Minolta RD-175

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Minolta RD-175

Image of the Minolta RD-175
Type Digital SLR camera
Focus Automatic

The Minolta RD-175 was probably the first digital SLR which was hand portable. Up until 1995 when this was introduced, the only digital SLR on the market had a very bulky external digital storage system. There were other primitive digital cameras but they were much lower resolution. Minolta combined an existing SLR with a three way splitter and three separate CCD image sensors, giving 1.75M pixel resolution. [1] The base of the DSLR was the Minolta Maxxum 500si Super (the Dynax 500si Super in Europe and as Alpha 303si Super in Asia). Agfa produced a version of the RD-175 retailed as the Agfa ActionCam.

Technology

Since state of the art CCD resolution at the time was not sufficient for Minolta, the light entering the central 12 × 16mm area of the RD-175's focal plane was compressed by 0.4x relay optics behind the focal plane, similar to the optical reduction system used in the Nikon E series. The light bundled on the smaller sensor area increased the effective sensitivity (ISO) by 2 2⁄3 stops. Then the light was split and sent to three separate 4.8 × 6.4mm sized 768 × 494 pixel (3 x 0.38 megapixel) image sensors, two used for green and one for the red and blue color, reducing the sensitivity increase to about 2 stops. The only usable ISO was 800.[1]

The three images were combined digitally and interpolated to the final size of 1.75 mega-pixels (1528 × 1146 pixels). Images were stored on an internal PCMCIA hard drive. The camera used Minolta AF A-mount lenses with a crop factor of 2.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Minolta RD-175". Retrieved 2012-07-16. 

External links

Minolta/Konica Minolta/Sony DSLR and SLT A-mount timeline

Sensor 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
34 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1
High-end Full frame α900 HV
α850 α99
Advanced APS-C DG-7D α700 α77
Midrange α65
α55 α57
DG-5D α100 α550 α580 α58
α500 α560
α450
Entry-level α33 α35 α37
α350 α380 α390
α300 α330
α200 α230 α290
Early models Minolta 7000 with SB-70/SB-70S (1986) · Minolta 9000 with SB-90/SB-90S (1986) (Still video SLRs)
Minolta MS-C1100 (1992) · Minolta RD-175 (1995)
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