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

Within 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 analogue with good glass. This guide sorts through 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 goes 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. Who built what for whom
4. The battery problem and all the solutions
5. Typical defects and which ones can be repaired
6. Which one is for whom, honestly—including “don’t buy that one”
7. Buying and checking: the checklist on the camera

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

What these cameras have in common 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. The viewfinder is an optical viewfinder; most have 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 camera and an SLR still isn’t entirely clear to you, Arndt explains it in under ten minutes—better and more vividly than we could put it into words here:

“The Rangefinder Camera: What Is It, and How Does It Differ from an SLR?”, Arndt’s Analogue Adventures

The difference that really matters when buying

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

In others, the electronics do not just control the shutter—they hold it open. 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.

One tip that can save money when buying used: A Konica C35 without a battery and a Konica C35 with a broken ground wire behave almost identically. The difference is in the viewfinder: on the fully electronic camera, the needle responds as soon as power is supplied. If it does not move even with a fresh cell installed, the problem is almost always with the contacts, not 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 top half of the table. If you want automatic operation and can live with the battery issue, the bottom half contains the significantly cheaper cameras.

2. The models at a glance

The big table. Prices are rough ranges for used, tested and working examples in summer 2026; on classified listings, expect the lower end, while refurbished cameras from dealers are at the upper end.

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

Three things hidden between the lines in the table

The Hi-Matic F is not the successor to the Hi-Matic E. It's the cheaper camera below it, with a smaller body, 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 thoroughly broken this down 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 semi-darkness 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 large. 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 common 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. Who built for whom

In the 1970s, 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. This was completely normal and was never widely communicated. 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 viewfinder and rangefinder windows, the same lens ring with shutter-speed and aperture scales, the same 40 mm f/1.7 lens. The lettering, lens name, and, on the Revue, an additional flash sync socket are different.

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; under the name Prinz 35 ER, it appeared once again. Mike Eckman reaches the same conclusion in his review of the Vivitar 35ES.

One widespread claim, however, is not true. In forums and sales listings, people regularly claim that the Konica Auto S3 was also a relabeled Hi-Matic 7sII. That is false. After opening it up, Janes explicitly writes that the Konica is its own 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.

Incidentally, the question of whether Cosina really built the 7sII has not been fully settled either. Most sources say yes, one reviewer strongly disagrees and considers the resemblance to be the result of shared supplier parts. What is established 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 plus a coupled rangefinder. Remove the rangefinder, 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 bin.

In practical terms, this means two things. First, it explains the shared battery compartment with two PX640 cells, which otherwise cannot be found in Minolta cameras in this class. Second, it explains why the Hi-Matic F shows the same signs of aging as the small Yashicas, including its behavior when the battery is weak.

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 has no 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

There are even more threads like this from this era, especially surrounding Revue, Porst, and Quelle, where almost everything that was available at the time was purchased from elsewhere. However, the ones mentioned above are the best documented. Where we found nothing reliable, we have therefore included nothing.

4. The battery problem and all possible 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 replacement from the supermarket supplies 1.5 volts, which slowly drops as the battery discharges.

What this does to your image depends on the model, and this is exactly where people usually give overly broad advice.

Which battery does your camera need?

Only the 1.35-volt models are truly sensitive to voltage. And there is a detail there that hardly anyone knows: 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, Auto S3 or Minolta Hi-Matic 7sII, 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 hot 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 casing: 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 is essentially based on just two cell formats, not fifteen. And that is why the 5.6-volt Yashicas are so easy to replace: 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 meter that depends on 1.35 volts. With the Olympus 35 RC, by contrast, the same relative error directly affects the exposure.

The options: all of them, not just ours

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

The last point 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.

How well adapted 675 cells actually perform was independently tested by FAME CHeRRy against a genuine, still-available PX625:

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

The diode option is underrated. If you can solder, you get a permanent solution for the price of a cup of coffee: A Schottky diode in series with the silver-oxide cell reduces 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, it's the most affordable option.

About us

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, the Auto S3 and the Minolta Hi-Matic 7sII, you don't need anything from us at all, and if you can solder, the diode option is cheaper.

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’re interested in the voltage issue more broadly, we explore it in three dedicated 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 faults and which ones are repairable

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

The Pad of Death: only on Yashicas

The Yashica Electro 35 contains a small piece of foam that cushions the stop of a lever. After decades, it crumbles into bits. The symptom is unmistakable: When you take a picture, the satisfying “thunk” is missing; instead, it makes a hard, flat click. Exposure becomes unreliable, and the camera also draws power when switched off, which is why many owners first notice the problem through 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 contains the rest of the service information for the series. If you prefer watching to reading, Fotofix has a calm, well-filmed demonstration:

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

What else breaks

Gummed-up aperture blades. The 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 take a picture. Repairable, but it requires workshop work: the shutter has to 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 due to corrosion, while the red wire still lets enough voltage through 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. This is the simplest repair of all and the one with the biggest impact; we have our own guide for it.

Dead or sluggish CdS cell. The photocell 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.

With the Minolta Hi-Matic 7sII, a simple swap is not enough: a photoresistor with as low a resistance as the original can no longer be bought today. Ulrich Drolshagen has described in the APHOG forum how he nevertheless got his 7sII metering again, using the smallest photoresistor available and an operational amplifier together with two resistors. This is soldering work under the top cover with an additional wire. Compared with his handheld light meter, the reading afterwards lies within the tolerance specified by the camera's service manual. How much the result depends on the individual photoresistor is still an open question. The component values are shown in the images of the post, which only logged-in forum members can see.

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 viewfinder windows from the inside helps; on others, the beam splitter is beyond repair. Check before buying; see Chapter 7.

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

For anything beyond light seals and battery contacts, you’ll need someone with the right tools and experience. To help, 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 text remains influential to this day, and you can see it in the prices. These seven have cost considerably more than anything else in the same class ever since. That isn’t undeserved—they really are good cameras. But the premium now reflects familiarity more than substance, and several models right alongside them do nearly 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 rangefinders, 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 it doesn’t, 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

Then the choice comes down to the Olympus 35 RC or the Revue 400 SE. The RC is smaller and lighter, with full manual control over shutter speed and aperture and readable settings 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. It’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 its size and weight: it weighs more than 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 prepared to spend more: The Olympus 35 SP is the only camera in this group with true spot metering. 64 ASA has covered it in detail and explains well why that makes all the difference in backlighting:

“Olympus 35 SP: An Exceptional Camera Overview,” 64 ASA

And now for the less popular 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 remains 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. It has a beautiful lens, but no mechanical fallback and electronics whose repair is not worthwhile. 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. It has a slower lens, no true manual exposure control, 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 using a symbol. It sounds like a step backward, but it is the fastest way to take photos there is, and at medium apertures the focus is reliably sharp. If you want to find out whether compact viewfinder cameras suit you at all, this is the cheapest test.

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

7. Buy and inspect: 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. With a ten-minute check, you can 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 means the beam splitter has deteriorated, which is expensive to replace.
2. Turn the focusing ring. The double image in the rangefinder patch should move smoothly and align perfectly at infinity. If it jerks 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 it does at 1/500 is sluggish with dried lubricant.
4. Look into the lens while you release the shutter. The aperture blades should close and open crisply. Streaks or sluggish movement mean there’s oil on the blades.
5. Open the back and touch the light seals. Sticky or crumbly? Not necessarily a deal-breaker, but it means work. Factor it in.
6. Open the battery compartment. Green or white crust is a bad sign, because the 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. Wind the film advance all the way. The lever should move smoothly throughout its full travel, 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 written checklist:

“Quick Analog Camera Test,” 64 ASA

“Light meter doesn’t work” often doesn’t mean anything 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. In a camera that requires a PX625 or PX675, this is often the only “defect.” It significantly lowers the price, and a zinc-air cell costing less than two euros solves the problem. Conversely, if the seller says they inserted a fresh battery and nothing happens, believe them: the problem is with the electronics or a contact.

Where to Buy

Classified ads and flea markets offer the lowest prices and carry 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 come tested and often with a warranty; for models costing from €200 upward, that’s worth considering. We’ve written separately about how to search eBay specifically for undervalued listings.

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 the letter suffix—many sellers don’t know the exact type and list it inaccurately as a result.

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 ruined, and as long as it crumbles, stray light reaches the film. And a power source that is still available; see Chapter 4. The lens cap is almost always missing too; buy one based on the filter diameter, not the 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 make such parts to order; you can find them under spare parts and batteries. Everything else—foam seal material by the metre, lens caps in standard sizes—is available everywhere, often for less.

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 have not yet gone through the roof. 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 are unsure which battery your model needs, just write to us. We have the compatibility lists on hand anyway and will reply even if you do not buy 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 will find more there than can fit into one article:

• 35mmc, Bob Janes' reviews of the Konica Auto S3, Hi-Matic E, and many others from this group, including a look under the top plate.
• Mike Eckman, detailed, historically well-researched profiles of the models, including their manufacturing history.
• Casual Photophile, with the strongest photo galleries of precisely these models.
• Yashica-Guy, the definitive reference for everything related to the Electro-35 series, including service information.
• Butkus Camera Manuals: Original manuals for almost every model in this guide, available free of charge and maintained by a private individual through donations.
• Photrio and Rangefinderforum, where the battery and repair threads are located, from which a good portion of this article is drawn.