Top-quality images and zoom at an affordable price
 Oct 24th, 2006
Advantages:
Lens; picture quality; price; durability; features; zoom range; weight
Disadvantages:
Non - removable lens; battery life; discontinued : (
Recommendable:
Yes
Detailed rating:
Picture Quality
Range & Quality of Features
Ease of Use
Durability
Value for Money
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  happydadtoo
About me:
I am a schoolmaster at a major public school with 30 years experience. I have 3 delightful daughter...
Member since:22.01.2005
Reviews:22
Review rated by 7 Ciao members on average: very helpful 
This review received a counterstatement by a party concerned
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INTRODUCTION:
I have bought two of these cameras - one for myself and one for work (I am a semi-pro photographer at a major public school), so pleased was with my own camera.
The A2 was, in about 2003, just about the best of the 'prosumer' digital cameras available and won many awards. In the relentless cost-cutting that is so prevalent in this market, Minolta then kept the lens and image sensor, but cut the features and the price and renamed it the A200, which is still (Oct 2006) current.
The A2 is the better camera - no question! I have read many internet reviews of this camera, SOME of which refer to 'purple fringing', which is a feature of the particular (Sony-made) image sensor used in this (and most other) 8Mp cameras. I can only report that I have scarely noticed it at all - whatever others may worry about, it is too small to get stressed over (and can easily be removed within Photoshop, anyway).
The other criticism I found in the reviews was a variability in the sharpness of the lens, suggesting a quality control problem. Well, I bought two of these excellent cameras secondhand and both are sharper than my older Canon film lenses, when used on a Canon 20D (and amateur cameras don't get much better than that!). Either I have been lucky, or the problem was only found in early test models.
KEY POINTS:
To take a good camera, you need a good lens and the A2 has one! Keen photographers will recall that, in about 1990, the film-makers collaberated to introduce a new format - APS - which was about half the size of a 35mm film and had extra processing information encoded to allow for better prints. The format never really took off, but modern digital cameras (save for a few in the £5000+ bracket) ALL use sensors based on the old APS film size.
The result is a 1.6x magnification factor when used with 35mm film lenses and only the central area of the lens field is used - basically, 35mm lenses are bigger and heavier than they need to be.
Now, Minolta set out with the A2 to make use of the smaller 'print' needed by their sensor and designed a lens that was specifically geared to this format. It must have cost them a great deal of money to design from scratch, but they produced a smaller, lighter, lens of VERY high quality. The zoom range (28-210mm equivalent) covers virtually every normal photographers needs, whilsy Minolta also produced 'screw on' lenses which fit on the front of the camera and either widen it to 17mm or lengthen it to 420mm. The Minolta lenses are VERY pricey, but alternative products cost only $75 or so on the 'net, so look to the USA to source them, if required!
The distortions at the edges of the f.o.v. that are inevitable with a zoom lens are very small, whilst the vignetting at the corners (refered to in another review) is noticeable only on full wide-angle shots and, once again, can be corrected in Photoshop. The camera was designed to allow just about every posible variable to be altered by the user and I will not bore you with the long, long list of variables - check sites such as dpreview.com for that. Suffice it to say that YOU can put yourself in charge, NOT the camera.
SPEED RANGE:
The camera has settings from 64 - 800ASA (plus auto), with grain visible above 400, so avoid it whenever possible. The colours are natural, but you can specify what 'gamut' you wish to use (I use Adobe) and how vivid you want the colours to be.
SHUTTER:
Even once switched on, the camera has a very noticeable lag (0.2s) between pressing the button and the photo being taken, which is a probelm if you are taking action shots, but not otherwise. The range of shutter speeds is impressive.
LENS:
This is excellent, as I have commented and is the best feature of the camera. It comes with a built-in lens hood and has a 49mm treaded end, allowing any number of filters to be used. It only stops down to about f11, though, so GREAT depth-of-field is not possible. f3.5 at the wide end is good, though.
The REAL FEATURE of this lens, though, is the image stabiliser. Now, when using 35mm cameras, the rule of thumb was 1/lens length was the LONGEST shutter speed to safely use - so, a 200mm lens need 1/250th; a 50mm 1/60th and so on. But it was rare to enlarge a photo more than to 5x7, so SLIGHTLY longer exposures could be used on occasion (e.g. 1/30th with a 50mm standard lens). With digital, however, A4 (11x8) prints are the norm, and allowing for a little cropping, the original print size may well have been 16x12. Camera shake now becomes a real issue!
In short, most digital photos are blurred due to camera shake. There are 2 solutions - use a heavier camera and hold it to your eye (not possible with many ultra-light compacts) OR use IMAGE STABILISATION. The A2 has this, so do some 2005/6 cameras and Canon offer IS lenses (at a high price!) for their digital lenses. The ONLY drawback is that is uses a lot of battery power - though you CAN switch it off - and it does NOT work at the slowest shutter speeds (1/15th sec and longer).
AUTOFOCUS:
The autofocus point can be manually set, but the camera seems to do a good job anyway, and it is clearly shown in the viewfinder. It is spot-on and has few problems, even wwith tricky subjects (metallic, railings, reflections, etc), BUT comparatively slow and so, if action shots are your thing, this is NOT the camera for you.
VIEWFINDER:
This is electronic and the number of pixels used is poor bymodern standards, so the image you look at is NOT great - very grainy, though in colour - and not all evf's were, back in 2003.
The image is helped though, by having a superimposable grid, which enables flat horizons and verticals to be obtained, whilst just about every other feature you could want can be seen in the viewfinder too.
LCD panel:
This is another brilliant piece of innovation, since, though not the biggest or brightest on the market, it can be tilted up and down so that, in the unlikely event that you want to take a picture OTHER than with the camera at your eye, you can easily do so.
HANDLING:
The camera, as supplied, is on the small side, but an optional battery pack can easily be obtained - just search eBay to buy an A2 which has one! This transforms the camera - suddenly, you have enogh battery power to last for 200+ shots, the camera is larger and comfortably fits the hand, whilst the extra weight, being BELOW the lens, makes the whole camera more stable - so, sharper shots!
The buttons are all sensibly laid out, though they DO take some extensive familiarisation with. Most rarely need to be touched, once set up.
Unlike most modern cameras, the A2 will sense which of the EVF or the LCD panel to use when taking the shot, BUT you then need to switch a lever to view the image - it's NOT automatic. It is also SLOOOOW to write to the CF card, though using a faster card (x50) can help. This can cause the camera to 'lock-up' for a few seconds when several images have been taken quickly.
IMAGE QUALITY:
This is excellent and can be changed between JPEGs (at various sizes and qualities) or RAW format (which allows just about every feature of the image to be changed in Photoshop) or TIFF format (why?). The dimensions of the image can also be changed, allowing a 35mm-like or APS-like ratio to be used. Personally, I leave it on maximum, and then crop on the PC later.
FLASH:
The built-in 'pop-up' flash is as weak and as red-eye causing as you would expect and for any serious photographer, a dedicated Minolta-fit flashgun is REQUIRED. Minolta have their own, unique, fitting, and not all Minolta-fit guns are suitable for use with digital cameras, and some can even 'fry' the cameras electrics, SO TAKE CARE WHEN BUYING. Minolta do their own units, of course, but at a price!
EXTRAS:
I have already listed the REQUIREMENT for having the extra battery pack and a dedicated flashgun and the DESIRABILITY of having the lens-range widening accessories. The camera comes with a hand-strap, neck strap and a special lead to connect it to your PC, which is expensive to replace. It also comes with a battery charger and some basic image-processing software. My advice? - stick to Photoshop! CONCLUSION:
To take a good photo you need to be in the right place at the right time - when the light and subject look their best. Try early morning or evening for the best lighting!
You also need a good camera angle, and the 'flip-sceen' on the A2 helps here, so that you are not ALWAYS at eye-height.
You need a good lens and image sensor/film, to record what you can see as faithfully as possible and the A2 has both.
Finally, and most obviously of all, YOU NEED YOUR CAMERA! And this is where the A2 plays its last card. Though not pretending to be a compact camera, suitable for a pocket or handbag, it IS small and light enough to carry just about everywhere and has the lens range you need to take a good shot when the opportunity comes.
It has ONE weakness - the slow auofocus and shutter release make action shots (I do soccer a lot - on a Canon 20D!) a non-starter, but for landscape and portrait work, it is outstanding. I carry mine around whever I walk the dog and the light looks interesting - on other days I carry a BenQ 60D, which is small enough to go in a pocket and yet still has a decent lens and sensor.
Yes, I am fortunate enough to have a range of digital cameras for different situations, but if I had to have only one, it would, without question, be the Minolta A2.
OCTOBER 2006: These superb cameras are on eBay for £150-£250, which given their near-£800 price tag in 2003 is a real bargain! FINAL THOUGHT:
Virtually every digital camera on the market uses image sensors made by one of two manufacturers, so, essentially, the only difference between cameras is:
a) how well they fit your hands;
b) how much they cost and
c) the quality of the lens.
Well-established camera makers have decades of experience with this - so buy a camera with their glassware (sometimes sold under a different name as 'badge engineering' becomes ever more common)
Ian
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18.09.2007 10:59
Very thorough and fair review. This camera's response times can be frustrating but I have been very pleased with mine overall. David
25.10.2006 11:26
Excellent review, very well written and informative.