Konica Minolta DiMAGE G500 Digital Camera

Pros: Great image quality, very fast and responsive, good value for the price.
Cons: A couple of design quirks, lackluster movie mode, small SD card included, instructions on CD-ROM

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT NOTE: I bought my Minolta Dimage G500 in March of '04. In July of '04, I had the camera in my pants pocket and the sliding door must have been bumped over, allowing the lens to come out. While the lens was unknowingly out, the ...

Pros: Good build quality. Very good image quality. Two memory card choices. Pocketable.
Cons: Tripod socket poorly placed. 18 inch neck strap?? Not fond of sliding front power switches.

What It Is & What You Get The Minolta G500 is a very small, nearly pocket-sized camera. It measures only 3.5 inches wide, by just over 2 inches tall, and has a metal body which feels very sturdy when compared to today's plasticy cams. In you ...

Pros: Cheap, 5MP, movie with sound, MS/SD, Beautiful shots, solid
Cons: Compact or Congested?, hard to turn on, fair low-light performance, crappy software, short movies

I really love this camera. I bought it because I wanted a cheap 5MP, that takes SD or CF media, with excellent reviews. My previous camera is a 2MP Nikon 2500 which I love because of all it's options and settings so I was looking for something similar ...

Pros: Ease of use, sturdy, great sharpness, good colors, short learning time, effective red eye suppression
Cons: Auto white balance yields cool colors; macro maybe out of focus in low light.

I am using this 5 megapixel camera for about 1 week. My thorough research of review sites (the best is http://www.digitalcamera-hq.co m/advanced-digital-cameras-rat ings.html) convinced me that I should go with DiMAGE G500 and I was not disappointed. ...

Pros: Nice camera, lots of features and adjustments
Cons: Minolta CHARGES extremely hefty fees for repairs on BRAND NEW cameras. Poor customer service!

I like the camera a lot, and with all the different settings available you can tweak it to almost no end. The camera takes great pictures and is actually easy to use considering all the settings one can do. It's the perfect size to be able to carry ...

Pros: Fast startup, pocketable, crisp detail with no fuzziness or smudging, good color, good manual controls.
Cons: Outdated movie mode, no manual white balance.

This is the camera I seem to use most often, because it is such a nice balance of small size, fast time to draw & shoot, good image quality, easy to turn on and use, and reasonably rugged construction and battery life. The all-metal body and sliding lens cover (doubles as the power switch) make this camera quite tough and rugged when closed. If this camera had VGA movie mode at 30fps and SLR-like focusing speeds, I would consider it perfect. Alas, it is not quite perfect, but very usable and affordable. You can rely on it to give you crisp detail, good color, and simply good photos right off the bat. What I like are optional manual aperture and shutter control, "profiles" that allow you to save and select preset recipies of ISO, saturation, sharpening, adequate manual focus (infinity, 4m, 2m, 1m, or something like that). The setup menu is also quite extensive. Mostly, though, this is just a reliable pocket camera with pretty good manual controls.

Pros: Excellent picture quality. Nice size. Easy to use. Price is right.
Cons: Heavy for the size but after all it is made of all metal.

When I was looking for a digital camera I wanted one with at least 3.2mp. My son has the Minolta Dimage X 2.1mp. The Minolta quality is superb. I did my research and found the Minolta G500. For the money, under $400.00, and a 5.0mp camera it seemed like a good deal. I've owned the camera for several months now and can say this is a very nice camera. The pictures come out very clear and bright. I read a review that said the flash pictures didn't come out good. So far the only complaint I have is the flash red eye but if you are using digital software it's no problem to correct.

Pros: Nice image quality (when in focus), compact, flexible memory options, good battery life
Cons: Difficult to use controls, small display, major shutter lag, auto-focus is hit-or-miss

This promising little camera turned out to be a dud. The controls and menus are baffling. You have to hold down the shutter button sometimes for more than a second to fire, although the time it takes to record an image to memory is not bad. Easily 20% of my photos are out of focus--whether I focus on a subject or just point-and shoot. I have not been able to figure out under which conditions this happens--it seems random. The sliding cover/power switch sometimes gets jammed but I have always been able to get it working again.

Bottom line: There are much easier-to use, more reliable cameras out there.

Pros: 5.0+ mega-pixels, quick shutter speed for action shots, small, compact, design is very appealing.
Cons: When taking pictures indoors, flash does not appear to give off enough light.

The Minolta camera was purchased in December of 2003. After comparing several different types of digital cameras, I decided to purchase Minolta. I am quite satisfied with the quality. The mega-pixels of 5.0+ makes using the pictures for projects more convenient. I also like the quick shutter speed when taking action shots. The only thing that I do not like about this camera is how the pictures come out inside when using the flash. I take pictures for a school and the picture quality is not as good when taken inside in the gymnasium.

Pros: Small, shirt pocket size, excellent photos, full set of manual controls, fast startup time
Cons: Only a standard 3x optical zoom, software package is buggy, tripod mount in bad location

This camera has a durable all-metal construction. Extremely fast start-up time, and a quick picture to picture time. The auto-focus seems to work very well, and the full set of manual controls are perfect for the experienced photographer. You can adjust flash intensity, so I'm not sure what the other reviewers were squawking about. You can adjust exposure, f-stop, shutter speed, ISO setting, and perform color corrections with the camera. The LCD is a bit small, but it's a very small camera. The picture quality is simply superb. Color representation is excellent. The dual memory slots are great because the camera comes with a 16MB SD card, and then I bought a 256MB Memory Stick. Thus, I didn't have to throw away the original memory that came with the camera. The movie mode is OK, but limited to 30 sec. I'm extremely happy with my G500, and I'd recommend it to anybody seeking a high-quality and durable shirt-pocket sized camera.

Pros: Overall is just OKIE!!!
Cons: Images with flash inside home are UGLY!!!

i am disappointed a lot with the overall image quality. Just 3 days i have used this cam and feel like returning it back but can not do as the site from which i hv bought has some unsuitable return policy.

The images taken inside home with the flash are UGLY in real sense. Seeing the images i could not believe my eyes , everybody looking like some kinda witch. All of their eyes are red and distorted. Red eye reduction!!!

Are the manufacturer's listening?????

Pros: Great picture quality, easy to use, fast start-up time. Two memory slots.
Cons: Large groups indoors is a problem, also no A/V connection.

Great picture quality right out of the box. This is my 2nd digital camera and I love it. Macro mode is great but you have to find the focus point. Indoor pictures are average, but proper lighting can help a lot. Outdoor shots are fantastic. Action shots can be a challenge. Carry a spare battery and purchase at least a 128mb memory card and you are set. I've had this camera for over 6 months and have taken over 2500 pictures without any problems. The best part was the price.

Pros: Colorful sharp
Cons: lot of dark pictures lots of times

I love this camera. I have it for 2 years and it does great pictures and very sharp lovely .

Pros: EXCELLENT PICTURE QUALITY,GOOD LOOKS,GR8 INTERNAL BRIGHTNESS,SCRATCHLESS BODY,MASCULIN BOLD LOOK
Cons: LITTLE HEAVY BUT AFTER ALL ITS FULL METAL

I BOUGHT BECAUSE I WANTED TO TRY MINOLTA AND I HAD VERY GOOD EXPERIENCE I WAS TO CHOOSE BETWEEN x50 AND G500 AND FOUND OUT G500 TO BE GREAT AS PICTURE QUALITY IS CONCERNED AND AFTER ALL THATS FOR A CAMERA IS.

Pros: Does the job, reasonably priced
Cons: Red eyes, susceptible to movement

Overall my Minolta DiMAGE G500 does the job. It's a 5 Mega Pixel digital camera, and the colors it captures are very bright yet natural. The images are exceptionally sharp, and the CCD is very sensitive: you can take fairly decent pictures under limited lighting conditions without a flash if you need.

The stainless steel case is very durable: I've dropped my camera a few times on hard enough surfaces without suffering any damage.

As far as I see, this camera only has just a couple of drawbacks:

1. Red eyes, despite red eye reduction mode. This is not such a big deal for a digital camera, since there is a lot of red eye reduction software out there (I got my bundled with an HP printer).

2. This camera is very susceptible to movement, but I suspect this is a problem that plagues most of the mid-range digital cameras.