About - History of Innovation

1873

Company began selling photographic and lithographic materials.

1903

Marketed Japan's first brand name camera.

1928

Japan-Germany photo company formed and launches the production of cameras in Japan.

1937

World's first double-lens reflex camera.

1940

Released the first made-in-Japan colour film.

1946

World's first camera with coated lens.

1956

Established the first North American subsidiary.

1958

Completed the company's first planetarium unit.

1960

Developed the company's first copier.

1962

Established the first European subsidiary.

1962

Hi-Matic camera used by astronaut John Glenn on board Friendship 7.

1971

Released high-performance photostatic plain paper.

1973

Launched the operation of Sakura driver's license printing system.

1975

Released the world's first 35mm camera with built-in flash and AE functions.

1975

World's first copier to use latent image transfer.

1977

World's first 35 mm company auto-focus camera.

1983

World's first copier with zoom magnification.

1984

Developed an ultra-high-precision aspheric plastic lens for CD players.

1984

World's first mini-lab utilizing no wash process.

1987

World's first single pass two-color copier.

1988

World's first 45 second X-ray film process.

1989

Released medical digital imaging output system.

1990

Released monochrome laser printer and digital full-colour copier.

1990

World's first auto focus binoculars.

1991

World's first three-color combination copier & fax.

1996

World's first digital multifunctional printer/copier.

2001

World's first Polymerized Toner.

2003

Integrated the management of Konica Corporate and Minolta Co., Ltd.

2004

Introduction of the firs bizhub branded MFP.

2004

Introduced the first 105 ppm production printing system.

2005

BERTL® Best awards for office and production systems and Colour Reliability

2005

Award BLI's "Product line of the Year" (MFPs)

2006

First 65 ppm colour production printing system released

2006

BERTL® presents six Readers' Choice Awards (three Platinum and three Gold)