Minolta DiMAGE F100 review

Having returned a Canon A75 due to inconsistency of picture quality, a friend was nice enough to lend me his F100 for a holiday to Hawai, Alaska and the UK in 2004.
Not knowing much about Minolta cameras, I wasn't expecting too much from this camera.
However, after taking a few test pictures I was hooked!
The first thing I noticed was the very sharp lens, which eats the Canon A75's for breakfast. Also it is free from Chromatic aberation.

For some reason this camera is particularly great at freezing action, birds, aircraft, you name it.Almost 90% success rate with pictures, with the Canon about half were unusable.

Also, I am staggered at how this camera performs in low light, with moving subjects. I took a picture from right at the back of a auditorium, balanced on my knee, fully zoomed in under relatively low level tungsten lights.of a stage actor. THe camera made a good attempt at capturing good images under these challenging conditions.

Timed , night exposures are also very good and sharp.

The colour is very pastel, and natural, which is what I like. I purchased the Minolta F200 on the strengths of using the F100, and the F100's colour is better than the 200. In the 200, they have pumped up the intensity of primary colours, particularly red and orange. In the F100, the colour is neutral and flat across the spectrum.
Build quality seems better on the F100 than 200 also.

Problems:

Negatives, yes the battery issue. No point repeating what others have said here, apart from if you use two sets of 2500mah it can get you through the day.

THe camera doesn't remember its settings, such as time and day and picture settings when the batteries are removed. So you get used to leaving it in default mode.

The zoom buttons are a bit badly designed, which the F200 got right.

Also the twist dial is a bit of a pain, because you have to consciously twist it to finish at the correct mode, each time you turn it on. A power on /off button would have been better.

Barrel distortion is pretty bad at wide angle too.
Zoom is slow too etc .
In general, a shame Minolta didn't improve the F range as it would be a serious contender, if even to surpass, the Canon A series range.