I held off getting a digital camera until an over-5 mega-pixel camera came on the market I liked, and was priced under $1,000.

Overall, I very pleased with the DiMage 7.

Yes, large, dense images eat a lot of memory. But I have made 20" x 14" prints with stunning sharpness. This is saying a lot for a guy who usually shoots ISO 100 EKT and has a high-end Nikon film scanner.

Having the controls immediately available via various knobs on the OUTside of the camera is a real selling point to me. I hate trying to squint at a small LCD screen, pushing a controller over, up, over, down -- more like playing a GameBoy instead of operating a semi-professional camera. In just 6 weeks, I can operate the manual controls of the camera without even taking it down from my eye.

Nice having both an "eye" viewer that tilts up, and the LCD screen.

It is super easy to download the images via a USB cable.

My major irritation is that I was promised an adapter which fits on the "hot shoe" of the camera so one can use it with professional studio strobes (I have a set of 3 PhotoGenic lights). Because it always does a "pre-flash", there is no way to sync the camera with pro studio instruments. I've contacted Minolta, and they keep saying "Soon". Major bummer.

Batteries are not a problem. NiMH work fine. I carry extra, charged batteries in my case and have run out of memory before I ran out of power!

My guess is those who paid less than $800 had to buy a "package" loaded up with over-priced goodies. I feel I got a good deal, and a very good deal on my extra memory cards.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 830.00