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CoffeeGeek

This makes me incredibly sad.

Minolta, a storied name in photography gear, indeed one of the true leaders in autofocus, innovative cameras in the 1980s, long gone now, but some crappy company has bought the name, and slaps it on the shittiest, crappiest white label $99 cameras coming out of China.

So... sad. I cut my photographic teeth on the Minolta Maxxum system.

I hate, hate HATE when money grabbing, no-ethics companies do this kind of shit.

EDIT: there is one cool thing to come out of Minolta's demise: after they merged with Konica, Sony bought their entire digital SLR division (I think around 2008 or 2010?) and all of Sony's excellent entries into digital photography basically stem from that purchase.

In a way, if you buy a Sony A7R today, you're kinda buying a Minolta camera.

@coffeegeek

The XG-7 and XD-11 were beautiful and beautifully built machines.

@coffeegeek
I had an SRT-200 with a Rokkor 50mm f2.8 lens for so long that the case disintegrated.
I foolishly sold it.

@RealGene @coffeegeek I still have mine, bought body-only in the 80s using my meager cash savings from my paper route. For some reason, always had a Vivitar lens setup with it.

@coffeegeek I bought a minolta 7000 in university - not the best return on investment but it was a pleasure to use !

@coffeegeek
I don't know if they made still cameras, but my dad had a movie camera in the 60s made by Bell & Howell. Now there's a name that's been used for everything under the sun. I still see stuff advertised on broadcast TV with that brand.

I believe it was this one.

@coffeegeek @Verso I grew up with Minolta, too, and still have a few of my dad’s old film bodies. I bought into the Sony ecosystem because I could re-use all his lenses… right before they changed the mount. 🤣

I didn't know the name was still being used. I've only this summer picked up no less than three of their film cameras from the 60s and 70s, and they're absolutely amazing. I hate how the photography business is all sublicensed crap now, where nothing means anything anymore.

@coffeegeek
There is always a small chance it comes back around. Polaroid was the same way. I remember seeing Polaroid portable DVD players in like 2011.

@coffeegeek I’ve got a nice old Minolta MD 58mm f1.2 manual focus vintage lens. Not the sharpest lens in the world by modern standards, but among the most beautifully rendering of the lenses I own. Minolta was great in its day for sure.

@coffeegeek that's really a shame for a once respected name in photography. My X700 (especially with the Vivitar 70-210 Series 1 zoom) was what brought things together for me to transition from snapshots to photos.

I can't bear to part with them even though I'll likely never shoot film again.

@coffeegeek Rollei went the same way. Nowadays the Brad is more of a warning label than anything else :(

@coffeegeek A similar thing happened with Moleskine notebooks. It pains me when I see a display knowing they’re not what made them renowned.

@gregatron5 I didn't know Moleskine had sold / gone bankrupt / sold off the brand name / whatever. I just assumed it was the same company as always.

@coffeegeek @gregatron5 we see (and will see) a whole lot more of that kind of thing. Capitalising on brand equity without reinvesting does that to a brand, and that’s been standard operating procedure for 20+ years.

“Sports direct” has a whole line up of such brands. Karrimor, Gelert, Lonsdale, Everlast, Mulberry, Dunlop … the list goes on.

@bk1e oh gawd. That link you gave me sent me down a 45 minute rabbit hole into the hellscape nightmare aliexpress junky thing that is necrobrand Yashica. Holy crap.

Their "film" canisters remind me vaguely of Minolta Maxxum's "creative cards" which just added / changed functionality on the cameras. I saw a review of the Y35 and a product tear down - what a piece of junk.

@coffeegeek It’s like the white van speaker scam or fake “Canomatic” cameras ( camera-wiki.org/wiki/%22Olympi ) except this time the scammers actually bought the real trademark first.

camera-wiki.org"Olympia" camera - Camera-wiki.org - The free camera encyclopedia

@coffeegeek I remember Minolta cameras and Vivitar flashes. Both zombie brands now.

@coffeegeek
My first camera is a Minolta 9000, aka Maxxum 9000. It was incredibly built. Powered only by 2 double AA battery. Produced in the 80's. One of the first AF camera. Thanks to its Alpha Mount tech.