Talk:Minolta 35

Leica III?

I was wondering about the introduction part of this article. It mentions that the Minolta 35 is Leica based, and suggests a link between the Minolta 35 and the Leica III. I think this is inaccurate. I mean, there is a huge difference between early Fed or Zorki, which clearly are Leica copies, and the Minolta 35, which, as far as I know, doesn't share any single part with a screwmount Leica. Just because a camera has a rangefinder and uses the Leica threadmount doesn't mean that it is a Leica copy! Any thoughts? User:Fragarach 29 February 2012

I know next to nothing about Minoltas or Leicas but all I'm seeing is this: "The Minolta 35 appeared similar to the Leica III with which it shared a common Leica-thread-mount (LTM) interchangable lens mount" which only suggests to me that the two cameras shared a mount and looked similar, and that appears to be a true statement. Perhaps you could say instead something like "The Minolta 35 used the 39mm lens mount invented by Leica" and drop the part about looking similar if that's not relevant. Or if you wanted to emphasize some differences between them that sounds reasonable. Looks like they were made nearly a decade apart, for example. Perhaps you could dig up patents on each (or at least on the Minolta) and identify some unique innovation it brought. Steevithak 06:49, 29 February 2012 (PST)

I was refering to the "Chiyoda Kōgaku Seikō was relatively late to start making its Minolta 35 Leica based 35mm rangefinder" part of the text, sorry if this wasn't clear. I understand why one would mention the Leica threadmount, which is indeed used by the Minolta 35 series; however, I don't think that the Leica III is relevant here. I mean, a Spotmatic and a Zenit EM use the same mount, by they have as much in common as a Leica III and a Minolta 35 do. User:Fragarach 29 February 2012

Sorry, I missed that one. Looks like that statement is referenced, which suggests it's based on information from an authoritative source. So you'd probably want to check the reference or contact the editor who added to verify what's up. Steevithak 14:56, 29 February 2012 (PST)

Adding a lens section

How would you feel about adding a section dedicated to the lenses? User:Fragarach

Looks like there's already a page listing lenses: 39mm_screw_lenses, however if you mean Minolta-made lenses, I'd suggest adding a section under Minolta#Lenses.Steevithak 06:49, 29 February 2012 (PST)

Yes, sorry again, I wasn't clear: I was thinking about revamping this specific Minolta 35 page and adding a "Super Rokkor lenses" section. I could also update the Super Rokkor part of the 39mm_screw_lenses page as well.

In general, lens lists ought to go on (or be linked from) the related manufacturer's page. For example, I'd put a list of Canon FD lenses on the Canon page, not the Canon AE-1 Camera page. But again, I'm not an expert on Minolta history by any means and there may be a reasonable case to make for doing it the way you're describing, so I'll defer to other editors who might want to comment on this one. Steevithak 14:59, 29 February 2012 (PST)

Early serial numbers

Previous version stated "This camera was not made in large numbers: serial numbers range from 0101 to 0900 or 1000".

I replaced this by "This camera was not made in large numbers, probably less than 1000." While later model A serial numbers are certainly below 1000, there is no evidence that numbering started at 0101.

Added by Fragarach on Jan. 19, 2008.

Model II type b and external links

Believe that the photo of the model II should be associated with Model II type B rather than Model IIB.

Also link at bottom are bad. Better references might be:

http://www.huffman.tk/id12.html

http://www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/Minolta35.html

Added by @Michael on Jul. 23, 2010.

Thank you for your recent edits. The link by Dan Colucci was dead, I reintroduced the new address. --rebollo_fr 10:06, 23 July 2010 (EDT)