Minolta DiMAGE Z1

...er… here’s the camera: The Minolta Dimage Z1

WHERE DID I BUY IT?
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I bought it on pixmania.com (see my review about this great website), because it was the cheaper I found. I paid £189 for it in June 2004. Today, on the 26/07/04 it costs £178 (bastards!).

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?
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A camera. Yes, a camera. However, it looks like a flashy ...
.../> You get:
- Minolta Dimage Z1 Camera
- TV Cable
- USB Cable
- Neck Strap
- Lens Cap
- 4 AA Batteries (not rechargeable)
- User's Manual (for basics)
- Software (Dimage viewer) + electronic manual (complete)
- Shit loads of advertisement and paper (they fed my bin)
- one year warranty with the manufacturer (Minolta), and for me one extra year with pixmania (for free of course)
more

BACKGROUND
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I wanted a digital camera for a long time. I wanted something good, but cheap (you know me). And I did. Here is the object of my fantasies… hum… er… here’s the camera: The Minolta Dimage Z1

WHERE DID I BUY IT?
***************************
I bought it on pixmania.com (see my review about this great website), because it was the cheaper I found. I paid £189 for it in June 2004. Today, on the 26/07/04 it costs £178 (bastards!).

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?
**********************************
A camera. Yes, a camera. However, it looks like a flashy one.
Don’t expect women to throw their bras or knickers at you when you show the camera. For me they did, but that’s for other reasons, which are not the subject here.
Ok ok… I can feel your insisting look on the screen, so I’ll tell you: I am the sexiest minger in the world. Happy?
To come back to the camera, it is fairly big, which can be a problem for some people. I have been told that when choosing a camera, you need to consider the lens’ size, and the Dimage z1 was the only one with such a big lens for the price range. Therefore, the camera is bigger. The size is 4.31 x 3.05 x 3.15 inches (109.5 x 77.5 x 80mm) , and the weight approximately 10.8oz. (305g) without batteries or recording media.

FIRST CONTACT WITH THE CAMERA
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Well, open your hand and grab it dammit! The camera is very ergonomic. It fits nicely in every hand, and it is fairly easy to use. The controls and dials are laid out for clear, intuitive operation. The large exposure mode dial and zoom lever are located on top of the grip for quick changes to camera settings. The controller on the back of the camera is a straightforward, five-way array used to control many of the camera’s advanced features and menus.
It hasn’t got too many buttons, so it is easy to take your first pictures without reading the instructions (and I am a muppet in digital photography, so…). However, if you want to use the full potential of the camera, I advice to read the instruction manual.

The menus are very understandable and easy to explore.

WHAT DO I GET WHEN I BUY IT?
***************************************
You get:
- Minolta Dimage Z1 Camera
- TV Cable
- USB Cable
- Neck Strap
- Lens Cap
- 4 AA Batteries (not rechargeable)
- User's Manual (for basics)
- Software (Dimage viewer) + electronic manual (complete)
- Shit loads of advertisement and paper (they fed my bin)
- one year warranty with the manufacturer (Minolta), and for me one extra year with pixmania (for free of course)

Note that it is very sad that you don’t get any case for the thing. I almost cried.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO BUY EXTRA
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Well, the case. There are several on the market, and you can find some on ebay with a starting price of about £5. The official Minolta case is £30 (ouch).
I managed to get a case for £11.99 on 7dayshop.com (again, see my review about this website).

You also need to buy rechargeable batteries, because it is a lot better (because cheaper on the long run) than normal ones.

An d finally I invested in a 256MB SD card.

OK OK, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE CAMERA???
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Well, I am fully satisfied. It is easy to use, the pictures are great…

The Dimage Z1 is a 3.2Mega pixel camera with a 10X OPTICAL zoom (the biggest on the market for this price). On top of that, there is a 4X digital zoom; which is in total a 40X zoom.
I have taken about 500 pictures in 1.5 month, and I have to say that the quality of the pictures is fantastic.

OK, I will try to comment on every bit of the camera, and believe me, there is plenty of bits!

40X Mega-Zoom (10X Optical, 4X Digital) Lens
The Dimage Z1 is the first Minolta digital camera to be equipped with a 10X Mega-zoom lens. With a focal range of 5.8mm to 58mm, this lens is equivalent to a 38 – 380mm lens in the 35mm format. The 10X Mega-zoom is a fast f2.8 – f3.5 lens allowing fast shutter speeds for sports or natural-light photography. The ten-element seven-group lens design contains two aspheric lenses to minimize aberrations and produce beautifully crisp images.
When combined with the seamless 4X Digital Zoom function, the Mega-zoom lens has an outstanding 40X zoom range, equivalent to a 38 – 1520mm lens.
The zoom is definitely very impressive and useful. When photographing animals, it is great, because you just don’t scare them. At full optical zoom, the picture is fantastic. It is when you start using the digital zoom that the picture gets grainy.

Rapid Autofocus
Powerful optics combined with a high-resolution 3.3 megapixel 1/2.7 interline primary-colour CCD require a powerful autofocus system. The Dimage Z1 features Rapid AF to ensure sharp images with minimum delay. The Rapid AF system uses high-speed drive to focus the lens quickly and smoothly – a 0.3 second focusing time at a focal length of 5.8mm and 0.4 seconds at 58mm -- giving the Dimage Z1 the world’s fastest AF among digital cameras with a built-in 10X or greater optical zoom. That’s great, because you almost don’t have any delay between pressing the button and the picture being taken. It is almost the same than a normal camera. Because on a lot of digital cameras, when you press the button, the time the camera reacts, the subject is gone or has moved.

TV Quality Movie Recording
High-quality VGA (640 x 480) movies at 30fps can be recorded, with quality comparable to S-VHS video. Image size and frame rate can be selected to balance image quality with file size. Three image sizes are available: 640 x 480, 320 x 240, and 160 x 120. Because of the high frame rate of the CCD, movies may be shot at 30fps to create natural flicker-free images, or 15fps to maximize recording time. The length of the movie is only limited by the memory card capacity, image size, and frame rate. Some digital cameras can just shot 3 minutes at a time, but here it is not the case.
Because the Dimage Z1 can capture large, high-quality VGA movies, image sharpness and brightness is critical. During recording the Z1 will continue to autofocus to provide the sharpest possible image. Additionally, a night-movie mode can make colour recordings under extreme low-light conditions. The quality and the sound of the videos is very nice. However, when zooming to much, you can see the pixels of the pictures. I personally always record with the average quality (320 x 240), and with 256MB, I can film for about 15 minutes.

Progressive Capture Mode
Minolta’s new Progressive Capture drive mode makes sure you never miss the action. When the shutter-release button is pressed and held, Progressive Capture begins saving images in the buffer memory. Simply watch the action on the monitor and when it’s over, release the shutter button and the images in the buffer memory will be saved to the memory card. Six frames are saved with standard continuous advance and 10 frames with UHS continuous advance.

Fast Startup/Response Time
You just press one button, and the camera comes to life. Yes. The lens comes out (some perverse will think of a sexual thing) and the camera is ready to go. The startup time is very quick: a mere 2 seconds and shutdown time is 2.4 seconds. However, when the batteries are running low, you might have to press the button several times to switch the thing on.
After focus has been locked, the shutter-release time lag is 0.06 second -- comparable to a 35mm SLR camera. The Z1 is ready to capture another image in just 1.2 seconds after the previous exposure.

Super Macro Mode
The Dimage Z1’s Super Macro mode lets you focus as close as 1.6 in. (4cm) from the front of the lens. Which I guess is quite appropriate for insects photography.

Switch Finder
The Dimage Z1 is equipped with Minolta’s exclusive Switch Finder. This system allows the camera’s LCD monitor to be viewed either directly or through the viewfinder. Since a single monitor is used, you don’t need to worry about the colour, contrast, and resolution difference between separate rear and viewfinder monitors. With the viewfinder’s large apparent angle-of-view, the monitor image is big and clear. This option is very useful in some conditions. Sometimes you see better on the viewfinder than on the screen… You can switch between them with just a flick of finger. The view finder also allows to save batteries, as less power is required than for the screen.

Real Motion LCD Monitor
The Real Motion LCD monitor uses a 60fps frame rate. This Real Motion frame rate brings the live image to life -- showing action smoothly compared to the slower 30fps rate of conventional monitors.

Powerful Built-In Flash
The Dimage Z1 packs the most powerful flash ever built into a Minolta digital camera. With a guide number of 39 feet (12 meters), the flash can illuminate a subject up to approximately 20 ft. (6m) away when used at the wide-angle position with autoexposure and auto camera sensitivity. It is also important to tell here that the flash is not always required in low light conditions… For indoors pictures, most of the time you don’t need any flash.
Furthermore, you have several flash options: Autoflash, Autoflash with red-eye reduction, Fill flash, Slow-shutter sync. Autoflash not available with aperture priority, shutter priority, and manual exposure modes. Flash cancel by pushing the built-in flash down.

Automatic Digital Subject Program Selection
In the past, photographers always had to make time-consuming manual adjustments as the subject and shooting environment changed. The Dimage Z1’s Automatic Digital Subject Program Selection analyzes the shooting conditions and selects the optimum exposure, white-balance, and image-processing program. Additionally, five subject programs: portrait, sports action, landscape, sunset, and night portrait, cover common and specialized shooting conditions and can be selected manually.

Automatic Monitor Amplification
When working in less than ideal lighting conditions, precisely framing an image on the monitor can be difficult. The Dimage Z1’s automatic monitor amplification brightens the monitor under low light so the live image is always visible. This is good, but sometimes can be confusing, because you tend to think you don’t need the flash… So sometimes, you have to take another picture with flash…

Custom Settings
The Z1’s operations can be tailored to meet the photographer’s needs. The function set using the flash-mode button can be customized to control the flash mode, white balance, drive mode, focusing mode, or colour mode. Images can be rotated to orient them correctly so you don’t need to twist your head to the left or right when playing back vertically framed shots.

Dark Noise Reduction
Dark noise, an ever-present problem in electronic systems, manifests itself by giving a grainy or sandy appearance to images taken with long exposures. The Dimage Z1 combats this with a selectable noise-reduction function, which automatically activates for exposures of one second or longer.

P/A/S/M Exposure Modes
Like a fine 35mm SLR camera, the Z1 provides four exposure-control modes: programmed AE, aperture priority, shutter priority, and manual. Additionally, 30-second bulb exposures can be made in manual exposure mode.

Creative Color Modes
As well as natural colour and black & white, the Dimage Z1 has two colour modes for creative control: vivid colour and sepia. Vivid colour increases the saturation to produce vibrant colour images. Sepia creates the feel of antique photographs with its warm tone.

Preset or Custom White Balance
White balance controls how the camera interprets the colour of the ambient lighting. Auto white balance compensates for changes in lighting automatically. Five preset white-balance settings: daylight, cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent, and flash, can be selected for specific light sources. For critical control over colour, the custom setting allows the camera to be calibrated to the lighting conditions at the scene.

Fluid Playback
Part of the excitement of digital photography is being able to immediately see the pictures you have taken. With the flick of a switch, you can access the recorded images; playback is fluid from frame to frame. You can see the videos you just shot onto the screen, and finally you can erase pictures directly from the camera.

Uses AA Batteries
Easy-to-find AA batteries power the Dimage Z1. Alkaline or rechargeable Ni-MH can be used. No matter where you are in the world, you will never have to worry about finding extra batteries.

I find this camera very versatile. I feel like I can grow as a photographer with this camera, without feeling left back. You can use the automatic settings when you are a beginner, and then interfere with any setting when you are a pro…

I am personally fully satisfied, and feel like this is an excellent value for money.

However, If you want to get your pictures printed in a bigger size than A4, I think this camera will be not really appropriate. When seen on a laptop’s screen, the pictures are really clear and colourful. But then I assume that if you stretch it bigger, the picture will get grainy.
The Dimage z2 is exactly the same, but it offers 4 Mega pixels instead, probably a lot more appropriate if you want to print bigger than A4.
They also released the z3, which has 4 Mega pixels but a bigger zoom (12X). Obviously these will be more expensive…

BATTERY LIFE
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Well, I was just astonished. I put the included 4 AA batteries thinking that I would be able to play with my camera for about 1.5 hour, but it actually lasted 3 weeks! And believe me, I played a lot with it! I have now 2 sets of 4 rechargeable batteries that I have to recharge every month.
Note that this camera uses 4 batteries in one go, but it does last ages, even if you leave the camera on, and on the digital screen. If you don’t use it for a little while, the screen will automatically turn itself off, but will switch on quickly as soon as you press a button.
I found it just kick arse. I swear I was waiting to change the batteries, but it happened just really later.

SOUNDS
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The camera has some sound effects, which can be turned off if wished. There is little sounds when you move in the menus, take a picture of switch on / off the camera.
There is no use, just to show off.

MEMORY CARD
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This camera uses the SD cards (secure digital). They are fairly expensive, but I managed to get a great bargain on ebay. I got a 256MB superfast loading for £38.
With 256MB, you can store 150 picture with the highest quality, and about 326 with the average one. On the low quality, you can store more than 500 pictures.
For the videos, average quality allows you to shoot 14 minutes, high quality 6.

TRANSFER OF DATA
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The transfer is quite quick: When I filled my 256MB fully, it took about 6 minutes to download everything through a USB1 port. And I had a mix of pictures and videos.

CONS
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There are few of them….

In dark conditions, you can’t focus very well. The camera struggles to focus, and you end up taking pictures without really seeing what you take. However, if you are using the flash, it usually isn’t blurry. The picture is clear and light. I am maybe not doing it properly, I don’t know. Anyway, I still need to read the electronic manual…

When zooming with the 40x zoom (optical + digital), the picture is grainy… But that’s expected. However, the 10X zoom is perfect. You also need to be quite steady when taking the picture, because otherwise, it can be blurry (especially in low-light condition)

The size of the camera. It is not the kind of camera you can slide in your jeans pocket without risking a testicular cancer on the long run. It is big, yes, but hey, it is good. SO it is hard to get it in gigs… But I have my technique: put it in aluminium foil with slices of bread on each side, wrap it and it looks and feels like a sandwich. Put it in a plastic bag with a bottle of water and 2 peaches to reinforce the effect. I did it this summer, because in France, cameras are forbidden in gigs. And it worked…

CONCLUSION
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I would definitely recommend this camera for the people with low budget, willing to get good quality stuff.
I personally enjoy using this camera, and I am fully pleased with it. The pictures I’ve taken are fantastic. I will attach some in the next few days.
**UPDATE** I added some pictures of my holidays. All the pictures are here just out of the camera. I haven't retouched any of them. Have fun. I commented them.

MORALE
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It is very difficult to find an oyster’s anus.

Thanks for reading...

J

 

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