Autocord Face Lift

I’ve read many good things about cameraleather.com on several photography forums, but never bothered to try them…until now. Over the Christmas holiday I acquired two wonderful pieces of Minolta history; the XD-11 and Autocord. The Autocord is a high quality, and often overlooked, Twin Lens Reflex produced between 1955 and 1966. Apparently twenty-four different models were available. This particular model is simply referenced as the Autocord ‘Export.’ Introduced in 1958 it features a Seikosha MX shutter, 1-1/500 sec., and the standard 75mm Chiyoko Rokkor lens. Although it arrived in mechanically sound order, the exterior had seen better days. Of course as long as the lens is clean, and the shutter fires correctly, the exterior of a camera has no affect on picture quality. But a wonderful classic shooter like the Autocord deserves better than peeling and faded leatherette. This is a beautifully styled camera and I wanted it to look as good as the pictures it takes. So a few clicks on www.cameraleather.com provided a solution at a very affordable price. I chose the seal grain blue leatherette for the Autocord and couldn’t be happier with the results.

Cameraleather.com makes ordering and payment easy using Paypal. They have a few different options for the Autocord, depending on the model you have. The Autocord Export doesn’t have the built-in meter, so additional holes were not needed. I included the necessary camera information with the order and in less than two weeks received the leatherette kits for both the Autocord and XD-11. The XD-11 is profiled in another post. The pre-cut, self-adhesive leatherette comes on a kind of wax paper and is very easy to work with.

Most of the old leatherette came off fairly easily as it was already decaying. However the back and bottom of the camera required some scraping, and nail polish remover is perfect for removing the original adhesive residue. Once the body was stripped, applying the cameraleather.com kit pieces was a snap. Simply pull the desired piece off the backing paper, line it up on the camera and apply it. Press down firmly once in place and you’re done. All of the pieces fit precisely and within fifteen to twenty minutes the Autocord looked brand new. I couldn’t be more pleased with the results.

The seal grain blue is a great choice for any camera, as is the seal grain red which I chose for the XD-11. I’m now hooked and will be ordering more kits from cameraleather.com. For me, it increases the pride I already experience when out and about shooting with these classic cameras. Like a new paint job on a classic muscle car, it may not improve the ride but you look damn good behind the wheel. I highly recommend cameraleather.com if you want to breath new life into that old shooter.