Carusoswi

So, Minolta hasn't offered a new camera since selling out to Sony (2006??). So what is this small SLR style camera being offered on this sell-everything type cable TV show? They call it a Minolta, offer it in either metallic red or black, and spent much time hyping it's 35x optical lens with stabilization. "Shoots video, has wireless." They show wide angle enlargements, then a cropped view that, for example, fills the frame with a butterfly that was undetectable in the original frame.
I don't take this segment seriously. Found it surfing for something to watch.
I'm just curious how they get away with this. They say the package normally sells for $350, buy now for just $149.
Caruso

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

I'm not sure, but if you find an answer, maybe you can get an answer as to why home shopping shows tout the Nikon D3200 as a "new, professional grade" camera.

UPDATE: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Minolta-MN35Z-1080p-35x-Zoom-Wi-Fi-Digital-Camera-Red/502141615 Selling retail $230-280.

Racmanaz Loc: Sunny Tucson!

Yes, I saw that show on tonight as well and was surprised that Minolta even made any camera's these days.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Sort of a glorified "Point N Shoot"... "Minolta and Kodak" are the ONLY names to be trusted by those who's film camera just failed. NAME NAME is the key... did you look at the aperture specifications ... range 3.0 - 5.9 and locked AE exposure.... aaaaha.. has "art" setting. It is a camera for My Grandma [well, not mine she would be 160 y old]... those who want modern with a name they can trust.... been to Rexall drugstore lately? Tony the Tiger... sold lots of gasoline. Name and Jingoism sell a lot of things... even the presidency. Make photography great again.. where is my Minolta??

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Definitely strange. Aside from that Walmart ad, I see no references online for new Minolta cameras. If Sony owns the name, they can do whatever they want with it, including letting a Chinese company market a "Minolta."

cosmo54 Loc: Easton, PA but will travel for photos

It's a "new" camera because nobody owned this particular one before. They probably have hundreds of "new" ones

Impressionist

These days they will point out to perchasers that it is new for them once it arrives.

Larrymc Loc: Mississippi

A slight correction to your statement. Tony the Tiger never sold gasoline,he hawked corn flakes. Exxon put a tiger in your tank. You probably need to rethink the rest of your statement too.

cthahn

Why worry about it? There is such a glut of cameras available, all of them trying to sell, and not enough buyers. Just like the automobile industry. Everyone thinks they need a new model every year.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Remember those little tiger tales you could hang from your gas filler?

https://www.google.com/search?q=tiger+in+your+tank+tiger+tails&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS716US717&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjo6svMvcfUAhXGdz4KHS86DAEQsAQIOg&biw=1920&bih=950

Larrymc Loc: Mississippi

Yep

whitewolfowner

These TV shopping channels are the new masters of BS. They will say anything to get the couch potatoes at the other end who have nothing more to do than spend money on anything they can be conned into. They even outdo the TV preachers who bleed old women for everything they got trying to buy themselves a place in heaven.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Kissel vonKeister Loc: Georgia

You can't hang stories (tales) from your gas filler, but they did have tails.

Carusoswi

What concerns me is that it would appear that they are using the Minolta name to sell a non-Minolta camera. If the camera actually performs as they advertise it, everyone would want one (I doubt it dies what they claim).

My very first "real" camera was a second generation Polaroid, with a "magic eye".

I've since learned that that eye wasn't magic, but the camera was authentic, and it delivered, photographically, what it's advertising promised.

These days, I wince when I find Polaroid TVs being sold in big box stores, as though slapping the Polaroid name on a product will somehow make it better.

To see the same sort of approach applied to marketing some imposter of a Minolta camera wrinkles my brow in a similar manner.

Are these promoters brazen enough to use the Minolta name without permission? Is the current guard at KM so cocky that they would license such use of the brand?

Do I worry about it? Not really. I've been around long enough to watch many a mighty giant fall, and the new era of selling brand with little regard to substance has numbed me to such schemes as what this one appears to be.

Still, as a Minolta owner/shooter, it saddens me.

Your situation/sentiment may differ.

Caruso