CeBit and D7i, some impressons

[Christer Pettersson]

I went to ceBit last Frisay and Saturday, and talked to a guy in the Minolta stand. It was a little bit hard to understand him, as he was a German with not so good english accent, and I am Swedish who can't speak a word german.

First I asked him if the power consumption was improved, and he said that it was. When I tried to find out how much longer time the camera could be used, he wasn't sure, but he assured me that the camera was delivered with Ni-Mh:s, and wouldn't get so hot as the old D7. That was all I could get out of him about that, and I am not sure if the pwoer consumption is really improved.

Then we came to talk about the autofocus, and when I mentioned that I really wanted to see some improvements in the AF in the old D7, he said that there were a new bios which would improve that issue. I couldn't get him ta say which version he talked about, and if it already was out or in progress. It might have been v 1.21 he thinked of, or there are a new version on it's way.

To summarize the talk with this guy, he was a typical salesman who had just learned what to say, and not so familiar with the inner workings of the product.

Now on to som impressions of the camera, I had some minutes to play with it.

• The grip: It's black, somewhat bigger than before, a little more "ergonomic". But it's still plastic, not rubber.

• The autofocus: It's really much faster than the D7. In the fair was the lights quite dim, but i managed to get the focus lock in less than a second, even at maximum zoom. No "chasing" occured. My feeling is that the speed is at least twice as fast as the old D7, maybe even more.

• The "rings" that block the cf-cover: No difference, it looks exatly the same

• The "cheap" feeling of the zoom: No difference

I did not have so much time with the camera, as there were only one and a lot of people who wanted to touch it. It didn't have any cf-card in it, so I did not take any pictures, and I didn't try the new "filter" settings taht has been introduced.

My Conclusion: The great improvement is the AF speed. The rest isn't important at all for me, which is quite a relieef as I only have had my D7 for about a month. It would been a pity if it was outdated so quick. With the hope of a software upgrade to my old one I don't se any reasons to buy the D7i.

Some other impressions from the fair: There was a lot of interest in digital photo, much printers and even some some "docking stations" for cf-cards (like the digital wallet).

Sandisk released a 1 gb cf-card, and also a "Ultra" version of their cards, which was said to improve the transfer speed. They didn't say how much, so it might just be a sale trick.

When walking all over the 400.000 m2, your legs feel like "drumsticks", Fortunately there are some places where you can sit down, have a beer and try to sort out all the facts.

The final impression is that the digital photo revolution just has started, there's much more to be seen over the next years.

 

[Tony37642]

We all hope that there will be new firmware upgrades that will improve AF and other D7 features (and not only bugs). Thank you for your post to keep us informed.
Tony

 

[Marcel de Boer]

Hi!

Last sunday I also went to CeBIT, and took the opportunity to try to get some information from the Minolta staff and to take a look at the 7i.

• The grip: It's black, somewhat bigger than before, a little more

"ergonomic". But it's still plastic, not rubber.

Indeed.. but the grip feels much better although it is still made of the same material. The salesperson said this would be the same material for the production camera's, although these were still preproduction models. I don't really know what to believe: the press-releases or the salespeople.

• The autofocus: It's really much faster than the D7. In the fair

was the lights quite dim, but i managed to get the focus lock in
less than a second, even at maximum zoom. No "chasing" occured. My
feeling is that the speed is at least twice as fast as the old D7,
maybe even more.

AF has improved tremendously. The only thing I noticed was that the screen would freeze while focussing. This probably was a preproduction issue, at least I was assured that this would not be in the production models. It even managed to correctly focus onto a moving subject (it seemed to make 2 focussing steps, maybe to predict movement?).

The new 4-way switch is not an improvement to the old one, as far as I'm concerned: the center button is recessed a bit too far to be able to comfortably push it without pushing the 4-way ring. Display on both the EVF and LCD seems to have improved in speed and colour accuracy.

I did not have so much time with the camera, as there were only one
and a lot of people who wanted to touch it. It didn't have any
cf-card in it, so I did not take any pictures, and I didn't try the
new "filter" settings taht has been introduced.

I managed to take a few pictures (although I was not allowed to do it with my own CF-cards because they were preproduction models )-:

The external AE-system selector really is very useful, and I hope there will be a possibility to map this function onto the Quality/Size selectors in new D7 firmware releases.

The zoom has changed: it has also been put into QV-mode, and when you press the zoom-button to zoom in, the center button of the 4-way switch selects between setting the magnification level (1.5 to 4.5 in steps of 0.1, iirc) and moving around the image.

I could not get any confirmation if some functions would be backported to the D7, but I have been told that most major improvemenst were due to the improved and faster LSI chip (90 MHz instead of 72). I asked if it could be possible to send in D7s for hardware upgrade to D7i-specs, but they would not do this at all.

In short: the D7i is definitely an improvement to the D7, but there seems no way of upgrading at this moment.

Some other small things that were on display:

• An underwater case for the DiMAGE X (VERY interesting, just a pity there isn't any for the D5/7/7i).
• BH-100 Li-ion battery case with batteries and charger

No PCT-100 however... I'll try to put some photos of the CeBIT and the Minolta digital photography booth online in the next few days.

When walking all over the 400.000 m2, your legs feel like
"drumsticks", Fortunately there are some places where you can sit
down, have a beer and try to sort out all the facts

The CeBIT is really HUGE, in 6 hours we got to see about 10 halls (of 27), and most of these we were just walking straight through on our way to another hall! (and before and after that a 5-hour ride to the CeBIT and back home, luckily I didn't have to drive the car

Gtnx
Marcel

 

[Mark Pernal]

Thanks for the updates all. I too was worried that my 3 month old $1000 investment would become obsolete before "it's time". I sure hope they can improve the current D7 autofocus with the firmware...and, would be very very very nice to see them add the focusing screens to the current original D7...That feature is what I would love as a landscape photographer (are you listening Minolta??? )--Mark PernalAustin, TX

 

[Christer Pettersson]

I could not get any confirmation if some functions would be
backported to the D7, but I have been told that most major
improvemenst were due to the improved and faster LSI chip (90 MHz
instead of 72). I asked if it could be possible to send in D7s for
hardware upgrade to D7i-specs, but they would not do this at all.

Marcel, did You hear anything about the power consumption? As I can see should the camera draw more current when the processor speed is increased.

 

[Bryan Biggers]

• The autofocus: It's really much faster than the D7. In the fair

was the lights quite dim, but i managed to get the focus lock in
less than a second, even at maximum zoom. No "chasing" occured. My
feeling is that the speed is at least twice as fast as the old D7,
maybe even more.

AF has improved tremendously. The only thing I noticed was that the
screen would freeze while focussing. This probably was a
preproduction issue, at least I was assured that this would not be
in the production models. It even managed to correctly focus onto a

Someone said that the 7i was not updating the screen for 1/20 second during focus to improve focus time. They may be stealing some time from the screen display to work on focus, or to keep the CCD in it's autofocus mode.
Bryan

moving subject (it seemed to make 2 focussing steps, maybe to
predict movement?).

The new 4-way switch is not an improvement to the old one, as far
as I'm concerned: the center button is recessed a bit too far to be
able to comfortably push it without pushing the 4-way ring. Display
on both the EVF and LCD seems to have improved in speed and colour
accuracy.

I did not have so much time with the camera, as there were only one
and a lot of people who wanted to touch it. It didn't have any
cf-card in it, so I did not take any pictures, and I didn't try the
new "filter" settings taht has been introduced.

I managed to take a few pictures (although I was not allowed to do
it with my own CF-cards because they were preproduction models )-:
The external AE-system selector really is very useful, and I hope
there will be a possibility to map this function onto the
Quality/Size selectors in new D7 firmware releases.

The zoom has changed: it has also been put into QV-mode, and when
you press the zoom-button to zoom in, the center button of the
4-way switch selects between setting the magnification level (1.5
to 4.5 in steps of 0.1, iirc) and moving around the image.

I could not get any confirmation if some functions would be
backported to the D7, but I have been told that most major
improvemenst were due to the improved and faster LSI chip (90 MHz
instead of 72). I asked if it could be possible to send in D7s for
hardware upgrade to D7i-specs, but they would not do this at all.

In short: the D7i is definitely an improvement to the D7, but there
seems no way of upgrading at this moment.

Some other small things that were on display:

• An underwater case for the DiMAGE X (VERY interesting, just a

pity there isn't any for the D5/7/7i).

• BH-100 Li-ion battery case with batteries and charger

No PCT-100 however... I'll try to put some photos of the CeBIT and
the Minolta digital photography booth online in the next few days.

When walking all over the 400.000 m2, your legs feel like
"drumsticks", Fortunately there are some places where you can sit
down, have a beer and try to sort out all the facts

The CeBIT is really HUGE, in 6 hours we got to see about 10 halls
(of 27), and most of these we were just walking straight through on
our way to another hall! (and before and after that a 5-hour ride
to the CeBIT and back home, luckily I didn't have to drive the car


Gtnx
Marcel

 

[Christer Pettersson]

Someone said that the 7i was not updating the screen for 1/20
second during focus to improve focus time. They may be stealing
some time from the screen display to work on focus, or to keep the
CCD in it's autofocus mode.
Bryan

That means that it's a software issue, and should be able to do in the old D7 too, as I see it. Or am I wrong on that?

 

[Bryan Biggers]

Someone said that the 7i was not updating the screen for 1/20
second during focus to improve focus time. They may be stealing
some time from the screen display to work on focus, or to keep the
CCD in it's autofocus mode.
Bryan

That means that it's a software issue, and should be able to do in
the old D7 too, as I see it. Or am I wrong on that?

I don't know. It is hard to see how all the improvements could be due to an only 25% increase in CPU speed. Bryan

 

[Andrew Cruickshank]

Someone said that the 7i was not updating the screen for 1/20
second during focus to improve focus time. They may be stealing
some time from the screen display to work on focus, or to keep the
CCD in it's autofocus mode.

May be a red-herring but I'd noticed my D7 freezes for something
like 1/20 just as it achieves focus lock on a movig target or while
panning -- you see the display jump as it catches up.

I wouldn't have thought more about it but for the comment. It
may also be my subjective interpretation.

-----------------Andrew.

 

[Marcel de Boer]

Hi Bryan!

AF has improved tremendously. The only thing I noticed was that the
screen would freeze while focussing. This probably was a
preproduction issue, at least I was assured that this would not be
in the production models. It even managed to correctly focus onto a

Someone said that the 7i was not updating the screen for 1/20
second during focus to improve focus time. They may be stealing
some time from the screen display to work on focus, or to keep the
CCD in it's autofocus mode.

This was definitely not 1/20 second.. that should be just a small jump in the display.. this was about 1/2 second, at least. It does look like a small firmware issue that needs to be ironed out. (The Fuji 4900Z has about the same behaviour, but I don't think Minolta will leave it in the 7i)

Gtnx
Marcel

 

[Marcel de Boer]

Hello Christer!

Marcel, did You hear anything about the power consumption? As I can
see should the camera draw more current when the processor speed is
increased.

To be honest, I didn't ask about the power consumption, although the salesperson said it was less. Even if the processor speed is increased, the power required may be less because of redesigned circuits (for the power supply and other things) or another process used for the processor (smaller conductors and transistors lower the power consumption: you could build a Pentium processor using ordinary transistors and wires, but it would probably draw multiple kilowatts, instead of the maybe 50W of a fast modern processor (correct me if I'm wrong about those figures))

Gtnx
Marcel

 

[Keith25106]

Last sunday I also went to CeBIT, and took the opportunity to try
to get some information from the Minolta staff and to take a look
at the 7i.

• The grip: It's black, somewhat bigger than before, a little more

"ergonomic". But it's still plastic, not rubber.

Indeed.. but the grip feels much better although it is still made
of the same material. The salesperson said this would be the same
material for the production camera's, although these were still
preproduction models. I don't really know what to believe: the
press-releases or the salespeople.

• The autofocus: It's really much faster than the D7. In the fair

was the lights quite dim, but i managed to get the focus lock in
less than a second, even at maximum zoom. No "chasing" occured. My
feeling is that the speed is at least twice as fast as the old D7,
maybe even more.

AF has improved tremendously. The only thing I noticed was that the
screen would freeze while focussing. This probably was a
preproduction issue, at least I was assured that this would not be
in the production models.

Strange, I believe the press material does say that they were able to improve the speed of the AF precisely by freezing the display for 1/20th of a second. I'll try to track this spec down, but I know I didn't make it up !

It even managed to correctly focus onto a
moving subject (it seemed to make 2 focussing steps, maybe to
predict movement?).

The new 4-way switch is not an improvement to the old one, as far
as I'm concerned: the center button is recessed a bit too far to be
able to comfortably push it without pushing the 4-way ring. Display
on both the EVF and LCD seems to have improved in speed and colour
accuracy.

I did not have so much time with the camera, as there were only one
and a lot of people who wanted to touch it. It didn't have any
cf-card in it, so I did not take any pictures, and I didn't try the
new "filter" settings taht has been introduced.

I managed to take a few pictures (although I was not allowed to do
it with my own CF-cards because they were preproduction models )-:
The external AE-system selector really is very useful, and I hope
there will be a possibility to map this function onto the
Quality/Size selectors in new D7 firmware releases.

The zoom has changed: it has also been put into QV-mode, and when
you press the zoom-button to zoom in, the center button of the
4-way switch selects between setting the magnification level (1.5
to 4.5 in steps of 0.1, iirc) and moving around the image.

I could not get any confirmation if some functions would be
backported to the D7, but I have been told that most major
improvemenst were due to the improved and faster LSI chip (90 MHz
instead of 72). I asked if it could be possible to send in D7s for
hardware upgrade to D7i-specs, but they would not do this at all.

In short: the D7i is definitely an improvement to the D7, but there
seems no way of upgrading at this moment.

Some other small things that were on display:

• An underwater case for the DiMAGE X (VERY interesting, just a

pity there isn't any for the D5/7/7i).

• BH-100 Li-ion battery case with batteries and charger

No PCT-100 however... I'll try to put some photos of the CeBIT and
the Minolta digital photography booth online in the next few days.

When walking all over the 400.000 m2, your legs feel like
"drumsticks", Fortunately there are some places where you can sit
down, have a beer and try to sort out all the facts

The CeBIT is really HUGE, in 6 hours we got to see about 10 halls
(of 27), and most of these we were just walking straight through on
our way to another hall! (and before and after that a 5-hour ride
to the CeBIT and back home, luckily I didn't have to drive the car


Gtnx
Marcel

 

[John Lai]

Hi Marcel,

Thanks for the feed back. Have you inquired whether the D7i will produce pictures with less noise?

Regards
John

 

[Marcel de Boer]

Hi John!

Thanks for the feed back. Have you inquired whether the D7i will
produce pictures with less noise?

Oops.. I also forgot to do that, but they would probably have mentioned the fact that these were preproduction models again, and that these pictures are not representative. On the other hand, I think especially long exposures can still be improved on the D7 (it doesn't seem that the dark-frame subtraction is performed...)

Anyway, I left my E-mailaddress at their booth, so maybe there will be another chance to ask the most important technical questions..

Gtnx
Marcel

 

[Tony Hewitt]

Marcel, did You hear anything about the power consumption? As I can
see should the camera draw more current when the processor speed is
increased.

To be honest, I didn't ask about the power consumption, although
the salesperson said it was less. Even if the processor speed is
increased, the power required may be less because of redesigned
circuits (for the power supply and other things) or another process
used for the processor (smaller conductors and transistors lower
the power consumption: you could build a Pentium processor using
ordinary transistors and wires, but it would probably draw multiple
kilowatts, instead of the maybe 50W of a fast modern processor
(correct me if I'm wrong about those figures)).

But if less heat is generated (ie, wasted) there should be less power consumption. The heat that is currently generated by the D7 is simply wasted battery power...

Tony

 

[Stuart Halliday]

We all hope that there will be new firmware upgrades that will
improve AF and other D7 features (and not only bugs). Thank you
for your post to keep us informed.
Tony

I'd be surprise if someone doesn't try loading the Dimage 7i firmware into a Dimage 7 in the next couple of months.

That is if Minolta don't bring out a version for the Dimage 7 with some of the features of the Dimage 7i.

Me, I want the gridlines feature!
--Minolta Dimage 7 Owner