7Hi Quality Questions

tedduke · Oct 20, 2002

I have been following this group for just a few days because I have been considering buying a 7Hi.

Comments from owners in this forum have generally been positive.

However, when I called a local camera store to inquire about it, the rep was not enthusiastic about Minolta. His comments: "Runs hot. Picture quality less than good. We've had more come back than have gone out."

His remarks about returns especially bothered me.

Any comments?

Ted

Bryan Biggers · Oct 20, 2002

Ahhhh, is that even possible?

Melanie Kipp · Oct 20, 2002

Until new sets of recharg. batteries have been through a few cycles, the hand grip will be hot. Sounds like that guy knows very little about the D7xx series. His shop probably pushes another brand for a reason....

--
Please visit me at:
http://www.caughtintimephotography.com

Cat 5 · Oct 20, 2002

Anyone who is internet savvy can have a great time making a selsperson look like a complete fool. They rarely know what they are talking about. In fact, I think salesman have a habit of changing jobs frequently...vacuums, then cars....and then maybe health club memberships. Sales is all about fooling the customer into thinking your after their best interests, when really all you're after is another sale (with 9.99 replacement warranty). I used to be a salesperson in an electronics store and left the business a long time ago because of personal ethics. My guess is ONE person said those things to that salesperson, and he figured by rattling it off to you he'd come off as an expert.

If you're looking for a 5megapixel digital SLR type the Minolta is really the best out there. It has its' issues, but no more than any other camera on the market - and the pictures are beautiful. Just look at some of the sample galleries from this forum.

Shane

Chuck Gardner · Oct 20, 2002

Read the recent very positive reviews at Steve's Digicams and Imagining Resource. Still on Phil's "To Do" list.

Take a look at some of my pictures http://super.nova.org/D7Hi for an idea of the image quality.

Processors are located in the grip and it does get warm, especially if the batteries are low, but its not like its too hot to hold or will give you 3rd degree burns.

Also keep in mind that the dealer's impression may be based on using the earlier D7 model. The D7Hi is a significant improvement

Chuck Gardner.

David Martin · Oct 20, 2002

Yep, none of our cameras have ever worked!

Seriously, some people have had problems from time to time, and some have had issues with Minolta's servicing, but that rep gets more commission from selling something else.
Regards,
--
DaveMart

T W Pointing · Oct 20, 2002

tedduke wrote:
'We've had more come back than have gone out.'

Sounds like an idiot's comment to me, appears they are accepting more returns than cameras they sell.

Trevor Pointing

T W Pointing · Oct 20, 2002

Should have added I have both the 5 and 7i, no problems with either.

Trevor Pointing

bob_47 · Oct 20, 2002

I have both Minolta S404 and 7Hi. Build quality on both is excellent.
Image quality on both is excellent. Weakest link is me looking
through each of the view finders... Bob

tedduke · Oct 20, 2002

Thanks for the many responses. I was suspicious of the sales rep's responses, but it is an old-line, reputable store so I decided to ask. I guess I just needed some additional reassurance.

I was referred to this group by the sponsor of a digital photography forum. My order goes in tomorrow.

Ted

-----

Graham Hunter · Oct 20, 2002

He's clearly overstocked up on Nikon (or another brand) that he's trying to clear.

"Runs hot": not so. gets warm on the handgrip after lengthy use but thats by design location of the camera's heatsink. The heat must go somewhere, the fact that you can feel the heat means that it is being extracted or being lost from the camera.

"Picture quality": There are numerous links posted here which show some results, you decide. Here's a couple:

http://www.pbase.com/doctorcd2002/nature
http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder.tcl?folder_id=243457

SteveS76444 · Oct 20, 2002

If I've learned anything about photography this past year, it's that "camera choice" is VERY subjective. My local camera store is always pushing me towards Nikon. At other stores I've frequented, the sales reps have tried to steer me towards Olympus or Canon. There will always be advantages and disadvantages with each product. Someone has suggested to me that it has more to do with commission yields sales reps receive than anything else. What I did was look at each product, held it, played with it for a few minutes and after many weeks of doing this, I decided on the 7Hi. To be honest, I've found these forums to be the most helpful in my decision. A decision I'll have to live with if I make the wrong choice.

SteveZ

Clay Hamilton · Oct 20, 2002

Chuck did you shoot Extra Fine?

Your fourth picture just looks better than anything I've gotten out of my D7i. I really believe extra fine makes a big difference. The clarity of that shot is just great.

Clay

Chuck Gardner · Oct 21, 2002

Clay,

Not sure which photos you are refering to, but the Capitol scenes were shot in X.FIN and the still life shots were either RAW to TIFF to JPEG (for the web) or TIFF to JPEG (for the web). All the photos has some non aggresive USM applied in Photoshop

Chuck

Yllis · Oct 22, 2002

I had some really bad luck with a Dimage 7i. I bought it from a store with a good exchange/return policy but got a series of cameras with various problems until I gave up (for the time being) and returned it all together. I think Minolta may have or had some quality control issues. However, with that said, there was a poll here a while ago and the number of problems I had seemed to be very unusual. The problems aside, I absoutely loved the camera and will probably try to get a good one again at some point.

The reason I mention this, is I think it's worthwhile buying from a store with a good return/exchange policy and if possible, to go pick it up at the store in person and test it thoroughly before taking it home. Don't just make sure there are no scratches or broken parts. You'll want to pop some batteries in and make sure all the functions work. Take a good look at the LCD screen and make sure it's on straight (one of the units I had wasn't) and not obviosly blurry (looking at menu text will help you judge its sharpness) and look for dead or stuck pixels on both displays. If possible, you can check for obvious hot pixels by taking a long exposure with the cap on and looking at it at 100% on a computer. I found with a good one of these you won't see any obvious pixels or noise at ISO 100 even at 4 seconds. (If you look for it by changing levels, etc you might find some, but they won't be obvious without some major processing of the photo.) You can look for obvious dead pixels by photographing a bright field at long exposure.

May take you a while to do all this but you'll be glad you did when everything works the way it should, and the sales clerk may be annoyed at the time, but will be more annoyed if you end up coming back and back for exchanges...

Enjoy your camera!
Ric

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