Photoclubalpha

I have often wondered how long some models were in production for.
I noted the "konica minolta" sticker on the bottom of a film 5, obviously manufacture took place after the merger. But other models, for example the 7, 4, and even the MF X300s seemed to be available to buy new right up and past the departure of KM.

Wonder if DK has any information on this?? Were they being made for some time? Or were companies just sitting on stock from years past?

The X300s-330x-370s etc was being made by Shanghai Optical for Minolta, and then for KM. It was mainly sold in developing markets and China. Shanghai is part-owned by Konica Minolta and from the 1970s onwards bought, or was sent, the tools and jigs for discontinued cameras and lenses. The Dynax 5, 4, 60, 40 were all made in Malaysia as was the 7 (at least initially) and that plant continued working during Konica-Minolta times. There was some talk of the Malaysian plant being a buy-out or third party investment opportunity, or ceasing to exists. I know that I have not seen Malaysia stickers on anything new or Sony - just Japan and China.

At the time, I was told new factories were being built as Sony estimated their sales would be anything up to ten times those of Min/KM and the Malaysian plant was simply not big enough.

At the time when Sony took over, the only film cameras being made were the Dynax 40 and 60 and all other production space was occupied with the D7D and D5D. They had stopped making the Dynax 7 and 9 entirely as far as I know - the 9 earlier than the 7.

David

Thanks for the info.

I ran across this..

Are they still making MF bodies?? It would appear so.
http://www.chinamet.com/en/comlist/gold ... 410&page=2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This will give you more info:

http://www.camerachina.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is their official site - Google is blocking it as a source of attacks on computer, malware etc but it is not a spoof site - it is the correct URL. Since I'm using Mac to visit, I am not that concerned about the Google blacklisting and blocker. It could be in place because someone has tried to damage Seagull's interests by falsely reporting the site as harmful.

They make a nice 17mm f/4 lens for the manual system - the old Minolta MD 17mm f/4, reborn.

David

the site is downloading a trojan. I got a warning from nod32 and avast reports it too.

Speaking of sites under attack...anybody notice the dramatic increase in spammers on these forums lately?

Yes.. I guess PHP needs an update