"OFFICIALLY" discontinued?

[mike zen]

How do we know if an item is “OFFICIALLY” discontinued? I heard that DiMAGE 7 was already discontinued. I checked Minolta’s website and saw DiMAGE 7 is STILL THERE. So, how can I officially tell if an item is already, or will be discontinued soon? Any official channel of information or resources to go with?

Thanks
Mike - newbie for DiMAGE 7i and 7Hi

 

[Dr. Don Sandell]

How do we know if an item is “OFFICIALLY” discontinued? I heard
that DiMAGE 7 was already discontinued. I checked Minolta’s website
and saw DiMAGE 7 is STILL THERE. So, how can I officially tell if
an item is already, or will be discontinued soon? Any official
channel of information or resources to go with?

Thanks
Mike - newbie for DiMAGE 7i and 7Hi

I KNOW there are a lot of you out there that understand the term "sweet spot". I believe that sweet spot not only refers to computers, but to digital cameras as well. Am I wrong?

Sorry to all who spent the ex-tra $400 to $500 for the 7Hi thinking it was the "end all camera". Well kiddies, the sweet spot in Minolta prosumer cameras currently is the 7i. (as of 2/03) In 2 years the 7Hi will be worth a plug nickel....and golly.........I spent $ 450 less to find that out by buying the 7i. Get over it...........currently these cameras are no better than the 35mm cardboard boxes you buy at the grocery store as far as investment goes!

 

[Brivers]

I'm not sure I follow your logic. In using the term "investment", it would mean the camera would offer some income potential. If not, it's technically not an investment. So for most of us, not professionals, it's a "luxury" item. With luxury items, for early adopters (marketing term), price isn't an issue. Function of the 7Hi in years to come will be of more value to a potential customer than the 7i merely from the fact that the price will level out with age. If I wanted to "save" money, I'd have bought the Fuji. But this is just my opinion and since the 7Hi functions as its specs state, I'm happy with the purchase, especially since i got it a few dollars less than 1K.

Brent

How do we know if an item is “OFFICIALLY” discontinued? I heard
that DiMAGE 7 was already discontinued. I checked Minolta’s website
and saw DiMAGE 7 is STILL THERE. So, how can I officially tell if
an item is already, or will be discontinued soon? Any official
channel of information or resources to go with?

Thanks
Mike - newbie for DiMAGE 7i and 7Hi

I KNOW there are a lot of you out there that understand the term
"sweet spot". I believe that sweet spot not only refers to
computers, but to digital cameras as well. Am I wrong?

Sorry to all who spent the ex-tra $400 to $500 for the 7Hi thinking
it was the "end all camera". Well kiddies, the sweet spot in
Minolta prosumer cameras currently is the 7i. (as of 2/03) In 2
years the 7Hi will be worth a plug nickel....and golly.........I
spent $ 450 less to find that out by buying the 7i. Get over
it...........currently these cameras are no better than the 35mm
cardboard boxes you buy at the grocery store as far as investment
goes!

--
http://www.pbase.com/brivers

 

[Steven Harlow]

How do we know if an item is “OFFICIALLY” discontinued? I heard
that DiMAGE 7 was already discontinued. I checked Minolta’s website
and saw DiMAGE 7 is STILL THERE.>

Thanks

Mike - newbie for DiMAGE 7i and 7Hi

Mike,

Minolta's website takes a while to catch up with their product line for some reason.

In film cameras, they kept the 600si on their site for almost a year after it was discontinued.

They have made improvements from what it was in just little over one year, so maybe they will make some more strides soon in keeping their website up to date with their product line.

Steven

 

[iammobay]

How do we know if an item is “OFFICIALLY” discontinued?

Go to the Minolta Japan sites for this information

For digital cameras this page has a direct link to discontinued products

http://www.dimage.minolta.com/

 

[mike zen]

Since 7 cannot be found from it, does that mean 7 was officially discountinued?
Mike

http://www.dimage.minolta.com/

--
Mike - newbie for DiMAGE 7i and 7Hi

 

[Jim B]

Hi Mike -

The list of discontinued Minolta models does indeed specifically list the Dimage 7 as a discontinued model.

Jim B.

http://www.dimage.minolta.com/

--
Mike - newbie for DiMAGE 7i and 7Hi

 

[Dannno]

I'm not sure I follow your logic. In using the term "investment",
it would mean the camera would offer some income potential. If
not, it's technically not an investment. So for most of us, not
professionals, it's a "luxury" item. With luxury items, for early
adopters (marketing term), price isn't an issue. Function of the
7Hi in years to come will be of more value to a potential customer
than the 7i merely from the fact that the price will level out with
age. If I wanted to "save" money, I'd have bought the Fuji. But
this is just my opinion and since the 7Hi functions as its specs
state, I'm happy with the purchase, especially since i got it a few
dollars less than 1K.

I'm with BRivers on this one. When I ordered the 7Hi, there was about a $250 spread. I think the added features make it worthwhile. I'll be content with this camera for a long, long time. As far as "investments", lets face it-over time none of this stuff is a good investment- buy some Leica 35mm stuff instead.

 

[Dr. Don Sandell]

BRivers, I understand and agree 100% with your position. Either position is correct, I believe. But after spending tens of thousands of $ being an early adapter, I realized that unless I had unlimited recources that I'd never be able to keep on top of the technological curve without massive infusions of $. I agree with you, the 7Hi is a much better camera but in 2 years it will be horsemeat. At this moment in time I believe that the better

value (performance divided by price = sweet spot) is the 7i. If the 7Hi was only a few bucks more it would certainly be worth it but not the 4 - $500 price difference at the moment. If i want a 7Hi quite frankly, I'll wait for then next model to come down the pike and the 7Hi drops in price to the level of the current 7i. Lets face it all in all at this juncture in time these cameras have the life expectancy of 12 to 18 months before somthing way more fantastic is released. Anyone who thinks that they will be shooting with today's top of the line three years form now is either deluding themselves or not a "camera person". On 2/20/03 the "sweet spot" for Minolta is the 7i, of course that may change on 2/21/03. With current technology every digicam that hits the market is a dinosaur the day it's released.

 

[Brivers]

Dr.,

While I understand that logic from a business perspective, I'd have to disagree that these cameras will be obsolete in a few years. I'll step back a few years to my first digicam, the Casio QV3000 that shipped with a 340mb Microdrive. It was out a year before I bought it, at a full 1K for my purchase. WAY overpriced. That camera was not built for years of use. As a matter of fact, it died within 2.5 years from sheer use. But at the level of the 7 series Minolta, the Coolpix series, and the higher end Olympus', the cameras are better built, more on the lines of a standard SLR. And at 4 megpix or above, there really is no intrinsic value for additional pixels unless you are a pro wanting to print larger than 13x19. Sure, there will be new releases, and megapixels will increase (they become a marketing feature past 4.0), but what the naked eye can see won't get better, we can only see so much. I honestly think I'll be using my 7Hi 5 years from now if the build quality holds. There is no real reason for me to go to a full SLR frame, I'm not pro and don't plan to be. But I wanted "some" flexibility with regard to control, and the 7x series gives me that. Oh I'll WANT those new fangled cameras marketing more megapixels, more this, more that, but now that I'm more educated, I'll know better. There were 3 key issues in the 7Hi that caused me to go with that over the 7i, buffer size, memory slots, and color space. More than justifies the cost.....for me.

Brent

BRivers, I understand and agree 100% with your position. Either
position is correct, I believe. But after spending tens of
thousands of $ being an early adapter, I realized that unless I had
unlimited recources that I'd never be able to keep on top of the
technological curve without massive infusions of $. I agree with
you, the 7Hi is a much better camera but in 2 years it will be
horsemeat. At this moment in time I believe that the better
value (performance divided by price = sweet spot) is the 7i. If
the 7Hi was only a few bucks more it would certainly be worth it
but not the 4 - $500 price difference at the moment. If i want a
7Hi quite frankly, I'll wait for then next model to come down the
pike and the 7Hi drops in price to the level of the current 7i.
Lets face it all in all at this juncture in time these cameras have
the life expectancy of 12 to 18 months before somthing way more
fantastic is released. Anyone who thinks that they will be
shooting with today's top of the line three years form now is
either deluding themselves or not a "camera person". On 2/20/03
the "sweet spot" for Minolta is the 7i, of course that may change
on 2/21/03. With current technology every digicam that hits the
market is a dinosaur the day it's released.

--
http://www.pbase.com/brivers