Let's Focus on the real issues:

[Bob Jones]

Can you tell me if the LCD is better or worse than any other Digital Camera you have used?

I've been using my D7 for 5 days now and have found the EVF to be
very good. Yes, if your use to only using an optical viewfinder its
a change and it takes some time to get use to but I find it to be
very easy to use and in low-light situations MUCH better than an
optical one. It is very bright and definately sharp enough to even
allow for manual focusing.
As for the noise issues, as i saw someome else in this thread also
say, let the PRINTS speak for themselves. i have prints from the D7
up to 12"x18" (the limit of what I can currently get printed either
here at home or at my local printers) and based on the PRINTS - not
on what I see on the monitor - noise just isn't an issue at all.

One potential problem is noise in the image. Many of the sample
images posted so far appear to be pretty noisy compared to those of
some other digital cameras of similar specs.

The other concern to many is how well the EVF is going to work. The
lack of an optical viewfinder may be a big negative in some usage.

Steve

Having read Image Resource's D7 'Preview' review,
and even knowing that I would not buy anything digital without
Phil's review, what issues are there that would stop me from buying
the D7?

So far, so good on all points: 28-200 mm top quality lens, flash
sync upto
1/2000, 5 mega pixels, short lag time (compared to my Elan IIe),
"micro-drive-able", Minolta's press release indicating fast
start-up times,
a good buffer, contrast & color controls in usable increments,
etc., etc....

I'm ready to stop buying film, am I missing something?

--
The joy of photography is being there when you take the
picture.......NICKPHOTO

 

[The Man]

The LCD screen seems very good to me. I don't proclaim to be a digital camera expert by any means and it's not like i've used the vast majority of all the other cameras on the market but from the experience I have had with some other cameras I've had the opportunity to use at some point or another (a smattering of kodaks, fuji's, olympus, nikon, and other minolta's), the LCD screen on the D7 seems to be the best so far. This means the best that I personally have experienced ( I wanted to clarify that statement before I get 30 people jumping all over me because of it!)

Based on other camera's I've used in the past (both lower priced and higher end models) the LCD sreen on the D7 seems to me to be a little sharper and also has a very good refresh rate. Also, the LCD screen seems much less "grainy" than the other cameras I've used. I do find its easier to use the EVF when manual focusing over the LCD screen although it does help on the D7 that the LCD screen has a 4x magnifier when I DO want to use it when focusing. The colors are also good enough that I can also see the differences accuratly when using the adjustments for color saturation, contrast, etc.

Minolta says they are using a much newer techology on this LCD screen and EVF than other cameras and its suppossed to be a lot better and in the various reviews I had read the comments were very positive. Is it the BEST LCD screen of any digital camera on the market? I can't answer that. I CAN say it's the best LCD screen of any camera that I'VE used.
I hope this helps

I've been using my D7 for 5 days now and have found the EVF to be
very good. Yes, if your use to only using an optical viewfinder its
a change and it takes some time to get use to but I find it to be
very easy to use and in low-light situations MUCH better than an
optical one. It is very bright and definately sharp enough to even
allow for manual focusing.
As for the noise issues, as i saw someome else in this thread also
say, let the PRINTS speak for themselves. i have prints from the D7
up to 12"x18" (the limit of what I can currently get printed either
here at home or at my local printers) and based on the PRINTS - not
on what I see on the monitor - noise just isn't an issue at all.

One potential problem is noise in the image. Many of the sample
images posted so far appear to be pretty noisy compared to those of
some other digital cameras of similar specs.

The other concern to many is how well the EVF is going to work. The
lack of an optical viewfinder may be a big negative in some usage.

Steve

Having read Image Resource's D7 'Preview' review,
and even knowing that I would not buy anything digital without
Phil's review, what issues are there that would stop me from buying
the D7?

So far, so good on all points: 28-200 mm top quality lens, flash
sync upto
1/2000, 5 mega pixels, short lag time (compared to my Elan IIe),
"micro-drive-able", Minolta's press release indicating fast
start-up times,
a good buffer, contrast & color controls in usable increments,
etc., etc....

I'm ready to stop buying film, am I missing something?

--
The joy of photography is being there when you take the
picture.......NICKPHOTO

 

[Steve Dean]

The Man,

Thanks for your input. I've printed a few of the images that have been posted on the web, and have been quite pleased with them. I'm still very anxious to be able to do my own testing, side-by-side my other equipment.

Do you find the time the EFV freezes during the exposure to be a concern? I know you probably can't actually measure it, but how long does it freeze following the shutter release? I assume it does not stay locked up during the entire write cycle. Correct?

It's nice to have someone with a production unit in their hands to get first hand information from. I sure will be glad to get my own.

Steve

I've been using my D7 for 5 days now and have found the EVF to be
very good. Yes, if your use to only using an optical viewfinder its
a change and it takes some time to get use to but I find it to be
very easy to use and in low-light situations MUCH better than an
optical one. It is very bright and definately sharp enough to even
allow for manual focusing.
As for the noise issues, as i saw someome else in this thread also
say, let the PRINTS speak for themselves. i have prints from the D7
up to 12"x18" (the limit of what I can currently get printed either
here at home or at my local printers) and based on the PRINTS - not
on what I see on the monitor - noise just isn't an issue at all.

One potential problem is noise in the image. Many of the sample
images posted so far appear to be pretty noisy compared to those of
some other digital cameras of similar specs.

The other concern to many is how well the EVF is going to work. The
lack of an optical viewfinder may be a big negative in some usage.

Steve

Having read Image Resource's D7 'Preview' review,
and even knowing that I would not buy anything digital without
Phil's review, what issues are there that would stop me from buying
the D7?

So far, so good on all points: 28-200 mm top quality lens, flash
sync upto
1/2000, 5 mega pixels, short lag time (compared to my Elan IIe),
"micro-drive-able", Minolta's press release indicating fast
start-up times,
a good buffer, contrast & color controls in usable increments,
etc., etc....

I'm ready to stop buying film, am I missing something?

--
The joy of photography is being there when you take the
picture.......NICKPHOTO

 

[The Man]

Steve,

In single shot shooting the EVF will stay blank while it writes the image to the memory card, but during continous shooting its fine and only blanks out for an instant than comes right back on. Of course, while in single shooting mode, how long the EVF stsays blank depends on the size of file you selected - if its a Tiff it's longer of course than if you were only shooting in a higher compressed JPEG mode. I've found the range to be from a high of 20 sec (Tiff mode) down to about 1 sec (JPEG - higher compression setting) in the single shot drive mode to basically instant in the continous drive mode.

Do you find the time the EFV freezes during the exposure to be a
concern? I know you probably can't actually measure it, but how
long does it freeze following the shutter release? I assume it does
not stay locked up during the entire write cycle. Correct?

It's nice to have someone with a production unit in their hands to
get first hand information from. I sure will be glad to get my own.

Steve

I've been using my D7 for 5 days now and have found the EVF to be
very good. Yes, if your use to only using an optical viewfinder its
a change and it takes some time to get use to but I find it to be
very easy to use and in low-light situations MUCH better than an
optical one. It is very bright and definately sharp enough to even
allow for manual focusing.
As for the noise issues, as i saw someome else in this thread also
say, let the PRINTS speak for themselves. i have prints from the D7
up to 12"x18" (the limit of what I can currently get printed either
here at home or at my local printers) and based on the PRINTS - not
on what I see on the monitor - noise just isn't an issue at all.

One potential problem is noise in the image. Many of the sample
images posted so far appear to be pretty noisy compared to those of
some other digital cameras of similar specs.

The other concern to many is how well the EVF is going to work. The
lack of an optical viewfinder may be a big negative in some usage.

Steve

Having read Image Resource's D7 'Preview' review,
and even knowing that I would not buy anything digital without
Phil's review, what issues are there that would stop me from buying
the D7?

So far, so good on all points: 28-200 mm top quality lens, flash
sync upto
1/2000, 5 mega pixels, short lag time (compared to my Elan IIe),
"micro-drive-able", Minolta's press release indicating fast
start-up times,
a good buffer, contrast & color controls in usable increments,
etc., etc....

I'm ready to stop buying film, am I missing something?

--
The joy of photography is being there when you take the
picture.......NICKPHOTO

 

[Timo Autiokari]

As for the noise issues, as i saw someome else in this thread also
say, let the PRINTS speak for themselves. i have prints from the D7
up to 12"x18" (the limit of what I can currently get printed either
here at home or at my local printers) and based on the PRINTS - not
on what I see on the monitor - noise just isn't an issue at all.

Not all people PRINTS the images, many/most use them only on-line, on the CRT.

It depends on the quality of printer if the noise remains visible, your printer must be of rather low resolution or it is smudging badly if you do not see the noise. On my A4 size D7 sample prints the noise is quite similarly visible as it is seen on the CRT. This is Tek 450e Phaser dye-sub, it gives pretty similar quality than the on-line photo printers.

Timo Autiokari

 

[Steve Dean]

Do you find the time the EFV freezes during the exposure to be a
concern? I know you probably can't actually measure it, but how
long does it freeze following the shutter release? I assume it does
not stay locked up during the entire write cycle. Correct?

It's nice to have someone with a production unit in their hands to
get first hand information from. I sure will be glad to get my own.

Steve

I've been using my D7 for 5 days now and have found the EVF to be
very good. Yes, if your use to only using an optical viewfinder its
a change and it takes some time to get use to but I find it to be
very easy to use and in low-light situations MUCH better than an
optical one. It is very bright and definately sharp enough to even
allow for manual focusing.
As for the noise issues, as i saw someome else in this thread also
say, let the PRINTS speak for themselves. i have prints from the D7
up to 12"x18" (the limit of what I can currently get printed either
here at home or at my local printers) and based on the PRINTS - not
on what I see on the monitor - noise just isn't an issue at all.

One potential problem is noise in the image. Many of the sample
images posted so far appear to be pretty noisy compared to those of
some other digital cameras of similar specs.

The other concern to many is how well the EVF is going to work. The
lack of an optical viewfinder may be a big negative in some usage.

Steve

Having read Image Resource's D7 'Preview' review,
and even knowing that I would not buy anything digital without
Phil's review, what issues are there that would stop me from buying
the D7?

So far, so good on all points: 28-200 mm top quality lens, flash
sync upto
1/2000, 5 mega pixels, short lag time (compared to my Elan IIe),
"micro-drive-able", Minolta's press release indicating fast
start-up times,
a good buffer, contrast & color controls in usable increments,
etc., etc....

I'm ready to stop buying film, am I missing something?

--
The joy of photography is being there when you take the
picture.......NICKPHOTO

 

[Rob Millenaar]

The LCD screen seems very good to me.
...........................the LCD
screen on the D7 seems to be the best so far.

Dear Man,

As one of the very few owners of a D7, you've posted very favourable comments about this camera, like the snippets shown above. We welcome your positive comments very much, but are equally interested in any gripes about the camaera you may have developed so far... if any.

Can you share any of the less positive experiences; are there any 'real issues' where the D7 performs not-so-great in your opinion?
Thanks,
Rob

 

[The Man]

The LCD screen seems very good to me.
...........................the LCD
screen on the D7 seems to be the best so far.

Dear Man,
As one of the very few owners of a D7, you've posted very
favourable comments about this camera, like the snippets shown
above. We welcome your positive comments very much, but are equally
interested in any gripes about the camaera you may have developed
so far... if any.
Can you share any of the less positive experiences; are there any
'real issues' where the D7 performs not-so-great in your opinion?
Thanks,
Rob

 

[The Man]

Well, there really aren't too many negative things i've come across so are in my limited time but...
1. I wish it also recorded audio in the movie mode

2. as I stated previously, you CAN focus using the LCD screen but its MUCH easier to focus using the EVF so yes, I do wish it was a little easier to focus using the LCD screen.
3. Having the LCD screen movable or "pop-out" would have been a nice feature.

4. I don't like having to wait approx 20 sec as it writes the image to the memory card if i'm in the Tiff mode in single shot drive mode while the screen and/or EVF is blanked out.

5. The & # ring used to hold the strap on the right side of the camera is always in the way as I go to remove or put in the CF card. I have to lift the ring out of the way to open the CF card door and especially make sure its out of the way when I go to close the door.

6. In the flex-focus focusing mode, its GREAT to be able to move the focusing cross hairs anywhere I want in the viewfinder to select my precise focusing point without having to shift the camera, lock focus, and than recompose, BUT the movement of the crosshairs on the screen is fairly slow so sometimes it is faster to just go back to the "old fashion" method. (I still like the feature a lot though and the flexability of it is awesome)

As for the performance of the camera and the printed results i've gotten so far - no, I don't have ANY gripes or negative things to say about it at all. It is by far the best digital camera i've personally have used to date. (before I have 20 people jump on me for that statement i'll repeat it - .......that I PERSONALLY have used.......).

maybe some of the things I listed about would be considered trivial, but hey, this is just my opinion.

The LCD screen seems very good to me.
...........................the LCD
screen on the D7 seems to be the best so far.

Dear Man,
As one of the very few owners of a D7, you've posted very
favourable comments about this camera, like the snippets shown
above. We welcome your positive comments very much, but are equally
interested in any gripes about the camaera you may have developed
so far... if any.
Can you share any of the less positive experiences; are there any
'real issues' where the D7 performs not-so-great in your opinion?
Thanks,
Rob

 

[The Man]

As for the noise issues, as i saw someome else in this thread also
say, let the PRINTS speak for themselves. i have prints from the D7
up to 12"x18" (the limit of what I can currently get printed either
here at home or at my local printers) and based on the PRINTS - not
on what I see on the monitor - noise just isn't an issue at all.

Not all people PRINTS the images, many/most use them only on-line,
on the CRT.

It depends on the quality of printer if the noise remains visible,
your printer must be of rather low resolution or it is smudging
badly if you do not see the noise. On my A4 size D7 sample prints
the noise is quite similarly visible as it is seen on the CRT. This
is Tek 450e Phaser dye-sub, it gives pretty similar quality than
the on-line photo printers.

Timo Autiokari

 

[Rob Millenaar]

Thanks for the input.

Well, there really aren't too many negative things i've come across
so are in my limited time but...
1. I wish it also recorded audio in the movie mode

I've seen more people comment about this. I'm quite oldfashioned about this: I only expect a camera to take pictures...
......

6. In the flex-focus focusing mode, its GREAT to be able to move
the focusing cross hairs anywhere I want in the viewfinder to
select my precise focusing point without having to shift the
camera, lock focus, and than recompose, BUT the movement of the
crosshairs on the screen is fairly slow so sometimes it is faster
to just go back to the "old fashion" method. (I still like the
feature a lot though and the flexability of it is awesome)

Ahh, this is interesting. Being an EOS user I'm really fond of the eye controlled focus point and I was curious whether the flex-focus mode would somehow come close to that. I see that it may be too slow for that. The speed of the crosshairs is a firmware property, so maybe in a new update it may be faster if users complain enough.

As for the performance of the camera and the printed results i've
gotten so far - no, I don't have ANY gripes or negative things to
say about it at all. It is by far the best digital camera i've
personally have used to date. (before I have 20 people jump on me
for that statement i'll repeat it - .......that I PERSONALLY have
used.......).

maybe some of the things I listed about would be considered
trivial, but hey, this is just my opinion.

The LCD screen seems very good to me.
...........................the LCD
screen on the D7 seems to be the best so far.

Dear Man,
As one of the very few owners of a D7, you've posted very
favourable comments about this camera, like the snippets shown
above. We welcome your positive comments very much, but are equally
interested in any gripes about the camaera you may have developed
so far... if any.
Can you share any of the less positive experiences; are there any
'real issues' where the D7 performs not-so-great in your opinion?
Thanks,
Rob

 

[Hugo Martinez]

..The comments about the batteries was in response to people
worrying about the microdrive causing heat issues. The
microdrive is not a problem.

Indirectly, perhaps the microdrive could have heat issues. Higher power drain == hotter batteries.

Hugo
http://hugomartinez.com

 

[David Roberts]

Dear Timo,

I feel sorry for you that your negativity for all things Dimage seems to colour your judgement. Your comments on "poor this" and "unusable that" just indicate that you will never be satisfied with anything. Those who actually have the camera are posting reviews which do contain criticisms, albeit small ones. When The Man comments that his prints from the camera are excellent, you decry the quality of his printer.

Why don't you go out and buy a Dimage 7 and give us the benefit of your judgement based on a factual involvement with the camera, rather than carping and sniping at the comments of others.

I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the Dimage 7 that I ordered some weeks ago and your acidic comments haven't altered my decision. By the way, I use an inferior Epson 1270 for my prints and I look froward to seeing some smudgy product with no noise - but the customers love them!
David ROBERTS

But the image quality of the 3.4µm x 3.4µm pixel is just very very
poor, unusable for everyting else than being an extremely expensive
toy for the pre-teens.

 

[Mike S40844]

Timo

Considering that a great percentage of COMMERCIAL photographs are now taken digitally it is obvious that your opinion of the quality and acceptability of digital images is just flat out WRONG!!

what issues are there that would
stop me from buying the D7?

The very same extremely high noise level and extremely small
dynamic range that all the 3.xMP digicams have. If you have any
real world need for the images this quality will not satisfy those
needs.

So far, so good on all points: 28-200 mm top quality lens,
flash sync upto 1/2000, 5 mega pixels, short lag time
(compared to my Elan IIe), "micro-drive-able", Minolta's
press release indicating fast start-up times, a good buffer,
contrast & color controls in usable increments, etc., etc....

Yes, all very good point. I think it saw it does exposure
bracketing, this is a very important feature when the exposure
metering itself is unreliable.

But the image quality of the 3.4µm x 3.4µm pixel is just very very
poor, unusable for everyting else than being an extremely expensive
toy for the pre-teens.

The joy of photography is being there
when you take the picture.......

...with a camera that delivers acceptable quality and that you can
rely on.

Timo Autiokari

 

[JCDoss]

Ever take 5 or 10 quick shots, then drop the batteries out of the
camera? The heat generated by the Microdrive doesn't compare to the
heat generated as the batteries discharge.

Minolta does advertise an external battery pack on their website (sorry, don't remember the url), but I'm not sure how it works... is it something you attach to your belt and string a cord to the camera ( bad ), or is it a portrait grip? Anyone have one or know something more about it? It would be interesting to see pics taken with the battery pack to see if the batteries' heat is responsible for generating significant CCD noise.

JCDoss

 

[Andrew Grant]

Andrew: I shoot baseball with my elan iie and i must manual focus
and press the shutter when the pitcher (softball) is just at his
release to get the
batter just before he contacts with the ball. much longer than the
.13 second
mentioned for the D7.

That .13 number will be after AF/AE and WB has been set. Pitchers are pretty fast, it probably takes less than .13 of a sec for the baseball to reach the batter. If you want a digicam with less shutter lag than the Elan II, you will need a Nikon D1/D1h or D1x. You could wait for the pro canon.

 

[Andrew Grant]

Andrew: I shoot baseball with my elan iie and i must manual focus
and press the shutter when the pitcher (softball) is just at his
release to get the
batter just before he contacts with the ball. much longer than the
.13 second
mentioned for the D7.

That .13 number will be after AF/AE and WB has been set. Pitchers
are pretty fast, it probably takes less than .13 of a sec for the
baseball to reach the batter. If you want a digicam with less
shutter lag than the Elan II, you will need a Nikon D1/D1h or D1x.
You could wait for the pro canon.

Actually the Oly 100RS may be your best bet. It has a negative shutter lag.

 

[Tegenfeldt]

Dear Timo,
I feel sorry for you that your negativity for all things Dimage
seems to colour your judgement. Your comments on "poor this" and
"unusable that" just indicate that you will never be satisfied with
anything. Those who actually have the camera are posting reviews

I have seen Timos messages in other forums as well, it isn´t just the D7 that is a "toy for pre-teens". It seems that Timos somehow fills his ego by these matter-of-fact-I-know-this, messages. I also feel sorry for him.

which do contain criticisms, albeit small ones. When The Man
comments that his prints from the camera are excellent, you decry
the quality of his printer.

The Man has written commentaries that I enjoyed reading and found most valuable, he is the first actually having the D7 that has answered many of my questions.

Timo on the other hand is just one of the bunch, not having the camera, and obviously do not intend to get it either, that nit pick or even create issues about it. When that isn´t enough, the printer is at fault... It is just an endless debate hunger.

Why don't you go out and buy a Dimage 7 and give us the benefit of
your judgement based on a factual involvement with the camera,
rather than carping and sniping at the comments of others.

He won´t buy the D7 will he? He is among the most negative posters in this forum, about anything and everything of the D7 is poor/bad/kid/pre-teen/toy... So, if he has that view, why keep on hanging around here? Timo, please keep on using your DCS3 or film or whatever, but don´t stamp on everyones toes that comes in your way.

I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the Dimage 7 that I
ordered some weeks ago and your acidic comments haven't altered my
decision. By the way, I use an inferior Epson 1270 for my prints
and I look froward to seeing some smudgy product with no noise -
but the customers love them!

Me too. You and I will start using the D7 to take photos, while Timo keeps on whining about noise and dynamics, endlessly. And your "inferior" printer will get you images to put on your walls to be proud of.

But the image quality of the 3.4µm x 3.4µm pixel is just very very
poor, unusable for everyting else than being an extremely expensive
toy for the pre-teens.

Timo manages in one sentence to classify quite a few forum users as pre-teen moorons... Amazing ego.

 

[Lord of Things]

Timo manages in one sentence to classify quite a few forum users as
pre-teen moorons... Amazing ego.

You do have an option not to read any of Timo's wacky and negative messages. I just skip over them as I am sure MANY do.

 

[Martin45638]

Just out of curiosity, but has Timo EVER been less critical about anything?

I'm truly turned off, and disgusted by his comments ... and before everyone lights up, let me clarify my point by saying that I am very interested in this camera, but that means taking the good with the bad ... all cameras have pros and cons, and I'm willing to work through them like eveyrone here in this forum ...

BUT WHAT I CANNOT ABIDE, is Timo's constant (!) rambling on and on and on about how terrible this camera is ... the noise the noise the noise ... GIVE IT A REST TIMO ... I've had about enough of your smug hatred for this camera hidden behind your facade of technical expertise ... I don't doubt that you are an intelligent individual, but you simply must believe that you are the one and only person to whom everyone else here should listen to ... enough is enough.

I do enjoy the wealth of information provided by this forum and others, and I do hope the vast majority of posters will forgive my rather harsh words to Timo, but I have never met someone who can make it so obvious as to his complete and utter arrogance with nothing more than the written word.

Kind regards to all,

Martin

Generally, noise doesn't seem to be that bad as far
as I can tell. Perhaps I'm not as critical of noise.

Just wait until you have the possiblity to actually use the camera.

You most propably will be soooooo critical about the noise that you
do not bother to carry tha camera with you at all. That is what
happened to me with the QV-3500ex (with similarly high noise and
similarly small dynamic range).

Timo Autiokari