Konica Minolta DiMAGE A1 - Expert Reviews

Review summary: This flexible, fast-shooting enthusiast's camera matches the features but not the image quality of many digital SLRs.

Pros: Incredible array of features, including image stabilisation and a manual zoom ring, tilting electronic viewfinder, flexible, fast autofocus

Cons: Lacklustre continuous-shooting mode, mediocre electronic viewfinder, relatively weak flash

Review summary: The Konica Minolta DiMAGE A1 ($899) is a lot more than a simple "add a few new features and slap a new name on the box" upgrade to its predecessor, the DiMAGE 7Hi. Minolta has designed a revolutionary new CCD with image stabilization built in. This ...

Pros: Very good photo quality ; 7X optical zoom lens ; Image stabilization system ; Full manual controls (and plenty of them) ; Hot shoe + flash sync port ; Very good AF performance, even without AF-assist lamp ; LCD/EVF are useful in low lighting ...

Cons: Complex ; not easy to just pick up and use without reading the manual first ; Images slightly noisy ; Tiny 16MB card included with camera ; Flimsy plastic door over CF slot ; Below average macro mode ; Pricey

Verdict: in playback mode, per charge. Do note the usual disadvantages of proprietary batteries like this one: price ($45 a pop) and the fact that you can't "bail yourself out" with AAs when your rechargeables die

Review summary: The latest DiMAGE flagship camera promises the photographic earth. Promises, promises…

Pros: Speed of a film camera, Excellent layout and design, Superlative picture quality

Cons: Looks expensive, Have to use menus for flash settings

Verdict: All you could possibly want from a top end SLR and more.

Review summary: This (the Minolta DiMAGE A1) is arguably the best digicam Minolta has made to date, and one of the best on the market, made by anybody. This is the way Dave Etchells describes the A1 in his recent article 'Minolta DIMAGE A1 Review'. European Readers ...

Verdict: reviewed the Minolta DiMage A1 and gave it a rating of 7.9 (Good)

Award: Recommended!

Review summary: The DiMAGE A1 is the successor to the 'DiMAGE 7' series of digital cameras. Minolta has chosen not to use the '7' name on this camera because they believe it to be such a leap forward in functionality and features. The A1 utilizes the same size CCD ...

Pros: Delivers pleasing 'film like' images with average resolution, Unique Anti-Shake feature which moves the CCD to compensate, Flexible selectable colour space (sRGB, sRGB Vivid, Adobe RGB), Optionally embedded ICC profile for Adobe RGB, Customizable ...

Cons: Lower resolution that we would expect for the money, Noise increases at slower shutter speeds and especially long exposures, Image processing artifacts in JPEG images (dots, moir�, etc.) not in RAW converted, Can not magnify a RAW / TIFF files, ...

Verdict: There's little doubt that the DiMAGE A1 is the most feature rich and flexible prosumer digital camera currently available.