Originally posted by pinholecam #3
Nothing remains from Minolta on a Sony A7 series.
If you think about it, all the technologies on an A7 is largely independent of a Minolta SLR.
Different mount, No mirror box, different interface.
They could have likely pooled people from the handphone and computer divisions than the SLR/DSLR one.
All that Minolta provided would have been some sensor interfacing and color science know how (and even the one for the sensor may already be there from the sensor maker... Sony again... )
Ok.. lenses.. yes, maybe the largest contribution would have been the lens knowledge and patents.
So all in, Pentax would have about the same in contribution to Sony as Minolta, so likely they will have ended similarly.
I disagree. At the time, I was a Konica Minolta user, with their late, lamented 7D. It was the first DSLR with IBIS. Konica Minolta also brought to the table a deep and respected level of color science and a large body of quality AF lenses. Their ergonomics were top notch; the 7D was as control-rich as the K-1. The first Sony alphas took all that and improved on it, offering the first affordable FF DSLR, the a900, which sold for at least a grand below the Nikon and Canon prices. (I still think my a900 had a bigger and brighter viewfinder than my K-1.) Sony got an instant foothold in the market by inheriting Minolta's base of lenses. During the '80s -90s, Minolta Maxxum was the pioneer in autofocus, and they were quite popular with non-pro photographers. But they were last into the digital DSLR game, which hurt them tremendously.
In the first few years of Sony alpha DSLRs, we mostly relied on Maxxum lenses.I remember one week, following the Sony takeover, when I canvassed Denver pawn shops and scored three Maxxum 70-210/4 "Beercans," each for $75. Maybe the most compelling lens in that mount, it gave gorgeous bokeh. If I could use it on my cameras, I would.
As the switched course into mirrorless, Sony did jettison Minolta's ergonomic excellence, and orphaned the A-mount. today, you'd be hard pressed to spot any similarities. But I doubt that Sony could have advanced so fast and so sucessfully without using Konica Minolta as a steppingstone. At that point, their still photo products ranged from passport cameras to compact pocket zoom cameras, all with tiny sensors.
---------- Post added 12-01-21 at 10:34 PM ----------
[quote=pinholecam;5453688]#3