Minolta (Japanese ミ ノ ル タ, English Minolta) is a Japanese company, one of the world's leading manufacturers of cameras and accessories for them, photocopiers, fax machines and laser printers. The company was founded in Osaka, Japan in 1928 under the name "Nichi-doku shashinki shoten" (日 独 写真 機 תת;) meaning "Japanese-German photographic equipment store". The company is best known as the manufacturer of the world's first autofocus 35mm SLR camera. The "Minolta" mark first appeared in 1933 as the camera's own name. In 2003, it underwent a major merger with Konica Corporation to form Konica Minolta. As of March 31, 2006, Konica Minolta Photo Imaging ceased its own brand of cameras, as the factories for their production were taken over by Sony, with which in July 2005 Konica Minolta entered into an agreement to further jointly develop interchangeable-lens digital cameras ( Digital SLR). The co-developed cameras are marketed as Sony α.
The rest of the divisions produce measuring and medical equipment.