minolta af

[bechisbest]

I've just found the original glossy literature (1985),for the Minolta AF 9000 and 7000.I still find it hard to believe that this great maker has gone.How could they be so stupid as to not pay royalties to the Yanks,did they think they had a different solution to AF or did they not care?

[El_Sid]

Technically they're not gone... they just morphed into Sony....

[SqueamishOssifrage]

When the Honeywell versus Minolta case first came to trial in 1991, none of the Japanese manufacturers were paying royalties. After the final settlement in 1992, for US$125m, all the others started to pay up. I guess either the others were able to negotiate a better deal, or they had deeper pockets. Of course, as first in the AF SLR field, it could be that Minolta had sold more cameras, and had, therefore, profited more from the use of Honeywell technology.

[Roger_Provins]

Konica Minolta still very much exist in the business field - they just sold off their camera division to Sony. It could be argued that the Sony a700 and Sony a900 are the modern day progeny of the Minolta 7000 and 9000.

[John_K]

Much the same thing can be said of AGFA. They are still alive and well on the continent but not in the photography field. Many of the Autobahn close to Koln ,Bonn etc have huge roadside advertising hoardings for Agfa.

[bechisbest]

Konica Minolta still very much exist in the business field - they just sold off their camera division to Sony. It could be argued that the Sony a700 and Sony a900 are the modern day progeny of the Minolta 7000 and 9000.

I know that the company Minolta still exists,and the cameras go on in the Sony A series(I have a Minolta 5D and a Sony A300) I have seen recently JVC video cameras advertised with Minolta branded lenses,any comment on these?

[Nik283]

The lenses in JVC camcorders are indeed Konica Minolta and far-superior to some other camcorder lenses.

It's a pity JVCs record in MOD files though!