Shutter and flash synchronization. The XE-5 featured a very quiet and reliable metallic, vertically-travelling, focal-plane shutter that was built by Copal and Leitz. Speeds ranged from 4 s to 1/1000 s and bulb (“B”). Synchronization for electronic flash (X, 1/90 s) was provided by a hot shoe on the top of the camera and a PC port at the 3 o’clock position of the lens mount.
Exposure Modes. The XE-5 offered both aperture-priority automatic (“AUTO”) and metered manual exposure modes. (Prior to the XE-5, the only Minolta cameras to feature the former were the professional-grade X-1—also known as the XK and XM—which debuted in 1973, and the XE/XE-1/XE-7 of 1974.) When the dial was set to “AUTO,” shutter speed was varied steplessly by the camera; otherwise, speeds could be adjusted manually in full stop increments only. Film speeds could be set in the range of ISO 12-3200. The XE-5 did not have automatic DX decoding.
Metering. Through-the-lens metering was provided at full aperture by Minolta’s Contrast Light Compensation (CLC) system which employed two cadmium sulfide (CdS) cells that were mounted at different positions on the pentaprism. According to the user manual, these took “separate, overlapping light readings” and were “circuited so that the reading of each affect[ed] that of the other to automatically yield optimal exposure in both normal and high-contrast situations.” This system, which debuted in Minolta’s SRT series of cameras in the 1960s, was designed so that, when the camera was held in landscape orientation, the meter was not overwhelmed by the brightness of the sky to the detriment of proper exposure of the darker landscape. Effectively, the lower CdS cell was twice as sensitive as the upper to ensure even exposure of light and dark areas.
The CdS cells had long and reliable lifetimes. They were sensitivity to the same colours of light as the human eye. However, as the manual warned, they also suffered from the same “memory effect” that plagues the human eye. That is, “the time of response varied with the intensity of light falling on them. It thus took them a while to become accustomed to low light levels after exposure to bright light.” I have indeed confirmed this lag for myself: it may take a few seconds for the XE-5’s meter to achieve an accurate, stable reading in low light after the camera has been exposed to bright light.