NOTE: IT IS BEST TO VIEW THESE IMAGES AT 16K COLORS OR HIGHER
Here are some of the first pictures I took with my new Minolta Dimage V. The Dimage V is a 640X480 digital camera with a optical zoom.
I think the Minolta Dimage V is one of the best deals out there right now in a 640x480 camera. CompUSA is selling them on their website $299 with an AC adapter.
On to the initial impressions:
Niceties:
Optical Zoom, Built in Flash, TFT display, Macro, Removable smart storage media (expandable and inexpensive), Detachable swivel lens, 2 levels of picture quality (both at 640x480.), nice picture quality (good color saturation.)
Not so Nice:
No optical viewfinder, eats batteries (as do all cameras with active tft displays), no lens cap, exposure compensation problems, difficult to see display in bright light and jerky updates, display is dark and difficult to view in darker flash situations, battery door doesn't have lock...too easy to accidently pop open, flash is on body of camera...therefore is not necessarilly aimed correctly when swiveling or using lens in detached mode.
The camera ships with 4 double AA's. Save those to use with something they will really work with (like a walkman or something) because they don't even have enough umph for one flash photo. I intalled a set of Panasonic 1100mAH NiCD's which have lasted for about 40 pictures (a dozen with flash) so far and a couple of download sessions. You also get a 2M Smart media card which is good for 16 fine resolution or 40 standard resolution prints (depending on complexity of the picture...I'm getting only 12-13 pictures on fine.) For websized pics the standard is OK but I could really notice jpeg artifacting when I tried to print 4X6" prints at that mode.
I was immediately impressed with the color saturation of the pictures. This camera produced prints that were much warmer than I had seen before from digital cameras (though still not as accurate as with photographic silver film.) I took a number of pics in varying lighting conditions. The results were good quality with the occasional problem. Outside, the pictures were rich and colorful. Unfortunately, it was difficult to see the screen in bright light and the jerky screen updating didn't help either (there is a screen brightness setting which helps but doesn't completely fix the problem.) Inside the screen is very viewable...as long as the lighting was sufficient. In lower light the screen performs how the camera would without flash. That means you see a dark grainy view with barely recognizable shapes or, as lower light levels, nothing at all. Framing the shot in these situations is a trial and error, hit and miss process. The pictures, though, come out pretty good with the built in flash.
I did find a few instances where the auto settings failed. On macro mode it looked like I took some pictures too close (they were out of focus.) It is difficult to judge the focus on the screen and the I don't think the camera gave me any indication that there would be a problem. On another shot of a white cat indoors, with flash, the cat was totally washed out. I tried setting the exposure compensation to its max darkness, but the problem persisted. Another time the flash went off outdoors while taking a picture of my black lab. It obviously was compensating for metering off his dark fur but the result was a slightly washed out shot.
Overall, I'd judge the camera as a good value in its price range. I got it to see if the advantages of digital picture taking would outweigh the disadvantages. This camera convinced me that digital photography is more than just a neat experiment.
Unfortunately, it also convinced me to get a Nikon CP900 for its improved resolution, optical viewfinder and adjustable exposure modes. It also convinced me to get a Photo-quality printer like the HP Photosmart. Oh well.
For its price range, the Minolta is a good value.
These are the first shots I saved correctly. The default format for saving shots is .bmp. That means the picture download program from the camera converts the images to .bmps from their native .jpg storage. I'd have to reconvert them to .jpgs to publish them. Because of this default I originally downloaded all my shots as .bmps...a waste of space.
I think I'm becoming disenchanted with auto-white balance. This is the function that tries to balance the pictures colors. It is similar to installing a skylight filter for taking pictures in bright light with a regular camera (or a pink filter for indoor flourescent photography.) Unfortunately, if you have a lot of one color in the picture the auto-white balance starts compensating for something it shouldn't compensate for and throws the other colors off. I think this is why the pictures of my son with the red shirt have cool fleshtones while the pictures of my son with the green shirt are better balanced.
Overall, though, I am happy with the quality of the pictures from this camera. It has better color saturation vs. digital pictures I have seen in the past.
I'll post some more pictures when I get time (including ones where I pushed the light.)
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