From The Mind Of Minolta: I was surfing Bing and found that if I entered Minolta I got what I thought to be a really old B&H page. Not so... it was current. If you enter Minolta Mnd...

niteman3d Loc: South Central Pennsylvania, USA

I was surfing Bing and found that if I entered Minolta I got what I thought to be a really old B&H page. Not so... it was current. If you enter Minolta Mnd, you'll get hits from Amazon, B&H, and others selling point and shoots under the Minolta brand. Pretty sad reviews so I imagine somebody has just rustled the name as I can't imagine Sony is involved. Any info?

BebuLamar

niteman3d wrote:

I was surfing Bing and found that if I entered Minolta I got what I thought to be a really old B&H page. Not so... it was current. If you enter Minolta Mnd, you'll get hits from Amazon, B&H, and others selling point and shoots under the Minolta brand. Pretty sad reviews so I imagine somebody has just rustled the name as I can't imagine Sony is involved. Any info?

No it's not Sony. In fact Sony while getting all the toolings and technologies developed by Minolta they have no right to the Minolta name. However, Minolta license the use of their name an outfit called Elite Brand which they sold cameras made by some companies I don't know.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

BebuLamar wrote:

No it's not Sony. In fact Sony while getting all the toolings and technologies developed by Minolta they have no right to the Minolta name. However, Minolta license the use of their name an outfit called Elite Brand which they sold cameras made by some companies I don't know.

and, because of their bankruptcy - the name “Kodak” appears on a lot of Chinese-made junk that don’t honor that company’s heritage.

BebuLamar

Now that the Impossible Project owns the Polaroid name I wonder if the name is still being used for some junk like the used to after Polaroid went out of business?

StanMac Loc: Tennessee

Yashica is another storied brand name that is being used on unworthy photographic stuff.

Stan

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

StanMac wrote:

Yashica is another storied brand name that is being used on unworthy photographic stuff.

Stan

I owned a Yashica rangefinder camera once - cost me all of $35 - even 50 years ago, it wasn’t a camera with great build.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

I hope Abe's is selling their Minolta products at full price ....

pmorin Loc: Huntington Beach, Palm Springs

CHG_CANON wrote:

I hope Abe's is selling their Minolta products at full price ....

Abe’s is having a big sale again…… buy now and you’ll pay for it later.😵‍💫

niteman3d Loc: South Central Pennsylvania, USA

pmorin wrote:

Abe’s is having a big sale again…… buy now and you’ll pay for it later.😵‍💫

That's why I was a little surprised to see B&H even offering them for sale.

StanMac Loc: Tennessee

rehess wrote:

I owned a Yashica rangefinder camera once - cost me all of $35 - even 50 years ago, it wasn’t a camera with great build.

I have Yashicas TLRs and rangefinders that are still working great. YMMV.

Stan

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

StanMac wrote:

I have Yashicas TLRs and rangefinders that are still working great. YMMV.

Stan

The leaf shutter needed CLA every year. After a couple years, the gear which advances film gave out. I used it a couple more years, but the replacement gear never worked right - I had to remember to hold it upside-down when advancing film. I know it wasn’t their fault that the replacement gear didn’t work right, but to need replacement after two years and religiously regular cleaning? I finally trashed it.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

niteman3d wrote:

I was surfing Bing and found that if I entered Minolta I got what I thought to be a really old B&H page. Not so... it was current. If you enter Minolta Mnd, you'll get hits from Amazon, B&H, and others selling point and shoots under the Minolta brand. Pretty sad reviews so I imagine somebody has just rustled the name as I can't imagine Sony is involved. Any info?

Minolta was the advanced menu digital like camera in 1985 before digital. Wanted one badly ... got one and ugh the complication of the menu was a tragic turn off compared to the finger tip adjustment of the Pentax k1000. Once the Minolta i7000 was set up to be a Kodak Sweet 16, it and the lenses were suburb. Minolta was partnered with Leica and Ziess for glass formulation and lens making. When my i7000 died, I kept the lenses. I went with Sony because the continued the Minolta Auto-Focus technology up until the A7 e cameras. My Sony A-65 is an excellent digital and works well with all my stable of Minolta lenses.

"The Minolta MAXXUM 7000 (7000 AF in Europe and α-7000 in Japan) 35 mm SLR camera was introduced in February 1985. It was the first camera to feature both integrated autofocus (AF) and motorised film advance, the standard configuration for later amateur and professional single lens reflex cameras."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minolta_Maxxum_7000

Canisdirus

niteman3d wrote:

I was surfing Bing and found that if I entered Minolta I got what I thought to be a really old B&H page. Not so... it was current. If you enter Minolta Mnd, you'll get hits from Amazon, B&H, and others selling point and shoots under the Minolta brand. Pretty sad reviews so I imagine somebody has just rustled the name as I can't imagine Sony is involved. Any info?

Minolta is as Minolta...as AT&T is still AT&T.

It's just a name now.

Fredrick Loc: Former NYC, now San Francisco Bay Area

CHG_CANON wrote:

I hope Abe's is selling their Minolta products at full price ....

Back in 2013 when I had my kitchen completely remodeled I shopped around and found the cheapest prices for all of my major LG appliances. I ordered them from Abe’s of Maine, they were all delivered on time and installed perfectly by them (white glove service). Ten years later they still work perfectly fine.

I didn’t get back into photography until 2016 so had no idea about their negative reputation for photographic equipment. I can only guess that different departments at Abe’s work differently. However, the kitchen appliance department could have also gone south by now so I probably won’t be ordering anything more from them in the future.

chrisg-optical Loc: New York, NY

Only from the mind of Minolta - https://youtu.be/osqYat9j-4U?si=90ACOBYdFiYpgD71

I was surprised to see a whole bunch of pocket and bridge cameras with the Minolta name on it, at B&H.

My former dentist, now deceased, used to love Minolta cameras, but dumped his gear for Nikon shortly after the lawsuit. He used to shoot lots of landscape shots, which he printed and framed all over the his office. I'm sure Minolta would have been a major player today in the mirrorless market war if they weren't sued out of existence.