at 1/8 as at 1/500 is gummed up.
4. Look into the lens while releasing the shutter. The aperture blades must close and open briskly. Streaks or sluggish movement mean oil on the blades.
5. Open the back and touch the seals. Sticky or crumbly? Not a dealbreaker, but it means work. Factor it in.
6. Open the battery compartment. Green or white crusts are a bad sign, because corrosion often extends farther inside than is visible.
7. With Yashicas: listen for the “thunk.” If it’s missing, the Pad of Death needs replacing. It’s doable, but negotiate the price.
8. Run through the film advance. The lever should move smoothly all the way and the counter should advance.

64 ASA has the same inspection as a video, showing the steps in real time. If you’re holding an old camera for the first time, it’s better preparation than any text checklist:

“Analog Camera Quick Test” — 64 ASA

“Light meter doesn’t work” often means nothing at all. Many listings say this because the seller didn’t have a suitable battery—after all, they haven’t been sold for twenty years. With a camera that requires a PX625 or PX675, this is often the only “defect.” It brings the price down considerably, and a zinc-air cell costing less than two euros solves the problem. Conversely, if the seller says they inserted a fresh battery and still nothing happens, believe them: it’s the electronics or a contact.

Where to buy

Classified ads and flea markets have the lowest prices and the greatest risk. On eBay, you pay a premium but get buyer protection. Refurbished cameras from a dealer cost two to three times as much, but they have been tested and often come with a warranty; for models costing €200 or more, that’s worth considering. We’ve written separately about how to search eBay specifically for undervalued offers.

A note about search terms: Always search for the rebadged names too. Revue 400 SE instead of Minolta Hi-Matic 7sII, Prinz 35 ER instead of Vivitar 35 ES. And with Yashicas, it’s worth searching for Electro 35 without a letter suffix—many sellers don’t know the exact type and list them accordingly inaccurately.

What you need after buying

Practically every one of these cameras needs two things. New light seals: after fifty years, the foam around the back is invariably shot, and as long as it crumbles, stray light reaches the film. And a power supply that is still available; see Chapter 4. The lens cap is almost always missing, too; buy one by filter diameter, not by camera model.

A few parts for cameras in this group are no longer available because they were never sold separately—for example, the battery compartment cover of the Konica C35, which is the first thing to get lost, or the cover over the light meter of the Olympus 35 SP. We reproduce such parts; you'll find them under spare parts and batteries. Everything else—foam sealing material sold by the metre, standard-size lens caps—you can get anywhere, often at a lower price.

In conclusion

These cameras are the best compromise analogue photography has to offer: good lenses, compact bodies, no battery drain during operation, and prices that haven't gone through the roof yet. The mercury battery is the only real obstacle, and it can be solved in at least six different ways, several of which cost nothing.

If you're unsure which battery your model needs, just write to us. We have the compatibility lists on hand anyway and will reply even if you don't buy anything from us.

Read more elsewhere

The community around these cameras is knowledgeable and has been contributing for years. If you want to go deeper, you'll find more there than can fit into one article:

• 35mmc — Bob Janes' reviews of the Konica Auto S3, Hi-Matic E, and many others in this group, including a look beneath the top plate.
• Mike Eckman, detailed, historically accurate model profiles including factory history.
• Casual Photophile, with the best photo features on precisely these models.
• Yashica-Guy, the reference for everything concerning the Electro-35 series, including service information.
• Butkus Camera Manuals — Original manuals for almost every model in this guide, free of charge, maintained by a private individual on a donation basis.
• Photrio and Rangefinderforum, where the battery and repair threads are found that much of this article is based on.