Konica Minolta DiMAGE A200 review
I've got my A200 6 months ago. Since then i shot more than 5000 pictures. Almost all my pictures are action oriented: plane spotting and rally pictures.
I took some months to decide wich camera to buy, and I decided for the KM A200 due to it's image quality (only Olympus' prosumer 8MP camera has better image quality), manual zoom and focus rings, great lens quality (absolutely better than many DSRL's lenses). The video is also good, one of the best available, although the image flow at 30fps is much better than the higher video image size, so I would stick to the 30fps VGA videos.
About the picture quality, I can say it can compete head to head against DSRL's at ISO50 and enough light without any break. The images are a little soft and colours aren't bright, but I like it this way, images are more real. If you like the vivid color you can set it on the camera, another plus for the A200 is her great set of options, so, you can fine tune the camera to suit your tastes.
This camera, as I said, can do great action shots - some of the pics I took (rally pictures) were published in a specialty magazine. The camera only starts to loose to DSRL's at higher ISOs and low light. Consider the ISO 200 the higher acceptable limit. With ISO 200 I still get nice pictures but the noise is visible in a 100% view, although resizing the picture, for example to 1024x768 or even higher sizes, the quality is good.
Another great and useful features include the remote control, the twist & flip lcd, they will be of great use, believe me!
In resume, a great camera I would recommend to anyone keen to develop their photographic techniques. If you're willing to take low light pictures with high ISOs, it is better to consider a DSRL. For me the best prosumer camera around when I bought her (April 2005).
Problems:
Noise above ISO 200 is visible, but still one of the best on the prosumer level, better only in DSRL terrains.
Flash is weak, consider buying an external unit if needed.
Battery goes down fast if video & LCD are used often.