Minolta Dimage V (1996)
1997-02-17. The Minolta Corporation announces the Minolta Dimage V (actually production of this camera was already announced in 1996 and it's release scheduled for September but it had been delayed). The set was demonstrated at the MacWorld Expo in Tokyo 1997. A digital camera unlike any other at that time. Totally unique, innovative and versatile. The novelty of this little gem was the detachable and rotatable zoom lens.
The lens could not only be detached but also connected to the camera body by an extension chord. So it was possible to place the lens at any given odd angle and take some pretty spectacular shots. At first it was targeted at industrial use to get pictures of hard to reach areas but it was soon adopted for all fields. In the gallery above you can see the original Minolta promo shots from the announcement.
Together with the camera Minolta also announced a A6 sublimation type color printer (Digifoto DP-6) and a printer output converter (DigiFoto card player VC-6S). Both devices never made it to the market however.
The initial monthly production was 20,000 units / month.
All images © Minolta Corporation
Specifications
- Brand: Minolta
- Model: Dimage V
- First mentioned: 1996
- Marketed: yes
- MSRP: $699
- Imager Type: 0.35MP 1/3" CCD
- Resolution: 640x480
- Internal Storage: -
- External Storage: Smart Media Card
- Lens: F5 - F5.6 /f=4.8 - 13mm
- Shutter: 1/30s - 1/10,000s
- Aperture Range: F5 - F5.6
- LCD screen size: 1.8" LCD
- Size: 131 x 71.5 x 37mm
- Weight: 250 gr.
- Remarks: -