My new Digital cam

[Technoid]

My aging Minolta Dimage 2300 is really messed up and produces artificially darkened pictures

So i bought a Minolta S414 to replace it

http://www2.konicaminolta.jp/english/products/consumer/digital_camera/dimage/dimage-s414/index.html

+
Takes great pictures
Much better gripp than the old one
Zooom

-
Sound, the darn thing makes sounds?!?!?!
AF only works when the screen is on
comes with a 16mb CF card, cheap of them to skimp on it
(this applies to almost ALL digicams I've seen )
Movie recording?!?!?!
Another totally misplaced funtion

Don't get me wrong It's a great camera

[az]

I'm starting to get the impression that Minolta is amongst the favourite digicam brands here

You should be able to disable the sounds, and don't worry, my Dimage 7i has all the "minuses" your cam has (safe for that strange AF behaviour), and it's still a great cam. Still wish I had waited a while and got the A1 though

AZ

[GNEP]

My Minolta F300 came with a 64Mb card, which was nice... v. happy with it so far (and now have some farm pics from the weekend to bore people with)

[Indiana]

Very happy with my Olympus 4040Zoom here.

[Paddy]

Glad you like it too Gnep

[DukeP]

Im VERY happy about my MINOLTA Dimage S404.
I invested in a 128mb CF and 8 1800mah rechargebles.

Even in bright light it takes perfect pictures.

Se for instance this picture I took last year: http://home.imf.au.dk/eduard/nytaar/22.jpg or http://home.imf.au.dk/eduard/nytaar/12.jpg for a shot taken straight into the setting sun.

~~DukeP~~

[Technoid]

I bought 2100mah at the same time, but that shops CF prices was HIGH
So I'm receiving my 129 CF card today

I showed the cam to my father and he thought that it was clumsy compared to my sisters Sony Cybershot

Thing is that I actualy do like that I have a REAL grip on this camera

I have tried my sisters cybershot and I thought that one was clumsy as you coulden't get a good grip on it

And the minolta uses CF and not memorystick.

[Sasq]

I do want to get a camera thats small enough to carry anywhere, but the cybershots we have here, damn they be almost smaller then my phone, i'd loose it.

[DukeP]

Heh.
I REALLY considered the Dimage X series. Thats small! And theres a whole slew of diving cases for it - which unfortunately cant be said of the s4x4 line..

But in the end picture quality prevailed over sleek neatness

So, liked my pictures??
~~DukeP~~

[Technoid]

yup, they were nice

[Fred H]

For about 2 years ago, before I purchased my digital camera I’ve had a big “dilemma” to make a choice between a Minolta Dimage 5 and the Nikon Coolpix 995.
I’ve read in any review that Dimage is battery top-consumer, so I decided to buy the Nikon Coolpix 995.
It is a nice camera, but it is also a battery consumer. Luckily, I purchased an extra battery too.
Using the flash in 80-90% of the shots (after about ~80 pictures) the battery is down.
What is your impression about the battery with the Dimage?

Another important thing I experienced is quality/brand of the CF memory. When I bought the camera it came with an original 16 MB Nikon CFlash, but I purchased an extra 64MB PQI card. After a year of photo I discovered that this brand of CF (PQI) is slow. The save time was about 15 sec at 2400x1360 resolution. Not so with the original Nikon 16 MB.
So, I decided to buy a SanDisk 128 MB card. Wov, the difference is enormous. The saving time at the same resolution is now only 4-5 sec.

Sound? I think it is misplaced to a digital camera. A camcorder does better.
Movie? I tried once my Nikon to capture 30 sec. video. It was crap. I am using my old camcorder which gives much better video.
The opposite is valid for camcorders with still images…

Fred H

[Technoid]

The s414 uses 4 standard AA batteries
I use 2100mah Ni-MH rechargeables.
I actualy havent made any real endurance tests but I have shot more than 80 pictures on one recharge.
And IF i need to be absolutely sure to be able to shot for hours 4 new batteries is less than 5€ (the quick charger is EXPENSIVE, but the batteries are cheap nowdays)

I'm using an apaccer 128 cf card, I never have any save times, the buffer is 32mb and I havent managed to snap enough pics to fill the buffer faster than it writes to the cf (the buffer is full duplex, allowing it to be written and read to simultaneus, and writing to cf goes on all the time, whatever other things the cam is doing )

and about the sound:
Itdon't record sound, it PRODUCES sounds
It makes fake "normal" cam sounds when you take a photo, thankfully it can be disabled

the movie mode makes QT movies and that is utter crap in itself

[Fred H]

I have shot more than 80 pictures on one recharge

I meant all of them with the flash on. And I have 2x 670 mAh rechargable Nikon batteries, one in the camera and the other the extra. Thats the problem here.

Itdon't record sound, it PRODUCES sounds

Ahh, I understan. My mistake.
Fred H

[GuchiGuh]

FujiFilm F402 kicking butt. But I am more of a casual photographer. If I was to start doing some serious photography, Minolta Dimage 7i for me please. Other than that I'd prolly get another FujiFilm. They are quite cheap in Taiwan and I think are good value for what they do