Digital Camera News

Konica Minolta Expands Digital Lens Lineup

March 10, 2005– Konica Minolta announced three new digital lenses today for its Maxxum 7D digital SLR. Before today, the manufacturer offered five lenses for its camera. Today, the line was expanded to include 18-70mm, 11-18mm, and 18-200mm digital specific lenses.

The Konica Minolta AF DT 18-70mm zoom lens has an aperture range from f/3.5-5.6. This lens will provide users with a standard compact choice, while the AF DT 11-18mm lens will allow users to take pictures with a much wider angle. The new wide lens has an aperture range from f/4.5-5.6. Rounding out the new lenses is the Konica Minolta AF DT 18-200mm zoom lens with apertures from f/3.5-6.3. All three lenses will fully operate with the Maxxum 7D’s image stabilization system that is built in to the camera.

Currently, the five older lenses range from a 17-35mm zoom lens to a fixed 85mm lens to a 70-200mm zoom. Konica Minolta announced the three new lenses, which will be available this fall, in an effort to expand its lens lineup and hopefully attract more consumers to its Maxxum 7D. This camera is currently the only digital SLR offered by Konica Minolta, but that could change within the next year as more and more photographers are flocking to that segment of the market.

In its press release, Konica Minolta made some statements about the future of its lens system. The manufacturer wants to develop a lineup with both wide angle APS-C size digital lenses and 35mm conventional lenses. The company also vowed to pursue new technologies as well as advance the ones it has. Eventually, Konica Minolta would like to have lenses that incorporate features as seen in the large aperture G and STF lenses.

The 6.1-megapixel Konica Minolta Maxxum 7D was announced in September 2004. The digital single lens reflex camera has a full range of manual to automatic modes, as well as great features such as 30-1/4000^th of a second shutter speed range, 100-3200 ISOs, color temperature white balance adjustments, and JPEG and RAW image file shooting capabilities. The camera has an interchangeable A-type bayonet mount that is compatible with eight lenses including today’s announcement of the three new Konica Minolta digital lenses.