Minolta Zeus (another DSLR rumour)

The Dynax (maxxum) 9 is really the odd one out in the series as its technologyis part way based somewhere between the 'si' series and the present series.

I'd I'd expect Minolta to launch a DSLR based on something like the Dynax 7 first followed by a Pro model a year (more likely 2 years) later.

Emmanuel

Biu said:

Skorp said:

damn! the specs r nice! i'm looking forward to it. hopefully it's
gonna be several models (Maxxum/Dynax 5, 7-based) so that one will
be in the "expensive" range (over $1400 for the body) and the other
in the "average consumer" range (under that amount). although my
D7i is just 2 months old (Gateway sale ) after trying RAW i
realized that i need an upgrade that will allow to work with the
format like pro-sumer cameras do w/ JPEG. so the very least that
i'm gonna upgrade is A1 class (it might be something other than
Minolta if it's better and cheaper).

--
It all depends on your skills. Camera plays a lesser role than the
knowledge of the photographer when it comes to taking pictures.
Paraphrased from words of an experienced photographer when asking
him which camera is better

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

More likely they will replace the "9" with a camera that can be easily adapted to digital. I would be disappointed if it did not have a full frame sensor but that begs a question of where they may source one.

In the meantime, a 7 based DSLR priced against the 10D/D100/S2/*ist would likely have the largest market and recoup the largest net revenues. After all the only non-pro aspect of the 7 is the lack of environmental sealing. In all other respects is a truly rugged and good handling device and a world away from the F80.

Steve

Emmanuel said:

I'd I'd expect Minolta to launch a DSLR based on something like the
Dynax 7 first followed by a Pro model a year (more likely 2 years)
later.

Emmanuel

Biu said:

Skorp said:

damn! the specs r nice! i'm looking forward to it. hopefully it's
gonna be several models (Maxxum/Dynax 5, 7-based) so that one will
be in the "expensive" range (over $1400 for the body) and the other
in the "average consumer" range (under that amount). although my
D7i is just 2 months old (Gateway sale ) after trying RAW i
realized that i need an upgrade that will allow to work with the
format like pro-sumer cameras do w/ JPEG. so the very least that
i'm gonna upgrade is A1 class (it might be something other than
Minolta if it's better and cheaper).

--
It all depends on your skills. Camera plays a lesser role than the
knowledge of the photographer when it comes to taking pictures.
Paraphrased from words of an experienced photographer when asking
him which camera is better

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

It might be as well that a DSLR offering from 'the Minds' is any of their film SLR bodies. It doesn't equate IMHO that it would be as significant as film boxes.

The nature of digital seems to be such that the look and feel of the body would be as important as the technology they employ. The level of advancement of the current film boxes don't seem to apply as sensors and the tech advances, as true with digital in general, are a new paradigm.

If the feature set of a new DSLR is right, a choice of 7 or 9 body would be less important. (BTW I would have a preference though)

steve jacob said:

In the meantime, a 7 based DSLR priced against the 10D/D100/S2/*ist
would likely have the largest market and recoup the largest net
revenues. After all the only non-pro aspect of the 7 is the lack of
environmental sealing. In all other respects is a truly rugged and
good handling device and a world away from the F80.

Steve

Emmanuel said:

I'd I'd expect Minolta to launch a DSLR based on something like the
Dynax 7 first followed by a Pro model a year (more likely 2 years)
later.

Emmanuel

Biu said:

Skorp said:

damn! the specs r nice! i'm looking forward to it. hopefully it's
gonna be several models (Maxxum/Dynax 5, 7-based) so that one will
be in the "expensive" range (over $1400 for the body) and the other
in the "average consumer" range (under that amount). although my
D7i is just 2 months old (Gateway sale ) after trying RAW i
realized that i need an upgrade that will allow to work with the
format like pro-sumer cameras do w/ JPEG. so the very least that
i'm gonna upgrade is A1 class (it might be something other than
Minolta if it's better and cheaper).

--
It all depends on your skills. Camera plays a lesser role than the
knowledge of the photographer when it comes to taking pictures.
Paraphrased from words of an experienced photographer when asking
him which camera is better

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
JusGene

The way I see it, the Dynax/Maxxum line of cameras are now finished. I'm betting the current Dynax cameras are the last film series SLR cameras. I don't beleive Minolta will introduce a Dynax 8 or a Dynax 9 II film cameras. I beleive Minoltas focus is now on digital series of SLR cameras. It remains to be seen if they will keep the Dynax/Maxxum name.

Emmanuel

JusGene said:

The nature of digital seems to be such that the look and feel of
the body would be as important as the technology they employ. The
level of advancement of the current film boxes don't seem to apply
as sensors and the tech advances, as true with digital in general,
are a new paradigm.

If the feature set of a new DSLR is right, a choice of 7 or 9 body
would be less important. (BTW I would have a preference though)

steve jacob said:

In the meantime, a 7 based DSLR priced against the 10D/D100/S2/*ist
would likely have the largest market and recoup the largest net
revenues. After all the only non-pro aspect of the 7 is the lack of
environmental sealing. In all other respects is a truly rugged and
good handling device and a world away from the F80.

Steve

Emmanuel said:

I'd I'd expect Minolta to launch a DSLR based on something like the
Dynax 7 first followed by a Pro model a year (more likely 2 years)
later.

Emmanuel

Biu said:

Skorp said:

damn! the specs r nice! i'm looking forward to it. hopefully it's
gonna be several models (Maxxum/Dynax 5, 7-based) so that one will
be in the "expensive" range (over $1400 for the body) and the other
in the "average consumer" range (under that amount). although my
D7i is just 2 months old (Gateway sale ) after trying RAW i
realized that i need an upgrade that will allow to work with the
format like pro-sumer cameras do w/ JPEG. so the very least that
i'm gonna upgrade is A1 class (it might be something other than
Minolta if it's better and cheaper).

--
It all depends on your skills. Camera plays a lesser role than the
knowledge of the photographer when it comes to taking pictures.
Paraphrased from words of an experienced photographer when asking
him which camera is better

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
JusGene

Click to expand...

digital_ray_of_light said:

That is Joseph W.'s website: He is in the dpreview forums.
If someone can get his attention, he may tell us more!

Click to expand...

BobSo caught up with me in one of the other forums and told me they were looking for me in this forum.

What I have is a single page. It looks like it's a fax of a fax. Several areas are blacked out. The English notes were added by an acquaintance of mine in Japan. He may also have done the blacking out, he won't say. If it's a hoax, it's not his hoax, his sense of humor is more exotic than that.

There is no mention, whatsoever, of the image stabilization system.

The rest of this post requires a UNICODE aware browser (any Netscape 4 or better or IE 5 or better or any Mozilla), and a UNICODE font that supports at least Katakana and Hiragana.

The name of the camera is given in Katakana asズース

In Romanji, that would be zuusu. "Zeus" is handwritten, part of my friend's translation. I assume it's a borrowed European word, or it would have been Kanji instead of Katakana. I don't know what zuusu means in Japanese. It may be a cool sounding non-word designed to invoke one of these...

ずうずうしい zuuzuusii (adj) impudent; shameless
ずうたい zuutai body; frame
ずうち zuuti reaching a peak; reaching the limit

Or it may be something entirely different. It might really be the mythological Zeus.

Zuusu is how the Japanese render several European proper names, including "Suss", "Seuss", and "Süss".

--
Ciao!

Joe

http://www.swissarmyfork.com

Biu wrote:
--snip

Biu said:

9 point AF and metal body is an improvement from Maxxum 7.

Click to expand...

The Maxxum 7 does have 9-point AF, but the "outer" sensors are not that great, IMO.

Very informative tv-show ;D

knowing who zeus is pretty common knowledge though good luck you werent on the first question in "who wants to be a millionair" now

He was one of the three sons of the maker of earth and, and after killing hes two brothers he became the top-god on the mt. olympia where the greek gods live, married to the war-goddess hera and spends hes time throwing lightnings and commiting adultery

Assuming all this "Zeus" stuff is true (and there seems to be a intermittent flow of tidbits from Japan on a Minolta DLSR), it may be that the AS techology in the A1 might not be incorporated into the DLSR at first blush.

A couple of speculations on my part for this

(1) Konica Minolta might want to use the a1 to determine if there any related relaibility and/or operational that have not shown up in testing yet

(2) using an optical viewfinder you can see the affects of optical IS stabilization. However, with the AS as Minolta has it, you would not see the affects. I do not know whether that is an issue or not. It seems to me then you have to have implicit trust in the system that at lower shutter speeds it is working.

OTOH If Minolta was to introduce a 7 based system followed later by a 9 based system that incorporated such a techology; it might make sense to have a cutting edge mature techology in your flagship camera

Just some idle ramblings
Tim

José B said:

Hi gang,

Got this from the Minolta Yahoo Groups
http://www.swissarmyfork.com/dslr_table_1.htm

Sony chip, ISO 200-3200, 1.5x crop. Ummm, I can live with this.
Let's see, that sweet lens 85/1.4 becomes 128/1.4. If this becomes
reality + the possibility of AS technology embedded in it, I might
pick up that 300/4 after all.

Keeping the faith,

José

--
Come and visit me at:
http://www.pbase.com/jmb_56

Click to expand...

Hi Joe!

Thanks for all the details...

"Zeus" sounds like it may/could be an internal code name they are using for their DSLR project(s). OTOH the "Minolta Zeus" DSLR sounds like a mighty product name as well. I hope they give it a strong internal flash so that it matches the Zeus name

This is far-fetched, and unlikely since the specs say Maxxum mount, but I have to say it anyway:

Zeus --> Mount Olympus --> Zeus rules Mount Olympus --> Olympus, the camera company --> new 4/3rds Minolta DSLR rules the Olympus 4/3rds format.

Joseph S. Wisniewski said:

digital_ray_of_light said:

That is Joseph W.'s website: He is in the dpreview forums.
If someone can get his attention, he may tell us more!

Click to expand...

BobSo caught up with me in one of the other forums and told me they
were looking for me in this forum.

What I have is a single page. It looks like it's a fax of a fax.
Several areas are blacked out. The English notes were added by an
acquaintance of mine in Japan. He may also have done the blacking
out, he won't say. If it's a hoax, it's not his hoax, his sense of
humor is more exotic than that.

There is no mention, whatsoever, of the image stabilization system.

The rest of this post requires a UNICODE aware browser (any
Netscape 4 or better or IE 5 or better or any Mozilla), and a
UNICODE font that supports at least Katakana and Hiragana.

The name of the camera is given in Katakana asズース

In Romanji, that would be zuusu. "Zeus" is handwritten, part of my
friend's translation. I assume it's a borrowed European word, or
it would have been Kanji instead of Katakana. I don't know what
zuusu means in Japanese. It may be a cool sounding non-word
designed to invoke one of these...

ずうずうしい zuuzuusii (adj)
impudent; shameless
ずうたい zuutai body; frame
ずうち zuuti reaching a peak; reaching the limit

Or it may be something entirely different. It might really be the
mythological Zeus.

Zuusu is how the Japanese render several European proper names,
including "Suss", "Seuss", and "Süss".

--
Ciao!

Joe

http://www.swissarmyfork.com

Click to expand...

Even this camera is true, I have lost my previous enthusiasm because of
1. The EOS 300D is dirty cheap

2. There is a future to invest on Canon wheres it is doubtful whether Minolta will make any profit from its small share of digital camera market, not to mention the ever shrinking SLR market.
3. There is IS technology available in long telephotos especially in 600mm/4

4. There is a seriers of upgradable camera bodies including prosumer EOSD and professional body EOS1Ds.
..................

--
Mark K
http://www.pbase.com/mark_k

Biu said:

Minolta traditionally introduce a new series starting from the high
end.
Look at the 9, 7, 5, 4, 3 path. Previous series was similar as well.

Click to expand...

Minolta has traditionally released the 7* series first and after that the 9* series. The 9 came out before the 7, but that was unusual for Minolta and besides, the 9 has older technology than the 7.

1985: 7000 released and later the 9000
1988: 7000i released and later the 8000i (no 9000i)
1991: 7xi released and later the 9xi
1993: 700si released and later the 800si (no 900si)

Seemingly Minolta, in its SLR patents, has a concept for raising the mirror to allow the CCD to act as though it's in a video camera (or a conventional digicam).

If this were the case, perhaps with AS enabled, the user could view the LCD instead of using the optical viewfinder, to see the effect of the AS.

Jawed

Timothy S Broadley said:

A couple of speculations on my part for this
(1) Konica Minolta might want to use the a1 to determine if there
any related relaibility and/or operational that have not shown up
in testing yet

(2) using an optical viewfinder you can see the affects of optical
IS stabilization. However, with the AS as Minolta has it, you would
not see the affects. I do not know whether that is an issue or not.
It seems to me then you have to have implicit trust in the system
that at lower shutter speeds it is working.

OTOH If Minolta was to introduce a 7 based system followed later by
a 9 based system that incorporated such a techology; it might make
sense to have a cutting edge mature techology in your flagship
camera

Just some idle ramblings
Tim

José B said:

Hi gang,

Got this from the Minolta Yahoo Groups
http://www.swissarmyfork.com/dslr_table_1.htm

Sony chip, ISO 200-3200, 1.5x crop. Ummm, I can live with this.
Let's see, that sweet lens 85/1.4 becomes 128/1.4. If this becomes
reality + the possibility of AS technology embedded in it, I might
pick up that 300/4 after all.

Keeping the faith,

José

--
Come and visit me at:
http://www.pbase.com/jmb_56

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I was just thinking the same thing - I read their patent for the mirror, and although at the time I thought, "yeah, that's an OK idea" it now makes MUCH more sense as to why they would go through the trouble of the split mirror design - The viewfinder and the CCD can be used, and thus body AS can be effective! It's really exciting, but they really need to make an announcement soon (even if the camera is a little way off) to head off more than a few purchases of the 300D - because once that happens, It'll be hard to get me back (I have no Minolta lenses).

Michael

The Japanese word "ズース" could mean "suss". It has the mean of "to discover".
Biu

Joseph S. Wisniewski said:

digital_ray_of_light said:

That is Joseph W.'s website: He is in the dpreview forums.
If someone can get his attention, he may tell us more!

Click to expand...

BobSo caught up with me in one of the other forums and told me they
were looking for me in this forum.

What I have is a single page. It looks like it's a fax of a fax.
Several areas are blacked out. The English notes were added by an
acquaintance of mine in Japan. He may also have done the blacking
out, he won't say. If it's a hoax, it's not his hoax, his sense of
humor is more exotic than that.

There is no mention, whatsoever, of the image stabilization system.

The rest of this post requires a UNICODE aware browser (any
Netscape 4 or better or IE 5 or better or any Mozilla), and a
UNICODE font that supports at least Katakana and Hiragana.

The name of the camera is given in Katakana asズース

In Romanji, that would be zuusu. "Zeus" is handwritten, part of my
friend's translation. I assume it's a borrowed European word, or
it would have been Kanji instead of Katakana. I don't know what
zuusu means in Japanese. It may be a cool sounding non-word
designed to invoke one of these...

ずうずうしい zuuzuusii (adj)
impudent; shameless
ずうたい zuutai body; frame
ずうち zuuti reaching a peak; reaching the limit

Or it may be something entirely different. It might really be the
mythological Zeus.

Zuusu is how the Japanese render several European proper names,
including "Suss", "Seuss", and "Süss".

--
Ciao!

Joe

http://www.swissarmyfork.com

Click to expand...

Biu said:

The Japanese word "ズース" could mean "suss". It
has the mean of "to discover".
Biu

Click to expand...

That's one way to suss it out. Is "suss" a popular borrowed word in Japan? It would be a hard word to transcribe, there really isn't a vowel in Japanese equivelant to the "u" in suss.

ズス "zusu" is about as close as I can come. And it's not very close, I think.

--
Ciao!

Joe

http://www.swissarmyfork.com

Michael DeBruyn said:

It's really
exciting, but they really need to make an announcement soon (even
if the camera is a little way off) to head off more than a few
purchases of the 300D - because once that happens, It'll be hard to
get me back (I have no Minolta lenses).

Click to expand...

You got that right. I am giving serious thought to the 300D (and am even thinking again about the 10D) and if I go that route then Minolta will probably never get me back. I have been a good Minolta customer since 1976 when I bought a Minolta XK. I followed that up with an X-700 and Maxxum 7000i, 7xi, 9xi, 700si, 7 plus lenses, flash, accessories. I bought a D7i in June 2002 to hold me over until Minolta came out with a DSLR but I can't see myself waiting much longer unless Minolta announces something soon -- even if it isn't available for a 3 months or so.

Hi Henry, I am in the same boat, although I haven't used Minolta that long (only since 1999). However, I have accumulated professional grade Maxxum optics that I want to use with the DSLR. I will still keep my Maxxum 7 system and Dimage 7Hi.

Trading in the Maxxum 7 system and going to another manufacturer for me is like bailing out in the stock market at the bottom. I think now is a good time to be bullish on Minolta especially with the promise of Anti-Shake technology and of course, the merger of Minolta and Konica which hopefully will bring more cash flow to R&D.

Having said the above, I will probably get another DSLR itch sometime next Spring when I look ahead to taking outdoor tennis pictures and other sporting events. Hope to see that Minolta DSLR on or before the PMA 2004 show in March.

Best regards,

José

Henry Richardson said:

Member said:

It's really
exciting, but they really need to make an announcement soon (even
if the camera is a little way off) to head off more than a few
purchases of the 300D - because once that happens, It'll be hard to
get me back (I have no Minolta lenses).

Click to expand...

You got that right. I am giving serious thought to the 300D (and
am even thinking again about the 10D) and if I go that route then
Minolta will probably never get me back. I have been a good
Minolta customer since 1976 when I bought a Minolta XK. I followed
that up with an X-700 and Maxxum 7000i, 7xi, 9xi, 700si, 7 plus
lenses, flash, accessories. I bought a D7i in June 2002 to hold me
over until Minolta came out with a DSLR but I can't see myself
waiting much longer unless Minolta announces something soon -- even
if it isn't available for a 3 months or so.

Click to expand...

--
Come and visit me at:
http://www.pbase.com/jmb_56

Thanks Joe. Question, does your friend work in the camera industry there in Japan?

I am just going to ramble here because nobody really knows what Minolta is up to. I am just thinking that Konica-Minolta will benefit if they leak out some details of this upcoming DSLR (assuming it will materialize of course). I think this will help prevent existing Minolta SLR users (and DSLR-seekers) to switch to Canon and Nikon for their DSLR products. In short, Minolta is giving us hope and the message is for us just to hang in there and stay the course and a DSLR will come out soon.

José

Joseph S. Wisniewski said:

digital_ray_of_light said:

That is Joseph W.'s website: He is in the dpreview forums.
If someone can get his attention, he may tell us more!

Click to expand...

BobSo caught up with me in one of the other forums and told me they
were looking for me in this forum.

What I have is a single page. It looks like it's a fax of a fax.
Several areas are blacked out. The English notes were added by an
acquaintance of mine in Japan. He may also have done the blacking
out, he won't say. If it's a hoax, it's not his hoax, his sense of
humor is more exotic than that.

There is no mention, whatsoever, of the image stabilization system.

The rest of this post requires a UNICODE aware browser (any
Netscape 4 or better or IE 5 or better or any Mozilla), and a
UNICODE font that supports at least Katakana and Hiragana.

The name of the camera is given in Katakana asズース

In Romanji, that would be zuusu. "Zeus" is handwritten, part of my
friend's translation. I assume it's a borrowed European word, or
it would have been Kanji instead of Katakana. I don't know what
zuusu means in Japanese. It may be a cool sounding non-word
designed to invoke one of these...

ずうずうしい zuuzuusii (adj)
impudent; shameless
ずうたい zuutai body; frame
ずうち zuuti reaching a peak; reaching the limit

Or it may be something entirely different. It might really be the
mythological Zeus.

Zuusu is how the Japanese render several European proper names,
including "Suss", "Seuss", and "Süss".

--
Ciao!

Joe

http://www.swissarmyfork.com

Click to expand...

--
Come and visit me at:
http://www.pbase.com/jmb_56

Well I wasn't trying to say there are not choice. The real question IMO is when do I have to bamke that decision.
For me, I can wait while based on iMinolta possibilities and the following

(1) If I switch to Canon it won't be for a 6Mp cheap body. It might be for an EOS 1x at 11 Mps or an EOS-3d with a 8 Mp body; for not for rebel based body. Hopefully an EOS 3d will have some degree of ruggedness equivalent to its film based brother

(2) Admittedly Canon has IS all the way up to 600mm. I have shot 600mm/f4s and travelled with a companion who had the 500/F4IS. You don't hand hold these things And if you put them on a tripod, the sensors detect the tripod and shut off the IS

(3) Assuming I invest in a 600mm f4 Canon( which is what $10K?)...I will not stick it on the front of a Rebel based DLSR

(4) I have Minolta lens, in one form or another, from 24mm to 800mm. I have a minolta 9 and I consider that to be one of the great bodies in the world today. So if (and I know that is a big word!) Minolta was to come out with a 9d with a 10 Mp chip and AS....damn I'd be happy. From personal experience IS or AS works really really well with light weight lenses. I was really impressed with the Canon 80-200/2.8 zoom IS. But on the last trip my buddy and is 500/f4 lasted less than half a day trying to handhold that beast. Thereafter for the next 23.5 days it was on a monopod or a tripod.

I would be inclined to think about a Minolta 7d with a 6/7 Mp body at around $1500 because I could use it to supplement my film based stuff for a reasonable investment

But you know what...I can get a 20 x 30 print from my Minolta bodies and glass and a tripod. I can't do that from a 6 Mp rebel without helping the image (a lot)

And if I want 30 x 40s ..forget 35mm in any form . I'll go shoot a Mamiya RB67 or a 4 x 5 linhof.

So Yeah I'd like to be in DLSR but for me at least, I can wait a year

Just my misc ramblings
Tim

Mark K said:

Even this camera is true, I have lost my previous enthusiasm
because of
1. The EOS 300D is dirty cheap
2. There is a future to invest on Canon wheres it is doubtful
whether Minolta will make any profit from its small share of
digital camera market, not to mention the ever shrinking SLR market.
3. There is IS technology available in long telephotos especially
in 600mm/4
4. There is a seriers of upgradable camera bodies including
prosumer EOSD and professional body EOS1Ds.
..................

--
Mark K
http://www.pbase.com/mark_k

Click to expand...

[text snipped]

Timothy S Broadley said:

I would be inclined to think about a Minolta 7d with a 6/7 Mp body
at around $1500 because I could use it to supplement my film based
stuff for a reasonable investment

Click to expand...

At first I thought about this ($1500) being a reasonable price for the Digital Maxxum 7. However, the M7 equivalent in the Canon line is the EOS 3 and not the Elan 7. If this is the case, plus the AS technology embeded in it, the projected street price of this DSLR could be $1800-2000.

Cheers,

José
--
Come and visit me at:
http://www.pbase.com/jmb_56