i've bought this camera jan 2006.
i have the 18-200 DT lens from minolta on it.
i was hoping to upgrade from my hp 912 to something that came more close to my minolta vectis aps film camera , but until now it has been nothing but disapointmant....
do'nt get me wrong the camera is oke....
it's a bit bulky and heavy , but the waight is nicely spread in the middel of the lens , so most of the waight lands in your hand that suports the lens wich is easy if you rotate a lot like me.
i find the waight distrobution better than the canon 350d
the 18-200 DT lens.... wel as i expected it's wonderful...
i get the zoom i want , and it looks realy clear...
gets me in al the spots i want....
love the wide view angual....
handeling is oke , although this camera is a compromise...
to be honest my hp 912 had a better layout and was more user friendly , ea menu's are more coulerful buttons are les cheap etc...
to be honest i'f your into camera's it explains itself...
find de antyshake option not a value adder !!
to be honest if you switch it of it's hard to take good pix..
if this camera had no antyshake taking pix would be harder.
therefore i feel it is more a nesesety then an option becouse you wil leave it on 99% of the time...
stil ca'nt get it out of my minde that minolta came up withe this option to make a "bad" camera "oke"....
picture qualety.... whel i gues it's oke... the 6 megapixels are good.... you do'nt need much more....
the problem is that even if you take best jepeg shot's you wil stil have to make them smaler to show them to your friends on the net....
i also love the 3200 iso setting...
i have used it alot and for indore use withe animals it's heaven... this could just be my new 200 iso....
now we get to the bad part... and i mean realy bad !!
this camera takes shitty pix...
whel the pix are oke , but as of now i can't trust it...
my hp 912 takes better shots then this camera , and is also more consequent !!
withe better i mean better balanced pix...
i feel the minolta is just al over the place....
it's incapable of getting a pix 100% correct....!!
ther wil either be a couler variation in the reds , or a lighting error ....
you may finde that the bottem half of your pix is perfect but it made a mistake in the top part....
what seems ofwhite in the viewfinder wil be corrected to plaine white !!
trafic signs wil seem to eluminate al by themselves....
even withe your back to the sun this camera is capable of making a daylight situation look like 6 in the eavening...
things that my hp 912 got correct in 1 go this camera seems to stupide to understand....
i sometimes feel that there is totaly no daylight correction....
to be honest it's driving me crazie....!!!
the worst part is convincing others becouse trust me they wil tel you your a bad photographer... while it's clearly the camera when i start comparing....
things i could do withe my aps vectis film are now imposible...
for an slr where you see what you get it's realy bad...
you deff DO NOT see what you get... and at al it's hard to get close to it...
this is what i was afrade of , and whel i got it bigtime....
that's whey i's of to the minolta lab and i just hope they finde a foult and it becoumes grait...
so far this has been the worst buy of 2006...
i'm very letdown by minolta becouse i have a camera i ca'nt trust......
again i hope they can fix it and if it's better i wil tel you al by writing a new review....
in this state it's to expensive for what it is....
until then buy it at your own risk....
Problems:
see comments above !!
just do'nt buy it.... trust me you wil regret it....
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03-02-2006
most problems are fixed now consering the digital innerds of the camera...
red is stil to bright although very slightly , stil not what you see is what you get as minolta says in it's advertizing !!
if i would design a camera i would make a better 1
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- couler variations
ea especialy notable in the reds , red is either brigther / fader then in real life..
- white balance variations
ea you wil get under / over expozed pix when you normaly do'nt.... and get strange and to bright / to dark shadow's
- no balanced pix
- mailfunction in the lcd 3 sec timer , in some settings it
fails and does not show any pix.
- no pix count....
- cheap butons , espacialy the kros buttons...
- you sometimes push the af button withe your nose when close to the viewfinder...
- your hands wil smel of the grip when holding it for a long time !!
- the 18-200 DT lens when walking wil extend on it's own so if you have it at 18 wen you start walking it wil slowy extend itself to 200 in a space of 5 to 10 min walking...
- no place for my lenscap !!!
- bad software
- does not emulate a 35 mm film slr , is much to sensitive for my liking if this camera is now operating correct...
