rebeccad's Full Review: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z20 Digital Camera
I bought my Dimage Z20 in April 2005, which makes it a dinosaur (and Konica-Minolta has since folded). I will say that at the time it was a great camera for the money. Only a year later, however, my husband bought a lot more and better camera for less money and less weight. Sigh. For the record, I am an enthusiastic amateur who takes the thing backpacking. This was my first digital, shifting from an SLR--an Olympus OM-1.
The Specs
50 megapixels
8X optical zoom (about 38mm to 400mm equivalent)
Weighs 1 lb with batteries and strap
LEC & digital viewfinder
uses SD memory cards
Package Contents
For about $330, I got a box containing:
the camera
a neck strap
lens cap
4 AA batteries
a video cable
a USB cable
a CD with photo-management software
instruction manuals for the camera and the software, in English and Spanish (separate manuals, so I didn't have to dissect them).
The camera has a port for an AC adapter, which was not included. Nor was there a case.
I had to immediately buy:
a lens cap tether ($3-$4)
a memory card
I then bought:
8 rechargeable AA batteries
Using the Camera
Being female, I read the manual before I used the camera. This took about an hour, and did an excellent job of introducing me to the basics of using the camera. Overall, operation, even of the menus, is easy and fairly intuitive. The camera can be used pretty much out of the box in fully automatic mode, though to get the best pictures you must learn to use the manual settings, particularly the white balance.
I was pleased with the ease of use and the quality of pictures, especially after I discovered the different quality settings in the camera and shifted to using the highest quality for scenics, at least (this reduces the number of pictures you can put on a single memory card, but I just bought a large card, and can still save several hundred shots at a time).
The long zoom was a nice bonus for someone who had been hauling around a zillion pounds of film SLR and lenses--and still only getting out to 200 mm. I do miss the wide-angle lenses, though, as this lens starts about 36 or 38--much less wide (narrower?) than my old 28-80 zoom, let alone the 24mm.
The viewfinder also has a diopter control which can be used to compensate for your vision if you like to shoot without your glasses. This is of no use to me; my eyesight is beyond the range it can correct.
Camera lag time seems average: long enough often (even with the button half-depressed and focus set) to miss the kids in action, but not long enough for me to lose patience and move before it actually shoots. Recovery between shots is fast as long as the batteries are reasonably fresh.
Durability, aside from two problems mentioned below, is good. The camera body is plastic, but seems up to the bumps and dings of backpacker use, as I have now carried it through two seasons without issues aside from the LED screen (see "Gripes and Whines").
Finally, battery life is outstanding. A single set of AAs will last for at least 200 photos, probably over 300 if I'm easy on the flash and LED, allowing me to carry fewer back-up batteries when backpacking.
The Controls
Actually, this is the move into my gripes and whines section. So let me say that the controls are easy to use and generally well laid-out. I like the single-button macro on-off, as well as the flash setting button, so that I can set those without going through menus. Now, on to. . .
Gripes and Whines
I am torn as to which is my #1 gripe. Let's go with this order:
1. For some reason, K-M chose to put a mechanical sort of shutter on the LED screen, not on the outside where it would do some good, but inside, so that the shift from LED to viewfinder modes involves some kind of mechanical shift. Alas, as several others have mentioned, this jammed. It jammed intermittently, making it very hard to send it to fix, since every time I was about to ship it out, it would start working again. It has now pretty much quit, so that I have no LED screen available to me (I am also well beyond warranty, so don't expect they'd help me now). This doesn't affect how the camera takes pictures, only how I can look at them (pretty much like the old SLR. This probably bothers me less than someone who was really used to digital cameras).
2. The main controls are poorly located. Not for use--they are great for that. Unfortunately, the push-button on-off switch is on the back of the camera, and is sensitive enough that the camera bouncing against me as I walk is enough to turn it on. It then proceeds to cycle through various other actions as different controls get bumped.
3. That flash control button mentioned above can be reset to control white balance or 4 other modes. That's nice, but I would very much like to be able to use a quick control for BOTH flash and white balance, as those two must be frequently changed. Did I mention that messing with the white balance is essential to getting good pictures?
4. LED screen is small. Well, I could live with that, for the trade-off in battery life. But it is also vulnerable, and I scratched it rather badly while carrying it with my pack (it rubbed on the plastic buckle of my pack) before I got a tip from my brother-in-law to cover the screen with high-quality clear packing tape.
5. The camera has no way to focus in very low light. So it apparently just guesses with flash photos in dark settings. You can, of course, overcome this by using manual focus, but that's a pain.
Most of these flaws can be lived with--they are necessary trade-offs in the price/weight/features balance. But #s 1 & 2 are real deal-breakers for me. Because of those, I would hesitate to recommend this camera, even at the great prices available now that it's outmoded.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 330 This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts
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