Have had this camera a couple of weeks now and am getting to grips with it. The first thing to strike me was the quality of the lens. The zoom is excellent (equiv 28mm-200mm). Picture quality is very good, up to 2560 x 1900 (or whatever the factor of 1024 x 768 is). At highest res these TIFF files can hit 14MB each, although the less compressed Minolta-specific RAW format is only 7MB. Dropping to the second highest resolution ("Fine" as opposed to "Superfine" or "RAW") brings filesizes down drastically (about 1MB). The RAW files can only be viewed with the supplied software - TIFFs and JPEGS (the lower resolutions) can go straight into Photoshop or whatever. Connecting the camera to a PC via USB is straightforward with XP.
Once you have the pictures on a PC you can appreciate the fine detail therein. The only weakness I have seen with the photos is a degree of grain in larger areas of similar colour. But to my mind this is more than offset by the great level of detail and good colour balance.
The viewfinder is very good, as is the display on the back. In terms of functionality this camera does everything I want apart from very long exposures. I believe the maximum to be 4 seconds. That said, 4 seconds is enough for most night shots.
The 16MB CF card supplied is enough to get you started while you play a bit, but insufficient for real use. The camera takes IBM Microdrive, allowing cheaper volume storage. With a 1GB drive I can take over 70 high-res full-size photos or over 1000 at lower res/size.
There is a black and white mode which I haven't tried on any demanding subjects, but seems to work well on the simple test shots I have taken.
Size is average for its class, although the design is deceptively compact - the overall shape is good to hold and quite well balanced. It is very similar to the Fujifilm S602 to hold.
Instruction manual (quick ref guide) is only moderately useful, but I haven't read the docs on the supplied CD so cannot be too critical yet!
Battery life is acceptable with the supplied rechargeable batteries (I appreciate that these are power hungry beasts!) but if you're away from power for a long time I'd take a spare set rather than rely on standard AA alkaline batts - the camera eats through them rather quickly!
Overall I'd recommend the product, and would probably fall just short of calling it "excellent", but it is more than "very good". Say 4 1/2 stars then! The automatic modes are excellent and suffice for 95% of shots I will be taking, but it's great to have the manual override for the rest. I should also mention the macro abilities of the camera, which allow some incredibly detailed and arresting close-up shots.
One final note (congrats if you made it this far!) - although list price is £900, you should be able to pick it up online for around £750. It has been in short supply though...
UPDATE: A switch broke on the camera, which turned out to be a reason for a recall anyway on a couple of batches of this model. I spoke to Minolta UK who were knowledgeable and helpful and advised me to send it to them. They said it would receive priority service (as it was a recall) and should be turned around inside 3 days. This seemed good to me, so I expected to be disappointed :-) But no: I posted it on a Monday afternoon and it was back with me on the Friday of that week. If only all customer service was as efficient. Well done Minolta!
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Hi,
I also have this camera... you say the Exposure is max 4 secs.... there is a setting i think in SHUTTER mode of the PASM dial and you use the rotary dial beside the shutter release button which if you select BULB mode allows for a max exposure time of 30 seconds...
Hope this is of help.
quizzeyq 13.01.2003 00:15
Nice Op, i have one of the older versions and looking to update, sounds like its worth a look
xadoc 31.12.2002 00:45
We were tempted by this camera as it is currently in the Argos sale catalogue for £599 and therefore a bit of a bargain, but for that price I want perfection and it doesn't sound like this camera quite makes the mark. Amazing that they supply it with 16meg memory, which is patently pretty useless!! Thanks for the informative op.
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