Konica Minolta is history

You mean that the whole company is dissolving? Damn! I had better stock up BIG TIME with their film. 😎
 
damn...i wonder what this means for the digital hexar rf...

mike johnston must be happy. he's a "sony man" aaaand loves his 7d.
 
Here's the press release.

The last century was a photo century, photography was one of the defining technologies - for culture, for people in their everyday lives, for media, for science. Now, with Agfa, Nikon, Konica/Minolta and most certainly similar announcements to come, the 20th century recedes and becomes more different from our world.

Or, as a silver halide enthusiast, perhaps one place too much emphasis on the importance of a certain kind of photo technology for people in their daily lives?
 
the press release must be getting some heavy downloads because it's taking a while to get to, but it's at: http://konicaminolta.com/releases/2006/0119_03_01.html

the relevant parts:
1) Camera Business

In camera business, we have reached an agreement with Sony Corporation(Sony), having numerous image sensor technologies such as CCD and CMOS, to jointly develop digital SLR cameras in July 2005. In order to continue to have our customers use Maxxum/Dynax lenses, and to maximize possibilities of the optical, mechanical and electronics technologies accumulated through development of SLR cameras in the years to come, we came to the conclusion that it was best to transfer assets concerning camera business to Sony. Since then, we have been negotiating with Sony, and as a result, we have reached an agreement with Sony to transfer a portion of assets regarding digital SLR camera system to Sony*1. In this relation, we have decided to withdraw from camera business*2, such as film cameras and digital cameras, within Konica Minolta Group as of March 31, 2006.

Sony is planning to develop digital SLR cameras compatible with Maxxum/Dynax lens mount system, so that the current Maxxum/Dynax users will be able to continue to use them with Sony’s digital SLR cameras. In addition, we will consign camera service operations for Konica Minolta, Konica,Minolta brand cameras and related equipment to Sony.

2) Photo Business

In today’s shrinking photographic market represented by color film and color paper, we have been considering to scale back and to continue photo business at an appropriate size; however, when we foresee the photographic market, it is quite difficult to maintain profitability in this field, and we have decided to withdraw from photo business. As schemed below, we will, as much as possible, avoid causing any inconvenience in providing products to our worldwide customers in the course of withdrawal.

For color film and color paper, while considering our customer needs, we will step-by-step reduce product lineup and cease our color film and color paper production by the end of fiscal year ending March 31, 2007.

For minilab business, we will cease production of the system by the end of fiscal year ending March 31, 2006; however we will have such company as Noritsu Koki Co., Ltd to provide maintenance and customer services so as not to cause any inconvenience to our customers.

*1
Pease refer to the news release, “Consignment of Service and Maintenance Operations for Minilabs “, separately announced today.


In line with the above scheme, with consideration to our customers and regional situations, we will step-by-step reorganize our sales offices and withdraw from all of our photo sales activities by September 30, 2007.
Click to expand...
 
oop -- wilt beat me to it.

Anyone notice the major updates and lead changes in the past 60 minutes? Bloomberg updated a bunch of times quick, but still got beat on March '06. Forbes had the info without details first, and then Reuters with a complete report that matches the news release. Fun!

BTW, there's a Konica Minolta 200 speed film at the checkouts in Dollar Tree. For a dollar.
 
Whoa.....

big sad news.

I guess I should have seen this happening - they stopped having a Canadian distributor for their gear about a year or so ago. When the distributorship goes, so does a distribution channel and therefore not as many people would be interested in buying your gear because it's not "as available" as it used to be.

I can see something like this eventually happening to General Motors if they don't get their act together.

Dave
 
At least they'll still be making photo copiers. Everyone should have one in their office. I don't have an office. Yup. Time to stock up on Konica film big time. I like their colour film. I have the VX400 in my new R3A right now. Good stuff. 😎
 
Not surprising really.

Their camera/photography business has been unprofitable for a while, they have been lagging behind in the most profitable area right now, DSLRs, and well, Minolta has been cash strapped.

Sony on the other hand is a giant and perhaps can turn this into something to challenge Canon and Nikon who I believe own over 80% of the DSLR market. Sad to see, but this may not be the last. Pentax is closely cooperating with Samsung, Zeiss is strong with an obvious focus on lens production and then there is the Leica Panasonic relationship. Lets hope they can make a run of it.

Interestingly, Sigma keeps chugging along. Their SD10 is still available and they keep updating their lens lineup pointing towards DSLRs. On the face of it, they provide a better set of lenses for APS sized sensor DSLRs than Canon does. In the back of my mind this makes me think that Canon has full framed sensors in their plans.
 
It is only a natural progression of technology that FF sensors will be available in all models, the question is when will technological advances make manufacturing them more efficient (something Sony may play a big roll in) and less expensive and will that coincide with a market demand to support them.

Think of it now, how cool would the Sony R1 be right now if it included Minolta's AS technology?
 
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