dkozin's Full Review: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z2 Digital Camera
If you want a camera with fast operation, the Minolta DiMAGE Z2 is one good option. It features a 4-megapixel resolution, 10x optical zoom lens and fast auto focus.
The Lens
The camera features a 10x optical zoom. The lens has f2.8-f3.7 maximum aperture and a 35mm-equivalent focal length range of 38-380 mm. You can get a wide-converter that will turn the lens into 28-280 mm zoom (35mm-eqivalent). This converter comes with an adaptor that lets you use 52mm filters.
The focus modes include single-shot auto focus (AF), full-time AF, continuous AF with predictive control and manual focus.
Controls
The main control of the camera is the mode dial located on the rear top of the handgrip. I like the fact that the camera uses a real mode dial, similar to film SLR cameras and unlike P&S digital cameras that rely on menus or virtual dials.
The mode dial has positions for full auto mode (AUTO), full manual mode (M), Program AE (P), movie mode, aperture priority (you set the aperture and camera selects the shutter speed) (A), shutter priority (vice versa) (S), portrait, landscape, sports, beach and sea and night portrait.
The front top of the camera grip has shutter release button and between it and the mode dial are buttons to are Macro and Flash control buttons.
The back of the camera houses its LCD screen and a viewfinder. Below the viewfinder is the power switch surrounded by the mode switch. To the right of LCD are the menu control buttons, below which is the MENU button (calls and closes the menus), the QV/delete button (push once to quickly review the picture taken, push again to delete it) and the “I+” button (controls onscreen menus).
Below and to the right is a DC power input. The opposite to the handgrip side has a lid that reveals the camera’s SD card slot and its USB port.
Ease of Use
You can use this camera in full Auto mode as you would use regular Point-and-Shoot and it will be very easy to use.
Memory Card
The camera uses SD cards and ships with a 16 Mb card, which is barely adequate for a 4-megapixel camera. You can only fit 7 pictures in highest resolution with Fine picture quality mode on the supplied card; or only 14 in Standard picture quality. Economy mode lets you fit 27 pictures, but I think better economy is to get a larger-capacity SD card.
Resolutions
The camera can capture images in the following resolutions (JPEG): 2272x1704, 1600x1200, 1280x960, 640x480. All resolutions can be used with Fine, Standard or Economy quality modes with progressively smaller JPEG file sizes and higher compression.
Batteries
The handgrip contains a chamber that holds 4 AA batteries. The bottom has a lid which also has a diagram showing you the polarity of batteries. Although you can use alkaline batteries, I recommend high-capacity NiMH rechargeables.
The fact that the camera uses AA-size batteries can be good or bad, depending on your perspective. The AA-size batteries are inexpensive (even rechargeables), but are relatively heavy.
The manufacturer’s estimate is 250 frames with LCD on with alkaline batteries (I would at least double that if you use NiMH).
LCD
The camera’s 1.5-inch LCD is fluid (it uses 60 fps frame rate) and the electronic viewfinder (EVF) uses the same LCD – the display control switch moves a mirror within the camera body that reflects LCD output to the viewfinder. This way you get the same resolution and 98% field of view coverage as well as fluidity.
The EVF has dioptric adjustment and the camera increases the LCD brightness in bright light to make it more visible.
Flash
The built-in flash is very powerful. It can reach up to 28 ft at ISO 400 wide angle or 21 ft at ISO 400 telephoto. At ISO 200, the numbers are 20 and 15 ft. The flash recycle time is about 6 seconds.
The flash features available red-eye reduction. The available modes are Auto, Auto with Red-Eye Reduction, Fill-Flash (forced flash) and Slow Sync. Larger speedlights (flashes) can be attached using the camera’s hot shoe.
Onscreen Information
The onscreen information can be displayed in either LCD or EVF mode (since the EVF uses reflected LCD image). The lower left corner indicates the currently selected mode (A for aperture priority, S for shutter priority and so forth). Above it, you can see the selected ISO setting. In the upper left corner is the camera operation mode (e.g. still or movie) and below it is the information about the flash mode.
The lower portion can display the selected shutter speed (when using shutter priority mode), selected aperture (in aperture priority mode) or both (in manual mode) as well as macro indicator. The upper right corner shows the selected resolution and picture quality mode.
Lower right corner show the estimated number of pictures that will fit on the memory card and the drive mode (single frame or continuous). The focusing brackets are in the middle of the screen.
Menus
The menus let you adjust the camera’s numerous settings. Among items you can adjust are focus mode (auto or manual), metering mode (spot, center-weighted, multi-segment), sensitivity (auto, ISO 50, 100, 200, 400), digital zoom (enable, disable), sharpness, contrast, flash mode, white balance, image size, image quality, etc.
Video Recording
You can record video in 800x600 resolution but only at 15 fps. Other resolutions (640x480, 320x240 and 160x120) let you select between 30 fps and 15 fps. The ability to record video at 640x480 30 fps and even 800x600 at 15 fps is very impressive.
Movies can be played back on the camera’s LCD or on a TV screen.
USB
The camera has a USB 1.1 port for downloading your images as JPEG files to your computer or printing with a PicBridge-compatible printer. The USB 1.1 is adequate for pictures the camera produces, however the USB 2.0 would have been better as transfer speeds would increase.
What’s Inside the Box
The camera comes with a lens cap, camera strap, A/V cable, USB cable, accessory shoe cap, 4 AA alkaline batteries, 16 Mb SD memory card and software.
Performance
The camera’s 10x zoom lens, which is more than many people will ever need. At telephoto end, you will have to use a tripod or put the camera on a sturdy surface, since the camera shale will make the images blurry otherwise.
The automatic white balance works well, but you can select among presets for Cloudy, Daylight, Fluorescent, Tungsten, Flash or Custom mode if you want more control.
The camera does not have an AF assist light and thus will not be able to focus in low light or if the subject is of low contrast. In these cases you will have to use manual focus, which is cumbersome as there is no focusing ring around the lens.
The focusing can also be performed using Spot Focus with Focus Area Selection.
The camera is realtively light, but if you use heavier NiMH batteries, the handgrip gets heavier and thus creates slight weight disbalance - the center of gravity shifts toward the handgrip portion of the camera.
The speed of operation is very good with power-up time less than 3 seconds and shot-to-shot time of 1 second (unless you need to use the built-in flash, which takes 6-8 seconds to recycle). If you pre-focus, the shutter delay is virtually nonexistent, otherwise it is still very short - definitely much less than a second.
The images the camera produces are sharp, well-exposed (unless you use manual mode and enter wrong aperture/shutter speed combination) and well-saturated. The images can get slightly noisy at ISO 400, but the lower ISOs provide better results. The lens with f2.8 maximum aperture at wide angle and f3.7 at telephoto is relatively fast, which lets you use fast shutter speeds, which also helps reduce blur at the telephoto end of the zoom or in low light.
The USB operation is easy and once the camera is connected to your computer and powered up, it registers as a separate drive in Windows. Windows 2000/XP/ME doesn't even need the driver.
Bottom Line
The Minolta DiMAGE Z2 produces very good pictures and features fluid EVF and LCD, impressive movie modes and robust 10x zoom lens in a compact lightweight package. But for dark environments, you will need a camera with an AF light.
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