Minolta
Minolta logo designed by Saul Bass in 1981.
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| Industry | Manufacturing |
|---|---|
| Fate | Merged with Konica |
| Successor | Konica Minolta |
| Founded | 1928 (as Nichi-Doku Shashinki Shōten) Osaka, Japan |
| Founder | Kazuo Tashima |
| Defunct | August 5, 2003 |
| Headquarters | 3-13, 2-chome, Azuchi-Machi, Chuo-ku, Osaka 541-8556, Japan (1998) |
| Products | Cameras, camera accessories, photocopiers, fax machines, laser printers |
| Website | konicaminolta |
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| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Type | 35mm SLR |
| Lens | |
| Lens mount | Minolta SR-mount |
| Focusing | |
| Focus | Manual focus |
| Exposure/Metering | |
| Exposure | Shutter and aperture priority autoexposure |
| Flash | |
| Flash | Hot shoe and PC terminal |
| General | |
| Dimensions | 51 x 86 x 136 mm, 560 g |
Minolta Co., Ltd. (ミノルタ Minoruta?) was a Japanese worldwide manufacturer of cameras, camera accessories, , fax machines, and laser printers. Minolta was founded in Osaka, Japan, in 1928 as Nichi-Doku Shashinki Shōten (日独写真機商店?, meaning Japanese-German camera shop). It is perhaps best known for making the first integrated autofocus 35mm SLR camera system. In 1931, the company adopted its current name, an acronym for "Mechanism, Instruments, Optics, and Lenses by Tashima". In 1933, the brand name first appeared on a camera, a copy of the Plaubel Makina simply called "Minolta".
In 2003, Minolta merged with Konica Corporation to form Konica Minolta. On 19 January 2006, Konica Minolta announced that it was leaving the camera and photo business, and that it would sell a portion of its SLR camera business to Sony as part of its move to pull completely out of the business of selling cameras and photographic film.
Relying heavily on imported German technology, Nichi-Doku turned out their first product, a bellows camera called the Nifcarette, 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.
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