Konica Minolta to stop all camera and film production.

Hi All,

Just read on Yahoo news that Konica Minolta is going to quick making all cameras and camera film sometime in 2007 This includes digital cameras as well. I have never used Konica film, and have rarely ever seen it, so its not much of a loss to me. But, its sad to see another company getting out of the analouge market. THough, this probably will help Fuji, and since I am in Japan. Thats a good thing, I guess.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060119/ts_afp/japanphotocompanykonicaminolta_060119075712

Hope it helps.

Gary

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Love to know if they still make their lightmeters, or if they'll sell their brand to someone else?

coriana6jp said:

I have never used Konica film, and have rarely ever seen it, so its not much of a loss to me.

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I don't know about Japan, but in the US, and I believe also in Europe, Konica supplies a lot of store brands. Just local to me, CVS pharmacies and Shaw's supermarkets sell Konica film under their own brand names. I don't believe I've ever seen it in brick-and-mortar stores under its own name, although mail-order outfits like B&H do stock it, and I've bought it from them. Konica-branded paper for darkroom use seems very hard to find in the US, although my local CVS (and probably also the Shaw's) sends film to a photofinisher that uses Konica paper (the plant may be owned by Konica, for all I know).

May we all bow our heads for a moment of silence. Another Giant has fallen.

This weekend I will load up the old SRT101 with a roll of Konica film and remember the good times!

the Konica US plant is in NC, near Greensboro. when they built it, I knew a guy who went to work there, coating color paper. at the time, I seem to remember that the film was made in Japan, but I could be wrong, I haven't kept up with that much. still--bad news for the state if they close that plant or lay off workers scaling down on paper & film production. what with all the textile plants and furniture mills closing as well as the possibility of the furniture market leaving the state also.

Pinholemaster said:

Love to know if they still make their lightmeters, or if they'll sell their brand to someone else?

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I seriously doubt thier lightmeters will be affected. KonicaMinolta is not going anywhere, just thier film and camera business, which is only a small portion of thier overal product offering.

Personaly, I don't know anybody that uses thier film and thier camera business has been in serious decline since before the "digital onslaught".

-Mark

That's what they get for changing the MD lens mount! Sorry, I couldn't resist.

saw a little AP wire story this morning in our local paper--said they planned to either close or sell their plant & warehouse facilities here in NC (guilford county & near burlington as well). some 258 employees would be laid off as well. the plant was 16 yrs old....you can see parts of it off I40 if you head west towards Greensboro....

konica was good for the state, this is going to hurt the area, regardless of what you feel about their products...they had a training program through the state community college system, they supplied a lot of minilab equipment etc. and served as a focus for job training in much the same way as the large furniture studios did for many years as well. studios like Alderman's etc. For years, grads and students were hired straight out of these programs and went to work in the studios, and later on some went to Konica. There are *a lot* of commercial studios in the Triad area of NC, probably more than many people realize, but it's all centered around the furniture market. there used to be some really big studios employing hundreds of people working as shooters, set designers, assistants, finishers, retouchers etc. it's a big industry and it's centered right down the road from this Konica plant.

so--yeah--bad news. the studios are on the decline, the furniture market is in trouble, mills & plants are closing and then Konica closes. So not a lot of job opportunities really for photographers anymore.....

I don't know if anybody actually made better stuff than Konica or Minolta ( zeiss and leica excluded, somewhat ! ) Our ( USA ) perceptions have always been guided more by marketing and advertising than reality, and Konica & Minolta fared worse than Nikon or Canon in public perception. In actual performance ( during my time, 1968 - present ) they commonly exceeded N & C & O & P.

The recent Konica rangefinder efforts and Minolta's pro line SLR are worthy of praise, and deserved a better fate. Even the d*g*t*l cameras were wonderful.

The lenses from both Konica and Minolta have often been the finest Japan had to offer. If you have a K/M camera, go buy up bargains on eBuy. ESPECIALLY G LENSES and HEXAR rfdrs...

.

The sad part for me is, I send my slide film to Konica through my local grocery store. It goes to, I believe, the big Konica plant up in Maine. They did good work for very cheap even if it did take over a week to get them back.

We'll miss them.