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Minolta serial numbers, eg RD-175, 3000, SB-70, etc

Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2015 9:15 am
by precertvideo
I think I have worked out the "system" of date code in [later] Minolta camera serial numbers, (might be proved wrong as I am not sure exactly when some were discontinued)

The 1st & 2nd digits appear to show month of manufacture. For example if the first digit is 1, the 2nd digit is the month digit, eg. 8 for the 8th month (August) etc. and the 1st digit (1) is disregarded. For months with two numbers (Oct, Nov, Dec) the 1st digit is a 2, for example 21 for 11th month (November).

It appears that the 3rd digit indicates year of production, for example the RD-175 & ActionCam were introduced in 1995 and on this basis all numbers so far are showing 1995-1998 production (not sure when discontinued but the RD-3000 arrived 1999 and this also appears to correlate.) Example 5 = 1995, 9 = 1999

Example: 19604636 - 9th month 6th year [September 1996] camera number 4636
Example: 22901010 - 12th month 9th year [December 1999] camera number 1010
Example: 20701337 - 10th month 7th year [October 1997] camera number 1337

I'm only familiar with RD-175, 3000, etc. so don't have any film cameras to verify this with. Hope I have explained clearly enough, Jonathan