Minolta DiMAGE 5 Review, Phil Askey, September 2001

Review based on a production DiMAGE 5, firmware A2 v055u

We first heard of the two new Minolta DiMAGE 5 and 7 digital cameras at PMA on 11th February this year (although there had been leaked information earlier). Both cameras are based on the same functionality, body and 7x optical zoom lens, the DiMAGE 5 has a 3.3 megapixel CCD and 32 - 250 mm equiv. focal length range, the DiMAGE 7 a 5.2 megapixel CCD with a 28 - 200 mm equiv. focal length range.

Much of this operational / design part of this review is simply reproduced from the DiMAGE 7 review because the two cameras (in this respect) are virtually identical.

DiMAGE 5 compared to DiMAGE 7

Here's a quick breakdown of the DIFFERENCES between the DiMAGE 5 and 7 (you'll find full specifications for the DiMAGE 5 on the next page):

		Minolta DiMAGE 5	Minolta DiMAGE 7
Street Price		US: $900 UK: £799	US: $1500 UK: £999
Expected Availability		August 2001	June 2001
CCD pixels		3.3 megapixels	5.24 megapixels
CCD effective output		3.14 megapixels	4.92 megapixels
CCD size**		1/1.8"	2/3"
CCD Colour Filter Array		G - R - G - B	G - R - G - B
Max resolution		2048 x 1536	2560 x 1920
Zoom wide (W)		35 mm	28 mm
Zoom tele (T)		250 mm (7x)	200 mm (7x)
Metering		• 256 Segment Metering • Center-Weighted Average • Spot	• 300 Segment Metering • Center-Weighted Average • Spot

If you're new to digital photography you may wish to read the Digital Photography Glossary before diving into this review (it may help you understand some of the terms used).

Conclusion / Recommendation / Ratings are based on the opinion of the reviewer, you should read the ENTIRE review before coming to your own conclusions. Images which can be viewed at a larger size have a small magnifying glass icon in the bottom right corner of the image, clicking on the image will display a larger (normally 960 x 720 or smaller if cropped) image in a new window. To navigate the review simply use the next / previous page buttons, to jump to a particular section either pick the section from the drop down or select it from the navigation bar at the top. DPReview calibrate their monitors using Color Vision OptiCal at the (fairly well accepted) PC normal gamma 2.2, this means that on our monitors we can make out the difference between all of the (computer generated) grayscale blocks below. We recommend to make the most of this review you should be able to see the difference (at least) between X,Y and Z and ideally A,B and C.

This review is Copyright 2001 Phil Askey and the review in part or in whole may NOT be reproduced in any electronic or printed medium without prior permission from the author. For information on reproducing any part of this review (or any images) please contact: Phil Askey.