膠片攝影 美能達膠片相機的歷史

hello everybody to greynificent in today's episode we will be talking about the minolta company history it's an interesting story about the ups and downs of minolta i hope you enjoy it so minolta company was founded in osaka in november 11th 1928 by kazuo tashima under the name nichidoku shashinki shoten i might have just destroyed that name but something like that it was it meant japan german camera store so tashima got support from the german camera technicians billy neumann and willie helleman and the first cameras used lenses and shutters imported from germany a plant was built in mukogawa in the prefecture of hyogo the first camera produced by the company was the nicorette released in 1929 it was followed by the nifca clap and the nifca sport folding cameras and by the nifca docks strut folder all taking film plates or pack film at this early period all the cameras were directly advertised and distributed by the company which was using a round logo with the letters n d p h and co assembled inside the circle surely for nichidoku photo company as you see on the photo in 1931 the company was transformed into a stock corporation named molta goshi geisha where molta was an abbreviation of the german mechanismus optik and linsen von tashima mechanism optics and lenses by tashima the mention of germany disappeared from the company name and helleman and neumann left the company respectively in november 1931 and in 1932 to found their own neumann and helleman company taking some employees with them the camera range was accordingly renamed the nifcaret became the serious bebe the nifca clap became the serious and the nifca sport became the arcadia the cameras were still distributed by the company itself for a couple of years and the serious and arcadia were also distributed by mitsuzu shokai as the lomax and eaten multa later entered an agreement with the tokyo based distributor asanuma shokai and the serious and arcadia plate cameras were replaced by the happy whose brand name was owned by asanuma that was a great name they made right happy cameras the asanuma company would distribute the happy and minolta cameras and assume all the advertising until 1945 the name minolta was applied for and registered in 1933 and it was first used for a camera plainly called minolta inspired by the plowable makina a round mts logo appeared at the same time perhaps standing for multa tashima or minolta tashima many sources say that the minolta name was crafted from mechanism was instrument optical lens and from tashima that means mechanism instruments and optics by tashima but it is more likely a background and inspired by first minaruta ripening rice fields a strong image of health and fruitfulness in japan and in japanese pronounced identically basically to minolta and second multa itself all the later model names included the word minolta but the company name and brand would defer until 1962 in 1934 the company released the minolta vest originally designed by hira nabuhiro with an innovative system of collapsible boxes replacing the bellows the semi minolta was announced at the very end of 1934 and sold for 1935 it was the second or third four and a half by six centimeters camera made in japan in 1936 the company created the subsidiary nippon kogaku kikai kenkyujyo i might have just destroyed that name as well but that meant japanese optomechanical research institute in the city of amagasaki in the hyogo prefecture to manufacture the bakelite cameras such as the minolta vest minolta six and baby minolta this subsidiary was soon merged into the main company in september 1937 the company became chiyoda kogaku seiko meaning chiyoda optics and precision industry company abbreviated chiyoko on some logos and publications the word chiyoda was created with the characters meaning 1000 generations and the first character of the shima's name it conveys the meaning that the shima's company will last a thousand generations in that same year in 1937 the company established closer ties with asanuma shokai which quit distributing other cameras to concentrate exclusively on cameras from the chiyoda company this association became so close that many customers believed that the minolta cameras were actually made by asanuma the agreement lasted until the end of the war but the two companies retained some commercial contacts for some time afterwards the two companies organized a show in december in the tokyo kaikan a reception lounge in tokyo near the imperial palace to celebrate the new agreement three expensive and advanced new models were displayed at this show the auto semi minolta was the first serial produced japanese camera with a combined range and viewfinder the auto press minolta an evolution of the minolta and auto minolta pliable makina copy was the first japanese camera synchronized for flash and the minolta flex was the second japanese 6x6 tlr that's twin lens reflex it seems that the taking lens of the minolta flex was made by the company surely in the sakai plant these were perhaps the first lenses made by chiyoda the production of the rocker lenses began in 1940 but they were only for military use it also produced military ordnance including handheld cameras for aerial reconnaissance the name rocker is derived from mount rocker a mountain near osaka that could be seen from chiyoda's mukogawa factory the civilian camera production was stopped around 1943 at about that time the company apparently made one or more prototypes of an interchangeable lens tlr camera which was the first 6x6 tlr in the world to have interchangeable lenses the three original plants of mukogawa amagasaki sakai ended up participating to the war effort a fourth plant was opened in komatsu in 1939 initially specialized in machine tools in 1942 the japanese navy asked the company to open a glass melting facility the new plant was built in hitami and only operational in 1944 in 1943 though the company also took over fujimoto's plant in the city of nishinomiya that is the former neumann and halleman factory which became chiyoda's plant it perhaps continued the production of fujimoto leaf shutters for a short time the mukogawa amagasaki and komatsu plants were destroyed by aerial bombing the sakai itami and nishinomiya plants survived the war as well as a dispersal plant in honsha the company resumed camera production shortly after the war with the semi minolta 3 this camera was equipped with a rocker 75 f3.5 that was the first japanese coated lens commercially available and also the first lens made by the company for civilian use the company also absorbed the optical section of the toyokawa navy arsenal in the spring of 1947 the minolta 35 was released it was the first successful new 35 millimeter rangefinder camera with leica specifications to emerge on the market after world war ii that uses the 39 millimeter screw lens mount at that time many companies were making leica copies just like we got here izorki also a leica two or three copy but the minolta 35 was even much better because it had an opening back to load the film in much easier instead of doing the hard of hard bottom feeding with the film pre-cutting and all that so the minolta 35 was much better in that aspect so the minolta 35 range of cameras was manufactured in quantities during its 12 year production period totaling about 40 000 units only the 1933 feds and the 1940 leotax cameras had appeared successfully before it although several leica copies had appeared in both italy and japan like we already talked about on entering the miniature camera business chiyoda kogaku had decided to make the frame size 24 by 32 millimeters a logical proposition at the time since most photocopies were made on paper closer to this format the already established international standard was 36 images of 24 by 36 millimeters by doing so a standard length of film yielded four more exposures on a 36 exposure load the minolta 35 has a combined viewfinder and range finder eyepiece negating the need to move the sight from one window to the other it also features a self timer and a hinged rear door to facilitate film loading like we already said the camera came with a decent super rocker 45 millimeter f 2.8 in 1950 chiyoda released the konan 16 automat a sub-miniature camera that used its own 16 millimeter film format throughout the 1950s the range consisted of tlr cameras four and a half by six folders 35 millimeter viewfinder and rangefinder cameras and 16 millimeter sub-miniature cameras in 1958 chiyoda produced its first planetarium projection apparatus and in the same year it introduced the sr2 its first 35 millimeter slr that's single lens reflex camera and one of the first to combine several features of the modern slr like the pentaprism viewfinder instant return mirror bionet mount lenses advance and auto resetting frame counter the sr2 became the first camera of the minolta sr system which ended in 1995 with the x370s we got here the x300s so similar to this in 1959 chiyoda started to produce photo composing machines copiers and special projectors some of these products were still produced in 2007 by its successor konica minolta in 1962 the company name became minolta camera unifying with its brand finally a significant camera launch of that year was the introduction of minolta's first slr with built-in cds meter the minolta sr7 that effort led to the production of versatile and sensitive cds sensor based light meters a quite successful chapter in the company's history in 1964 the company started that business with a cds meter for photography the view meter 9 in 1968 the company's meters were so renowned that american astronauts used the special minolta space meter as measuring accessory for the cameras they used in the apollo spaceships and on the moon further light and color meters have developed later the auto meter color measuring instruments and the flash meter series were renowned among photography professionals the minolta srt series of slr cameras introduced in 1966 was a big success and the srt 101 was the world's best selling camera of its type in its time as you see here we got the srt 101 a very beautiful camera lovely sounding and still works perfectly fine i always forget to turn off the light meter and it always works and it's perfectly accurate with an original light meter and everything so later minolta signed a cooperation agreement with the lights camera company in 1972 you can learn more about this cooperation in the video about the leica company history i made earlier it will be linked in the description if you still haven't seen it this is a short summary of that cooperation the first products resulting from this cooperation appeared in 1974 the minolta xe camera and the leica cl rangefinder camera sold in japan as the lights minolta cl the xe was the basis for the 1977 leica r3 the final result of the association with lights was the minolta xd 11 and that's the camera we got over here we got the xd 11 also a very beautiful camera with a very great sounding shutter its xd 11 is the same exact thing as the xd 7 or just xd the xd 11 was i guess for the american markets uh the xd 7 was for the european markets and the xd regular uh was for the japan or asian markets something like that but if you see anywhere the xd 7 xd 11 or xd just in itself it's the same exact camera so the xd 7 11 xd served as the basis for the leica r4 they're basically almost the same exact cameras the xd was the first 35 millimeter slr camera combining both aperture priority and shutter priority modes and also many new rocker lenses of the new md series were created for these cameras usable in both automatic modes and manual modes we got a lot of great lenses with these cameras so in 1981 minolta launched the cle a rangefinder camera with m mount the first one to have aperture priority automatic exposure the metering system was of the ttl otf which meant through the lens reflected off the film plane something like that it measured the light reflected from the film plane instead of directly from the lens it was a interesting way of measuring light right it was first introduced of course by olympus in 1975 on the om2 the cle was also the first minolta camera to have ttl flash automation together with the x 700 slr introduced the same year after the heady days of the xd xe series the x 700 marked a definite return to the amateur level market while the new camera had ttl flash it was equipped with only a 1 60th second maximum flash sync and an ordinary cloth horizontal travel shutter and the interior mechanisms utilized more cost-saving plastics because as you see the difference here the minolta x xd series still was metal nice and heavy type of camera and here we got the x 300 well it's not much lighter but as you see it's already all plastic camera and a lot of electronics like this one still has a mechanical timer this one already has an electrical timer but as well the x 300 remained with the cloth shutter where the xd 11 has the metal shutter so so with the large investment in a new autofocus slr design minolta decided to withdraw from building professional level manual focus slrs unfortunately further cooperation occurred in 1989 when minolta made the leica af c1 camera in 1982 the company's founder kazuo tashima stepped down as president of the company and his son hideo toshima became the successor kazuo tashima stayed in the company as chairman of the board until his death in 1985 at the age of 85 hopefully i get to live that long as well the nishimi the nishinomiya plant hard to remember all those names which hosted research and development activities as well as a service center was closed in april 1985 soon after his death the minolta 7000 af slr camera was introduced in 1985 it was the world's first in-body autofocus slr before this time manufacturers had dabbled with lenses that focused themselves but that fitted their existing manual focus slr cameras unlike other manufacturers minolta invested much of its resources in the new autofocus cameras at the expense of its manual focus slrs which were repositioned as amateur level it was the first manufacturer to put the mechanism and electronics for the autofocus system into its slr camera bodies and so the modern slr was born the rest of the camera had an advanced design with liquid crystal screen display built-in film winder and a body built largely of plastics for five years beginning in 1985 minolta was the biggest seller of slr cameras in the world because of the 7000 and the later alpha dynax maxim systems different names but they were as well as was with the numbering of the xd series it's the same camera just different countries of target like the alpha cameras were in japan and china maxim in the americas and dynax in europe africa and remaining asia i would guess yeah so a little interesting thing i could point out here when the minolta manufacturing and everything and the systems were sold to sony because the minolta maxim cameras were called the alpha cameras in japan sony just put their logo on the top as sony but remained with the alpha designation for the whole world because it was alpha in japan it was not the maxim 7000 it was minolta alpha 7000 in japan just a little interesting thing to point out over here however minolta did not hang on to its technological lead for long as canon and nikon both introduced new autofocus designs of their own with a wide array of new lenses and professional bodies minolta in turn tended to concentrate on the affordable end of the slr market and sought revolutionary rather than evolutionary changes among camera aficionados minolta was known both for its very high performance to price ratio and its constantly changing array of new models after popularizing the plastic bodied push button controlled slr with the 7000 series and a relatively unsuccessful line of complex 35 millimeter slrs with a electronic expansion card the company moved towards a more traditional user interface in the mid 90s with the 600si classic this interface was carried forward into its popular pro level minolta alpha dynax maxim 9 and later the maxim 7 unfortunately for minolta its autofocus design was found to infringe on the patents of honeywell a united states corporation after protracted legitation minolta in 1991 was ordered to pay honeywell damages penalties trial costs and other expenses in a final amount of 127.6 million dollars like other camera manufacturers minolta faced difficulties in building low-priced consumer level cameras though its emphasis on this sector of the market may have affected the company more than some other brands the company was one of the first to offshore production of its cameras from japan to malaysia china and other countries offering less expensive labor cost minolta occasionally redesigned parts and existing models with less expensive materials or introduce new less expensive designs all in an effort to cut costs in 1996 minolta became engaged in the attempt to establish a small versatile modern user-friendly film cartridge type to replace the 35 millimeter film like some other camera and filmmakers it launched several fully automatic cameras for the new advanced photo system added aps film adapters to its film scanners and even created its new autofocus slr camera system for aps film specifically with the new minolta v mount minolta was the only camera maker that created a new autofocus slr camera system with a complete set of new lenses for the aps film system i will talk all about the great aps film system in another video so please remember to subscribe so you don't miss it it was a great invention and something i would love to see come back into the film world having a few aps film cameras laying around myself like i got these they're not any advanced cameras by any means but they're simple little point and shoot kodak cameras made for the aps film you inserted the film here it loaded automatically you took photos and with these cameras with both of them you could use different crop modes to take more photos to take regular size photos or to take panoramic photos so they were quite interesting cameras so minolta began offering consumer level digital cameras in the late 1990s with the dimmage x minolta solved the problem of the protruding optical zoom lens on pocket digicams its folded lens design allows an optical zoom lens to be totally contained within the body of the camera this makes the cameras that use this design truly pocketable faster to turn on and better protected from knocks and damages minolta released two too expensive but innovative dslrs for commercial markets not professional photographers before other makers in 1995 minolta released the alpha dynax maxim wherever you live that was a target area rd 175 or otherwise known as the agfa action cam using the minolta af mount from all the previous max summer alpha series cameras but the cost was a little bit too much the cost was ten thousand dollars when the camera came out but later on in 1999 minolta released a cheaper version of the digital slr it transformed the minolta v mount system into minolta vectis rd 3000 that came out at a starting price of three thousand two hundred forty dollars they did not sell too well and did not lead nor define the market for digital slrs but have maintained a cold status among some minolta collectors as a result minolta has been criticized for its slowness to bring out modern competitive digital slr cameras for the popular slr photography market compatible with the many popular alpha dynax maxim mount lenses in use in late november 2004 the new konica minolta company finally released the much anticipated konica minolta 7d alpha maxim or dynax wherever you were located 7d digital slr and the innovation continued so another little interesting thing here is the first digital slr from minolta was in japan known as the alpha 7 and as we know now sony is full frame cameras were also alpha 7 series the mid-range professional level cameras right also there was the alpha 9 what set the 7d dslr apart from the competition it was the built-in image stabilization which works with any electronic autofocus lens attached to the camera body the 70 had image stabilization in body in october 2003 minolta merged with konica to form konica minolta all new cameras after that time were badged as konica minolta although with reference to camera designs minolta remained the dominant partner as of spring 2006 konica minolta has withdrawn from the camera business entirely the digital camera manufacturing assets have been acquired by sony film camera production stopped and the film and mini lab divisions closed konica minolta now is solely a business servicer with no photo division in 2017 the company konica minolta seems to have given away the rights on the brand name minolta to ebi elite elite brands incorporated that way ebi got the right to use the name minolta as their own registered trademark it offers a bridge camera and some compact digicams as well as some so-called dash cams and products of minolta digital whoever may be the real manufacturer of these products so in summary a little shortcut minolta founded in 1928 in osaka japan started out as a manufacturer of copying machines and cameras the true legacy began in the 1950s when it revolutionized the world of photography with the introduction of the world's first slr camera with an integrated light meter the minolta sr2 this innovative camera set a new standard for the slr cameras and established minolta as a leading player in the photography industry the company continued to push the boundaries of technology introducing the first autofocus slr camera in 1985 the minolta maxim 7000 but minolta's influence on the industry wasn't limited to just cameras they also created a diverse range of innovative lenses flashes and accessories that helped photographers take their work to the next level as the world of photography shifted towards digital minolta made a bold move and merged with conica to form conica minolta while the company's focus shifted towards digital imaging and office equipment sony took over the camera divisions the minolta brand remains an important part of photography history and is still remembered and revered by photographers around the world in the end minolta's journey is a testament to the company's unwavering commitment to innovation and excellence in photography from its early beginnings as a copying machine company to its groundbreaking contributions to the world of slr cameras minolta will always be remembered as a trailblazer in the industry so hopefully like this video found it quite interesting if you know somebody that would love to see a video like this please remember to share this video and leave a like to help out with this channel i am aiming to surpass 1000 subscribers this year so please help me out help spread the love of film photography and subscribe to this channel and share it with everyone you know so they also can subscribe so thank you for watching my friends stay tuned and see you in the next video my friends