Minolta

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Minolta" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Minolta Co., Ltd.
ミノルタ

Minolta's fourth and final logo, designed by Saul Bass in 1981
Industry	Manufacturing
Founded	1928; 96 years ago (1928) (as Nichi-Doku Shashinki Shōten) Osaka, Japan
Founder	Kazuo Tashima
Defunct	August 5, 2003; 21 years ago (2003-08-05)
Fate	Merged with Konica
Successor	Konica Minolta
Headquarters	3-13, 2-chome, Azuchi-Machi, Chuo-ku, Osaka 541-8556, Japan (1998)
Products	Cameras, film cameras, camera accessories, photocopiers, fax machines, laser printers

Minolta Co., Ltd. (ミノルタ, Minoruta) was a Japanese manufacturer of cameras, camera accessories, photocopiers, fax machines, and laser printers. Minolta Co., Ltd., which is also known simply as Minolta, was founded in Osaka, Japan, in 1928 as Nichi-Doku Shashinki Shōten (日独写真機商店, meaning Japanese-German camera shop). It made the first integrated autofocus 35 mm SLR camera system. In 1931, the company adopted its final name, an acronym for "Mechanism, Instruments, Optics, and Lenses by Tashima".^{[1][third-party source needed]}

In 2003, Minolta merged with Konica to form Konica Minolta. On 19 January 2006, Konica Minolta announced that it was leaving the camera and photo business,^[2] and that it would sell a portion of its SLR camera business to Sony as part of its move to pull completely out of the business of selling cameras and photographic film.^[3]