Having worked at Best Buy in the Digital Imaging department (digital, 35mm, and video cameras along with various other stuff) I had a great deal of interaction with many of the newest digital cameras. Spending lonely hours in an empty store staring at them and playing around with them gives me what I feel to be a good comparative knowledge of them, along with hearing customer gripes and horror stories about their cameras. When we finally received the Dimage 7, I was quite excited that we had it, and set right out to playing with it. I was less than enthralled.

Amazing specs
Yes, the Dimage is a camera of great features. In its resolution range, it is "da bomb" of commercially available consumer-based cameras (it compares in resolution to the Nikon D1X whose price tag is around four thousand dollars), with an optical zoom coming close to that of a popular Olympus camera that boasts a 10 times optical zoom for just under $600. The Dimage has a 7 times optical zoom, making it an amazing portrait camera, allowing you to get very close to a subject and still get great detail of their face. In conjunction with a Hewlett-Packard photo printer, the Dimage takes pictures that nearly rival regular 35mm photo processing.

Awkward and battery thirsty
All I can ask Minolta is "Why on earth does this thing run on AA batteries?" I can only assume they have a deal going on with Duracell or Energizer to raise battery sales to keep this camera going. Many of this camera's close competitors (Olympus, Nikon, Sony) contain rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries which will give you 2 hours of use, while four AA batteries in the Dimage will (hopefully) last twenty minutes with moderate use. Also, aside from the design not being too incredibly aesthetically pleasing, it is also a little difficult to hold onto, the lens taking up the majority of the left side, leaving only holding spare on the right side. This pales in comparison to my complaints about the battery life, however.

Buy it only if making posters!
The bottom line? For regular home use, this camera is too expensive and problematic for regular needs. Stick with the $800 Sony DSC85 that has the 4.1 megapixel and 3 times optical zoom features. It will do what you need, and has a great rechargeable battery. I just don't see the advantage of the Dimage.

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 1300