New Dimage 7HI soon

[hawkeye12]

the D7i is a fantastic camera, but Minolta's operation makes me very uncomforatable.

i've read stories that sending in your D7i for one is like playing Russian roulette, not to mention that hardly any of the local camera shops will carry acces. for the Minolta's.

 

[hawkeye12]

yeah and if they can turn the noise down a bunch, then they may have it eh?
of course, the flat colors can always be adjusted in PS.

Steve

Hi,

It seems another rumour will come true. Minolta will announce a new
Dimage7HI in 9 days. Same design as the D7i, black body and some
minor updates to the D7i.

Regards,

Andreas

 

[Blake]

First of all, let's remember that digicams are as much computers and graphic processors as they are cameras. Do you really expect he upgrade cycles to be the same as film SLR's??? Check out the upgrade cycle on high end 3D cards (G Force 4, etc).

Minolta was first out of the gate in the 5MP race at this price point with the D7. Great camera, but with a few flaws. They listened to their customers and produced terrific upgrades in the form of the D7UG and the D7i. Meanwhile, Sony has the very capable F707. Nikon finally comes around with the CP5700 which, in my opinion, falls short of both these cameras, probably because they are protection their D100.

Now, Sony anounces the F717--a camera that could really give the D7i a run for its money. Aren't you happy that Minolta is responding? We recently had a huge thread asking Minolta what we wanted out of a firmware upgrade. Regardless of whether they listened to us, shouldn't we be glad Minolta is intent on producing better gear?

If we're lucky, maybe we'll also get a D7iUG out of this.

 

[lip]

I totally agree with everything in the below!

It is totally idiotic to expect a manufacturer sit back and relax while their competitors are releasing new products. Whether we like it or not, we are living in a capitalistic/materialistic society and to expect the photographic manufacturers to be exempt from all the economic rules is simply silly and not worth writing about further...
rant fini...

Lyall

First of all, let's remember that digicams are as much computers
and graphic processors as they are cameras. Do you really expect
he upgrade cycles to be the same as film SLR's??? Check out the
upgrade cycle on high end 3D cards (G Force 4, etc).

Minolta was first out of the gate in the 5MP race at this price
point with the D7. Great camera, but with a few flaws. They
listened to their customers and produced terrific upgrades in the
form of the D7UG and the D7i. Meanwhile, Sony has the very capable
F707. Nikon finally comes around with the CP5700 which, in my
opinion, falls short of both these cameras, probably because they
are protection their D100.

Now, Sony anounces the F717--a camera that could really give the
D7i a run for its money. Aren't you happy that Minolta is
responding? We recently had a huge thread asking Minolta what we
wanted out of a firmware upgrade. Regardless of whether they
listened to us, shouldn't we be glad Minolta is intent on producing
better gear?

If we're lucky, maybe we'll also get a D7iUG out of this.

--
Minolta D7i

 

[Jack D.]

Hi There,

I do not understand why releasing a new camera has bothered you
guys so much.

I guess you, like many other digital camera owners, are more
interested in possessing a digicam, rather than photography itself.

Your hobby seems to be to own a top gun digicam, and to compare it
with others' (especially if others' is of different brands), debate
with others, and to upgrade digicams...

This is a phenomenon I see on many digicam users.

You guys seems to be more interested in digicams, not in photography.

I suppose your Dimage7i has much more feature than you are making
use of. Minolta introducing a new one (even a replacement of
yours) does not downgrade the capability of your camera, nor does
it affect your ability to take good photos.

Come on, stop wasting time comparing and complaining about cameras,
go take photos instead. Go and do something to improve your
photographic skill, not merely your knowledge in the latest digicam
and ownership of digicam.

The "advice" above applied to everyone - Be a photographer, not
just a digicam user/owner.

Regards,
Karann

karann:

i'm with you. i don't care about black body. i just love my 7i. perhaps in a future (but not in a close future) i'll think about change. but not now.
jack

If that happens, then I will sell my camera, but not for another
Minolta! I don?t like to be manipulated this way. (I am expressing
my own opinion here!!)

Hi,

It seems another rumour will come true. Minolta will announce a new
Dimage7HI in 9 days. Same design as the D7i, black body and some
minor updates to the D7i.

Regards,

Andreas

--
Karann

 

[Bill Hall]

Hey, maybe Minolta will sell us 7i owners an upgrade to the 7iUG, and as a part of it, they'll paint the camera black!

Said in jest only. I love my 7i. Sure, it could be improved, and I'm sure Minolta will have updates for the firmware in the future. And on some future date, I'll buy an even better camera that's not available now.

Meanwhile, I think I'll go take some pictures and let the people who are so inclined argue about why they hate Minolta! (Fortunately, it seems to be a minority of people here.)

All I have to say is Way to go, Minolta! Keep up the good work!

Hi There,

I do not understand why releasing a new camera has bothered you
guys so much.

I guess you, like many other digital camera owners, are more
interested in possessing a digicam, rather than photography itself.

Your hobby seems to be to own a top gun digicam, and to compare it
with others' (especially if others' is of different brands), debate
with others, and to upgrade digicams...

This is a phenomenon I see on many digicam users.

You guys seems to be more interested in digicams, not in photography.

I suppose your Dimage7i has much more feature than you are making
use of. Minolta introducing a new one (even a replacement of
yours) does not downgrade the capability of your camera, nor does
it affect your ability to take good photos.

Come on, stop wasting time comparing and complaining about cameras,
go take photos instead. Go and do something to improve your
photographic skill, not merely your knowledge in the latest digicam
and ownership of digicam.

The "advice" above applied to everyone - Be a photographer, not
just a digicam user/owner.

Regards,
Karann

karann:
i'm with you. i don't care about black body. i just love my 7i.
perhaps in a future (but not in a close future) i'll think about
change. but not now.
jack

If that happens, then I will sell my camera, but not for another
Minolta! I don?t like to be manipulated this way. (I am expressing
my own opinion here!!)

Hi,

It seems another rumour will come true. Minolta will announce a new
Dimage7HI in 9 days. Same design as the D7i, black body and some
minor updates to the D7i.

Regards,

Andreas

--
Karann

 

[Ron Sousa]

It is totally idiotic to expect a manufacturer sit back and relax
while their competitors are releasing new products. Whether we
like it or not, we are living in a capitalistic/materialistic
society and to expect the photographic manufacturers to be exempt
from all the economic rules is simply silly and not worth writing
about further...
rant fini...

Lyall

First of all, let's remember that digicams are as much computers
and graphic processors as they are cameras. Do you really expect
he upgrade cycles to be the same as film SLR's??? Check out the
upgrade cycle on high end 3D cards (G Force 4, etc).

Minolta was first out of the gate in the 5MP race at this price
point with the D7. Great camera, but with a few flaws. They
listened to their customers and produced terrific upgrades in the
form of the D7UG and the D7i. Meanwhile, Sony has the very capable
F707. Nikon finally comes around with the CP5700 which, in my
opinion, falls short of both these cameras, probably because they
are protection their D100.

Now, Sony anounces the F717--a camera that could really give the
D7i a run for its money. Aren't you happy that Minolta is
responding? We recently had a huge thread asking Minolta what we
wanted out of a firmware upgrade. Regardless of whether they
listened to us, shouldn't we be glad Minolta is intent on producing
better gear?

If we're lucky, maybe we'll also get a D7iUG out of this.

--
Minolta

Honestly,

The only reason I am a little ticked off about the release of the 7HI is the fact that I ordered my 7i last week and haven't even recieved it yet. I haven't taken photo #1 and its already been replaced. The worst part is I do love the look of a black camera body. I'm sure that Minolta will upgrade the firmware to Hi standards, I just wish they could have waited until I used mine a bit to drop the black bomb on me. I will however recieve shipment of my 7i, and I'm sure,snapmany fine photos with it rather than go through the hassle of returning it and waiting for the 7HI to emerge.

 

[Rudolf Thiele88688]

First we should wait for the specs.

Perhaps it is only a "black" edition of the D7i.

Black looks better
Maybe they'll put a rubber grip on there too. If I had not bought
my D7i a couple of weeks ago I'd be waiting for the black one but
I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

Tony

Rubber grip may not be a good idea. I had a Nikon Coolpix 990, excelent camera. However, a common complaint was that glue on the grip was letting go and the rubber were lifting.

I prefer to leave it as is, nice and simple.

Cheers,
Rudi.

 

[THT]

I've had my D7 for over a year now. After they released D7i, instead of having to uprade to that camera, Minolta is nice enough to offer the firmware upgrade available so we can get some of the same features added to our older D7. I think that's not too bad for an industry that is moving so fast.

Besides, I won't upgrade just because there's a new model out. I'll have to wait until it gives me something enough for me to spend the money on.

If that happens, then I will sell my camera, but not for another
Minolta! I don?t like to be manipulated this way. (I am expressing
my own opinion here!!)

Hi,

It seems another rumour will come true. Minolta will announce a new
Dimage7HI in 9 days. Same design as the D7i, black body and some
minor updates to the D7i.

Regards,

Andreas

 

[Cat 5]

I do not understand why releasing a new camera has bothered you
guys so much.
Your hobby seems to be to own a top gun digicam, and to compare it
with others' (especially if others' is of different brands), debate
with others, and to upgrade digicams...

The problem with what Minolta is doing is that they are going to significantly reduce the value of the 7i just by simply making the announcement.

While I don't plan on selling my 7i for some time, and I take more pictures than I ever did, I have had one serious crash that lost me pictures - and the RAW mode is so slow it's unusable to me.

I bet the new 7HI has more internal memory to allow more RAW shots to be fired repeatedly. I'll bet it has a better LCD or viewfinder (which really wouldn't concern me as I love that of the 7i) too. Other than that, I can't imagine what Minolta would do and still keep the name the same. The black body might be nice because the silver paint they put on the plastic is the easiest stuff in the world to rub off. Sweat can do it over time, but just a drop of alcohol removes it immediately (don't use purell to clean your hands and then handle the 7i - the silver will come off).

All in all, I like the idea of making future leaps, but the 7hi could be a gimmick to buy Minolta time...in case they don't have anything else to announce at the trade show. Either way, I'm sure 7i's will be selling like hotcakes at $650 or less in a month. Too bad i couldn't wait to get my hands on one (actually, it took 3 defectives before I got one that worked!).

Curses to this forum for making me drool over the 7i like a boy! Just Kidding! I'm off to shoot some pix!

Shane

 

[Thomas Karlmann]

Karann:

Here, here! I could not have said it better myself! Lest we worry in a similar way if the microprocessor in our computer is that all-so-seemingly-important 0.5% faster clock speed!

"Yeah, I like your fancy equipment, now show me your pictures!"

Thom

Hi There,

I do not understand why releasing a new camera has bothered you
guys so much.

I guess you, like many other digital camera owners, are more
interested in possessing a digicam, rather than photography itself.

Your hobby seems to be to own a top gun digicam, and to compare it
with others' (especially if others' is of different brands), debate
with others, and to upgrade digicams...

This is a phenomenon I see on many digicam users.

You guys seems to be more interested in digicams, not in photography.

I suppose your Dimage7i has much more feature than you are making
use of. Minolta introducing a new one (even a replacement of
yours) does not downgrade the capability of your camera, nor does
it affect your ability to take good photos.

Come on, stop wasting time comparing and complaining about cameras,
go take photos instead. Go and do something to improve your
photographic skill, not merely your knowledge in the latest digicam
and ownership of digicam.

The "advice" above applied to everyone - Be a photographer, not
just a digicam user/owner.

Regards,
Karann

 

[THT]

Well said!!! At least they didn't forget the owners of the older model - making firmware upgrade available to D7 owners.

Any company which is unable to beat the competition will be left in the dust. Then we'll be left we cameras with nowhere to get service. No I want Minolta to keep coming up with new models, keep improving.

First of all, let's remember that digicams are as much computers
and graphic processors as they are cameras. Do you really expect
he upgrade cycles to be the same as film SLR's??? Check out the
upgrade cycle on high end 3D cards (G Force 4, etc).

Minolta was first out of the gate in the 5MP race at this price
point with the D7. Great camera, but with a few flaws. They
listened to their customers and produced terrific upgrades in the
form of the D7UG and the D7i. Meanwhile, Sony has the very capable
F707. Nikon finally comes around with the CP5700 which, in my
opinion, falls short of both these cameras, probably because they
are protection their D100.

Now, Sony anounces the F717--a camera that could really give the
D7i a run for its money. Aren't you happy that Minolta is
responding? We recently had a huge thread asking Minolta what we
wanted out of a firmware upgrade. Regardless of whether they
listened to us, shouldn't we be glad Minolta is intent on producing
better gear?

If we're lucky, maybe we'll also get a D7iUG out of this.

 

[SVJIM]

Well said Sam.

Jim

Perhaps it is only a "black" edition of the D7i.

Oh no, not now that I bought:

• a silver Uniross Ultrafast charger;
• 6 packs of silver Ni-Mh AA cells;
• a silver framed, external 6,5" LCD;
• silver mini Maglite flashlight;
• round, silver woodlight for special effects.

Seriously, does it really has something to do with photography?

• Anfy

From what I understand, it's OK to have white Canon lenses, but
only black camera bodies can take "professional quality" pictures.
I'm betting Minolta will sell a bunch of D7His purely on the
strength of the black body, and that we will see a spate of posts
here and elsewhere saying that at last Serious Photographers can
take advantage of the feature set and performance of the Minolta
digicams, because with the black body it will no longer be
embarrassing to be seen in public with one.

I wish my life was so carefree that I could take the time and
energy to worry about whether people I don't know will be fooled
into thinking I'm a professional photographer (or not) by the color
of my camera. I briefly flirted with the idea of caring, then
decided to concentrate on taking photographs. So far I haven't
noticed anyone pointing at my camera and laughing, and I've had the
D7 for about a year now.

Sam in SF

--
Photography should be fun

http://www.pbase.com/jcollins

 

[Tony Rae45985]

Rubber grip may not be a good idea. I had a Nikon Coolpix 990,
excelent camera. However, a common complaint was that glue on the
grip was letting go and the rubber were lifting.

I haven't had a chance to play with that Nikon so can't comment but my Oly 2100UZ has a rubber grip and it's stuck on there nicely

No big deal though, the current grip, though plastic, actually feels pretty good and doesn't feel cheap and nasty at all.

Tony

 

[Tony Rae45985]

I wish my life was so carefree that I could take the time and
energy to worry about whether people I don't know will be fooled
into thinking I'm a professional photographer (or not) by the color
of my camera. I briefly flirted with the idea of caring, then
decided to concentrate on taking photographs.

I briefly considered the Nikon 5700 because it's black and looks better. Then I came to my senses

 

[rgojr]

speculation: the act of wasting time trying to figure out what will happen in the future when you could be living your life (which includes taking pictures).....

Do all of you worry about when the world will end too?

R

 

[Kar Ann Chew (Mr)]

Hi Noodle,

It's certainly not my intention to insult anyone here. I'm sorry if I made anyone feel so.

Actually the "advice" was for everyone. The "critics" were not to everyone, but only those who are nonstop chasing the latest digicam.

Sure, they are many fine people here, even pro, are seriously taking photos, improving their skills, exchanging comments and making good use of the forum here.

that while I agree with some of your points (though they are neither new or unique)

I do not claim my comment and advice to be new and unique anyway. It's just something worth pointing out.

I wonder, did you post this on any other forums?

No. It was a spontaneous response to some messages I read. Why asking?

But, still, I really wish everyone could spread such message - go take photos, don't just study digicam funtionalites, and chasing after the latest model never-endingly.

Cheers,
Karann

What you have identified is not just a trend in digicam owners in
particular, but consumers in general. We are conditioned by
advertising and peer pressure to a state of technological paranoia,
in that we either have to buy the latest version whether we need
its functions or nor. Or, we delay buying something because of the
possibility of a new version just round the corner, that will make
our current version 'obsolete'.

However, there's another side to this, and that is when a
manufacturer brings out a bug ridden product, sells it by the
truckful on the back of a good name, then replaces it with an
"updated version" that fixes all the problems as found by angry
consumers, and introduces enough new features to drive them nuts.

To be honest, I'm not sure what the point of your posting is. If
you have spent much time on this forum, you'll quickly see that it
is chock full of enthusiasts producing some beautiful images, or
asking advice from this huge knowledge base. Personally, I think
that while I agree with some of your points (though they are
neither new or unique), the tone of your letter is a little
insulting and dismissive to some fine people here.

I wonder, did you post this on any other forums?

Regards

Noodle

I do not understand why releasing a new camera has bothered you
guys so much.

I guess you, like many other digital camera owners, are more
interested in possessing a digicam, rather than photography itself.

Your hobby seems to be to own a top gun digicam, and to compare it
with others' (especially if others' is of different brands), debate
with others, and to upgrade digicams...

This is a phenomenon I see on many digicam users.

You guys seems to be more interested in digicams, not in photography.

I suppose your Dimage7i has much more feature than you are making
use of. Minolta introducing a new one (even a replacement of
yours) does not downgrade the capability of your camera, nor does
it affect your ability to take good photos.

Come on, stop wasting time comparing and complaining about cameras,
go take photos instead. Go and do something to improve your
photographic skill, not merely your knowledge in the latest digicam
and ownership of digicam.

The "advice" above applied to everyone - Be a photographer, not
just a digicam user/owner.

Regards,
Karann

If that happens, then I will sell my camera, but not for another
Minolta! I don?t like to be manipulated this way. (I am expressing
my own opinion here!!)

Hi,

It seems another rumour will come true. Minolta will announce a new
Dimage7HI in 9 days. Same design as the D7i, black body and some
minor updates to the D7i.

Regards,

Andreas

--
Karann

--
Karann

 

[Matthew Geier]

Perhaps it is only a "black" edition of the D7i.

From what I understand, it's OK to have white Canon lenses, but
only black camera bodies can take "professional quality" pictures.
I'm betting Minolta will sell a bunch of D7His purely on the
strength of the black body, and that........

We all know red cars go faster and 'get the babes', so probably black cameras take better pictures and 'get the babes'.
(And make a nice contrast with your red sports car

 

[E R A 2 0 0 0]

Rubber grip may not be a good idea. I had a Nikon Coolpix 990,
excelent camera. However, a common complaint was that glue on the
grip was letting go and the rubber were lifting.

I prefer to leave it as is, nice and simple.

I agree with you 100%
ERA

Cheers,
Rudi.

--
E R A

 

[David Grabowski]

Cat5 wrote:
The black body might be nice because the

silver paint they put on the plastic is the easiest stuff in the
world to rub off. Sweat can do it over time, but just a drop of
alcohol removes it immediately (don't use purell to clean your
hands and then handle the 7i - the silver will come off).

Well, since the silver paint is lousy anyway, guess there would be no loss in lightly skuffing it up, taping off the lens glass and viewer and spray painting the 7i black !!! Might try some semigloss industial black, for that slight sheen look and tough film.

David

Shane