Talk:Konica Minolta

If this article seems to focus too much on the Maxxum 7000 and the Maxxum 4, that's because those are the two cameras that I own. Hopefully owners of other Minolta cameras will enhance this article with more information on the other models. Dmetric

Why KM retreat from camera industry?
Was it a loss or gain, sell the camera department to Sony, if look back from 2009? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lynxlea (talk • contribs) 10:41, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

frame counter
maybe the maxxum 7000 doesn't have a infrared frame counter at all. Cause if it did that would mean the older camera has the more sophistacated frame counter.

suggestion for altering content
I suggest we make links to subsections containing for instance SLR cameras, digital cameras, compact cameras, binoculars, alternatively one subsection containing all of them together. Then the 'Konica Minolta' article would be reserved for the company, not its products. Putting too much emphasis on spesific models is a bit irrelevant for the article as such, especially if they are chosen on the basis of which cameras the author owns. Additionally, the article could be interpreted as if the Dynax 4 is the only camera in the world that has IR frame advance control, which of course is not the case.

Not just cameras
Minolta make copiers, Konica make film. I'm sure there are many other things too. Minolta make the glass for their own lenses which is why the coulour balance of the optics is matched. Perhaps I can put something about the 9000 at some point. Rich Farmbrough 23:48, 24 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Re: Not just cameras
This is true. They also market planetariums, light-meters, binoculars, scanners etc.

Re: Re: Not just cameras
They (Konica) also supply us (and I imagine many others) with chemicals to develop BW film. Not really a concern with photobugs, but most of the printers (your daily newspaper or classifieds for instance) still use CTF which relies on this support (massive amounts of BW film, like at least 1200 sq ft of film a week). I don't see how they would give up a steady revenue stream like that (several thousand dollars a month from print customers). We'll see... --drew1718 08:12, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Earlier history please
This discussion covers very recent history of Minolta. Minolta did not begin with the XD series camera by any means. The SRT series is really the camera that broke through the consumer market. And then there is the Leica connection to explore. There are also the great Autocords and screw mount leica copies that aren't even touched on. (And I haven't even mentioned my personal favorite, the absolutely fabulous XK (XM or X-1 in other parts of the world.) I don't mean to minimize Minolta's contribution to the autofocus revolution - but there is a long history that shows how they got to such a dominant position in the 1980's. --Anon

The article needs breaking up into sections. I would suggest:
 * 1) Brief intro
 * 2) Early history. (which will include TLRs and Leica copies etc)
 * 3) First SLRs (SRTs etc)
 * 4) Leica Collaboration (small section)
 * 5) The Xs (all the manual focus SLRs)
 * 6) Autofocus (perhaps in two sub-sections)
 * 7) Digital
 * 8) Compact cameras (of which Minolta has always had a big share of the market)
 * 9) Other optical projects (planetariums etc)

It isn't an ideal solution, since it wouldn't be strictly chronological. And it would require re-writing the article, but at the moment it is a little bit all over the place. Any objections? Comments? --Monk Bretton 00:51, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Move it back to Minolta
I think it will be pretty complex to deal with Konica and Minolta (long) history in the same article. Ericd 18:06, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Break up page
I believe that most of this page should be reverted to a "Minolta" page, and a separate "Konica" page created, with references to the "Konica Minolta" page for the current company, which doesn't have much of a history yet.

Konica has always been a strong R&D photography company with many breakthrough products, while Minolta was the largest camera company in the world, & always focused on mass market cameras and marketing. Each has a strong history that should be addressed.

Cranialsodomy 02:45, 10 September 2005 (UTC)


 * I second this suggestion. Both Konica and Minolta are companies that are fully deserving of their own articles to address their respective histories and where appropriate product lines.  - Webgeer 07:46, 30 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Thirded. Since the histories of Konica and Minolta did not join until relatively recently, the article would have to be effectively treated in three parts in any case (one for each, one for the merged entity).  Let's keep Konica Minolta for the history of the post-merger company and the activities of the present-day entity, and deal with the histories and products of Konica and Minolta separately.  I may start this work sometime soon. &mdash;Morven 15:32, 17 October 2005 (UTC)


 * Disagree - Konica and Minolta are now one, it's just going to take a while to get used to that. By all means have seperate Konica and Minolta pages saying they merged, look at KM now, but it's only going to confuse people to have a load of different pages about what is now the same thing. --Guru Chris 11:14, 18 October 2005 (UTC)


 * I suggest looking at Mercedes-Benz and Chrysler Corporation. These have not been merged into DaimlerChrysler.  I think Morven's suggestion is ideal.  Currently the article has one linear history, pretty much just covering Minolta's camera history.  I'm not sure how Konica's history could even be merged into that article.  I had suggested separate headings for Minolta's history and Konica's history, but someone seems to have eliminated that concept. -- Webgeer 10:12, 26 October 2005 (UTC)


 * I have begun a separate Konica page, where the pre-merger history and products of Konica can be described. Once that is done, I plan to work on Minolta; after that, I intend to remove most pre-merger history from Konica Minolta and deal with its post-merger history and products. &mdash;Morven 20:05, 6 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Now created a separate Minolta page and moved most of the pre-merger stuff to there, reducing confusion/complexity. Much copyediting and improvement still needed. —Matthew Brown (T:C) 13:36, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

Re-merge? (Please don't.)
There's just been a suggestion at Talk:Konica and Talk:Minolta to re-merge the whole lot. I think it's a bad idea, and have said so at length on Talk:Konica. -- Hoary 00:52, 6 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I agree. With separate articles it is easier to keep the histories of the individual companies straight. ShutterBugTrekker (talk) 22:29, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Material cut from the page
The following is clearly not in encyclopedia style. Charles Matthews 12:48, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

Konica Minolta Opto, Inc.
Meeting customers’ expectations through synergies of advanced technologies as the world’s mightiest optical devices manufacturer accelerating market growth.

Location of head office: Tokyo, Number of employees: Approx. 2,600

Main products: Optical products, related equipment and electronic materials.

Optics
Since we successfully became the world's first in commercialising the aspherical plastic lens for CDs, we have been developing pickup lenses for DVD, MD and other optical disk drives and players. Today our products - backed by our proprietary optical design technology and precision mould-machining technology - have the largest share in the global market. We are also actively expanding our business in pickup lenses for next-generation optical disks using blue laser diodes. In the field of micro camera units for mobile phones with camera functions, we have developed micro lenses with superior light uniformity and colour reproduction properties. Our other developments include pickup prisms, lenses for laser printers, lens units for digital cameras, glass hard disk substrates and other products with highprecision requirements.

Optical electronics materials (OE)
Taking advantage of our extensive experience in film production technology, we are developing 40 micrometre thin TAC films for protecting LCD polarisers. We are also expanding our production capacity to meet the increasing demand for TAC film spurred by the penetration of LCD displays and the growth of the widescreen LCD market. We will continue developing advanced electronic materials, capitalising on our superior core technologies, including thinfilm and coating techniques.

Konica Minolta Photo Imaging, Inc.
Creating a new world of photo imaging with products and services fit for the digital generation.

Location of head office: Tokyo, Number of employees: Approx. 6,100

Main products: Digital cameras, film cameras, consumer & commercial photographic materials, ID photos, inkjet media and related equipment.

Digital camera
In the ever-expanding digital camera market, we offer products which stand out because of their unique technology. Across the world our customers praise our products such as the DYNAX 7D, a digital single lens reflex (SLR) camera with unique Anti-Shake technology, the DiMAGE X series cameras, slim portable digital cameras using folded optical lens technology, and the Digital Gemba Kantoku series, tough weatherproof cameras designed for recording on construction sites.

Digital photography
Konica Minolta offers a wide range of digital photo services in the ever-expanding world of digital imaging. We offer services such as printing and image storage which utilises the network environment and the Internet. In the minilab field, we provide services via networks, centering on a fully-digital minilab equipped with a newlydesigned exposure engine. We also provide selfservice-type photo printers for convenient image printing, and inkjet papers enabling the production of photo-grade, high-quality prints at home. These are only some of our diverse solutions to the world of consumer imaging.

Other areas
Konica Minolta's silver halide technology applications are wide-ranging and include digital camera photography, inkjet paper coating, and even film and photo prints. Additionally, in the ID photo business, we promote aggressive digitalisation efforts including expanding into network terminals. We are also actively expanding into the business of photo ID cards - noteworthy for their growing importance in personal information management.

Konica Minolta Medical & Graphic, Inc.
Providing solutions based on cutting-edge image processing technologies in the increasingly-digitised medical and graphic imaging fields.

Location of head office: Tokyo, Number of employees: Approx. 2,700

Main products: Film and processing equipment for medical & graphic imaging purposes.

Medical imaging
Practitioners have placed a great deal of confidence in Konica Minolta's medical imaging products since we released the first Japanese Xray film. Prompted by the progress in digitisation and networking in recent years, we have developed X-ray image digitisation, storage and transmission systems and enabled open network systems and efficient image management. Practitioners value our highresolution diagnostic imaging systems, especially our digital image readers in the REGIUS series and our laser imagers in the DRYPRO series. We also contribute to building next-generation diagnosis systems by developing picture archiving and communication systems (PACS).

Graphic imaging
In the field of graphic imaging, the progress in digitisation has spurred the need for improved quality and work efficiency in the production of graphics. Our "Konsensus" series sets the standard for the new generation of colourproofing output systems. These systems can directly produce digital data for colour-proofing purposes, and can improve operational efficiency, cut costs and reproduce high-quality images. For plate making, we have developed a computer-to-plate (CTP) system which exposes digital data directly to unique plate materials made of polyester instead of conventional aluminium. This system is suitable for small lot printing - a market with growing demand - and is also a total cost and space saver.

Konica Minolta Sensing, Inc.
Helping to improve quality control through high-precision measuring instruments based on optical and image-processing technologies.

Location of head office: Osaka, Japan Number of employees: Approx. 230

Main products: Measuring instruments for industrial, photographic and medical purposes.

Colour measurement
The expanding market for wide screen TV sets (plasma, LCD, etc.) and LED products is pushing up the demand for display colour analysers used for measuring the colour of light sources. Konica Minolta's products can measure colour, luminance and white balance with high precision for the inspection and adjustment of white balance and contrast. Our spectrophotometers and colourimeters are capable of measuring and quantifying differences in colour shades more subtle than the human eye can accurately distinguish. For this reason, they are widely utilised for measuring the colour of objects by R&D, quality control, distribution and sales staff in many manufacturing sectors where colour management is indispensable.

3D measurement
3D digitisers scan three-dimensional objects and import the 3D data into computers through highprecision, high-speed scanning without physical contact. Our future efforts will be directed at industrial applications such as reverse engineering, design verification and quality inspection, in addition to medical and academic research, 3D archiving and computer graphics production.

Other areas
Konica Minolta provides the medical field with testing equipment that imposes minimal burden on patients. This includes the pulse oximeter, which detects oxygen saturation in the blood simply by projecting light on the human body, and the compact jaundice meter which can test newborn babies for jaundice without taking blood samples.

Konica Minolta IJ Technologies, Inc.
Establishing a presence in the rapidly-expanding industrial inkjet printers market.

Location of head office: Tokyo, Number of employees: Approx. 130

Main products: Print heads (for industrial inkjet printers) and textile print systems.

Inkjet print heads
Konica Minolta's proprietary high-performance piezo inkjet head is one of the company's most competitive products. Unlike thermal systems which apply heat, it applies a voltage to change the shape of the piezo element to push the ink out. This mechanism allows the use of a number of inks, including solvent, oil-based and UV curing. The line-up of print heads is extensive, including a range for high-speed printers for large-sized papers and a range designed for high-resolution printers of professional-printing grade.

Inkjet textile printers
Digital inkjet textile printing systems are attracting a great deal of attention for their innovative dyeing technology which eliminates the need for plate-making and mixing of colour pastes to enable fast production of products in small lots. Textile printer Nassenger V adopts this technology to enable high-speed processing and to bring out sharpness and high concentration of colours. It has a newly developed, small-droplet, high-density, multiple nozzle inkjet head which is used in combination with durable textile inks with high colour saturation properties. It draws upon Konica Minolta's proprietary materials and colour management technologies to reproduce smooth gradations and subtle variations in colour tones on a wide range of fabrics.

Dai Nippon
Is the Dai Nippon that will purchase the Odawara factory Dai Nippon Printing? Fg2 00:27, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

Photographic company catagory
I see someone has taken this out of the Photographic catagory - which makes some sense in that they have exited that business in favor of something called "imaging", but I wonder if they should still show their anyway, after all ANSCO is still in that catagory even though they were merged with GAF in the 60's and quit the photography business in the early 70's? cmacd 14:08, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Merge from Konica and Minolta?
I notice that Minolta has a let's-merge-this template that directs people to discussion here. But there's no discussion here. Well, there is much earlier discussion above of what a good idea it would be to separate KM, K, and M into three articles.

I'm not the person who proposed a re-merger, and I'm strongly against it: see my comment on Talk:Konica. -- Hoary 00:56, 6 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I also oppose that merger. While the article on the merged company ought to include some info on these two companies prior to the merger, we should still have the separate articles to delve more deeply into these companies' separate histories. ShutterBugTrekker 21:20, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Hello all, I am very strongly against merging the two articles. Konica and Minolta both had a very long and comendable history on their own and I get the impression that the idea of a merger of the articles on Wiki is supported by persons who are not really familiar with either company (though I may be wrong). Konica's history goes back to 1873 and Minolta's reaches back to the early 20th century while the history of KonicaMinolta Corporation lasted but half a decade. Just my 2 cents worth. jj —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.24.55.34 (talk) 17:27, 14 September 2007 (UTC)
 * You're right, both companies have had long histories apart. Merging would make about as much sense as it would to merge Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson. ShutterBugTrekker 23:06, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

I think you are all correct to resist this merging. The best use for Wikipedia with respect to creating references for cameras is to support people who collect and use the cameras; these people would need to know details from a historical can technical, and not corporate, view. I think this "blemish" goes a long way to demonstrate a specific capital related, and (classically) fascist, anonymous and ignorant trend in Wikipedia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.97.125.70 (talk) 16:31, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

It's clear that the proposal to merge was overwhelmingly opposed. I've therefore removed the "Shall we merge?" templates from the articles. -- Hoary (talk) 23:21, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Konica Minolta Healthcare Americas, Inc
Offering Digital Radiography, Ultrasound Imaging, Healthcare IT Solutions and Service-based solutions to hospitals, imaging centers, clinics and private practices. Headquartered in Wayne, NJ with facilities in NC, IL, FL and Brazil.

Konica Minolta Healthcare Americas, Inc., formerly known as Konica Minolta Medical Imaging USA, Inc., is a business unit of Konica Minolta, Inc., with global headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. Konica Minolta Healthcare provides product and service based solutions across the USA, Canada and Latin America.

LGiordano (talk) 15:07, 2 March 2017 (UTC) LGiordano

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