Minolta Dimage X annoyances.

[Mike Anthony]

I just got mine yesterday, I'd agree with a few of the "annoyances", but as my last digital was a Sony FD-7 I'm in digital heaven! It only took about 5 minutes (after charging a battery) to get my first few pic's. Printed them out on an Epson 900 and I'm happy. It is no doubt true that it was aimed ant the 'point & shoot" club but you have enough optional overrides for me. I'll be happy to grab it and snap a shot of the good looking lady I spoted without taking a week or two to get everything "Set". I bought mine at COSTCO, paid $399.99 with an extra battery. Only bad thing is it comes with a very small chip 8 megs. I already picked up two 16's off ebay for a total of $32.00 total with shipping. Guess when I recover from this purchase I'll get a 64 and a 128. So far over all I'm very happy with the camera. I'll be checking back to see what I can learn from all you folks....Happy pictures!!! Mike Anthony

Jim

I know that this camera is targeted toward "point and shooters",
but I'm a hard core medium format guy and this will be the first
digicam that I buy. I like candids (i.e., taking pictures of people
with out them knowing it). The Dimage X looks perfect for this. I
am worried about the flash going off at the wrong time and getting
me "punched out" by a homeless guy or jeolous boyfriend!

 

[Daniel Lauring]

Bought mine at Microcenter during their 20% off sale for $320. A second battery cost $40 bucks, shipped. I haven't found any local places with 128Mb SD cards so I've been living with the tiny 8Mb one included while waiting for my 128Mb order to be filled (seems like they are on backorder everywhere.)

256Mb and 512Mb cards are starting to show up in order systems (no one has them yet) but they are way pricey.

Danny

I just got mine yesterday, I'd agree with a few of the
"annoyances", but as my last digital was a Sony FD-7 I'm in digital
heaven! It only took about 5 minutes (after charging a battery) to
get my first few pic's. Printed them out on an Epson 900 and I'm
happy. It is no doubt true that it was aimed ant the 'point &
shoot" club but you have enough optional overrides for me. I'll be
happy to grab it and snap a shot of the good looking lady I spoted
without taking a week or two to get everything "Set". I bought
mine at COSTCO, paid $399.99 with an extra battery. Only bad
thing is it comes with a very small chip 8 megs. I already picked
up two 16's off ebay for a total of $32.00 total with shipping.
Guess when I recover from this purchase I'll get a 64 and a 128.

 

[Dan The Man]

I just tried the instructions below. It worked, but I could not find Minolta on the 3rd line. I had to do a word search for Minolta which was actually in the first line. Beside it was A1v121u so you can see that you have the latest firmware without looking for V100-02 or 03.

To check firmware version:

Start wordpad
Click File/open
In the dialog box change the file types to "All Documents"
Navagate and open one of the original unedited jpg files on your
hard drive.
You will see "garbage." In the 3rd line it will say "MINOLTA
DIGITAL CAMERA" Just below that is the firmware version, starts
with V100-02. That is probably what you have, but could be V100-03
or something if you have a newer version.

Holland
E1OORS/C21OOUZ

--
Dan

 

[Holland]

Dan,

The firmware version will be in the first row if you have word wrap turned off, the fourth line if you have it turned on.

Your firmware version is puzzling. Manufacturers ususally stick to the same format, I.E. a newer one usually would be something like V100-03, or V100-05 or something like that. Changing formats to "V121U" would be unusual.

Holland

To check firmware version:

Start wordpad
Click File/open
In the dialog box change the file types to "All Documents"
Navagate and open one of the original unedited jpg files on your
hard drive.
You will see "garbage." In the 3rd line it will say "MINOLTA
DIGITAL CAMERA" Just below that is the firmware version, starts
with V100-02. That is probably what you have, but could be V100-03
or something if you have a newer version.

Holland
E1OORS/C21OOUZ

--
Dan

--
Holland
E1OORS/C21OOUZ

 

[Kozak Imre Oliver]

Those you who have the X, what do you think about the vignetting dpreview tells? Can people live with it?

I have an Olympus Brio D-100 (or call it C1), and it makes excellent pics for me, in terms of sharpness, colors, detail, distorsion. It does not have zoom, no any extra options, takes 10 secs to charge the flash, everything defaults to silly factory settings all the time. Just it delivers nice pictures, that doesn't need any fix later on. This is why I bought it.

Do you think if I was happy with the pictures of the Brio D-100 will I also be happy with the X? We need a second camera in the family, and the Brio D-100 was just wonderfully small and handy to take with you all day around on trips. I consider the X as a small camera, but what dpreview said on image quality is a bit discouraging. I just wonder, it is really that bad, or is it bad with the standards of SLRs.

 

[Doug Thompson]

Kozak,

I don't mind the vignetting, but it is there. My images are not soft-- especially if you are willing to use Unsharp Mask or something similar in Photoshop. For straight printing without Photoshop, however, I don't think they are too soft, but close.

Personally, I love my Dimage X. I love to convert the images to B&W and believe that I get a nice grainy film-like look to my prints.

Anways, good luck on your choice,
Doug Thompson.
Sony F707 IR Gallery: http://users.adelphia.net/~popedoug/

Those you who have the X, what do you think about the vignetting
dpreview tells? Can people live with it?

I have an Olympus Brio D-100 (or call it C1), and it makes
excellent pics for me, in terms of sharpness, colors, detail,
distorsion. It does not have zoom, no any extra options, takes 10
secs to charge the flash, everything defaults to silly factory
settings all the time. Just it delivers nice pictures, that doesn't
need any fix later on. This is why I bought it.

Do you think if I was happy with the pictures of the Brio D-100
will I also be happy with the X? We need a second camera in the
family, and the Brio D-100 was just wonderfully small and handy to
take with you all day around on trips. I consider the X as a small
camera, but what dpreview said on image quality is a bit
discouraging. I just wonder, it is really that bad, or is it bad
with the standards of SLRs.

 

[Kozak Imre Oliver]

Checked your gallery, pictures are great.

 

[Doug Thompson]

Checked your gallery, pictures are great.

Thanks!

 

[Daniel Lauring]

I'm pretty darn impressed with the image quality. It isn't quite as sharp as some cameras, like the S330, but then it is sharper than others. You can't see vignetting unless you crank the levels up enough to ruin the picture.

Here is a gallery of some of my X shots.

http://www.pbase.com/dlauring/minolta_x&page=1

and another with comparisons to the Canon S330

http://www.pbase.com/dlauring/s330

Danny

Those you who have the X, what do you think about the vignetting
dpreview tells? Can people live with it?

I have an Olympus Brio D-100 (or call it C1), and it makes
excellent pics for me, in terms of sharpness, colors, detail,
distorsion. It does not have zoom, no any extra options, takes 10
secs to charge the flash, everything defaults to silly factory
settings all the time. Just it delivers nice pictures, that doesn't
need any fix later on. This is why I bought it.

Do you think if I was happy with the pictures of the Brio D-100
will I also be happy with the X? We need a second camera in the
family, and the Brio D-100 was just wonderfully small and handy to
take with you all day around on trips. I consider the X as a small
camera, but what dpreview said on image quality is a bit
discouraging. I just wonder, it is really that bad, or is it bad
with the standards of SLRs.

 

[Kozak Imre Oliver]

I think the photos of the X are good in itself, but you can see the difference if you try to compare side-by-side. I think this quality sufficient for me, the portability is just such an advance, that I can survive with the little sucrifice in picture quality.

Now I just have to find a store with competitive prices...

 

[keith wichowski]

i think the quality is good for its size. I bought the dimage x as my carry everywhere camera, my main camera is the fuji s1 (soon to s2).

here is shot I took at a car auction at rockefeller center. i was on my way to lunch, saw this car and the reflections. pulled the camera out of my pocket. done. I would rather have had my real cam, but i have been impressed with what this camera can do.



--
Keith

http://cyberaddict.deviantart.com

 

[Daniel Lauring]

But the camera is nice too. ;-)

Danny

i think the quality is good for its size. I bought the dimage x as
my carry everywhere camera, my main camera is the fuji s1 (soon to
s2).

here is shot I took at a car auction at rockefeller center. i was
on my way to lunch, saw this car and the reflections. pulled the
camera out of my pocket. done. I would rather have had my real cam,
but i have been impressed with what this camera can do.



--
Keith

http://cyberaddict.deviantart.com