Minolta
Overview
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese worldwide manufacturer of camera
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
s, camera accessories, photocopier
Photocopier
A photocopier is a machine that makes paper copies of documents and other visual images quickly and cheaply. Most current photocopiers use a technology called xerography, a dry process using heat...
s, fax machines, and laser printer
Laser printer
A laser printer is a common type of computer printer that rapidly produces high quality text and graphics on plain paper. As with digital photocopiers and multifunction printers , laser printers employ a xerographic printing process, but differ from analog photocopiers in that the image is produced...
s. Minolta was founded in Osaka, Japan, in 1928 as . It is perhaps best known for making the first integrated autofocus
Autofocus
An autofocus optical system uses a sensor, a control system and a motor to focus fully automatic or on a manually selected point or area. An electronic rangefinder has a display instead of the motor; the adjustment of the optical system has to be done manually until indication...
35mm SLR camera system. It was not until 1933 that the brand name appeared on a camera, a copy of the Plaubel Makina
Plaubel Makina
The Plaubel Makina was a series of medium format press cameras. The original Makina was manufactured by Plaubel & Co. in Germany from 1912 through 1953...
simply called "Minolta."
In 2003, Konica
Konica
was a Japanese manufacturer of, among other products, film, film cameras, camera accessories, photographic and photo-processing equipment, photocopiers, fax machines and laser printers.- History :...
Corporation merged with Minolta to form Konica Minolta
Konica Minolta
is a Japanese manufacturer of office equipment, medical imaging, graphic imaging, optical devices, and measuring instruments. It is headquartered in the Marunouchi Center Building in Marunouchi, Chiyoda, Tokyo, with a Kansai office in Nishi-ku, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture...
.
On January 19, 2006, Konica Minolta announced that it was leaving the camera and photo business and that it would sell a portion of its SLR
Single-lens reflex camera
A single-lens reflex camera is a camera that typically uses a semi-automatic moving mirror system that permits the photographer to see exactly what will be captured by the film or digital imaging system, as opposed to pre-SLR cameras where the view through the viewfinder could be significantly...
camera business to Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
as part of its move to pull completely out of the business of selling cameras and photographic film.
- 1928: Kazuo Tashima establishes Nichi-Doku Shashinki Shōten ("Japanese-German photo company," the precursor of Minolta Co., Ltd.).
- 1929: Marketed the company's first camera, the "Nifcarette" (ニフカレッテ).
- 1937: The Minolta Flex is Japan's second twin-lens reflex cameraTwin-lens reflex cameraA twin-lens reflex camera is a type of camera with two objective lenses of the same focal length. One of the lenses is the photographic objective or "taking lens" , while the other is used for the viewfinder system, which is usually viewed from above at waist level...
(after the Prince Flex by Neumann & Heilemann). - 1947: Introduction of the long lived 35mm rangefinder camera Minolta-35Minolta 35The Minolta-35 was launched in the spring of 1947 by Chiyoda Kogaku. It was the first successful new 35mm rangefinder camera with Leica specifications to emerge on the market after World War II that utilises the 39mm screw lens-mount. The Minolta-35 range of cameras was manufactured in quantities...
- 1958: The Minolta SR-2Minolta SR-2The name Minolta was first used in 1932 on the 4.5×6 format Semi-Minolta using 120 film. The manufacturer was established in November 1928 by Kazuo Tashima as the Nichidoku Shashinki Shōten together with two Germans living in Japan, but reorganised as a joint stock company named the Molta Goshi...
is Minolta's first single-lens reflex cameraSingle-lens reflex cameraA single-lens reflex camera is a camera that typically uses a semi-automatic moving mirror system that permits the photographer to see exactly what will be captured by the film or digital imaging system, as opposed to pre-SLR cameras where the view through the viewfinder could be significantly...
. - 1959: The Minolta SR-1.
- 1962: John GlennJohn GlennJohn Herschel Glenn, Jr. is a former United States Marine Corps pilot, astronaut, and United States senator who was the first American to orbit the Earth and the third American in space. Glenn was a Marine Corps fighter pilot before joining NASA's Mercury program as a member of NASA's original...
takes a specially modified AnscoAnscoAnsco was the name of a photographic company based in Binghamton, New York, which produced inexpensive cameras for most of the 20th century. It also sold rebadged versions of cameras made by other manufacturers, including Agfa and Chinon...
-logoed Minolta Hi-MaticMinolta Hi-MaticHi-Matic was the name of a long-running series of 35 mm cameras made by Minolta. The original Hi-Matic of 1962 was the first Minolta camera to feature automatic exposure and achieved a small degree of fame when a version was taken into space by John Glenn in 1962.-Models:The first Hi-Matic,...
camera into space aboard Freedom 7.
Unanswered Questions
