Minolta was founded in 1928, and its name in Japanese means "ripening fields of rice". They came out with their first camera, the Nifcalette, a 120 film twin lens reflex (TLR), in 1929. The SR-2 was the first single lens reflex (SLR) camera with a bayonet lens mount.
In 1950, Minolta developed a planetarium projector, the first ever made in Japan, beginning the company's connection to astronomical optics. An American astronaut took a Minolta Hi-Matic rangefinder 35mm camera aboard the spaceship Friendship 7 in 1962, and in 1968, Apollo 8 orbited the moon with a Minolta Space Meter aboard.
In 1972, Minolta introduced the XD-11, the first multi-mode 35mm compact SLR system camera, considered by many, among them author Robert E. Mayer, to be the classic Minolta camera.
In 1985 Minolta introduced the Maxxum line, the first line of automatic focus SLR cameras. "Other major camera manufacturers quickly began playing catch-up.", writes Mayer. The Maxxum cameras (3000, 5000, 7000 and 9000) made other innovations too. The Maxxum 7000, for example, has arrow buttons for setting aperture and shutter speed, rather than a shutter speed dial on the body and an aperture ring on the lens. That way, the only control necessary on the lens is the manual focusing ring (plus the zoom ring in the case of zoom lenses). The 7000 has two 8-bit CPUs and six integrated circuits. A circuit on the lens relays aperture information to the camera body, and the motor for autofocus is in the camera body. An LCD display shows aperture, shutter speed and film frame count. The 7000 has TTL phase-detection focusing and metering, autoexposure and predictive autofocus. All Maxxum cameras use A-type bayonet mount lenses, and Minolta MC and MD lenses are incompatible.
Mayer quotes the price of a Maxxum 7000 with an AF 50mm f/1.7 lens at US$508 in 1985. In 2004, camera dealers consider these cameras worthless, but private owners can attest that the cameras are still fully functional even without regular maintenance. The problem with them is finding certain accesories for them, such as flash (because Minolta changed the design of the flash hot shoe with the Maxxum i line in 1988). But the newer lenses Minolta makes are still A-type bayonet mount and can be used with the older cameras, even if a few features thus become unavailable (such as power zoom).
After the Maxxum i line came the Maxxum xi line, and to this day Minolta makes Maxxum cameras, improving the design while maintaining the basic concepts. The Maxxum 4 is a 35mm SLR with an A-type bayonet mount, built-in flash, autoexposure, predictive autofocus, electronically controlled vertical-traverse focal plane shutter, through-the-lens (TTL) phase-detection focusing and metering. In advertising literature, Minolta claims that the Maxxum 4 is the most compact 35mm AF SLR, and the second fastest at autofocusing, while the Maxxum 5 is the fastest at autofocusing.
Because of the Maxxum 4's infrared frame counter sensor, the camera's manual explicitly states: "Do not use infrared film in this camera." But, in my personal experience, infrared film can safely be used in the Maxxum 4. The frame counter fogs the upper sprocket area, but the image area is only slightly fogged at the middle of the top edge, if at all. The frame counter works by shining a narrow infrared beam at the sprockets, to count them, and shining a slightly wider beam at the sprocket that is at the midway position at frame width. The old Maxxum 7000 does not fog infrared film at all whatsoever.
Like its competitors, Minolta has also gotten into the digital photography act. Their DiMage line includes digital cameras and imaging software as well as film scanners. The DiMage Z1 camera is compatible with Minolta's flashes for modern film SLRs, but the lens is not interchangeable with film SLR lenses. The Z1 connects to computers and printers by USB ports.
Konica is a division of Minolta that makes film, such as ISO 50 color negative film.
Branches of Minolta in the English speaking world include Minolta Corporation, based in Ramsey, New Jersey, USA, Minolta Canada in Missisauga, Ontario, and Minolta (UK) Limited in Milton Keynes, England.
Other manufacturers make accesories, such as lenses, for Minolta cameras. Among them, Sigma and Quantaray.