Throwback Thursday: Minolta DiMAGE X

My first digital camera, for a beguiler was a great camera, i use it and I squeezed every single future it had. Very happy to had it. And of course not the greatest camera ever, I know digital SLR are better, but for a budget guy like me was very useful!

Yes I had one (and still have it). It was really easy to carry, but yes, the image quality was poor. I started digital with a Canon G1, and this Minolta fast put me back on the Canon track. I stayed with Canon compacts until they decided photographers no longer needed viewfinders -- and then I found the Panasonic LF1. Now it's the TZ100 for travel and a GX80 for everything else....

It made me remember that my Coolpix 950 was also more compact than you'd expect due to its ability to fold the lens section to line up with the body. I guess all there things died a death once people worked out how to make lenses collapse into very small sizes.

Maybe some of these things will come back in mainstream phones at some point. Perhaps combined with an anamorphic-style effect in the prism to squeeze the image height to make it fit in the phone's thickness. Phones with zoom could really cause problems for the remaining compact camera market.

Reading this brought a smile to my face, and I went to get mine out to play with it again. Found the box in which were the charger, cables, software, manual, but no camera! it's around my home somewhere, but where?

I bought it for its compact dimensions as a "carry anytime" camera when I wasn't out with my heavy Sony R1 or Panasonic LC-10. My memories about its performance echo most of those here: its imaging properties were abysmal, but as I purchased it used, cheaply, it was no great loss. What surprised me most reading the original review was the price of small capacity SD cards in 2002.

So why have I kept it? Simple, I can't find where I put it after the last time I used it!

My last hands-on with this type of camera was the 8meg X-1. Beautifully crafted in, if I recall correctly, highly polished stainless steel. A design icon IMO, but too slippery to hold comfortably. But IQ had been improved considerably and was acceptable, if I didn't lose an image to camera shake.

I appreciate these blasts from the past. I wish I could say the same for this particular camera. My employer at the time provided these for the field consultants to document engineering matters at industrial sites, often indoors or in marginal lighting. Needless to say, image quality was close to unusable, even taking into consideration the low bar for what passed as acceptable quality for our in-house reporting needs. I still have one, although it doesn't work (I suspect the battery is gone). Most noteworthy item was the 64 MB ("M" not "G") SD card. That's two, maybe three RAW files from my D7200.... I do enjoy looking back, as it lay the foundation for what we have today. But I'm sure glad I don't have to depend on what is now obsolete equipment....

I purchased an X shortly after it was released for a very specific reason. I wanted something to use for taking pictures while on my bike at speed. The DiMageX is compact enough to fit into the back pockets of a cycling jersey, easy to draw while on the move and operate with only one hand, fast enough startup to take the shot before the moment passes, durable enough to survive the elements (once dropped it at speed; functioned fine afterwards), and produced decent enough images for web publication in blogs and forums. After some practice, I developed the ability to ninja-draw the camera from my jersey pocket, switch it on, take the shot, and return it to the pocket while moving in excess of 25 MPH. It survived countless miles in sweaty and rainy conditions even though it wasn't weather resistant. I've often maintained that the best camera in the world is one that you have with you. And the DiMageX was one camera I could always have with me. That was the true value of this camera.

Wow, this was considered 'soft' in 2002. Most smartphones don't go anywhere near this IQ even when downscaled to 2 Mpx. Look at the Union Jack; that pattern coming from a smartphone always ends up as some overprocessed mush.

Not to mention the contrast and clarity which can only come from an actual camera lens and not a tiny droplet of plastic.

These old throwbacks always fascinate me in this regard.

I also really enjoyed my Xg and within the limitations of the sensor resolution I got two years and a half of excellent images from it. After I purchased my Canon 10D I gave it to a hiking friend who still uses it. The major problems as I see it is the crappy software that was prevalent in that time frame. I have recently gone back in my archives and reprocessed the images with the latest DXO and CaptureOne and the images I think are as good as my Samsung S4 images. Granted it's not a Canon 5DSR, but then again the 5DSR won't go in my pocket.

Ha! My first real digital camera was the DiMAGE x20 (https://www.dpreview.com/products/konicaminolta/compacts/minolta_dimagex20/overview) that came out the next year. It was basically the same layout, though minus the viewfinder and powered by a pair of AA batteries (which was very handy).

One feature I found amusing then and now see as ahead of its time was the small convex mirror on the front, right next to the lens. It was solely put there to aid in taking "selfies" long before that term even existed! It actually worked pretty well and resulted in some cherished photos me and my then-girlfriend (now wife).

It was also the catalyst for my real start into photography as a hobby, and I still have it sitting on a shelf. Two years later I upgraded to a Rebel XT, but this camera was the beginning.
It was also actually well reviewed on imaging-resource: http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/X20/X20A.HTM

Damn, I would buy one today if there was a modern version with 1" sensor and fixed 28 or 35 mm focal lens and body in black. It would be ultimate discrete tool for street :)

That bloody thing had a faulty Sony sensor and died prematurely. There was a product recall then followed swiftly by Sony buying Minolta before any court case happened. Yes folded optics was and is still great. But nowadays it takes a good reason to carry a "fool's camera". The mere thought of being viewed as uncool is daunting enough!

still had one in my drawer...

we had several but the next model the 3.2MP and they definitely was not soft.. i pay around £5-£10 each for them and used them up until phones came good enough ..had one in each car and 1 around the house and 1 in my camera bag

My first digital camera was a Fuji, but after that I had two Minolta Dimage cameras, including the X. While it probably wasn't the best camera around, I loved mine, and I still miss the run and gun photography style of trekking Nepal or traveling SE Asia with just a small camera in my hand at all times (or on my belt). Now I lug around 5-10 KG of photography gear and wonder which gear made me happier?

Hello staff at DP!

Go to the main overhead bar of news, reviews, and then hit cameras. You will see a list of different brands. If you click on Minolta you get nothing. If you click on others you get a list of cameras going back to the 90's. what happened to the Minolta camera list? Minolta may be gone but the list is historic and needed reference too. why a blank paGE? Especially in light of this article. What gives?

A smile for this article for sure. I had one of these just getting back into photography, living in Switzerland. Many, many memorable shots, including ones in night Fasnacht parades, where the autofocus was so slow that you just panned with the walkers, waiting for the camera to go off. But again, useful and sometimes striking results.

Looking at the samples makes you think of old days and Ektachrome. But at the time, just a little tweaking with Photoshop gave quite a nice look. And the camera actually lasted for many years.

I forgive Phil Askey his rating -- he was too busy those days not explaining how Canon DSLRS just mudded out small details in landscapes or even cruise ship images. And the fan 'discussions' rolled on...

Thanks again. This was great.

I'm loving these throwback cameras. Some look so familiar that I have to double check how long ago they were the current technology.

Just about everything I see in Throwback Thursday, excites me more than what i see today. I suspect that says something about me *and* the current state of camera design.

Compare a 2mp Minolta compact camera from 2002 against a 20mp Panasonic Lumix LX10 introduced in 2016.

And which camera has a viewfinder? Yeah.......

Every time when I saw "Throwback Thursday". I can not stop to thinking NIKON DL18-50 released two years ago.

If SONY RX100.M1 was a milestone in P&S, NIKON DL18-50 was the milestone too after SONY RX100.

Too bad.

To me this is still a very lovely looking camera after all these years even though I never have it.

Oh my goodness, I remember owning one of this when it's released. It was the first digital camera I owned and I was quite amazed with it.

Not the greatest picture taker but unlike current pocket cameras, it could be carried in a pocket.

The Dimage X was replaced in 2004 by a much improved model, the Dimage X50, which had the optics folded horizontally, placing the front lens in a much better position and allowing a lens cover which also worked as a power switch:

https://www.dpreview.com/articles/5217816577/dimagex31x50

I own both, the Dimage X and the Dimage X50, and keep the Dimage X50 charged and ready for use. No newer digital camera has a better size/performance ratio !

Frankly (on screen at least)the IQ would not disgrace most of the present phone cameras.