The question of what is and what is not metal on the DiMAGE 7 is
most perplexing. The Minolta website
(
http://www.dimage.minolta.com/ ) states of the DiMAGE 7: "Magnesium
alloy exterior". Note its says 'exterior', not 'interior'! When I
raised this with Minolta I was told:
"... the exterior of the camera is magnesium alloy. ... From the
bottom of the flash where the Minolta badge is around all faces of
the camera, except the lens, grip and dials is metal."
So, Phil's original statement that "The main body material is
plastic" does NOT appear to be correct. It seems to me that this
magnesium alloy used by camera manufacturers has the look and feel
of plastic, even though it is, in fact, metal.
Even the staff in many camera shops seem unaware of the difference
between magnesium alloy and plastic -- last year when I started
looking at digital cameras I read in many places that the Nikon 950
and 990 had metal bodies (magnesium alloy) so when I first handled
one in a shop I was expecting the camera to be heavy and have a
nice metally solid feel to it, but it didn't. To me the Nikon felt
cheap and plasticy -- I was really disappointed. I then held the
body of the camera to my lips to see if it induced that feeling of
coldness so indicative of metal, but no it did not, it felt like
plastic. I said to the member of staff in the shop that I thought
the Nikon had a metal body and he replied "No -- no digital cameras
are made with metal bodies as it is too heavy and expensive."
I suspect that, in terms of build quality and feeling plasticy,
the DiMAGE 7 will be no better or no worse than any of the other
so-called prosumer digicams on the market -- but it does appear to
have both a metal chassis and a predominately metal exterior, so it
should be fairly robust. (The Olympus E-10 appears to be the
cheapest genuinely solid digicam available.)
Terry.
