Relying heavily on imported German technology, Nichi-Doku turned out their first product, a bellows camera called the Nifcarette, in March 1929.

(Chiyoda Optics and Fine Engineering, Ltd.) and built the first Japanese-made twin-lens reflex camera, the Minoltaflex, based on the German Rolleiflex.

[citation needed] In 1950, Minolta developed a planetarium projector, the first-ever made in Japan, beginning the company's connection to astronomical optics.

In 1958, Minolta introduced its SR-2 single lens reflex (SLR) 35mm camera which was equipped with a bayonet mount and instant return mirror.

Minolta SR/SRT design used sleeve bushings instead of bearings on its focal plane spindles and had greater tolerances between working parts.

[citation needed] In 1977, Minolta introduced the XD-11, the first multimode 35 mm compact SLR to include both aperture and shutter priority in a single body.

The new amateur-level X-570, X-700, and related models offered additional program and metering features designed to appeal to newer photographers, at a lower cost.

Minolta, like other major manufacturers faced with low-cost competition from elsewhere in Asia, found it difficult to build quality P&S cameras at a cost the consumer was willing to pay, and was forced to offshore production, gradually redesigning successive cameras to reduce cost and maintain profit margins.

[citation needed] Minolta purchased the patent rights to autofocus lens technology from Leica Camera in the 1970s.

They were Minolta's first line of automatic focus SLR cameras, and the first commercially successful autofocus SLRs the world had seen.

The round Minolta logo was developed by Art Director Herbert Clark with designer Saul Bass.

The Minolta Freedom line of autofocus compacts were also branded at The William Esty Company, and named by Senior Copywriter Niels Peter Olsen.

As a result of their innovations, the products that Minolta launched with The William Esty Company increased their camera sales from third, behind Canon & Nikon, to first in the U.S.

[citation needed] With the Maxxum line, the heavy duty metal bodies of earlier Minoltas were abandoned in favor of lighter and less expensive plastics.

After protracted litigation, in 1991 Minolta was ordered to pay Honeywell damages, penalties, trial costs, and other expenses in a final amount of $127.6 million.

Special features introduced by Minolta are interactive LCD viewfinder display, setup memory, expansion program cards (discontinued), eye-activated startup, and infrared frame counter.

The Maxxum 4 is a low-priced 35 mm SLR with an A-type bayonet mount, built-in flash, autoexposure, predictive autofocus, electronically controlled vertical-traverse focal plane shutter, and through-the-lens (TTL) phase-detection focusing and metering.

Though well received by the photographic press, the 7 and 9 did not sell to expectations or achieve any significant breakthrough with their intended customer base, who had largely gravitated to the Canon or Nikon brands.

Instead, a 45-degree mirror bounces light to a conventional zoom lens safely tucked inside the camera body.

During July 2005, KM and Sony negotiated on a joint development of a new line of DSLR cameras,[8] where it was believed that Konica Minolta and Sony would market their DSLR line to the masses (much like the joint marketing and development of Pentax and Samsung K10/GX10 DSLRs).