Minolta Dimage 7 Digital Camera

Minolta offers information on the Dimage 7 at various sites, but finding one simple URL (with both D7 info and site navigation) to include in the 'related links' section below, seems quite impossible. So, here's a list of Minolta sites:

• Minolta Canada D7 page
• Minolta USA D7 page
• dimage.minolta.com (features sample images).

Flash capabilities of the Dimage7 are limited; as with most built in flashes. You can get up to about 15 feet depending on the ISO setting. The optional flash units such as the 3600HS can be used with the autozoom capabilities from 28mm to 85mm. Though there are no wireless nor High Speed Sync (HSS) functions as with the SLR family.

At the CeBIT 2002 show today Minolta announced the new 7i as a replacement for the 7. They claim improvements in several areas.

A few comments from a film shooter who borrowed a Dimage 7 for an afternoon:

1) Yes, AF is lousy and slow. But the thing has so much DOF with that small sensor (more at f/2.8 than my 35mm SLR at f/16 for the same output) that you can go to manual focus and estimate the distance. Then it gets very quick all of a sudden, and anything short of an EOS 1V seems pretty slow. The D7 at 43mm f/2.8 pre-focussed to 2m is better for street photography than the traditional Leica with a 35 at f/11 on zone focus. I didn't try this at longer focal lengths...

2) If you actually want to do selective focus on a frequent basis, forget it.

3) Ye gods, this thing works so much better than colour film under mixed indoor light. Especially if you take a white balance preset -- a grey card is nice, but just using a white ceiling or a bit of white paper will put you miles ahead of film. Even if you don't nail the colour it corrects much better -- simple black/grey/white point for each channel will do it, there's far less S curves or gyrations in LAB mode than you need for real world film in mixed light.

4) 'tis a wonderfully small and light contraption.

5) If you buy one, get Photoshop or Picture Windows Professional for image manipulation; add a shareware image database (e.g. Thumbs Plus) if you want one. Also look at sites like www.fredmiranda.com for noise reduction software and edge-seeking sharpeners. This is a prosumer camera, not consumer, you get the right software to make the most of it. It doesn't come with Canon Zoom Browser II in the same way that an Elan 7 doesn't come with a voucher for five rolls of Kodak Max Zoom 800.

6) That 100% viewfinder is lovely for stationary subjects, you can even use it to judge exposure because it varies brightness according to your current settings. But I hate it for moving subjects, especially the lag.

7) If I had a D7 (or any prosumer digicam except the E20), I'd be tempted to get one or more of those hotshoe viewfinders that are sold for cameras like the Cosina/Voightlander Bessa T. They're x1 magnification so you can keep both eyes open and a frameline floats in your vision. No zoom and the aspect ratios are different, but you do get a "hair trigger" camera of sorts. I believe some D7 owners like to keep both eyes open, with one on the viewfinder for framing and the other on the subject to pick the moment. I can't do that.

8) The histogram you get after shooting seems to be taken from the thumbnail rather than the whole picture. The data reduction for the thumbnail loses detail, including blown highlights. So you can blow the highlights and the histogram will leave you thinking you have no data above 220. Ouch.

9) You have to set contrast and saturation to minimum. And expose for the highlights. You're basically shooting slides, here.

Quebec Canada Spring Thaw

I enjoy the Dimage 7. Here are some photos... http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=185203

I have to disagree with the reviewers opinion that manual mode is difficult to use. I find it to be simple to work in manual mode and it is my preferred method of shooting with my Dimage 7. Also as far as battery consumption, I find that I can easily get 200 images from a set of fully charge NIMH batteries. It's as simple as keeping the LCD screened turned off at all times.

Other than that I do agree about trying to photograph moving subjects, just about impossible. I love the fact that if feels very much like an SLR in my hands when working, and has many features that most digital cameras do not have. Also the fact that the lens has a 28-200 focal length makes this camera just great IMHO.

The dimage 7 is my second digital camera. I love my G1 but wanted a higher resolution and the 28-200 lens. I prefer the color from the G1, but the dimage is fine. Where it really shines is conversion of color into black and white.

For some reason I could never get the G1 to produce top notch B+W either from the setting in the camera or conversion in photoshop. The Dimage was OK in the camera setting. Then I started playing with the color images and voila...Ansel Adams

Please note that I shoot with a +1 in the color contrast...Give it a try....

Normally not one to voice public criticism, I feel compelled to provide an alternative view. I thought this camera's shortcomings were much too difficult to work around. I received one as a gift back in November 2001 and wound up giving it back to the giver, who is now a relatively happy user.

The major difficulty was the painfully slow and inaccurate autofocus. When I wasn't waiting for the autofocus to lock I was waiting for the buffer to clear. There was just too much time between pressing the shutter and acquiring the image. This delay and inaccuracy caused way too many missed shots in candid and informal portrait photography.

A second issue was the white balance; under incadescant lighting the images were just too yellow, despite my efforts to set the white balance options on the camera or to manually white-balance.

The flash is dismal; it's so close to the lens that the lens casts a shadow across the bottom of the image at wide-angle focal lengths.

The lens hood looks cool but frequently rotates a bit so that the corners of the image get vignetted.

This sucker really cranks throught the batteries even when never using the larger display; plan to invest in three or four SETS of NiMH batteries.

Finally, the minimum aperature is an inadequate f8.

I recently purchased the D7 with two sets of Lith Ion batteries and chargers. I have shot over 200 photos at hi res and large size, using both viewfinders and the batteries are still registering strong. Apparently, they last up to 6 hours between charges. The battery manufacturer is Digicom. They have a website and sell to the public. Battery cost was under fifty dollars a set.

High capacity Compact flash cards are available from Transcend. They have a website also. Mention you have a business (if you do) for the discount. A 512 card is approximately $220.

I still use an old Pentax for my Infrared B/W shots posted on photo.net. But the digital is seeing more use.

Minolta introduced an upgrade kit for the Dimage 7 on June 17, 2002. The firmware upgrades focusing speeds (up to 50%), incorporates DMF for immediate manual focus adjustments, three new display settings including real-time histograms, three new movie modes, added manual flash control as well as trigger slave units, a new folder naming function and improved playback modes.

I've had my Dimage 7 for now, and generally speaking it is a good bang for the buck. The two largest critisims I have are:

1) The AF doesn't work very well. Very suprizing since my Minolta 400si seems to focus much better. I think my next camera will have the ability to manual focus through the view finder though. Step up to the Canon and Nikons for this. Manual focus through the D7 seems to require a personal distance estimate, since the viewfinder is nice, but still small looking.

2) Low light pictures are way to noisy. Night and soft lite pictures are one of the reasons I bought the camera, and in retrospect this is the main reason I will get another. White spots will cover your pictures and will require post processing in photoshop, etc.

3) AF is 100% useless for action pictures.

What I like about the camera.

1) In low light., the viewfinder goes Black & White which gives you great contrast given you couldn't see the pic with color.

2) Resolution and noise are very low in outdoor landscape stills, my other favorite subject.

3) It's light enough, and easy enough to learn how to use. The lense quality is pretty good.

I bought Dimage 7i month ago, shot 2k+ pics. I am satisfied with camera except few things: (X) high noise. really high. (X) stupid and slow autofocus. now I use to take more shots of subject, because about 30-50% of photos are definitely out of focus. advice: use manual focus, spot focusing, or take more pictures with autofocus (X) get bigger CF card. I bought 128MB immediately with camera, but it is not enough (about 50 hi-res pics, 14 RAW). now I bought 512MB (about 200 pics). be aware of card producer:some cards fail to operate, look for user opinions before purchasing one. (X) take care of colorspace. pictures need software conversion, but many users use some corrections in color/saturation parameters to get better colors. if you care of exact colors, use ICC profiles.

I just bought a dImage 7 in 9 condition from KEH. First of all, I would like to plug KEH's dImage 7s: they have the best price from a legit source and give you exactly what they advertise. They also were willing to ship COD to me, although there was a minor surprise there in that they said they would take a personal check and they actually wanted a money order.

I really like the color saturation of the images I am getting. I also like the macro effects on the lens: it takes extremely sharp pictures and focuses well, although slowly. One of my favorite parts of this camera is that it feels like an SLR: you zoom the lens by grabbing a ring and you have the option of manual focus, the body is built like an SLR, looking through the electronic viewfinder is really nice in the sun and feels like an SLR viewfinder, and most of the features are those found on high end SLRs. The controls also feel similar to my modern SLR, and the lens takes 49 mm filters without a special adapter. I really like that most of the features are SLR-like, and they haven't put on cheap things like sepia toning or photoshop effects in camera. This camera is designed for the advanced photographer. I also really like that it has the features that I wanted: full manual control, quality optics, 5 megapixels, and a hotshoe, and that it was available for under $500.

What I don't like: this camera gets very hot with high use, which is a tad worrisome. The camera also eats batteries, although I am doing okay with three sets of 1800 mAH NiCD batteries. It seems to be a little slow at writing to the card although this may be a function of my memory card. The autofocus is slow, although I have a zoom lens for my 35 mm that is worse, so I can't complain. There are some non-essential parts like the ring where the lens hood screws in and the rubber around the viewfinder that don't feel real durable.

I have been carrying this camera everywhere with me instead of a purse and it's just great!

Questions: 1) Has anyone used this camera to do IR and what kinds of results have you gotten? 2) Is using the software strictly necessary? 3) Can someone explain exactly what kinds of flashes can be used with this hotshoe?

Kathy

Initial thoughts on a 7hi: Received a 7hi several weeks ago and took several hundred pictures with the camera at an indoor wedding, outdoor trade show, and a business road trip.

Overall: I am very satisfied with this sophisticated camera (had owned a Nikon 800, a good P&S digital). Autofocus was quick in normal light and usually accurate (only several shots were out of focus due to my error). The focus indicator on the electronic viewfinder is helpful and requires a little practice to get it right.

Quality of shots (5meg fine setting without flash)at the indoor wedding were outstanding, I was amazed after changing to ISO 400 (shots at 200mm equivalent) at the clarity of the pictures. Outdoor shots were properly exposed and required little adjustment in photoshop. I have not noticed any viginetting at 28mm with a coated UV filter. The 28 to 200mm range is awesome. The manual mode works well and program shift is very helpful. F stop range while great at 2.8 is limited to about 9.5 on the fully stopped end. However the high shutter speed at 1/2000 nearly stopped an airplane propeller in flight.

The flash seems stronger than typical and works well with Minolta's ADI system. I tried several longer shots at ISO 800 and the pictures had some noise (expected) but exposure was not bad. Plenty of flash modes, but the choice of shoe mounted flashes are very limited outside of Minolta. Due to its sohistication, not many offerings from third parties. I will purchase a Metz module and shift over some of my Metz flashes to extend the flash capabilities.

The camera's physical boxy size makes transport in a briefcase a bit more challenging and I am still hunting for a good case to haul it.

Hardware comments: Minolta has tested several compact flash manufacturers, I received a simpletech 512meg and it failed to record unless the card was reinserted while the camera was powered. Sandisk worked fine.

Very pleased so far.

Follow up comments: This camera developed a serious problem in October 03. When the power save mode activated, the camera when repowered would give an error message. I had to take the batteries out to repower the camera and it would happen again. After much correspondence and some harsh words, Minolta agreed to repair the camera. Took about 2 months (needed parts) to get it back, but it is operating fine. They replaced the system board. Back in action again.

AF is slow. It is nearly impossible to focus manually. I dislike this toy.

I now have had a dimage 7hi for over a year. You can see some of my pcs on http://www.photo.net/photodb/member-photos?include=all&user_id=246797 Many people complained about battery life: I have two set of AA niMh, one is 2200mAh and the other 1800. I carry both fully charged and their plenty for a whole day as long as back screen is off. Everything is perfect with this $1000 toy: 28 to 200mm lense with decent apperture, great macro capabilities, great colours, manual mode... The bad points are: viewfinder is not sharp enough for manual focus, AF is fast compare to most digital cams at this price but still slow compare to a good old film SLR. Also the 16MB card sold with it is a joke; I was lucky to find a package with a 512M card and cam at same price as cam only with some retailers... I am now looking at the new canon EOS300D... nice but I will loose the 200mm lense unless I spend quite a bit more... Now the 7Hi is obsolete ant the A1 has taken over. Well, at this price now one beats it.

I replaced my D7 with a d70- there's no comparison.

I have read many good and many bad things about D7. Yes this camera has some insufficiency, for example AF is very slow, but despite of the fact Dimage 7 is a very good model. Maybe it needs some time to get used it, but after some time you'll taste the power of this model. As previous commenter said maybe D70 is better, but d7 has it own very good features. Personaly I use D70. I suggest for D70 users one very interesting source: Nikon D70s