Minolta Co., Ltd. was a Japanese manufacturer of cameras, camera accessories, photocopiers, fax machines, and laser printers. Minolta Co., Ltd., which is also known simply as Minolta, was founded in Osaka, Japan, in 1928 as Nichi-Doku Shashinki Shōten. It made the first integrated autofocus 35 mm SLR camera system. In 1931, the company adopted its final name, an acronym for "Mechanism, Instruments, Optics, and Lenses by Tashima".
TC-1 is a luxury point and shoot camera that was produced by Minolta. It is a compact 35 mm clad in titanium, equipped with a G-Rokkor 28mm f/3.5 lens. The TC-1 was equipped with a high quality lens and body, similar to other luxury compacts produced during the Japanese bubble economy era, including the Contax T line, Konica Hexar, Leica minilux, Nikon 28/35Ti, Ricoh GR series, and Rollei QZ 35W/35T. Expensive when initially released in 1996 with a suggested retail price of ¥148,000, it was produced in small numbers and since then has become collectible.
The Minolta XG-M was a 35mm single-lens reflex camera introduced in 1981 by Minolta of Japan. It was also known as the X-70 on the Japanese market, in which it was not available until 1982. When released, it was the top model in Minolta's XG series of consumer-grade manual focus SLRs, replacing the XG-9. Changes from that model included a metered manual mode, and a revised body style with rearranged controls. This was also the first camera to use Minolta's new logo, which was used until the 2003 merger into Konica Minolta.
The Minolta X-700 is a 35 mm single-lens reflex film camera introduced by Minolta in 1981. It was the top model of their final manual-focus SLR series before the introduction of the auto-focus Minolta Maxxum 7000.
The Minolta A-mount camera system was a line of photographic equipment from Minolta introduced in 1985 with the world's first integrated autofocus system in the camera body with interchangeable lenses. The system used a lens mount called A-mount, with a flange focal distance 44.50 mm, one millimeter longer, 43.5 mm, than the previous SR mount from 1958. The new mount was wider, 49.7 mm vs. 44.97 mm, than the older SR-mount and due to the longer flange focal distance, old manual lenses were incompatible with the new system. Minolta bought the autofocus technology of Leica Correfot camera which was partly used on the a-mount autofocus technology. The mount is now used by Sony, who bought the SLR camera division from Konica Minolta, Konica and Minolta having merged a few years before.
Originally produced by Minolta, then by Sony, the AF Reflex 500mm f/8 was a catadioptric photographic lens compatible with cameras using the Minolta A-mount and Sony A-mount lens mounts.
The Pentax ME F was an amateur level, interchangeable lens, 35 mm film, single-lens reflex (SLR) camera. It was manufactured by Asahi Optical Co., Ltd. of Japan from November 1981 to 1984. The ME F was a heavily modified version of the Pentax ME-Super, and a member of the Pentax M-series family of SLRs. It was the first mass-produced SLR camera to come with an autofocus system.
Shanghai Seagull Camera Ltd is a Chinese camera maker located in Shanghai, China. Founded in 1958, Seagull is the oldest camera maker in China. The product line of Seagull includes TLR cameras, SLR cameras, folding cameras, CCD and SLR camera lenses, large-format cameras, film, night vision scopes, and angle viewfinders. Seagull's cameras usually use basic, time-tested mechanical designs that require no batteries. Some Seagull cameras are distributed through the Lomography company.
The Minolta CLE is a TTL-metering manual & automatic exposure aperture-priority 35 mm rangefinder camera using Leica M lenses, introduced by Minolta in 1980.
The Minolta SR-mount was the bayonet mounting system used in all 35 mm SLR cameras made by Minolta with interchangeable manual focusing lenses. Several iterations of the mounting were produced over the decades, and as a result, the mount itself was sometimes referred to by the name of the corresponding lens generation instead.
The Minolta X-1 was the professional model in the Minolta SR-mount line of single-lens reflex cameras (SLR), released in 1972 after ten years of development, which was the first X-series camera in the Minolta SLR system; prior to the X-1, specific Minolta SLR models were branded SR-T, and afterward, they included X in the name. The X-1 was the first SLR to combine an electronically-controlled shutter with interchangeable viewfinders.
The Minolta SR-2 was presented in 1958 as the first 35mm SLR camera from Chiyoda Kogaku. Popular cameras of this type at that time were mainly from Europe but a few from Japan, including the Asahi Pentax, the Miranda T and the Topcon R. The miniature SLR camera concept was conceived in the 1930s at Ihagee in Dresden, resulting in the 1936 Kine Exakta. Influential cameras designs like that of the 1939 KW Praktiflex, the 1949 ZI Contax S, and 1952 the KW Praktina marked the steady progress toward a perfected SLR. Several features of the latter seem to have influenced the design of the SR-2 although dissimilar in many respects. The obvious similarities are the stepped top plate, the carrying strap lugs, the self-timer lever and some general body features.
The E-mount is a lens mount designed by Sony for their NEX and ILCE series of camcorders and mirrorless cameras. The E-mount supplements Sony's α mount, allowing the company to develop more compact imaging devices while maintaining compatibility with 35mm sensors. E-mount achieves this by:
Rokkor was a brand name used for all Chiyoda Kōgaku Seikō and later Minolta lenses between 1940 and 1980, including a few, which were marketed and sold by other companies like Leica. The name was derived from the name of Rokkō (六甲山), a 932 metre (3058') high mountain, which could be seen from the company's glass-making and optics factory at Mukogawa near Osaka, Japan. The company's founder Kazuo Tashima wanted the name to symbolize the high quality in optics.
The Fish-Eye Rokkor 16mm f/2.8 is a prime fisheye lens produced by Minolta for Minolta SR-mount single lens reflex cameras, introduced in 1969 to replace an earlier fisheye lens, the UW Rokkor 18mm f/9.5. It is a full-frame fisheye lens with a 180° viewing angle across the diagonal.
The UW Rokkor 18mm f/9.5 is a prime fisheye lens produced by Minolta for Minolta SR-mount single lens reflex cameras, introduced in 1966 as the system's first fisheye lens. It is a full-frame fisheye lens with a 180° viewing angle across the diagonal, and was replaced when the Minolta Fish-Eye Rokkor 16mm f/2.8 lens was released in 1969.
The W Rokkor 21mm lenses are a series of three prime wide angle lenses produced by Minolta for Minolta SR-mount single lens reflex cameras. The first 21mm lens released was the W Rokkor-PI 21mm f/4.5 (1962), which featured a symmetrical design similar to the contemporary Zeiss Biogon. This was succeeded by the W Rokkor-QH 21mm f/4 (1963), with slightly improved speed and similar symmetric construction. The third and final 21mm lens was the MC W Rokkor-NL 21mm f/2.8 (1971), which featured a retrofocus design that did not require the reflex mirror to be locked up, allowing use of the built-in viewfinder.
The Varisoft Rokkor 85mm f/2.8 is a prime portrait lens produced by Minolta for Minolta SR-mount single lens reflex cameras, introduced in 1978 as the system's first soft focus lens. In addition to the conventional focusing and aperture selection control rings, the lens has a third ring which varies the degree of spherical aberration by adjusting the air gap between the last two elements.
