1. 2.1 megapixel sensor captures 1600 x 1200 images for clear 8-by-10-inch prints
2. 3x optical plus 2x digital (6x total) zoom lens with autofocus
3. Included 8 MB Secure Digital (SD) card holds 13 images at default resolution
4. Connects with Macs and PCs via USB port
5. Rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery included

Customer Review :

view finder out of alignment

After 2 years the view finder became distorted and out of alignment. Hopefully it can be repaired but there seems to be a lot of used cameras of this model advertised. I wonder why?

Rating :

I lost it

I bought this when I was mobilized for OIF. I kept it in the pocket of my blouse the whole time, shooting pictures every where I went. Great shots, plenty of storage space. I never felt the need to use max resolution. Unfortuantely I lost it last week and am shopping for a replacement. I'm checking out the X31 and X50 which cost less than this one was.

Rating :

A small fun camera- - great features

I have had this camera for about three years, an it is a great machine.It is small, light weight, and it takes o.k. pictures. When I bought it, it only held 12 picture, (I don't know why)but I recently bought a new memory card,and it is great. You can make voice recordings, and take small video clips (35 seconds). The battery life is ok, but not what I would have wanted. Overall, this camera is a great digital camera.

Rating :

Cheap plastic battery door - $181

Cute size encourages leisure use, but beware of the fragility of this camera. I dropped it and broke the cheap plastic battery cover and the tiny plastic battery hold-down tab. Minolta wanted $181 to replace. Seems like a rip-off since these are simple plastic parts and are easily accessible. Poor service.

Rating :

My first digital camera

This camera is the best. This is my first digital camera. I had two cameras before this one. I had a 110 and cheap 35mm. The thing I hate most about bringing a camera is having to carry it. This camera is smaller than my wallet. I take it everywhere.
I will tell you about the "bad" things first. When I give the camera to other people to take pictures, sometimes they put their finger over the lens. Since the camera is small some people's fat fingers get in the way. If you have small hands like me you will be ok. I have had trouble taking action shots at a distance. I think this is mostly because I don't know how to use the camera. I read the manual again and hope to correct this problem. The battery has a very short life if you take many picture. You will need a second battery and a bigger memory card. If you don't take more than 50 picture at an event you should be okay. The optical zoom could be better too.

Now for the "great" stuff about the camera. The only reason you should look at this camera is if you want a small, point and click camera. If you want a camera with many buttons and settings to adjust to get the perfect shot, this is not your camera. The menus are easy to follow. Don't use the usb cable to send the pictures to your PC. Buy a card reader. I went to a camera store and they said there is a possibility of the camera getting fried. For the money it is worth it. I don't use the video feature. If I want videos I will buy a video camera. I bought a 128 meg SD card. I took about 500 picture at Disney and they all fit on the same card. I used the second resolution setting. With a 128 MB card I could have taken 999 pictures. I used to be conservative taking pictures. I didn't want to waste film. With this camera I take pictures of everything. If I don't like it, I delete it. I got a good deal on the price of this camera. For the money, this camera is worth it.

Rating :

More reviews...

1. 5.24 megapixel (4.95 effective megapixels) sensor creates 2560 x 1950 images for prints at 13 by 17 inches and beyond
2. 7x optical plus 2x digital (14x total) zoom lens with autofocus
3. Included 16 MB CompactFlash card holds 5 images at default resolution
4. Movie mode captures up to 60 seconds of video with audio
5. Powered by 4 AA NiMH rechargeable batteries (charger included); connects with Macs and PCs via USB connector

Customer Review :

ITEM DID NOT WORK

I GAVE THIS ITEM AS A GIFT.I BOUGHT IT 30 DAYS OR SO BEFORE I NEEDED IT. GOT WORD THAT IT WAS DEFECTIVE. I EMAILED THE COMPANY THROUGH AMAZON WITH NO RESPONSE SO I CALLED THE COMPANY AND LEFT A MESSAGE, NO RESPONSE. BE CAREFUL.

Rating :

They just don't make 'em like they used to.

I recently purchased a 7i through Amazon's marketplace, and have been having a blast with it. The lens is fantastic- wide angle all the way to long zoom. The manual zoom makes this camera feel like a proper SLR. The camera gives great feedback on the LCD about what an exposure will look like. The autofocus is good, but hunts a bit sometimes... so locking on to something and keeping the shutter half down is the way to go. The battery usage is pretty heavy, and you need a spare set (or two) of good new NiMH batteries if you're planning on shooting more than 150 shots in a day. In my experience, 2100 mah hybrid NiMH batteries last about 3 days of intermittent use.

The images that come out of this camera have been uniformly great. Some people have complained about noise at higher ISO settings, and yes, there is noise... that looks just like high ISO film grain. Sometimes I want that grainy effect, and cranking the ISO to 800 gets it for me.

I'm very happy with this camera, even if it is 6 years old. It is a shame that Minolta went out of the camera business, because this is a fantastic image catcher.

Rating :

Zoom Lens Fell Off

I own two Minolta Dimage 7i cameras. The first one took beautiful photographs. I had it only nine months when the manual zoom adjustment started acting up. Within a week the lens fell out in my hand. Calling a few camera shops I was quoted average $300+ for parts and labor to repair it. I could buy a used one for less. Since I had recently gotten a TTL flash, and had several lenses and wired remote for the 7i, and was quite happy with the quality of the photos, I decided to buy a used one to replace the broken one.

The first photos I took with the replacement camera were very noisy, washed out color, and not true-color. I attributed it to low light, it was evening, and maybe I hadn't adjusted somthing right. After taking more photos over the next week I came to realize that this camera just took bad photos. Very noisy, the auto focus rarely focused correctly like my first one had, it took terrible photographs. I even upgraded the flash rom to the latest one available on the Minolta web site. This didn't help. Then I started noticing there were small differences in the two camera bodies, so checked their serial numbers. My first one that took beautiful photos has a serial number in the 290,000 range, the replacement camera serial number is in the 94,000,000 range. A much newer camera and obviously made with inferior cheaper parts than the older one.

I had owned the newer one about two months, and hadn't taken that many photographs with it because they come out terrible, most are unusable photos, when the manual focus ring started acting up just like my first one had. My heart sank into my stomach. I know what it means.. it won't be long before the lens falls off this camera too. I havn't taken many photos with it since because I know it's life isn't long.

I don't know when I'll be able to afford to buy another camera to replace it. But I know one thing for sure... it won't be a Minolta.

Don 'Duck' Landes

Rating :

Horrid Autofocus/Noise, Otherwise Great!

I got this camera *years* ago! I still work with it occasionally, but back in it's hayday, I used it for bulb photography with lightning. The plus was using infinity and not autofocus (because the autofocus is horrendous), but the negatives were a maximum 60 second bulb and lots of noise. Of course, back when this camera was $1,000+, it was pretty good. Still, in the daylight it takes beautifully vivid photos. I upgraded the firmware on it just before Konica halted the production of all cameras, which was supposed to fix the autofocus, but didn't make any difference to me. It's been through rain, snow and heat and has still held up. She's probably been through at least 10,000 pictures (lots of lightning photos that contained no lightning, probably every 95 in 100 were deleted). Very robust. Still gets four stars despite it's problems. I'll keep it til it dies!

Rating :

purchested used in 2006

i can only say that i wish i could have afforded the $1100 dollars new
price in 2002 because the image quality of the 7i is increadable.

Rating :

More reviews...

1. 5.24 megapixel (5.0 effective megapixels) sensor creates 2560 x 1950 images for prints at 13 by 17 inches and beyond
2. 7x optical plus 2x digital (14x total) zoom lens with autofocus
3. Included 16 MB CompactFlash card holds 5 images at default resolution
4. 60 second movie mode records at 15 fps; built-in flash synchronization terminal
5. Connects with Macs and PCs via USB connector; powered by four NiMH rechargeable batteries

Customer Review :

it's just okay

I've had this camera just a little over a year and have made it through learning the modes in the rather large instruction manual and the one problem I have is not-so clear pictures! It either get a pixelated photo or it just is slightly out of focus! I thought there was something wrong with my camera alone but I went to: dpreview.com to their gallery and found pictures taken by actual digital cameras by actual people and in 18 pictures listed for this camera ALL of them were blurry/not sharp as well. If you are shopping for a camera go to dpreview first and see what kind of pictures it takes.

Rating :

Overall Quite good

I bought my 7HI used about 6 months ago. I come from a manual-focus film background and this is my first digital. Overall, I am pleased with the results I get from this camera. I like the fact you can manual focus. Also, the ability to use filters such as a polarizer and black and white filters is a bonus. (This is one of my main complaints about many point and shoots-no filter threads).The ability to shoot RAW and TIFF files is also an important feature. I've gotten some great Macro shoots with this camera too. The overall image quality seems quite good. There is some noise especially at higher ISO. I am not too impressed with the landscape shots I've taken. Even at f8 it still seems that something is out of focus. The lack of depth of field markings on the lens does not help. You can not use "Hyperfocal focusing" techniques. Image quality in my opinion still can not touch film- especially slide film. I find too the autofocus is slow with moving subjects

So far I've had no major problems with this camera. Every now and then it does something weird but I just take the batteries out and reboot and it seems OK.It has many great features on it and, thus, is not for the inexperienced photographer unless you just want to shoot on program all the time and not use the extra features. Overall, a good camera. I would probably not buy one new but if you can pick one up used for a good price then I would recommend it over a point and shoot style digicams or if you can't afford a digital SLR.

Rating :

Minolta Dimage 7Hi waste of money

I purchased my Minolta two years ago. After about 1 year the flash housing came apart, and now the camera's EVF and LCD displays went completely black (no images displayed). The same has happened to Mad Max's camera - read his review. The charge to repair is in excess of $ 350.00. I would dump the camera but don't want to contaminate the land fill.

Rating :

Reliability leaves something to be desired

I purchased my Minolta Dimage 7Hi new 2 years ago. Performance was fine up until two weeks ago when the camera's EVF and LCD displays went completely black (no images displayed). Contacted Sony (where you now have to go for Minolta service) as instructed and found that the base flat rate for repair was $211 plus $22 shipping. They got me once, but they won't get me twice!
MadMax

Rating :

Enjoyed it until it broke...

When I purchased this camera 3 years ago (2003), it was about as close as you could get to a dSLR without forking over $2000 to buy one. Given that context, I would have rated the camera 4.5 to 5 stars at the time.

But now, with so many new, affordable dSLRs available, I couldn't offer more than 2 stars.

Some time in the last 6 months, after sitting unused for about 3-4 months, my CCD suddenly went out, causing all images to appear in an odd shade of purple. Needless to say, it will costs several hundred dollars to have it check out...

The autofocus is far too slow by current standards, and shooting moving objects with autofocus is next to impossible. Although the zoom is a true manual ring/gear mechanism, the manual focus ring is electronic, and therefore not as tactile or responsive as a true SLR.

The camera is quite a battery hog, so I nearly always run off an AC adaptor or an external battery back.

The good things:
Great image quality (when using low ISO).
Convenient 7x optical zoom (300mm equivalent)
Easy to use, with many onboard image processing options.
Built in Quicktime movies with audio
Direct output to A/V
Fairly quick dumps to high-speed CF cards

Bad:
Evidently the CCD is not built to last (see previous two posts)
Tripod mount not centered along axis of lens
Slow autofocus
Battery hog
Manual focus is not truly manual

Summary, I'm probably going to toss this in the back of the closet and buy a Canon Digital Rebel XT... (For a bit over half of what I paid for my minolta...)

Rating :

More reviews...

1. 5 MP CCD captures enough detail for photo-quality 13 x 17-inch prints
2. 8x optical zoom; fast start-up time of .5 second
3. Rapid AF focuses in approximately 0.3 second in wide angle and telephoto modes
4. 1.5-inch LCD; macro mode for shooting subjects from as close as 1 centimeter away
5. Stores images on SD cards; powered by 4 AA batteries (alkaline or Ni-MH)

Editorial Review :

The Konica-Minolta DiMAGE Z20 is ideal for first-time digital photographers or consumers looking to upgrade. This small, efficient camera is perfect for taking high quality, close-up portraits or distant, scenic landscapes. The flash button can be customized to handle different settings, for added flexibility and convenience. The Rapid AF with Predictive Focus Control captures those perfect photographic opportunities, while the large 1.5-inch LCD screen and powerful built-in optical zoom, taking terrific digital pictures has never been easier or more effective. Night Movie records under extreme low-light conditions XR (Extended Recording) Movie mode lets users record long movie clips onto the SD card Predictive Focus Control predicts the location of a moving subject for sharper focus Movie Frame Capture saves scenes from a movie as still images 32x total zoom captures everything from sporting events to panoramas 14.5MB internal storage PictBridge*4 Compliant Ergonomic form gives users a steady grip Requires 4 AA alkaline batteries (included) Weight - Approx. 10.6oz. (300g) without batteries or recording media

Customer Review :

Love the Konica Minolta Dimage Z20!!

We had the Dimage Z10 3MP and loved it. We were in Hawaii on the black sand beach where we dropped it and broke the battery lid latch. Otherwise we would still be using it. We liked it so much that we went out of our way to find this very hard to find Z20. Is it the best camera out there? No. There are better with more options. However, for simplicity and quality, with good features, this is the best for us. The other reason to buy this camera is the price. Under $200. Great buy!

Rating :

Poor quality photos indoors

I have owned this camera for a year now and I am not able to get good quality photos indoors. Most of my indoor photos have turned out dark. I have missed a lot of great photos (concerts, award ceremony, pageants, etc.) because of this camera.

Rating :

Not so great.

I bought this camera because it was a good price for a 5 megapixel digital camera plus Konica Minolta is a good name in cameras. The viewing screen is small but worst of all its got a lot of noise in it; it's virtually impossible to see if your shot is clean and in focus. The camera doesn't have an image stabilizer so the slightest movement and you've got a blurry shot. It's bulky and odd looking and doesn't travel well.

It's one year later and I'm going to buy a Sony DSCW50 because it's smaller, lighter, thinner, has an image stabilizer, is user friendly and with a longer battery life.

Rating :

WOW!! LOVE THIS CAMERA

I bought this refubished from a dealer here and I feel like I took advantage of Amazon. This is a great camera with amazing control and it is easy to use. I would not recommend it to a novice photographer but if you love to plow through menus to get the results you want this is the camera for you. It also starts up very quickly and sips battery power. I took at least 300-400 photos on my first set of batteries. Buy it and love it.

Rating :

User friendly!

I was looking for something to replace my Sony Cybershot and had my eye on this model for some time. While picking up pictures at my local Sam Walton's, I found this one reduced to 199.00 and bought it. It takes incredible pictures and it's very comfortable to use, even those "can you take one of us" to a stranger comes out great. The flash is simple and you can zoom and snap with one hand at the same time. There are two drawbacks in my opinion, the lens cap is not attached and it seems to eat batteries. I quickly switched to rechargeables and have since found that by not using the LCD display all the time and switching to rechargeables eliminates that aspect of it. It's not a mini, you definitely know that it's dangling from your neck but none of these would keep me from making this purchase again. I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good quality camera.

Rating :

More reviews...

1. 3.2 megapixel sensor captures enough detail to create photo-quality 8 x 10 prints and medium-quality prints up to 11 x 14
2. 3x optical zoom and 4x digital zoom (for 12x total)
3. Compatible with Secure Digital and MMC memory cards
4. Can create 6 MP images through interpolation; movie mode limited only by resolution and memory card size
5. Powered by 2 AA batteries (alkalines included; rechargeable NiMH recommended); connects to PCs and Macs via USB 1.1

Editorial Review :

Interested in large prints? If so, then the DiMAGE E323 is your "smart" choice. It not only captures detail-rich 3.2 megapixel images, but also knows how to expand shots to the stunning equivalent of 6 megapixels. Through a process called pixel interpolation, you'll get the data needed for prints larger than A3-size (297 mm x 420 mm / 11.7 inches x 16.5 inches, 150dpi). And whatever the image size, Minolta expertise ensures sharp, clear colors.Thanks to a wide 12x zoom range, you can frame your shots as you like with a variety of scenes. 3x optical zoom brings a far-off subject within reach, and when that's not enough 4x digital zoom puts you even closer.The macro setting is great for shooting small subjects, such as flowers or miniatures. It creates the type of shot where your subject stands out in sharp detail against a soft, unfocused background.Superb shots without a fuss are what the DiMAGE E323 delivers. When you're ready to shoot, it handles various factors for you. Focusing, exposure, white balance, and flash are adjusted automatically.

Customer Review :

unreliable camera

Initially I was very satisfied with this camera. It made fine pictures. And that was all I wanted. But after a few month the battery compartment cover, would not stay closed anymore. I had to wind tape around the battery cover to keep it closed. That worked for about one month. Than that would not help anymore either. Now I can make only three pictures before I have to open the camera to recharge the batteries. I am very much frustrated and will throw the camera onto the dump heap!
Even one star is high as a rating for this piece of junk.
A. Helmut Fickenwirth

Rating :

Sandy pictures

PROS:
1. Compact. small form factor.
2. SD not CF
3. 3X Optical
4. Very inexpensive. I bought from Costco for $190 (but returned within 3 days because of the cons).

CONS:
1. All indoor pictures taken with flash came out sandy when enlarge to 200%. You can see freckles on the skin even though the person has no freckles!!!!
2. Failed to auto focus when using the digital zoom indoors. However hard I tried to get to autofocus while in digital zoom, I couldn't. Once I brought it back to optical, it focused clearly.

There are other pros and cons but they're minor. Some related to the user interface, some to batteries.

Rating :

Good quality with cheap price

I bought this camera from Costco and the camera did the good job. It made nice and high resolution pictures. I had no problem about the digital zoom indoor or anything about the problem when zoom to 200%. All pictures are clear with no freakles on skin. I suggest use microsoft digital image pro 9 to edit and zoom the pictures. It did the perfect job. If you had any problem about the created image, your software must have problem. Now I enjoy all the pictures that I took because I really look like a professional cameraman. Five stars on this product. Oh ! except one con: battery drain too fast. Buy rechargable battery.. remember !

Rating :

Perfect Pictures!

I have this camera since a few years now. The only problem is that you need to use regular batteries for it. Besides that it's perfect. I've made super crisp pictures, been able to take some of my aquarium fish, with amazing results. The pictures look like in a magazine! Really great.

Plus this camera has enough funtions for everyone and is very easy to handle. There are no miniature buttons, wher you could press two instead of the one targeted for, the screen is big enough to really see instantly if your picture is good or not and you can even record videos with it depending on the size of your SD card.

Can be connected to a cumputer via USB port and has not only a digital but also optical zoom. All together 12x zoom.



Rating :

Indestructable good deal good pictures.

This has been my back up camera for years now I use it when the latest and greatest compact cameras I buy turn out to be junk and break. The only reason it is the back up is because I left it on the roof of my car and when it fell the battery closure broke so I need to tape it closed.
Minolta got this one right.

Rating :

More reviews...