[Tighelander]

I was going through my cameras the other day, and one film body that really stands out is the Chinon CP-7m. Did this come out in the very early Eighties, when program cameras were hadn't yet acquired auto-focus? What impresses me is that the company went the extra mile to include features that probably cost more on other cameras or just didn't exist. For example, the battery compartment is designed so that either AA batteries can be used, or the 6-volt siamese twin Lithium can be used. It also can take time-lapse photos. A Canon T70 could also do this, but you would have to buy an additional data back for the camera. It's a cool camera.

[THoog]

Did this come out in the very early Eighties, when program cameras were hadn't yet acquired auto-focus?

Google gives 1986 as the release date from several sources. Minolta released the autofocus Maxxum 7000 in 1985, and Pentax responded with the SFX/SF1 in 1987.

[Tighelander]

Thanks! I read that Minolta caught the other companies flat-footed with their auto-focus models, giving them a brief edge over Canikon.

[boriscleto]

Thanks! I read that Minolta caught the other companies flat-footed with their auto-focus models, giving them a brief edge over Canikon.

Pentax had the first consumer AF camera in 1981, the ME F. But it used contrast detect AF. If the subject was stationary and had good contrast the camera would eventually focus. The lens was also bery bulky because the motor was built into the lens and required several AAA batteries for power. Needless to say the camera was not a commercial success.

Minolta on the other hand stole phase detect AF from Honeywell. This allowed reasonably fast and accurate AF and caught the other Japanese camera makers off guard. Canon and Nikon took a year to reverse engineer a phase detect AF sensor, Canon even changed lens mounts. Minolta did pay a price in the end though, $96 million dollars for stealing the tech from Honeywell...

[pathdoc]

They may have paid a worse price in the long run, for where are Minolta now, while Pentax, Nikon and Canon survive as identities.

[Tighelander]

Pentax had the first consumer AF camera in 1981, the ME F. But it used contrast detect AF. If the subject was stationary and had good contrast the camera would eventually focus. The lens was also bery bulky because the motor was built into the lens and required several AAA batteries for power. Needless to say the camera was not a commercial success.

Other companies had a similar set-up, like the Canon F80, but I don't know when that came out.

Minolta on the other hand stole phase detect AF from Honeywell. This allowed reasonably fast and accurate AF and caught the other Japanese camera makers off guard. Canon and Nikon took a year to reverse engineer a phase detect AF sensor, Canon even changed lens mounts. Minolta did pay a price in the end though, $96 million dollars for stealing the tech from Honeywell...

I didn't know that!

[g026r]

I didn't know that!

I believe that most of the major camera makers wound up paying Honeywell over those autofocus patents.

(A quick google suggests that they filed or threatened to file lawsuits against 14 manufacturers, though I don't know if that number includes Minolta or not. Most of them wound up paying Honeywell some amount of money, as a '92 New York Times article gives the following as having reached monetary settlements with Honeywell: Ansco, Asahi, Canon, Kodak, Konica, Kyocera, Matsushita, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Premier, and Ricoh—a veritable who's who of late-80s/early-90s camera manufacturers.)

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Last edited by g026r; 09-26-2015 at 11:45 PM.

[stevebrot]

but I don't know when that came out

The next year (1982-3) along with similar AF entries from Canon and Olympus. By 1984, nobody was making AF SLRs.


Steve

[Tighelander]

I been to a lot of thrift shops over the past 7 years, and have seen a lot of old cameras. I've only seen a T80, the Canon with the self-powered, auto-focus lens once or twice.

[pathdoc]

Konica Minolta still exists as a very successful business imaging company,

But not as a camera company. If they'd done their job right, they'd still be making cameras under their own name. They didn't, and so they aren't. That was my point. YMMV.