The Minolta Autocord is Minolta's celebrated twin-lens reflex, introduced in 1955 and produced in numerous variants (plain, light-meter and CdS models) into the mid-1960s — Japan's most serious answer to the Rolleiflex, shooting twelve 6×6cm frames on 120 film.
Every Autocord carries a four-element 75mm f/3.5 Rokkor taking lens of Tessar type, widely judged among the sharpest lenses ever fitted to a TLR, mated to a Seikosha or Citizen leaf shutter (typically 1s-1/500 with flash sync at all speeds). Its signature ergonomic quirk is the seesaw focusing lever that sweeps beneath the lens board instead of a side knob, plus a crank film advance with automatic frame spacing.
Its significance is as the connoisseur's budget Rolleiflex: optically it concedes little to far costlier German TLRs, and the medium format film revival has repriced it accordingly — UK listing evidence averaging around £613 reflects genuine demand for clean, serviced examples.
UK used-buying checks: the Autocord's one infamous weakness is that pot-metal focusing lever — hardened grease makes owners force it until it snaps, and a broken lever is a specialist repair — so sweep focus gently through its whole arc and reject anything stiff or with a repaired lever; run all shutter speeds, expecting sticky slow speeds on unserviced examples; shine a torch through the taking lens for haze and fungus (the Rokkor's coatings mark easily when cleaned carelessly); check the film advance crank spaces frames properly with a test roll if possible; and on metered variants assume the selenium/CdS meter is dead and price it as unmetered. A documented CLA from a TLR specialist is worth a substantial premium here.