I bought my Minolta Dimage 7i about 3 years ago, but only started getting really acquainted with it about a year and a half later.

A big reason for not using it more often at first was my unfamiliarity with digital cameras prior to my purchasing the Dimage 7i, but the main reason is the fact that I still prefer the colour intensity of my Fuji Velvias and Provias.

Nowadays, I like to keep it in my bag almost every time I go out, I take a lot of pictures of my son and you never know when this magic ray of light is going to strike for a few seconds on a tree trunk or flower and then disappear again as if is it was just an illusion. This is when you have to grab the camera and be quick, but precise.

Along with the narrow viewfinder (to my liking anyway), the only other thing that annoys me with this camera is the rather low life of the rechargeable batteries. I always carry an extra set or two if I know I may be taking lots of pictures, but I am always frustrated when the first set of batteries dies out after about 60 or 70 pictures. I do take some time in preparing the composition, so the camera is on a lot, but I feel that a photographer, amateur or professional, should not have to feel stressed while taking pictures because of battery matters, at least not at such an early time…perhaps I just take too many pictures. But I think most digital cameras do eat up battery life much faster than SLRs do. In any case, as long as you are well prepared, all should be swell.

The Minolta Dimage 7i has a lot of features, I would say too many almost, but if you like to play around, they are fun, although I do not use them much.

Metering modes are multi-segment, center-weighted and spot metering.

It has different filter modes for taking pictures in black and white, infrared and sepia style, which are a nice extra.

And this brings us to the fact that card it uses is a compact flash card, this is what is so nice about digital cameras, you take lots of pictures on one or more cards, depending on the megabytes it has (the camera comes with a 16MB card), download them onto your computer, save them onto a disc (I advise always making extra copies) and then erase them and use the card again. What an economy.

The thing I most dislike about printing digital images at home is that, the image you see on the computer is almost never the one that will print out. Depending on the program you are using (photoshop elements, photoshop 6 or 5….) the paper you are using, the way you have saved your image and other little details, you will get a different image. You also spend a lot of money on ink. But if you stick to one sort of paper (I recomment Ilford Galerie smooth or classic) and ink, after a while, you know whether you have to add or take away contrast or brightness from the image etc… It is a matter of practice and patience.

It has a remote control as well, which I have never used, and the self-timer lasts 10 sec, and thankfully, it has a tripod mount.

Never EVER open the Compact Flash compartment either to put or remove a card, when the camera is on and the light is still on in the data panel, as this will erase all your pictures and render the card unusable. This is the mistake I made and I lost 70 photos… this really hurt. I do believe this goes not only for the Dimage 7i but for all digital cameras. Please do remember this.

If I said that I do not use it for professional work, it is simply that the photo libraries I provide images to do not take digital photos yet, and because I sooooo enjoy slides and printing my own B&W photos, there is something magical about this and I love to "paint with light" in the darkroom.