#Minolta #MinoltaFacts, No. 8;
In the 1990's, Minolta was a large company rivalling the other major camera producers.
What else was big with rivalries in the 90's? Rap and East/West-coast Hip Hop. Inexplicably the two are linked!
Snoop Dogg, N.W.A, Naughty By Nature, and others referred to the slogan 'Minds of Minolta' in their lyrics. What other camera company can say that?
Been away for a while, but not because I'm not busy!
Reddit offers a limited wikipedia system, and I've been maintaining the r/minolta sub's repository of information.
But what if you hate Reddit, and other walled-garden social media?
Behold! Gitbook allows for the wikipedia to be a bit prettier, and more 'open' for anyone to read, if you like Minolta cameras.
https://minoltascape.gitbook.io/minoltopedia/
#Minolta #MinoltaFacts, No. 7;
(Konica)-Minolta left the photo industry in 2006, selling the camera business to Sony. That's fairly well known, but did you know where the *lightmeters* went?
Kenko! Sony sold those on further to Kenko, who still make the Minolta Auto Meter Vf (KFM-1100) and Colour Meter IIIf (KFM-3100). They also formerly continued the Flash Meter VI (KFM-2100).
Source: Michael Hohner (https://www.mhohner.de/sony-minolta/meters.php), and the Kenko Website (https://kenkoglobal.com/catalog/meters/?p[71]=Meters)
#Minolta #MinoltaFacts, No. 6!
Minolta made plenty of Prototypes - but did you know that the XK(/XM/X1) was initially called the 'XX'?
And that's not all! The XE Prototype was named 'XE-F' prior to its US designation of XE-7! (EU went for XE-1, Japan went for XE).
Nameplates examples were created for each, and very few exist today.
Source: Gary Friedman's Blog, May 2023 (https://friedmanarchives.blogspot.com/2023/05/minoltas-full-circle.html?m=1) and Minolta Collector's Group on Facebook
#MinoltaFacts, No.5 (additonal)
Can't add 2 videos to one post, so here's the follow up of a Dynax 7D .MRW raw format file being read on a Sony A700.
Source: @84hachi on the MinoltaGang Discord
#Minolta #MinoltaFacts, No.5;
Minolta and Sony DSLR's can read their Raw formats, despite being proprietarily different!
(Konica) Minolta only released the Dynax 5D & 7D before being absorbed by Sony. Those came with a proprietary .MRW Raw file that only 5/7D's could read.
Later on, Sony released the A100 and A700 that came with their own .ARW format. But both can read each other's formats from a CF card! Watch below
Source: @84Hachi via the MinoltaGang Discord, incl. videos.
#Minolta #MinoltaFacts is back after a short hiatus!
No.4 - Hasselblad may get all the glory of being the camera of choice for the NASA Lunar Expeditions, but did you know the meter of choice was a Minolta "Space Meter"?
A modified Minolta Auto Spot Meter 1 was used on Apollo 11. Later versions (Spot Meter M) were also lightly modified for the "Space Meter II" on the Shuttle Missions until they used Digital cameras.
https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/minolta-spotmeter-model-m-space-shuttle-525-c-b074f82b8e
#Minolta #MinoltaFacts, No.3;
In 1983, Minolta released a vinyl for the 5th anniversary of the company in the Netherlands.
It was called 'Minolta Disco'. Apart from featuring synth covers of many hits of the time, it was a play on words as the cover shows someone holding a Minolta Disc camera, the inside sleeve is of the Disc camera, and even the Vinyl itself is printed to look like a Disc Film!
Source: https://camerosity.podbean.com/e/episode-36-minolta-disco/
To Listen (Warning: it's bad): https://www.discogs.com/release/1533528-Ed-Starink-Minolta-Disco
For the second episode in a row, we take a deep dive into a singular brand of cameras, and as you can pretty much already guess, Episode 36 is all about Minolta! The guys and I visit the Minolta Disco with returning callers, Alex Luyckx, Bill Smith, Howard Sandler, Mark Faulkner, Mario Piper, Robert Rotoloni, Wannes Scheipers, and first time caller, Mig Cero. The Minolta Disco is a strange place where we cover history of the company, our favorite models, common problems and what to look for when buying certain Minoltas, the Minolta and Leica connection, and what Minolta Auto focus SLRs you should consider if you like physical knobs. Minolta is one of the longest lived and prolific Japanese camera makers, so we had a huge number of things to talk about. Not content to stick with just one single topic, Mike reveals a strange habit he does in the dark when loading film, Paul covers everyone's favorite Topcon SLRs, along with a short review of the focal plane shutter Topcon IC-1 Auto, Robert gives us some history on why so many Japanese camera makers preferred 24mm x 32mm images, and a little bit of history on Japanese distributors in the United States. As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are decided by you. The guys and I rarely know where each episode is going to go until it happens, so if you'd like to join us on a future episode, be sure to look out for our show announcements on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, and right here on mikeeckman.com. We record every other Monday and announcements, along with the Zoom link are typically shared 2-3 days in advance. For our next episode, we will hit the road and record our third European episode, recording at a time that is more friendly for our fans in Europe. For our friends in the UK, a lot has changed since the last time we talked, they lost their queen and have had three different Prime Ministers, so who knows what kind of mood they'll be in. We are not 100% sure on the exact time we will record Episode 37, but it will probably be Tuesday, November 22nd. Be sure to stay tuned for the official announcement. This Week's Episode Mike's Strange Habit of Closing His Eyes While in a Darkroom / Alex Purposely Waits to Look at His Digital Photos After Taking Them We Start Talking About Minolta with a Topcon Super D and RE3 / Difference between the Super D and Super DM Topcon RE lenses vs Topcon UV Lenses / Leaf Shutter Topcons / Topcon IC-1 Auto Topcor Cult Lenses, 58mm f/1.4 and f/1.8 lenses / 135mm and 200mm Telephotos Not All Exakta Lenses Will Work on the Topcon RE Super / The Schneider-Kreuznach Xenon 50/2 Hits the Mirror What Other Cameras Came with Topcor Lenses? / Horseman and Leotax Did! Tokyo Kogaku and Nippon Kogaku Both Had Very Similar Origins / Topcon Suffered from Poor Distribution in the US Other Companies Who Were Killed By Distribution Like Miranda and Aires Nikon Got Lucky With Ehrenreich / Canon Struggled With Distribution / Minolta Distributed Themselves Minolta's Early History Nichi Doku and Molta Eventually Became Chiyoda Kogaku The Original Minolta was Based Off the Plaubel Makina / Minoltaflex and Minolta Autocord When Did Minolta Become a Meaningful Force Outside of Japan? / Minolta Was Successful with Post Exchanges Minolta's Screw Mount Rangefinders / 24 x 32 Exposures / Japanese Film Was Very Expensive and Often Used for X-Rays Was the US Government Responsible for the Disappearance of 24 x 32? What is Everyone's Favorite Minolta? / Minolta Super A (Anthony and Mike) / Minolta SRT-101 and 102 (Mario) / Minolta XD-11 (Bill Smith) / Minolta XM (Wayne) / Minolta Hi-Matic 7S II (Mig) / Minolta 110 Zoom SLR (Theo) / Molta Minolta Vest Camera (Mark) / Minolta Dynax 9 (Alex) Full Bodied Japanese Fixed Lens Rangefinders Are Some of the Best Values Out There Alex Loves the Minolta Maxxums 7 and 9 Minolta SLRs with Physical Knobs / Minolta 600si Classic and 650si Date / Make Your Own Handgrip with Sugru Minolta Got Sued a Lot / Minolta Auto-Wide The Minolta and Leica Collaboration Started with the CL / The Minolta XE-7 Has Nothing From Leitz In It / Leica R3 Minolta XD-11 and Leica R4 / Leica R-Series Lenses are REALLY Expensive Robert Likes Minolta Subminis / The Konan Was the Predecessor to the Minolta 16 MINOLTA DISCO!!!! Other Minoltas / Minolta Freedom Zoom 105i / Minolta Vectis S-1 / Minolta X-700 / Minolta SR-3 / Minolta Uniomat III Did Konica and Minolta Ever Make a Serious Camera Together? Show Notes If you would like to offer feedback or contact us with questions or ideas for future episodes, please contact us in the Comments Section below, our Camerosity Facebook Group or Instagram page, or email us at [email protected]. The Official Camerosity Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/camerositypodcast Camerosity Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/camerosity_podcast/ Camerosity Twitter - https://twitter.com/CamerosityPod Alex Luyckx – http://www.alexluyckx.com/blog/ Theo Panagopoulos - https://www.photothinking.com/ Paul Rybolt - https://www.ebay.com/usr/paulkris and https://www.etsy.com/shop/Camerasandpictures Anthony Rue - https://www.instagram.com/kino_pravda/ and https://www.facebook.com/VoltaGNV/
I've found out a lot of random things about Minolta gear, from various sources, but there's nowhere where these interesting tidbits are centralised. So... why not on a decentralised platform? That makes sense!
Expect #MinoltaFacts shortly...
atloniM
