Minolta

From Camera-wiki.org
Revision as of 12:48, 12 July 2005 by Lbstone (talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search

History

Minolta, although counted among the big five, has often been thought of as a second-rung camera manufacturer in the photography world, a step below Nikon and Canon. This has not always been the case. For five years beginning in 1985 Minolta was the biggest seller of SLR cameras in the world. The reason for this dominance was the release of their Maxxum/Dynax system; the world's first 'in body' Autofocus SLR. Before this time manufacturers had dabbled with lenses that focused themselves but that fitted to their existing, manual focus SLR cameras. Minolta was the first manufacture to put the mechanism and electronics for the autofocus system into their SLR camera bodies and so the modern SLR was born.

The 7000AF remains an iconic symbol of the 80's, however, Minolta did not hang on to their technological lead for long and Canikon fought to regain their position as market leaders. By the 90's Minolta was back to its former underdog-brand status. Minolta still offer a large line of products covering the gamut from the most basic to the most 'serious' of cameras. Among camera intelligentsia Minolta are known for their amazingly competitive price/performance ratio. What does that mean to you and I? When you buy a Minolta you get a lot of camera for your buck.

Minolta continues to innovate. After popularizing the plastic bodied, push button controlled SLR with the 5/7/9000AF the mid-90's saw them reinvented the camera user interface with the 600si Classic. The Classic insignia indicates a move back to knobs and dials and away from buttons and menus. Photographer's applauded this return to a logical control layout that didn't require them to memorize pages and pages from their camera's manual before they could take a shot. This interface was carried forward into their popular pro-level Maxxum/Dynax 7 and similar control layouts were adopted by other manufactures.

With the DiMage X, Minolta solved the problem of the protroding optical zoom lens on pocket digicams. Their folded lens design alows an optical zoom lens to be totally contained within the body of the camera. This makes the cameras that use this design trully pocketable, faster to turn on and better protected from knocks and damage.

Minolta have been criticized for their slowness to get onboard with a digital SLR camera that was compatible with the Maxxum lenses. In late November 2004, Konica Minolta finally released the much anticipated Maxxum 7D DSLR and the innovation continued. What sets the 7D DSLR apart from the competition is the built in image stabilization which works with any lens you can attach to the camera body. History has a way of repeating itself. If Minolta can compete better on image resolution and price point Minolta may at some point in the future, take the SLR market by storm yet again.

In October 2003 Minolta merged with Konica to form Konica Minolta. All new camera's after that time were badged as Konica Minolta (see also Konica Minolta) although, with reference to their camera designs, Minolta remains the dominant partner.

Minolta Cameras

35mm Rangefinder

35mm Viewfinder

  • Minolta Autowide
  • Minolta f12
  • Minolta F35 Big Finder
  • Minolta Freedom I
  • Minolta FS-E II
  • Minolta Hi-Matic 5
  • Minolta Hi-Matic C
  • Minolta Hi-Matic CSII
  • Minolta Hi-Matic G
  • Minolta Hi-Matic G2
  • Minolta Hi-Matic GF
  • Minolta Hi-Matic S
  • Minolta Hi-Matic S2
  • Minolta Hi-Matic SD
  • Minolta Hi-Matic SD2
  • Minolta Memo
  • Minolta Minoltina-P
  • Minolta Repo (half-frame)
  • Minolta Repo-S (half-frame)

35mm SLR (Manual Focus)

35mm SLR AF (Dynax/Maxxum)

The Dynax/Maxxum (Maxxum in North America, Dynax elsewhere) line of Cameras is an Autofocus line of SLR cameras. The cameras are not compatible with the previous manual focus SLR lenses.

Other Film Cameras

Disc Cameras

  • Minolta ac 101 Courreges
  • Minolta ac 301 Courreges
  • Minolta Disc-5
  • Minolta Disc-7
  • Minolta Disc-S
  • Minolta Disc-K

16mm Cameras

  • Minolta 16
  • Minolta 16 Automat
  • Minolta 16 Cds
  • Minolta 16 EE
  • Minolta 16 EE2
  • Minolta 16 Electro-Zoom-X
  • Minolta 16 II
  • Minolta 16 MG
  • Minolta 16 MGS
  • Minolta 16 P
  • Minolta 16 Ps
  • Minolta 16 QT
  • Minolta Sonocon 16 MB-ZA

110 Cameras

  • Minolta 110 Zoom SLR
  • Minolta 110 Zoom SLR Mark II
  • Pocket Autopak 200
  • Pocket Autopak 250
  • Pocket Autopak 270
  • Pocket Autopak 430-E
  • Pocket Autopak 430-EX
  • Pocket Autopak 440-EX
  • Pocket Autopak 450-E
  • Pocket Autopak 450-EX
  • Pocket Autopak 460-T
  • Pocket Autopak 460-TX
  • Pocket Autopak 50
  • Pocket Autopak 70
  • Pocket Pak 40
  • Pocket Pak 440-E
  • Pocket Pak 60
  • Weathermatic A

126 Cameras

  • Minolta Autopak 400-X
  • Minolta Autopak 500 / Ilford Monarch / Revuematic 500
  • Minolta Autopak 550
  • Minolta Autopak 600-X
  • Minolta Autopak 700

127 Cameras

  • Baby Minolta
  • Minolta Miniflex
  • Minolta Vest
  • Nifcalette
  • Minolta Autopak 800
  • Revere 3M Automatic 1034

Folding Cameras

  • Arcadia
  • Auto Minolta
  • Auto Minolta I
  • Auto Press Minolta
  • Auto Semi Minolta
  • Auto Semi Minolta IIIA
  • Auto Semi Minolta P
  • Happy Hand
  • Happy Hand -- type S
  • Minolta
  • Minolta Best
  • Minolta Marble
  • Minolta Six
  • Nifca Dox
  • Nifca Klapp
  • Nifca Sport
  • Semi Minolta I
  • Semi Minolta II
  • Sirius

TLR

  • Minolta Autocord
  • Minolta Autocord CDS I
  • Minolta Autocord CDS II
  • Minolta Autocord CDS III
  • Minolta Autocord I
  • Minolta Autocord II
  • Minolta Autocord III
  • Minolta Autocord L
  • Minolta Autocord MXS
  • Minolta Autocord MXV
  • Minolta Autocord RA
  • Minolta Autocord RB
  • Minolta Autocord RG
  • Minolta Autocord RI
  • Minolta Miniflex
  • Minoltacord
  • Minoltaflex
  • Minoltaflex Automat
  • Minoltaflex I
  • Minoltaflex II
  • Minoltaflex IIB
  • Minoltaflex III

Digital

Minolta and Konica Minolta use the Dimage nameplate on all of the digital cameras.

Digital SLR

Links

Retrieved from "http://camera-wiki.org/index.php?title=Minolta&oldid=42082"