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Photography: THE Digital camera! Minolta Dimage 7Hi
Posted by David on May 12, 2003 - 11:08 AM
Topic: Photography
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This camera has brought the fun back into photography for me. After waiting years for digital cameras to become functionally similar to film SLR cameras this one hit the mark without going completely broke.
The majority of the pictures in the Gallery on this site are taken using the 7Hi which I got in January this year. It has all the features that a standard SLR would have such as the basics of setting the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO film speed. The more advanced features are there too with white balance, exposure bracketing, high speed multiple exposures, and many others that I am still figuring out or waiting for the right opportunity to try out. Not only is it a very capable pro/am camera it is also a terrific point and shoot for those events where all you want is to take great shots without having to take the time to tweak the settings. It works so well in that format that it can be easily used by those not interested in the advanced features. This is one of the design features that I like about Minolta's products. They have put the basic 'get the job done' functions together in a way so that the manual is not needed to use them or force you to go through multiple levels of menus to find a common function like previewing the picture taken, deleting a picture or using the flash. On the other hand the manual is required to use the more advanced features if only to understand what they do and how they work. I have run into one issue in the point and shoot that is more a user problem than one of design. When tweaking the more advanced settings it is a good idea to reset the camera back to the point and shoot settings when finished with that session or remember to check the settings before each use. I have frustrated myself several times forgetting that I had set the camera up for low light or something different and then took a bunch of shots that were not right with those settings. This is certainly not the fault of the camera design just a training issue for the user.
I had some basic criteria for a digital camera that would be useful and not frustrating. It had to be quick between picture takes pictures meaning no lag from taking one picture, writing to memory and taking the next picture. Most digital cameras (at least the ones that are not the cost of a used car) take about 10 seconds to write to memory before the next picture can be taken.This may not seem too big a problem until you start trying to take that second picture of the group because someone looked away, or pictures of sporting events.Then 10 seconds seems to take forever and the moment is lost.
The camera also needed to have a wide zoom range starting at 28mm (35mm reference). This requirement alone put the Minolta in a class of its own even against the more expensive digital SLR's. The lens on the Dimage 7 is a great lens even compared with film cameras. It is a relatively fast lens with a great range of 28mm to 200mm. After years of using 28mm to 70mm I discovered that all of the pictures taken of groups inside or scenic outdoors shots are in the 28mm to 38mm range. The wide 28 to 200 range is another good feature since the only thing not making it a true SLR camera is that the lens is not removable. Even though you cannot remove the lens you can get adapters to make a wider angle, fish eye or telephoto lens. The zoom is a manual zoom so you have greater control of the zooming process along with savings on power usage.
The storage media was another issue that I was focusing on with Compact Flash (CF) and Secure Digital (SD) being the primary ones of interest with their broad use in more than digital camera products and use by many manufacturers. Two other options for storage are the memory stick and xD. The memory stick is used mostly by Sony and limited in capacity. The xD format is physically too small making it easy to lose and hard to handle. It is also too new to have larger capacities which is a must with digital cameras. The xD is also currently limited to the digital camera in use and not used by any other devices like PDAs.
These are the top features that I used to reduce the field of possible cameras to look at. I started serious consideration last summer when the digital SLR cameras were released in the $2,000 range. After searching for a store that had a product in stock that could be tested I finally found Madison Photo Plus (www.madisonphoto.com). The staff was very professional and knowledgeable about their products. I learned that the digital SLR's are great but the $2k is just the body requiring the purchase of the lens as well. The lens were also not as wide angle or broad in overall range as the Dimage 7. This put the idea of getting a camera back on hold. Being teased though, I kept looking and reading about what was happening in the digital camera field. The more I read the more it seemed like when I first bought a computer. You had to get your feet wet sometime and whatever you buy today will be outdated tomorrow. With that, the point and shoot model became of interest. I set out with a battery pack and memory cards in hand and visited several stores. As I progressed through the stores trying hard to keep the cost down it became frustratingly obvious that an SLR was the answer. On the last stop I tried out the Nikon Coolpix 5700 and was impressed. Then gave the Minolta Dimage 7 a test. The Minolta with its 28-200 and general ease of use and camera-like feeling made for a good ending to the day of testing. I went home and read up on the model and looked up comments from people who owned it. The result was the Dimage 7i and 7Hi were winners. I went with the 7Hi not just for the black body. There were several improvements over the 7i that seemed worth the extra cost if I was going get a camera that was going be around for a while. The 7i is still a great model and Minolta is keeping both products, which is a good decision on their part, offering people a choice of a great SLR-like digital camera in a reasonable price range.
Web Sites of interest:
Minolta USA Dimage www.dimage.minolta.com
Madison Photo Plus www.madisonphoto.com
Digital Camera Reviews www.dpreview.com
Steve's Digicams www.steves-digicams.com
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