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The beautiful days of Minolta

Started Apr 26, 2021 | Discussions
Maoby
Maoby Veteran Member • Posts: 5,471
The beautiful days of Minolta
7

The beautiful days of Minolta

Minolta RD-175 (1995)
1.75 MP sensor (1528x1146)
with a multiplication factor of 2.0
Price: $ 9,995.00 USD
A single ISO 800 sensitivity

Minolta RD-3000 (1999)
2.7 MP sensor (1984x1360)
with a multiplication factor of 1.5
Price $ 3,400.00 USD
200 & 800 ISO

Konica Minolta a-7 Digital (2004)
6.1 MP (3008 x 2000) sensor
with a multiplication factor of 1.5
Price $ 1,600.00 USD
ISO 100-1600

Minolta DSLRs

Minolta DSLRs

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Minolta RD-3000
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Joseph Balson
Joseph Balson Regular Member • Posts: 299
Re: The beautiful days of Minolta

nice!

-- hide signature --

It's just some glass, some silicon and magnesium. It isn't a religion.

Maoby
OP Maoby Veteran Member • Posts: 5,471
Re: The beautiful days of Minolta
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Maoby
OP Maoby Veteran Member • Posts: 5,471
Re: The beautiful days of Minolta
3

To continue with the ancestors
Here the RD-175 with its twin brother from Agfa

Agfa Actioncam / Minolta RD-175

Another association, this time between Minolta and agfa
Both companies marketed the device under individual labels.
The camera that served as a base was the Dynax 500si
Instead, they used three small CCD sensors of 380,000 pixels each (768x394) with a prism that generate three light beams. Which gives after interpolation a final resolution of 1.75 million pixels (1528x1146)

For those who might be interested
I have gathered the comparisons made with the two twin brothers

Agfa Actioncam (1995) / Kodak DCS 520 (1998)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/maoby/albums/72157692167039004
XXth century

Agfa Actioncam (1995) / Nikon D500 (2016)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/maoby/albums/72157671803088672
20 years

Kodak EOS-1n DCS 3c (1995) / Agfa Actioncam (1995)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/maoby/albums/72157712259743197
1995

Fujix DS-505 (1994) / Minolta RD-175 (1995)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/maoby/albums/72157678176860321
1994-1995

Minolta RD-175 (1995) / Minolta RD-3000 (1999)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/maoby/albums/72157669477353776
The first two digital SLRs from Minolta

Minolta RD-175 (1995) / Lumix GF2 (2011)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/maoby/albums/72157716759731113
Camera with a multiplication factor of 2.0 /

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Joseph Balson
Joseph Balson Regular Member • Posts: 299
Re: The beautiful days of Minolta

Always loved your comparisons.
That one is also very interesting

-- hide signature --

It's just some glass, some silicon and magnesium. It isn't a religion.

Maoby
OP Maoby Veteran Member • Posts: 5,471
Re: The beautiful days of Minolta
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MikeInOr
MikeInOr Senior Member • Posts: 1,630
Re: The beautiful days of Minolta

I am a bit jealous. I remember when both the RD-175 and RD-3000 came out and wanting one knowing that I would never be able to afford one. Being a Minolta collector myself I would love to add a pair of working RD-175 / RD-3000 to my collection. I have been tempted to bid on a couple but I always run into the problem of how to get the images off of the camera.

Would you be up to walking us through the process of actually taking a picture with these two gems? Stuff like which batteries are needed? What storage media (I think they both use non-removable built in memory???). What interface is used to connect the camera to your computer? Didn't one of those two use a SCSI interface? What OS is the computer doing the transfer running? What software do you use to transfer the image? What format is the image after retrieving it from the camera? What software do you use to transform to a image format that is common today?

You have to have a great amount of knowledge to actually take and use an image from these great old cameras. It would be great if you wouldn't mind sharing your knowledge with us?

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neilt3
neilt3 Veteran Member • Posts: 3,008
Re: The beautiful days of Minolta
2

MikeInOr wrote:

I am a bit jealous. I remember when both the RD-175 and RD-3000 came out and wanting one knowing that I would never be able to afford one. Being a Minolta collector myself I would love to add a pair of working RD-175 / RD-3000 to my collection. I have been tempted to bid on a couple but I always run into the problem of how to get the images off of the camera.

Would you be up to walking us through the process of actually taking a picture with these two gems? Stuff like which batteries are needed? What storage media (I think they both use non-removable built in memory???). What interface is used to connect the camera to your computer? Didn't one of those two use a SCSI interface? What OS is the computer doing the transfer running? What software do you use to transfer the image? What format is the image after retrieving it from the camera? What software do you use to transform to a image format that is common today?

You have to have a great amount of knowledge to actually take and use an image from these great old cameras. It would be great if you wouldn't mind sharing your knowledge with us?

The RD-3000 is a very useable , if slow , DSLR , you can even review the images on the tiny LCD !

The RD-3000 uses standard AA batteries , I use Sanyo eneloops in mine .

For memory , a standard CF card is used , I can't remember if there's a maximum limit , but I think I have a 1 GB card in mine .

To transfer the images just take the card out and put it in a card reader and process the images in your usual software ( RAW or JPEG) the same as any other camera  . I use Lightroom 5 .

You could use an SCSI cable , but there's no point . Just take the card out .

.

The RD-175 takes a bit more work .

It uses 3 batteries for a start !

The camera part uses a ( disposable) 2CR5 battery , easily available .

The digital back part of it uses a Sony battery (NP-F550) that was common in digicams at the time .

These are still readily available ; https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/162614217179

I got some new ones for mine as after 25 years , the originals don't hold their charge well .

Make sure the OEM charger is supplied with the camera .

The third battery is a coin cell type that that is used to retain the memory if you take the main battery out .

All batteries are still readily available .

The original memory storage is a PCMCIA media card , a big lump .

With that in you would most likely need to connect the camera up to a computer running an old O/S using the correct SCSI cable and drivers etc . I have have an old Windows XP desktop for running old cameras and scanners etc .

I do things the easy way having a PCMCIA to Compact flash card adapter .

Small capacity cards have to be used and they have to be correctly set up / formatted .

Easier to do on a dedicated XP machine and the Minolta software , but can be done on modern O/S .

.

To transfer the images it's easiest if your using a CF card in the normal way .

With regards to using the images , most editing software won't recognise the files .

The MRAW files can be converted to a usable format on Picajet , which can be downloaded free .

From there the images can be imported and edited as usual .

 neilt3's gear list:neilt3's gear list
Minolta DiMAGE 7 Minolta DiMAGE 7Hi Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z5 Konica Minolta DiMAGE A2 Konica Minolta DiMAGE A200 +68 more
neilt3
neilt3 Veteran Member • Posts: 3,008
Re: The beautiful days of Minolta
 neilt3's gear list:neilt3's gear list
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LeicaEye Forum Pro • Posts: 10,560
Re: The beautiful days of Minolta
2

Maoby wrote:

The beautiful days of Minolta

Minolta RD-175 (1995)
1.75 MP sensor (1528x1146)
with a multiplication factor of 2.0
Price: $ 9,995.00 USD
A single ISO 800 sensitivity

Minolta RD-3000 (1999)
2.7 MP sensor (1984x1360)
with a multiplication factor of 1.5
Price $ 3,400.00 USD
200 & 800 ISO

Konica Minolta a-7 Digital (2004)
6.1 MP (3008 x 2000) sensor
with a multiplication factor of 1.5
Price $ 1,600.00 USD
ISO 100-1600

Minolta DSLRs

Minolta DSLRs

A couple from my (long gone but missed) DiMAGE A2 -

-- hide signature --

I have walked in others shoes, I much prefer my own Berluti's ! ..

MikeInOr
MikeInOr Senior Member • Posts: 1,630
Re: The beautiful days of Minolta

neilt3 wrote:

MikeInOr wrote:

I am a bit jealous. I remember when both the RD-175 and RD-3000 came out and wanting one knowing that I would never be able to afford one. Being a Minolta collector myself I would love to add a pair of working RD-175 / RD-3000 to my collection. I have been tempted to bid on a couple but I always run into the problem of how to get the images off of the camera.

Would you be up to walking us through the process of actually taking a picture with these two gems? Stuff like which batteries are needed? What storage media (I think they both use non-removable built in memory???). What interface is used to connect the camera to your computer? Didn't one of those two use a SCSI interface? What OS is the computer doing the transfer running? What software do you use to transfer the image? What format is the image after retrieving it from the camera? What software do you use to transform to a image format that is common today?

You have to have a great amount of knowledge to actually take and use an image from these great old cameras. It would be great if you wouldn't mind sharing your knowledge with us?

The RD-3000 is a very useable , if slow , DSLR , you can even review the images on the tiny LCD !

The RD-3000 uses standard AA batteries , I use Sanyo eneloops in mine .

For memory , a standard CF card is used , I can't remember if there's a maximum limit , but I think I have a 1 GB card in mine .

To transfer the images just take the card out and put it in a card reader and process the images in your usual software ( RAW or JPEG) the same as any other camera . I use Lightroom 5 .

You could use an SCSI cable , but there's no point . Just take the card out .

.

The RD-175 takes a bit more work .

It uses 3 batteries for a start !

The camera part uses a ( disposable) 2CR5 battery , easily available .

The digital back part of it uses a Sony battery (NP-F550) that was common in digicams at the time .

These are still readily available ; https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/162614217179

I got some new ones for mine as after 25 years , the originals don't hold their charge well .

Make sure the OEM charger is supplied with the camera .

The third battery is a coin cell type that that is used to retain the memory if you take the main battery out .

All batteries are still readily available .

The original memory storage is a PCMCIA media card , a big lump .

With that in you would most likely need to connect the camera up to a computer running an old O/S using the correct SCSI cable and drivers etc . I have have an old Windows XP desktop for running old cameras and scanners etc .

I do things the easy way having a PCMCIA to Compact flash card adapter .

Small capacity cards have to be used and they have to be correctly set up / formatted .

Easier to do on a dedicated XP machine and the Minolta software , but can be done on modern O/S .

.

To transfer the images it's easiest if your using a CF card in the normal way .

With regards to using the images , most editing software won't recognise the files .

The MRAW files can be converted to a usable format on Picajet , which can be downloaded free .

From there the images can be imported and edited as usual .

Thank you!  Incrediably useful information,  I really appreciate you documenting it here!

I was a pretty late adopter of digital preferring to stay with my Maxxum 7000 film body.  I waited until the Dimage Z3 came out before buying a digital camera.  I now have most all of the Maxxum film bodies that I lusted after but could never afford.  Neither of my Maxxum 7D cameras work.  I paid $30 for the first one then a good bit more for the second one that was guarenteed to work, but didn't.   The seller refunded my money and didn't want to pay to ship the camera back to him.  That pretty much made me give up on the 7D.  My A100 and A200 do work though.  They are fun to bring out every now and again.

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Maoby
OP Maoby Veteran Member • Posts: 5,471
Re: The beautiful days of Minolta

For a memory card for the Minolta RD-175

See here for formatted a new CARD!
Http://www.nikonweb.com./actioncam/
Good luck !

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Maoby
OP Maoby Veteran Member • Posts: 5,471
Re: The beautiful days of Minolta
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Maoby
OP Maoby Veteran Member • Posts: 5,471
Re: The beautiful days of Minolta
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Maoby
OP Maoby Veteran Member • Posts: 5,471
Re: The beautiful days of Minolta

Konica Minolta 7D (2004) / Sony Alpha 100 (2006)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/maoby/albums/72157677213827797

The king is dead, long live the king !

6.1 MP Konica Minolta Maxxum 7D (3008 x 2000)
Price: $ 1,600 USD
Photos taken with the Sony DT 1.8 / 50 SAM
(with a multiplication factor of 1.5) APS-C
ISO 100-1600

________________________

10.2 MP Sony Alpha 100 (3872 x 2592)
Sony's first DSLR
Price: $ 900 USD
Photos taken with the Minolta AF 50mm f / 1.7
(with a multiplication factor of 1.5) APS-C
ISO 100-1600

Konica Minolta Maxxum 7D (2004) / Sony Alpha 100 (2006)

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