from Japan: new Minolta production numbers

The initial production numbers according to the KM press releases are:
Minolta D7D: 25,000 units per month (200K yen)
Minolta A200: 25,000 units per month (100K yen)
AF 17-35 F2.8-4(D): 10,000 units per month (68K yen)
AF 28-75 (D): 5,000 units per month (56K yen)

Note: The prices are given may be MSRP or expected street price.

Source: This info is available in the press releases on the KonicaMinolta Japanese site. I found them by following the link on digitalcamera.jp

PS> The forum has a new name!

That would be about $1800 US for the 7D. I sure hope the US MSRP doesn't come in that high - if it does, the D70 (and maybe even the 20D) is going to clean the 7Ds clock, even without AS.

I really don't think they can go much more than $1500 US MSRP and still wind up with a competitive street price.

digital_ray_of_light said:

The initial production numbers according to the KM press releases are:
Minolta D7D: 25,000 units per month (200K yen)
Minolta A200: 25,000 units per month (100K yen)
AF 17-35 F2.8-4(D): 10,000 units per month (68K yen)
AF 28-75 (D): 5,000 units per month (56K yen)

Note: The prices are given may be MSRP or expected street price.

Source: This info is available in the press releases on the
KonicaMinolta Japanese site. I found them by following the link on
digitalcamera.jp

PS> The forum has a new name!

Click to expand...

--
http://www.pbase.com/mccarty

That's AU$2600 for the 7D and around AU$1300 for A200 (same as for A2). No one is going to pay that price when the competition is way lower.

Cheers

Ray

digital_ray_of_light said:

The initial production numbers according to the KM press releases are:
Minolta D7D: 25,000 units per month (200K yen)
Minolta A200: 25,000 units per month (100K yen)
AF 17-35 F2.8-4(D): 10,000 units per month (68K yen)
AF 28-75 (D): 5,000 units per month (56K yen)

Note: The prices are given may be MSRP or expected street price.

Source: This info is available in the press releases on the
KonicaMinolta Japanese site. I found them by following the link on
digitalcamera.jp

PS> The forum has a new name!

Click to expand...

--
There are no limits, only challenges - me (unless someone else said it first).

http://www.rkp.com.au/PhotoGallery/

I think the 7D is aimed more at us folks who already have the gear. If image quality is good, it would be much more expensive for us to sell all our K-M gear and then buy all the new lenses and accessories for Nikon or Canon. It would be a lot less expensive to say with K-M than to switch, all things considered.

Then, after the initial wave of Minolta gear owners have purchased their cameras, the price will drop quite signifiicantly. Then next year, newer more up to date models will replace the current one. It has happened before and it will happen again. It's all about business.

--
Vance Zachary
http://www.pbase.com/photoworkszach
http://www.photoworksbyzachary.com

For Minolta to grow, they have to capture more than just existing Minolta film camera owners, else those who have nothing to lose will keep going to Canon, Nikon etc.

I'm one just such example. I'm seriously considering going DSLR on top of my A2, but I'm not going to spend AU$2600 for the luxury, when others are offering options that are not that much more different for around AU$2000.

Minolta has to get new users to the marque and keep them. The way to do this is get them to buy a body and reasonable lens at an affordable price and hope they will continue to buy lenses etc for a long time to come.

Cheers

Ray

Vance Zachary said:

I think the 7D is aimed more at us folks who already have the gear.
If image quality is good, it would be much more expensive for us to
sell all our K-M gear and then buy all the new lenses and
accessories for Nikon or Canon. It would be a lot less expensive to
say with K-M than to switch, all things considered.

Then, after the initial wave of Minolta gear owners have purchased
their cameras, the price will drop quite signifiicantly. Then next
year, newer more up to date models will replace the current one. It
has happened before and it will happen again. It's all about
business.

--
Vance Zachary
http://www.pbase.com/photoworkszach
http://www.photoworksbyzachary.com

Click to expand...

--
There are no limits, only challenges - me (unless someone else said it first).

http://www.rkp.com.au/PhotoGallery/

So basically anyone who has bee loyal to minolta, and stuck with them while they have been stepping up to the digital age gets screwed over. I for one love my minolta gear, I have 4 G lenses a 50mm macro and a Dynax 9 body. My first SLR was a minolta. And I was expecting good ( not great ) , but at least a good solid camera. But ( AS aside) , what we are looking at is specs　From　camera that is at least about a year and a half old.

They are new to the market, they have to get this right or else a whole generation of digital users are goign to start buying lenses for other companies, and once that happens they will be gone.

As I see the specs I would be paying $1100 US for it, Joe Public doesnt care about the benefits of AS, chances are he does even appreciate what it doesnt and doesnt want to spend the time to work it out. What they shopuld have done is drop the AS and called it the D5D, and waited a little bit till they could have gioven the D7D, and the D9D a decent go.

Hopefully the D9D will be a cmaera that I can be proud to own.

Until then, I:ll just have to put up with the others laughing at my 7D

Zachary said:

I think the 7D is aimed more at us folks who already have the gear.
If image quality is good, it would be much more expensive for us to
sell all our K-M gear and then buy all the new lenses and
accessories for Nikon or Canon. It would be a lot less expensive to
say with K-M than to switch, all things considered.

Then, after the initial wave of Minolta gear owners have purchased
their cameras, the price will drop quite signifiicantly. Then next
year, newer more up to date models will replace the current one. It
has happened before and it will happen again. It's all about
business.

--
Vance Zachary
http://www.pbase.com/photoworkszach
http://www.photoworksbyzachary.com

Click to expand...

--
'A life lived in fear is a life less Lived' - Bazz Lurman

you will have the last laugh. D7 looks to be as good as Nikon D100 and Canon 10D and there are many happy shooters out there creating fantastic images with those cameras. Not everyone is looking to upgrade. If I were a sports shooter, I wouldn't consider 7D. But for most practical purposes, the camera will more than meet everyone's needs from what I can tell from the specs.

I wouldn't say that you are screwed--at least not yet. As I said in my original post I expect the street price to be between $1299-1599. and, while I feel that this borders on the high side, it doesn't seem to me to be totally unreasonable.
--
Vance Zachary
http://www.pbase.com/photoworkszach
http://www.photoworksbyzachary.com

I'm not sure if anybody already mentioned this link...
They have UK price and availability Information.

Konica Minolta Dynax 7D Body Only - £1,149.99 - Late October
(that's roughly US$ 2000... might not be the right camera for me after all ( )

Other prices and availability:
http://new.dpnow.com/1069.html

digital_ray_of_light said:

The initial production numbers according to the KM press releases are:
Minolta D7D: 25,000 units per month (200K yen)
Minolta A200: 25,000 units per month (100K yen)
AF 17-35 F2.8-4(D): 10,000 units per month (68K yen)
AF 28-75 (D): 5,000 units per month (56K yen)

Note: The prices are given may be MSRP or expected street price.

Source: This info is available in the press releases on the
KonicaMinolta Japanese site. I found them by following the link on
digitalcamera.jp

PS> The forum has a new name!

Click to expand...

--
IE is a bug! Get yourself a smarter pet - FireFox!

Stuntsteve said:

My first SLR was a minolta. And I
was expecting good ( not great ) , but at least a good solid
camera. But ( AS aside) , what we are looking at is
specs　From　camera that is at least about a year and a
half old.

Click to expand...

Specs don't take pictures... A good quality 6MP image, great handling a la Dynax 7, usable shutter speeds, fps and with the bonus of AS, it is going to be a great tool for a lot of people. If you need 8fps, 10+MP, we're out of luck, but for the 95% of the rest of us, it'll be fine.

Sure, they should have kept the 1/8000s shutter speed. I've used this about 3 times in total with the Dynax 7 (out of about 300 rolls).

Flash sync should have been kept at 1/200s. I think I've used this about

Stuntsteve said:

What they shopuld have done is drop the AS and called it
the D5D, and waited a little bit till they could have gioven the
D7D, and the D9D a decent go.

Click to expand...

But Minolta have usually (almost always) introduced the 7xxx model first of a new generation (7000, 7000i, 700si, 7, the 9 was really si generation technology). It's supposed to showcase features of that generation.

I see nothing really wrong with the 7D. It does have solid specs. AS is a revolutionary feature, comparable to in body AF in significance.

Stuntsteve said:

Hopefully the D9D will be a cmaera that I can be proud to own.

Click to expand...

We should be buying cameras to take pictures with, not to be proud of owning them. Otherwise we'd be buying Leicas...

Stuntsteve said:

Until then, I:ll just have to put up with the others laughing at my 7D

Click to expand...

I thought as a longtime Minolta owner, you would have gotten used to not getting any respect from Canon and Nikon shooters. Anyway, it's the picture that matter, not what you use to take it with.

Cheers,
Daniel.

pramarko said:

Konica Minolta Dynax 7D Body Only - £1,149.99 - Late October
(that's roughly US$ 2000... might not be the right camera for me
after all ( )

Click to expand...

That's prob MSRP. Jessops is advertising at that price and they hardly ever advertise at less than MSRP. In comparison, they advertise the 20D at 1269.90UKP, 10% more than the 7D. The UK is not a good indicator of the prices in the rest of the world. It is much better to compare products within the market, not across them.

The 300D is 700UKP at Jessops, but the lowest price I can find in the UK is 600UKP, 17% less. I would expect the 7D to be around 990UKP. The lowest price for the 20D is 1050UKP.

Anyway, UK prices are a ripoff(((.

Cheers,
Daniel.

RRP is at least a staring point, but will be discunted sure.

But that price will scare off customers, you can get the 20D for just over £1k if you know where to look and unless you have a lot of brand loyalty or lenses you;d have to go for that.