Sony Alpha & Minolta Camera History

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7 жыл бұрын

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In this video, Chelsea & Tony dig into the history of Sony cameras--starting with Minolta, founded in 1928. You'll learn how Sony was born from the rubble of post-WWII Tokyo and became the biggest name in consumer electronics. We'll cover the most important cameras from both Minolta and Sony, including the Mavica, E-Mount, A-mount, a7, a7S, a7R II, and a99. Finally, we'll speculate wildly about the future of Sony Alpha, including whether they'll continue to provide sensors to competitors such as Nikon.
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Our camera recommendations:
STARTER CAMERAS:
Basic Starter Camera ($280 used at Amazon): Canon T3 help.tc/t3
Better Starter Camera ($500 at Amazon): Nikon D5300 help.tc/d5300
Better Travel Camera ($500 at Amazon): Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II help.tc/em10ii
LANDSCAPE CAMERAS:
Good ($550 at Amazon): Sony a6000 help.tc/a6000
Better ($1,400) at Amazon: Nikon D5500 help.tc/D5500 & Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 help.tc/s35
Best ($3,150) at Amazon: Pentax K-1 help.tc/K1 & Pentax 24-70 f/2.8 help.tc/p24
PORTRAIT CAMERAS:
Beginner ($950 at Amazon): Canon T6i help.tc/t6i & Canon 50mm f/1.8 help.tc/c50
Better ($3,000 at Amazon): Nikon D610 help.tc/d610 & Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 help.tc/t200
Best ($5,300) at Amazon: Nikon D810 help.tc/d810 & Nikon 70-200 f/2.8E help.tc/n200e
WILDLIFE CAMERAS:
Starter ($1,100 at Amazon): Canon 7D help.tc/7D & Canon 400mm f/5.6 help.tc/c400
Great ($3,200 at Amazon): Nikon D500 help.tc/d500 & Nikon 200-500 f/5.6 help.tc/n500
VIDEO CAMERAS:
Beginner ($500 at Amazon): Panasonic G7 help.tc/g7 & Panasonic 14-42mm help.tc/p42
Better ($1,400 at Amazon): Panasonic GH4 amzn.to/2p5dAmD & Panasonic 14-140 f/3.5-5.6 help.tc/p140
Best ($4,300 at Amazon): Panasonic GH5 help.tc/gh5 & Metabones Speed Booster XL help.tc/mbxl & Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 help.tc/s35 & Sigma 50-100 f/1.8 help.tc/s100
DRONES:
Beginner ($400 at Amazon): DJI Phantom 3 help.tc/p3
Travel ($1,000 at Amazon): DJI Mavic Pro help.tc/Mavic
Better Image Quality ($1,500 at Amazon): DJI Phantom 4 Pro help.tc/p4p

Пікірлер: 505

@TonyAndChelsea 7 жыл бұрын

📷 Get the Sony a7R II on Amazon

@ricohflex777 4 жыл бұрын

Minolta deserves a separate history episode by itself.

@PaganiTypeR 7 жыл бұрын

I love Sony. DSLR's are good if you want to show off that you're a big boy with a big camera. A7RII just blows my mind. Full frame, stabilized, 40MPx back-lit sensor? are you kidding me? And what you see through a viewfinder/screen is what you get... No way to mess up the exposure. If sony is going to keep this up they are going to kill DSLR's. Sure they won't extinct, but DSLR's will be for enthusiasts only as SLR's are now. And I love sony's A6x00 series. If I had D5300 I probably wouldn't take it with me anywhere because of the size, but A6000 fits in my jacket pocket just fine, and it's with me almost all the time. The best camera is the one you have with you.

@JonathanMitchellPhotography 7 жыл бұрын

My first Sony was the a700 which I still have today. Been a Sony shooter since then too. I think you guys got your A-mount history incorrect. Sony's first full frame a-mount was the a850 & 900 which was replaced by the a99. Also, the a-mount was not introduced in 2010 but rather when they bought Minolta. 2010 was the first semi translucent mirror technology introduced in the a65 for example. Sorry to nitpick.

@fireconvoy2301

Just listened to this 6 years later because I got a cheap a6000 and I’m impressed on the many features it has that are still relevant in 2024

@rockstarkate78 7 жыл бұрын

I had the Sony Digital Mavica, floppy drive. I think you could fit like 8 photos on a disk. At the time it was AMAZING to me.

@PhotoArtBrussels 5 жыл бұрын

Tony, Chelsea; maybe add a financial comparison once. Sony is much bigger than Nikon or Canon, so they can invest more means into technology. They also make huge numbers of industrial camera sensors, these are used in product sorting, like finding bad apples, missing caps on bottles, etc.

@anthonypearson4056 3 жыл бұрын

Here's a really late comment... but re. market research, as Henry Ford said: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

@JonRogne 4 жыл бұрын

While Nikon is camera and optics business only, both Canon and Minolta is also big on copy and printing. Minolta partnered with Konica for their camera business at the end, branded "Konica Minolta", but closed it down shortly after, being too late to release a successful dslr. Konica Minolta remains in the copy machine business. Sony bought the technology, but not the brand, which probably was in accordance with both the buyer and seller company business strategy. Minolta was a very innovative company, which changed the slr market when introducing the world's first integrated autofocus slr in 1985. Sony was the perfect company to further develop Minoltas technology, being a very innovative company on their own.

@michaelcastle8378 7 жыл бұрын

BetaMax was the absolute BEST tape recording system ever made. My daughter found my BetaMax when she was in high school and taped over all of my saved tapes with her TV programs. She loved that sucker, in the year 1999.

@cadmus777 7 жыл бұрын

The A100 (10MP - updated Minolta 5D) was Sony's first DSLR after the takeover of Minolta, followed closely by the A700 (12MP - updated Minolta 7D) and then the full-frame A900 (and A850). How could you jump from 2006 to 2010 and not mention their first actual DSLR's???!!!! The A-mount Minolta legacy was a master stroke for getting them into the DSLR world, but you ignored it until the E-mount came out. ;-( Other than that, excellent presentation, thank you. (A100 was my first DSLR, and then the A700, now A77ii. All great, except A100 above about ISO200. Probably a bit of a Sony fanboy here I guess...)

@rozuku 7 жыл бұрын

Had no intention to watch past 2 minutes of this but I'm hooked...

@rythie 7 жыл бұрын

In my view a few things missing:

@TheCameraStoreTV 7 жыл бұрын

Another incredibly enjoyable episode guys! I know these episodes are a lot of work to research and structure, but as someone constantly bombarded with photo industry talk, these history lessons are such a breath of fresh air.

@falcdragon 7 жыл бұрын

There are a number of substantial bits missing from the Minolta to Sony shift. Once Sony buys the Minolta tech they quickly released the A100 DSLR with in-body Sensor stabilisation, this is followed by numerous A-mount releases over the next few years. Including the A900 fullframe with in-body image stabilization, you then get the E-mount system with the Nex-3/5 in 2010 along with the SLT A-mount cameras still with in-body image stabilization.

@Joe_VanCleave 7 жыл бұрын

Sony's first mobile video revolution was the black & white, reel-to-reel Porta Pak camera in the late 1960s, used by news crews and also video artists. Then came their U-Matic cassette system, used by industry and commercial broadcast; these both preceded Beta and VHS.

@conrad2nr 7 жыл бұрын

I LOVE these History lessons.

@harj-spp8547 7 жыл бұрын

Cannot get enough of these video, very inspirational too. So glad you mentioned the walkman brand, growing up, music was and is my life. I had 20+ different models of cassette walkmans. Some because they had innovative features or because some just looked beautiful by design, especiall the anniversay models (vertical loading cassette!). Later invested into 6 discmans and then later the not so popular mini disc, where I went through 5 models.

@ak2b 7 жыл бұрын

Interesting video. I used to work for Sony in their 5th Ave showroom in the early 70's as they came into the US as Sony Corp of America. Big item was the Trinitron which was far and away a superior TV. I met Morita on a couple of occasions - really a cool guy.