Comments on: It’s Alpha Mount Birthday!

By: eerikoo

eerikoo — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:58:06 +0000

I know a photographer who had that camera, in 1985 everyone laughed at it for having autofocus, it was just stupid, and now look. It only proves that the pioneers always win, and we should be glad camera makers don’t listen to us “pro’s”… because they know this better… it’s the same thing today with those anti LV and video guys!!

By: John Wilson

John Wilson — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 03:06:55 +0000

Correction – the AF technology was patented by Honeywell, not B&H. Apologies.

By: John Wilson

John Wilson — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 03:01:00 +0000

I bought one of these in 1985 and instantly hated it. The buttons were waaaaay too small, the CHI configuration was not the best and the autofocus was sloooooow and noisy. A burgler did me a big favour and stole it along with the Rolleiflex and other stuff. The 28-85mm lens was a really nice lens though. But what it did was open the floodgates to innovation in AF and electronic augmentation of photography. Too bad they borrowed that AF technology from Bell & Howell without their permission and wound up paying such a huge settlement it eventually led to the demise of Minolta as a camera brand. But you can certainly see the Minolta DNA in the current Sony offerings.