Minolta DiMAGE 7

Minolta has been producing top-end digital SLR cameras for some time. The chunky RD 3000 (see Reviews, issue 79, p180) is the most recent, but it lacked the quality and features to truly impress. However, things look set to change with the new prosumer DiMAGE 7 vying to take a stronghold on the mid/high-end market. The DiMAGE 7 is one of the first true five-megapixel cameras to be announced (5.24 megapixel CCD with 4.95 effective pixels), and with a host of other impressive features for the more professional user, Minolta could be on to a winner.

Anyone familiar with Minolta's current SLR (Single Lens Reflex) film cameras will immediately see the family resemblance in terms of controls and icons. That said, the DiMAGE 7, although an SLR, has a very individual, cutting-edge design. It's also facing tough opposition from other similarly priced cameras, but the specification certainly makes it competitive. Most product pictures make the camera look large, but in actuality it's a nice size at 117 x 113 x 91mm (W x D x H), which combined with the 603g weight makes for a light, portable camera. At the same time, it's sufficiently robust to make it feel like a serious piece of kit.

The newly designed 7.2-50.8mm GT lens is a cracker and equates to 28-200mm coverage in a 35mm film camera. This in itself is important, as the scope allowed by such a range enables landscapes, portraits, some sports and any general picture-taking situation to be captured. Making it even more suitable for action work and low-light situations is a fast maximum aperture of f/2.8 to f/3.5. The quality of the 7x optical zoom is impressive on paper too, with the all-glass lens featuring apochromatic characteristics, which translates to sharper telephoto images than lenses using conventional glass. Aspheric elements also reduce the other most noticeable defect of lesser lenses - distortion.

The viewfinder is an electronic design, which Minolta calls the Digital Hyper Viewfinder. There's also an LCD on the rear, and the design includes sensors hidden in the chassis that allow for an automatic activation of whichever one the camera detects you're using. A further benefit is that the viewfinder can be angled up by 90 degrees. Low-angle work, such as photographing plants and flowers at ground level, is so much easier with this option, while magnifying the central area 4x in the finder further enhances this highly practical feature.

Autofocus features some interesting aspects, including, for the first time, Flex Focus Point - a focus-detection system that can be manually adjusted for any part of the composition. This is based around the spot focus option, which is supplemented for general use by a wide detection area. There's manual focus too, but on an electronic finder it lacks the precision of a true optical system. Even so, the focus ring is of decent size with good resistance even if it's too close to the body for comfort. To aid this aspect in particular is a very good dioptre adjustment from -5 to +5. In use, I found autofocus to be a little pedestrian at times, but impressive in its accuracy.

Still images are saved as JPEG or TIFF and there's a RAW format option too. There's also a movie function that's good for 60 seconds on the standard 16Mb card. JPEG files occupy from 600K to 14.1Mb, depending on the compression used, and RAW files take up 9.4Mb, so a memory card upgrade would be advisable. Regardless of the type of image shot, though, colour reproduction was first class and in the same league as Nikon's professional D1x (see Reviews, issue 83, p157). Exposure control is offered for a wide variety of users, from point-and-shoot programs based on specific types of subject through to normal program, shutter and aperture priority or manual modes. There's a built-in flash too, with the usual modes for interior, fill in and red-eye reduction control, catering for most situations. Interestingly, there's a hotshoe for Minolta's top SLR flash guns, using its latest AFI (advanced flash integration) control. The only thing missing is a PC socket for studio flash. Multisegment, centre weighted and spot metering round off the main exposure control options. It's also worth noting that Epson's PIM (print image matching) technology is supported by the DiMAGE 7. This enables photos to be adjusted automatically when printing with certain Epson photo printers, such as the Stylus Photo 895 (see Reviews, issue 83, p152).