16 out of 16 people found this review helpful.
Great First Ultra Zoom Camera
Date of Review: Sep 7, 2005
The Bottom Line: If you can get this for a good price, it's a great beginning ultrazoom. You'll want more later.
I love to take pictures of landscapes, natural formations, and sights that I can't always get close to. That's why, when I decided to upgrade from my "point and shoot" digital camera in 2004, I looked into getting one with at least a 10X zoom.
Price was definately a consideration, which steered me away from the Olympus C-7XX line, as well as the Nikon Coolpix.
I was left with 2 choices: the Fuji FinePix S5000 and the Minolta (soon to be Konica Minolta) DiMAGE Z1.
Both had approximately the same resolution (3.2 megapixels for the Z1; 3.1 for the S5000), both were roughly equal in size and weight, both took "AA" batteries (instead of proprietary Li-ion batteries); each had a 30-fps movie mode.
I chose the Z1 because:
1. It had better flash coverage, and a hot shoe (though it could only use Minolta flash accessories)
2. All of the reports on the S5000 indicated that it suffered from significant "purple fringing" (chromatic aberration). While I understand that all ultrazoom cameras experience this to some extent, it seemed that all of the reviewers noted this as a major weakness.
3. The Z1 has a live histogram feature.
4. In comparing the two, I found the Z1's electronic viewfinder to be substantially brighter than the S5000.
5. The Z1 uses Secure Digital (SD) memory cards, which are made by a number of manufacturers; the S5000 takes xD cards, which are smaller, but also more expensive (and at the time, were manufactured only by Fuji and Olympus).
6. The Z1 had a 'unique' look.
Over the course of the last 16 months, a number of manufacturers have brought out ultrazoom digicams. Minolta, which merged with Konica, has raised the megapixel count on the camera to 6MP (the just-released Dimage Z6) as of the writing of this review. Canon's S2 IS, Sony's DSC-H1 and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ line of digital ultrazooms have all been recommended by viewers over the Konica-Minolta line.
So what do I think of the Z1?
Pro:
- light weight
- Bright viewfinder (EVF)
*** However: the Z1 and its successor, the Z2 (4MP) both have a unique feature, the "Switch Finder". Instead of using 2 separate displays (one on the LCD screen on the back of the camera and a smaller one for the electronic viewfinder), KM used a mechanical mirror to reflect the image from the LCD screen up to the viewfinder. Not only is this noisy, but it's a mechanical feature that can break or jam (and reports from other users suggest that it does happen)
- Quick zoom
- Good movie mode (640 X 480 video [VGA] with sound)
- Live histogram
- Manual focus
Con:
- No anti-shake feature, so telephoto shots virtually require a tripod
- No autofocus assist lamp; in low light, autofocus tends to hunt
- Pictures are not as sharp as you might like; however, that can be rectified with a processing program such as Google's Picassa (free) or Adobe Photoshop Elements
- Camera seems fragile (all plastic)
- LCD screen is hard to see in bright light
This was a first generation ultrazoom camera. Would I still buy it today? If money were an object, and I wanted to give an ultrazoom camera to my son or daughter, I might very well choose the Minolta Z1. There are definately other options, though.
