Martin @ Blog

According to a press-release on DPreview Konica-Minolta stops selling digital camera’s. The company wasn’t already a big player in this market, but their dSLR-camera’s weren’t that bad. Actually, the Dynax 7D and 5D are pretty good camera’s with the unique anti-shake feature which – as far as I know – no other dSLR has. Also, Konica-Minolta ‘invented’ the market for so-called prosumer camera’s with de Dimage 7D and its successors, with the Dimage A2 as ultimate non-dSLR camera. According to the press-release the company will sell its camera business to Sony. Sony was already trying to get a foot on the ground in the high-end photography market with their recently introduced DSC-R1. On the internet, the reactions of the owners Konica-Minolta digital camera’s aren’t very positive (Dutch). I think, that this step isn’t that bad for the market. Sony has a lot more money available to fund marketing and development of new models. The company is working on a dSLR-camera which will be introduced this summer, and based on the reviews of the DSC-R1, the chances are that this will be a very competitive product. In my opinion, the coorporation between Konica-Minolta and Sony is the only way to compete with the two market leaders in the digital camera market, Canon and Nikon.