Big news . . . the field just got a lot smaller . . . Konica Minolta withdraw from camera business . . . no more cameras, film, the works . . . some of the Konica and Minolta assets will go to Sony for Digital SLRs but the rest of the business is getting packed in . . .

This has to be the biggest and most shocking news before the upcoming PMA show, Konica Minolta has today announced that it is withdrawing from the camera and photo business. They will be transferring assets related to their camera business to Sony who will continue to develop digital SLR’s based around the Konica Minolta lens mount. Konica Minolta it appears will continue to work with Sony (a relationship announced last year) in the development of digital SLR’s and lenses but they will not be branded as or be sold by Konica Minolta.

I have a Minolta SLR film camera . . . haven’t actually taken it out of the camera bag in years. Heck, I’ve been using my Canon 300D (especially with the Loreo 3D Lens-in-a-Cap attachement) for long enough that it’s been my exclusive camera rig . . . although just last week, we upgraded my stereocamera rig to two brand spanking new Sony V3 cameras on a dual mount with a LANC Shepherd Pro . . . nice.

Most of the big film manufacturers have recently said they are moving towards no more film . . . Fujifilm is the only major player that has said it would continue manufacturing film for mass market . . . most of the film-camera manufacturers have already announced they will discontinue making them and opt for the digital market instead.

Of course, with the recent scare over digital storage, something needs to be done for more permanent archival of images or it will all be in vain as we become a culture of disposable memories with no permanent storage. Got to get to work on that one, guys.