The Minolta SR-2 was presented in 1958 as the first

35mm 35 mm may refer to: * 135 film, a type of still photography format commonly referred to as 35 mm film * 35 mm movie film, a type of motion picture film stock * 35MM 35 mm may refer to: * 135 film, a type of still photography format ...

SLR camera from Chiyoda Kogaku. Popular cameras of this type at that time were mainly from Europe but a few from Japan, including the

Asahi Pentax The Asahi Pentax series, by the , was a pivotal development in modern photography. They were the earliest Pentax cameras. Background In 1957, the Asahi Optical Company (later "Pentax") introduced the Pentax, a 135 film, 35 mm Single-lens ...

, the Miranda T and the Topcon R. The miniature SLR camera concept was conceived in the 1930s at

Ihagee Ihagee was a camera manufacturer based in Dresden, Germany. Its best-known product was the Exakta single-lens reflex camera. History Johan Steenbergen, a Dutchman, founded a camera company called ''Industrie- und Handelsgesellschaft'' in Dres ...

in Dresden, resulting in the 1936

Kine Exakta The Kine Exakta was the first 35mm single-lens reflex (SLR) still camera in regular production. It was presented by Ihagee Kamerawerk Steenbergen GmbH, Dresden at the Leipziger Frühjahrsmesse in March 1936. The Exakta name had already been use ...

. Influential cameras designs like that of the 1939 KW

Praktiflex '' Kamera-Werkstätten Guthe & Thorsch'' (K.W.) was established 1919 in Dresden by Paul Guthe and Benno Thorsch, starting out manufacturing the ''Patent Etui'' plate camera. Ten years later came the roll film TLR ''Pilot Reflex'' and in 1936, th ...

, the 1949 ZI Contax S, and 1952 the KW Praktina marked the steady progress toward a perfected SLR. Several features of the latter seem to have influenced the design of the SR-2 although dissimilar in many respects. The obvious similarities are the stepped top plate, the carrying strap lugs, the self-timer lever and some general body features. The name Minolta was first used in 1932 on the 4.5×6 format Semi-Minolta using

120 film 120 is a film format for still photography introduced by Kodak for their '' Brownie No. 2'' in 1901. It was originally intended for amateur photography but was later superseded in this role by 135 film. 120 film survives to this day as the only ...

. The manufacturer was established in November 1928 by (1899-1985) as the Nichidoku Shashinki Shōten (Japan-German Camera Store) together with two Germans living in Japan, but reorganised as a joint stock company named the Molta Goshi Kaisha in the summer of 1931. It is likely that this inspired the name Minolta that later became a registered trade mark. However, in 1937 the company was reorganised as the Chiyoda Kogaku Seikō KK, CHIYOKO for short. Chiyoda Kogaku manufactured leaf shutters and photographic lenses, as well as melting their own optical

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...

es, an achievement very few camera makers ever have matched. In 1947, the Minolta-35 was launched as the company's first

camera, resulting in a brief range of quite popular rangefinder models lasting until the end of the 1950s. In 1962 the company name was changed to Minolta Camera K.K.

Description

The Minolta SR-2 is well built and thoroughly constructed; including features that remained characteristic of the Minolta SLR camera range to follow until the advent of the auto focus cameras in the 1980s. The main features are a single stroke wind-on lever; an

instant return mirror In photography, the single-lens reflex camera (SLR) is provided with a mirror to redirect light from the picture taking lens to the viewfinder prior to releasing the Shutter (photography), shutter for composing and Focus (optics), focusing an image. ...

and a sturdy three-pronged bayonet lens mount with an internal automatic aperture stop-down mechanism. This mount is the earliest example of a modern 35mm SLR bayonet

lens mount A lens mount is an interface – mechanical and often also electrical – between a photographic camera body and a lens. It is a feature of camera systems where the body allows interchangeable lenses, most usually the rangefinder camera, singl ...

, used throughout the entire lifespan of the Minolta manual focus camera area. The automatic aperture mechanism on this camera does not reopen the aperture after exposure, a feature at the time regarded as unnecessary, since the darkened finder might indicate the camera not being made ready for the next exposure. The SR-2 was joined a year later by the budget model SR-1, and was replaced in 1960 by the improved SR-3. This range was complemented by an increasing selection of high quality

Minolta SR mount The Minolta SR-mount was the bayonet mounting system used in all 35 mm SLR cameras made by Minolta with interchangeable manual focusing lenses. Several iterations of the mounting were produced over the decades, and as a result, the mount itself wa ...

Rokkor lenses, within a few years ranging from 35mm to 600mm, and an RF 800mm f8

mirror lens A catadioptric optical system is one where refraction and reflection are combined in an optical system, usually via lenses (dioptrics) and curved mirrors (catoptrics). Catadioptric combinations are used in focusing systems such as searchlights, h ...

in 1960, some of these even multicoated from the very start. The characteristic features of the Minolta SR-2 * Camera body with fixed

pentaprism A pentaprism is a five-sided reflecting prism used to deviate a beam of light by a constant 90°, even if the entry beam is not at 90° to the prism. The beam reflects inside the prism ''twice'', allowing the transmission of an image through a r ...

finder with

Fresnel lens A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens developed by the French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788–1827) for use in lighthouses. It has been called "the invention that saved a million ships." The design allows the c ...

for even brightness *

Reflex finder A reflex finder is a viewfinder system with a mirror placed behind a lens. The light passing through the lens is reflected by the mirror to a focusing screen, usually ground glass. The image formed on this ground glass can be observed directly, gi ...

mirror flips up and returns instantly after exposure. * Hinged strong back with double light traps for simple and safe film loading. * 45mm wide throated three-pronged bayonet

. * Lens diaphragm closes automatically to the preset

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An opt ...

and opens on winding on. * Wind-on lever makes camera ready in one quick operation for continuous shooting. * Shutter release is situated in the hub of the wind-on lever. *

Focal plane shutter In camera design, a focal-plane shutter (FPS) is a type of photographic shutter that is positioned immediately in front of the focal plane of the camera, that is, right in front of the photographic film or image sensor. Two-curtain shutters ...

with speeds from 1 to 1/1000 second and B set on a single stationary dial. * Automatic frame counter placed under a magnifying glass, which resets when opening the back. * X and PF

flash synchronization In photography, flash synchronization or flash sync is the synchronizing the firing of a photographic flash with the opening of the shutter admitting light to photographic film or electronic image sensor. In cameras with mechanical (clockwor ...

contacts with separate PC sockets. *

Self-timer A self timer is a device on a camera that gives a delay between pressing the shutter release and the shutter's firing. It is most commonly used to let the photographer to take a photo of themselves (often with a group of other people), hence t ...

with separate release button. * Combined folding crank rewind knob and back door opener. * Rewind release button on the camera base. * Secondary yellow ''LV'' (

Light value __NOTOC__ In photography, light value has been used to refer to a "light level" for either incident or reflected light, often on a base-2 logarithmic scale. The term does not derive from a published standard, and has had several different meanings ...

) numerals engraved on the aperture ring and the shutter speed dial; the sum of the set pair of values ads up to the required ''LV'' number. * ASA / DIN film type reminder dial on the back. The Rokkor lenses for the SR-2 * W.Rokkor-HG 1:2.8 35mm (1958) * Auto W.Rokkor-HG 1:2.8 f=35mm (1959) * Auto Rokkor-PF 1:1.8 f=55mm (1958) * Auto Rokkor-PF 1:2 f=55mm (1959) * Tele Rokkor-QE 1:3.5 f=100mm (1958) * Auto Tele Rokkor-QE 1:3.5 f=100mm (1959) * Tele Rokkor PG 1:2.8 f=135mm (1958) * Auto Tele Rokkor-PG 1:2.8 f=135mm (1959) * Tele Rokkor-PF 1:2.5 f=180mm (1959) * Auto Tele Rokkor-QF 1:3.5 f=200mm (1959) * Tele Rokkor-QF 1:4 f=250mm (1959) * Tele Rokkor-TD 1:5.6 f=600mm (1959).

References

{{Minolta 135 film cameras SR-2 Cameras introduced in 1958 Products introduced in 1958