It was Minolta's first SLR camera to feature both shutter priority and aperture priority automatic exposure modes, as well as a program automatic mode, albeit not described as such on the camera or in the manual.

The camera also offered fully metered manual exposure as well as depth of field preview and an eyepiece shutter.

Also, included were fully mechanical "O" (1/100 sec) and bulb settings, which allowed it to operate without a battery.

It was Minolta's last metal-bodied SLR design before the company switched to plastic with the X-700.

A black variant with a viewfinder diopter instead of the eyepiece shutter called the XD-S was also offered in Japan.