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A Little Minolta History
from Wikipedia
- 1928: Kazuo Tajima established Nichi-Doku Shashinki Shōten
(Japanese-German photo company; the precursor of Minolta Co.,
Ltd.).
- 1929: Marketed the Company's first camera, the
"Nifcalette".
- 1937: The "Minolta Flex" is Japan's first twin-lens
reflex camera.
- 1958: The Minolta SR-2 is Minolta's first single-lens reflex
camera.
- 1959: The Minolta SR-1.
- 1962: John Glenn takes a specially modified Ansco-logo'd
Minolta Hi-Matic camera into space aboard Freedom 7. The company
changes its name to Minolta Camera Co., Ltd.
- 1966: The Minolta SR-T 101 SLR camera is Minolta's first with
through-the-lens full aperture (TTL) light metering.
- 1972: Minolta signs an agreement to cooperate with Leica in
SLR development.
- 1973: The Minolta CL is the first fruit of this agreement.
- 1976: The Leica R3 is introduced. Minolta produces the R3, R4,
and R5 models in the Leica R series. Subsequent cameras are
built in Germany by Leica themselves.
- 1981: Implementation of Minolta's invention and patent of TTL
OTF Through The Lens Off The Film exposure metering: The Minolta
CLE is the first 35 mm rangefinder camera to feature TTL
metering and aperture priority auto-exposure. The Minolta X-700
manual-focus SLR is introduced; this model is sold until 1999
and is enormously successful. The Minolta XD-11 (Model E) is the
first Minolta product branded with an updated logo in caps,
which was in use until the 2003 merger with Konica.
- 1985: The Minolta Maxxum 7000 becomes the world's first truly
successful autofocus SLR. Other manufacturers soon follow suit,
but Minolta's innovation gives much sales success.
- 1987: Honeywell file lawsuit against Minolta for patent
infringement over autofocus technologies.
- 1991: Minolta's innovative autofocus design was found to
infringe on the patents of Honeywell, a U.S. corporation. After
protracted litigation, Minolta in 1991 was ordered to pay
Honeywell damages, penalties, trial costs and other expenses in
a final amount of 127.6 million dollars (source: NY Times).
- 1992: Minolta finally settles out-of-court with Honeywell.
- 1994: The company changes its name to Minolta Co., Ltd.
because it no longer is primarily a camera company.
- 1995: Introduction of the Minolta RD-175, an early 1.75
megapixel digital SLR camera.
- 1996: The Minolta Vectis camera is a completely new SLR system
designed around the Advanced Photo System (APS) film format.
- 1998: The Minolta Maxxum 9 autofocus SLR is introduced. This
system is targeted toward the professional photographer and has
many features not duplicated by the competition.
- 2003: DiMAGE A1 introduced, replacing the DiMAGE 7HI. DiMAGE
A1 final Minolta product branded prior to the Konica Minolta
merger.
- 2004: Minolta and Konica officially merge to become
Konica-Minolta Holdings, Inc.
- 2005: The company announces joint venture with Sony on CCD and
CMOS technologies.
- 2006: Konica-Minolta announces it is discontinuing all film
and digital camera production, ending a 78-year history as a
camera manufacturer. Konica-Minolta Photo Image, Inc.'s (the
camera business portion of Konica Minolta) asset regarding
digital camera technology is transferred to Sony for continued
development started from the joint venture.
Early cameras
Relying heavily on imported German technology, Nichi-Doku turned
out their first product, a bellows camera called the Nifcalette, in
March 1929. By 1937, the company reorganized as Chiyoda Kogaku Seikō,
K.K. (Chiyoda Optics and Fine Engineering, Ltd.) and built the first
Japanese-made twin-lens reflex camera, the Minoltaflex based on the
German Rolleiflex.
In 1950, Minolta developed a planetarium projector, the
first-ever made in Japan, beginning the company's connection to
astronomical optics. John Glenn took a Minolta Hi-Matic rangefinder
35 mm camera aboard the spacecraft Friendship 7 in 1962, and in
1968, Apollo 8 orbited the moon with a Minolta Space Meter aboard.
In the late 1950s and 1960s, Minolta competed in the
medium-format rollfilm camera market with the excellent Autocord
series of TLR (twin lens reflex) cameras. Marketed at a time when
other indifferent copies of the Rolleiflex TLR design were flooding
the market, the Autocords soon acquired an enviable reputation for
the high quality of their Rokkor optics.
Single lens reflex cameras
In the 1960s Minolta introduced its SR camera lines and later,
the SR-T 35mm SLR camera series (cameras with the 'SR' designation
equipped with through-the-lens metering) which are widely regarded
as some of the most innovative single lens reflex (SLR) cameras of
the era. Although well-made, the SR series and the SR-T series were
not as robust as the professional-level Nikon F or F2. Like the
Canon Ftb, the Minolta SR/SRT design used sleeve bushings instead of
bearings on its focal plane spindles, and had greater tolerances
between working parts. This occasionally caused problems in very
cold weather or extremely high-levels of use. Nevertheless, the
cameras appealed to serious amateur photographers with their more
affordable prices and high-quality optics.
From the late 1950s through the 1980s, Minolta was arguably the
most innovative camera manufacturer - the first Japanese
manufacturer to introduce a bayonet lens mount rather than a screw
mount, the first manufacturer to introduce TTL metering with full
aperture, and the first manufacturer to introduce multi-mode
metering. They also introduced the first commercially-successful
autofocus SLR line with the Maxxum series.
In 1972, Minolta drew up a formal cooperation agreement with
Leitz. Leitz desperately needed expertise in camera body
electronics, and Minolta felt that they could learn from Leitz's
undoubted optical expertise. Tangible results of this cooperation
were the Leica CL/Minolta CL, an affordable rangefinder camera to
supplement the Leica M range. The Leica CL was built by Minolta, to
Leica specifications. Other results were the Leica R3, which was in
fact the Minolta XE-1 with a Leica lens mount, viewfinder and spot
light metering system.
First 'program' focal plane
shutter 35mm SLR: the XD-11
In 1977, Minolta introduced the XD-11, the first multi-mode 35 mm
compact SLR to include both aperture and shutter priority in a
single body. The XD-11 is considered by many to be the best
manual-focus 35mm SLR Minolta ever produced, and the last serious
attempt by Minolta to enter the professional and semi-professional
35mm SLR market until the Maxxum 9 in 1998. Elements of the XD11
design, called the XD7 in Europe, were utilized by Leitz for the
Leica R4 camera.
Others regard the XM (XK in the Americas, X-1 in Japan), a rugged
camera designed for the serious amateur and professional
photographer dating from 1972, to be the quintessential Minolta. The
XM / XK /X-1 Motor(the motorized version) may well be the most
collectible Japanese 35 mm camera - in September 2004 an XM Motor of
1976 was sold for €2566, approximately 200% of its price back in
1976.
Minolta continued to offer 35mm MF SLR cameras in its X370,
X-570, and X-700 from 1981, but slowly repositioned its cameras to
appeal to a broader market. Minolta decided to abandon the high
level of design and parts specification of its earlier XD/XE line.
The new amateur-level X-570, X-700, and related models offered
additional program and metering features designed to appeal to newer
photographers, at a lower cost. The advanced vertical metal shutter
design of the older cameras was rejected in favor of a cheaper
horizontal cloth-curtain shutter, reducing flash sync to a very slow
1/60th second. Further cost savings were made internally, where some
operating components were changed from metal to plastic. As
Minolta's autofocus Maxxums were proving successful, Minolta
invested fewer resources in its manual focus line as time
progressed.
Minolta was quick to enter the highly competitive 35mm compact
camera market in the 1980s. Transitioning from older rangefinder
designs to 'point-and-shoot' (P&S)electronic, autofocus/autowind
cameras was applauded by most camera buyers, but decried by those
who missed the old Minolta quality. Minolta, like other major
manufacturers faced with low-cost competition from elsewhere in
Asia, found it difficult to build quality P&S cameras at a cost
the consumer was willing to pay, and was forced to offshore
production, gradually redesigning successive cameras to reduce cost
and maintain profit margins
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