KM & Sony Planned Min. 2 New DSLR Bodies For Summer 2006

I read through a bunch of Sony and Konica Minolta news releases, financial statements, etc. and it appears clear that

1. Sony and KM were working together on new DSLR models from Summer of 2005.

2. Konica Minolta started joint effort for DSLR manufacturing because Sony had superb CCD and CMOS capabilities.

3. It was a pain for Konica Minolta to stop their favorite camera manufacturing, which they were emotionally attached to, but they needed to do it because they could not be competitive, and were not making money on it.

4. They apparently wanted to transfer the SLR division onto a company they can trust that it will continue with their SLR tradition and will satisfy their past customers.

5. They consigned service of cameras to Sony. They are paying Sony for this service.

6. They totally scrapped, sold, or withdrew from other photography business. E.g. they scrapped their non DSLR camera manufacturing – the DSLR went to Sony.

What happened? Why Sony did not release more than one body in Summer 2006 as was planned? It seems that the camera bodies were ready to go.

· Possibly the negative reports around A100 were the reason as Howard Stringer, the new Sony CEO wanted to show that Sony can be a lot better than the competition and the DSLR camera decisions were something that he could show the world that he is running the then struggling company right.
· Did Nikon threaten them?

· Did Sony want to make less mechanical and more electronic products that would be more profitable?
· Was 9D ready to be manufactured?
· Did Sony need their engineers to work on problems with reducing PS3 costs?

· How does KM look at this situation, as they seemed to be attached to their Maxxum/Dynax division and wanted their past customers to be happy?

http://www.sony-asia.com/pressrelease/asset/201578/section/hqpressreleases?site=hp_en_AP_i

http://konicaminolta.com/about/releases/2006/0119_02_01.html

The following is taken from these joint releases:

Since July 2005, Sony Corporation (Sony) and Konica Minolta Photo Imaging, Inc. (Konica Minolta PI) have been working on the joint development of digital single lens reflex (SLR) cameras.

Under this agreement, on March 31 2006, Sony will receive certain assets from Konica Minolta PI that are necessary for the development, design, production and so forth of digital SLR cameras compatible with Konica Minolta PI’s “Maxxum/Dynax lens mount system”. Sony will accelerate development of new digital SLR cameras based on and compatible with the Maxxum/Dynax lens mount system with a view to marketing these models this summer.

SecretAgentXXX said:

The following is taken from these joint releases:

Sony will accelerate development of new digital SLR cameras

Click to expand...

Sony deccelerated instead.

KM SEA - 9/25/2005

To end all the speculation here about the 9D with or without anti shake. As I said in an earlier post it will incorporate anti shake, be at least 12 mp and as it stands right now 'full frame'. For example when the groundwork was been laid for the developement 9D in late february 2005 a lot of what was anticipated then for the way the final product would look, operate and time of release has now changed. Regarding pixels amount full frame and released at PMA or photokina. I did mentioned in an earlier thread that the 9D would be released at PMA but I am now hearing down the grapevine it might be delayed till Photokina 2006. One reason for this logic is to see how the replacement for the 7D is accepted at PMA. It all depends what the competitors will be releasing at around the same time that will influence the timiing for the release of the 9D.

Six months is a long time in the DSLR development regarding advancement in chips etc which are superceded every few months. One thing I can confirm is that every KM DSLR that is been developed from now on will have antishake as standard. Let it be a 9D, 8D or 3D.

This is history. Right now, who cares ?

Fact is we have sony now.
Good or bad ? we 'll see it in future.
Hopefully in short future

------------------------------
Giannis Koutroulas
Greece

SecretAgentXXX said:

KM SEA - 9/25/2005
Six months is a long time in the DSLR development regarding
advancement in chips etc which are superceded every few months. One
thing I can confirm is that every KM DSLR that is been developed from
now on will have antishake as standard. Let it be a 9D, 8D or 3D.

Click to expand...

That should bring the KM SEA bashers out of the wood work again. Hmmm, maybe they're tired after yesterday's 'I'm bored, so let me uselessly bash someone' thread.

I know it's pointless to bother mentioning that at the time KM SEA was offering people here, some insight to what was being worked on, and field tested by KM insiders. That at that same time, I personally, had talked to a couple of my sources and had more than one of those so-called 'rumors' confirmed. YES, there was a '7D II', and it was in the final testing stages within months of the Sony buyout announcement. And the '9D' (yes the 9D) was as well, in the "working prototype" stages, of development. Sony was in fact, handed over a fully-working 9D prtotype at the time of the buyout.

There are all these members here who seem to think KMSEA was the source of some major misinformation game. Well, the truth is, it was not KM SEA who busted your bubbles on all this, it was Konica Minolta and Sony. Simple as that. You can throw me in the same category as KM SEA if you want, but I know what I was told by people that I trust far more than anyone on these forums. One of my sources, was an original long-time Minolta guy, who I had known for 10 years before DPReview and these forums even existed! Him, I trust!

And I do have to ask all the people who are absolutely convinced that there is no way these things existed, and that KM SEA was "completely full of BS". Do you really think that K-Minolta, from the release date of the 7D, November 2004, until the Sony buyout announcement in January 2006, worked on NOTHING?! That their R&D department, their engineers, their design team all sat around and did nothing for the next full year?! The 5D was all but ready to ship by the time the 7D was released. It was done. That's why it followed so soon afterwards. The 9D, yes, the 9D, was already in motion at the time of the 7D's release date!. As KM SEA is quoted here, from so long ago now, the development time cycles are simply too close. KM was not sitting on their cans for all that time. One of the long-time heads of Minolta, came over from Japan in the final few weeks of the closing of the camera division here in the states, to say his good-byes to long-time friends in the New Jersey facility. I was told (first hand), that he apologized to the long-time Minolta engineers in the repair facility for having to close the doors. You can believe me, or choose not to, doesn't really matter to me. But the 'powers that be' in K-Minolta wanted nothing more than to save their long-running camera division, and worked hard to do so right up until the announcement was made. And I know for a fact, that really long-time, higher-placed employees of KM, including head sales reps, had no clue what was being transferred in the corporate offices over on Japan. And neither did KM SEA.

I will likely remain with the A-mount system, because I know those Minolta guys are deep in the mix over there at Sony. They, IMO, give the Sony Alpha system credibility. The Minolta engineers were as good as any in the world. K-Minolta failed, not due to innovation, but due to bad business decisions (such as the APS system). At the moment I'm really looking forward to seeing what kind of specs these new Sony A-mount cameras will carry, and likely will be an early adopter (again). But even though they will carry the SONY brand, there will still be a whole lot of 'The Minds' underneath the hood. And that's the truth.

--
Sol
http://solarviewphoto.com/

'Charter Member of the Konica Minolta 7D Adoption Society & SSM Club'
'Hey Sony, make me an offer I can't refuse!'

'There would be so many more happy digital photographers in the world,
if the 100% zoom button on their computers, was permanently disabled.'
. . . . where is my 100% Lupe, anyways ??' -Sol ;-)

Thanks for the input Sol. I think that what is more frustrating than anything for long-time Minolta shooters (I still don't like the KM moniker), is that what you are saying in probably very close to accurate, if not entirely accurate, and the Sony "takeover" has set the camera upgrade/new release schedule back by at least 1 1/2 to 2 years. It is quite likely that the cameras that eventually do come out will be a bit more "advanced" than what they would have been in Minolta (KM) clothing, but at least we would have had those upgraded cameras to use 1 1/2 to 2 years earlier. Minolta (KM) would have been more competitive and we would have been happier consumers. THat 1 1/2 to 2 year delay also is costing Sony potential customers (who decided not to wait any longer) and putting if further behind in trying to enter a market dominated by Canon and Nikon.

You are entirely right, I believe, about the poor management decisions being responsible for Minolta's photo demise, and that includes the way-late decision to get into the DSLR business, giving its competitors a huge advantage and really starting the number of ship jumpers, as Minolta (KM) had no answer to the DSLRs of Canon and Nikon. Perhaps the late DSLR decision was fallout from the huge investment made in the APS system which was overtaken by digital.

--
Mark Van Bergh

Thanks for the reply, Mark. I fully agree with what you've added.

I too, would have already been a longtime 7DII shooter if it had showed up as K-Minolta had scheduled it. And as my photo business continues to increase, it's a bit unnerving to not have that confirmed upgrade path. As you already know, it's only my SSM investments that have kept me here this long. Those lenses are phenomenal, and make it worth the 'wait & see'. I also have a fair amount of faith that the Minolta engineers combined with the Sony engineers is going to be a formidable foe for Canon and Nikon.

Five and ten years from now, the camera landscape is going to be completely different. Canon's hold on the industry will dramatically drop, and Sony will be the other major player. Sony doesn't care if 90% of current Canon owners won't switch. The 'old guys' always get replaced by a bunch of new guys. THAT"S who Sony has in their marketing plans. Catch that next generation of camera buyers, and you will own the industry.

Mark VB said:

Thanks for the input Sol. I think that what is more frustrating than
anything for long-time Minolta shooters (I still don't like the KM
moniker), is that what you are saying in probably very close to
accurate, if not entirely accurate, and the Sony "takeover" has set
the camera upgrade/new release schedule back by at least 1 1/2 to 2
years. It is quite likely that the cameras that eventually do come
out will be a bit more "advanced" than what they would have been in
Minolta (KM) clothing, but at least we would have had those upgraded
cameras to use 1 1/2 to 2 years earlier. Minolta (KM) would have
been more competitive and we would have been happier consumers. THat
1 1/2 to 2 year delay also is costing Sony potential customers (who
decided not to wait any longer) and putting if further behind in
trying to enter a market dominated by Canon and Nikon.

You are entirely right, I believe, about the poor management
decisions being responsible for Minolta's photo demise, and that
includes the way-late decision to get into the DSLR business, giving
its competitors a huge advantage and really starting the number of
ship jumpers, as Minolta (KM) had no answer to the DSLRs of Canon and
Nikon. Perhaps the late DSLR decision was fallout from the huge
investment made in the APS system which was overtaken by digital.

--
Mark Van Bergh

Click to expand...

--
Sol
http://solarviewphoto.com/

'Charter Member of the Konica Minolta 7D Adoption Society & SSM Club'
'Hey Sony, make me an offer I can't refuse!'

'There would be so many more happy digital photographers in the world,
if the 100% zoom button on their computers, was permanently disabled.'
. . . . where is my 100% Lupe, anyways ??' -Sol ;-)

"· Was 9D ready to be manufactured?
· Did Sony need their engineers to work on problems with reducing PS3 costs?"

Sony hired the engineers from KM that worked on the DSLR development. It is highly unlikely that they would have anything to do with the PS3, unless Sony is planning to connect their DSLRs to the PS3. Sony has hundreds, if not thousands of engineers working on different projects. Plus the major way Sony is going to reduce the cost of producing the PS3, is to sell more PS3s. This way, they amortize the cost of production over more units.

Sol

Thanks for the lenghty writeup but in reality it says a lot and tells little.

No one disputes that there were prototypes and concepts as that is normal in any manufacturing industry.

If you say KMSEA was not a bare faced liar and a Bullsh*ter, are you saying your "inside sources" are telling you there was a 7Dii produced in commercial quantities with a 10mp Sony made CMOS Sensor with AF two times faster than anything on the market in transit two days before the sellout because that is what he claimed.

Add to that a 100-400 lens and HS5800 or HS6000 flash that resolved all the issue we had with the flash system ready to go out of the doors at PMA 06.

All the stuff about there being prototypes anybody can tell you. I can tell you that there are more Sony prototypes/concepts than the two they have shown (remember they even had them right when the Alpha was launched) this is no big deal and you don't neeed to have worked with KM as an insider for 200 years to know this.

--
http://dakanji.com

What is done is done..

The photographs carry on though........
--



Clint is on holiday! Soon to return! ;-)