Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests Thoughts about the Minolta DiMAGE X

I am sort of in the market for a camera and saw an ad for this camera in a National Geographic(don't laught). Its damn sexy. Before this camera, I had my eye on the Nikon Coolpix 995. When I was looking for that camera previously, I could find it for aprox $400.00. I cant find the same great prices for that camera and frankly, I don't want to pay anything more than. If at all possible, I would like to get quite a bang for my buck for something under 400, under 300 is even nicer.

I can find the Minolta DiMAGE X for around $250. It's two megapix and has a 3x optical zoom. Lnes never leaves the cameras main housing.

Thoughts are greatly appreciated.

I'm in the market for a digicam too. I've seen a lot of awesome pictures on this site presumably taken using digicams, and that's pretty much all I'd need. So I, too, would like any recommendations on what is the best bang for the buck. I like that Minolta as well Grymes.

Three months ago I got a canon elph powershot 200 for my g/f and have to say it is a great camera. I looked at the dimage but decided on the PS200. I liked the fact that the dimage has 3x optical zoom that does not have to telescope, (compared to 2x telescoping for the ps200) but both are pretty similar otherwise : 2mp, quick on / off response, features. All in all for the type of shooing we use it for, the 2x vs 3x really wasn?t that critical. We use it primarily for snapshots, birthdays, and some vacation pics. We also have a SLR that we use when we want to get serious, but you cant beat the ease of the digital.
I personally think the shape of the ps200 is more conducive to taking pictures. Holding the dimage it seemed awkward. It is thinner than the ps200, but they are both so darn small I don?t think it is real point of contention. Anyone who has looked at our ps200 usually gets their cell phone to compare size.
I was able to get the ps200 for $320 shipped overnight. We then got a 256MB flash card for $60-something, which allows for 120+ pics at max size. That is more than me with the SLR and 4 rolls of 24!
I have been very happy with it and am still learning all of the features it has, for instance I just found out that you can set the ?white datum? for the picture, sort of like using a gray card for film. It will also compensate for fluorescent and tungsten lighting. Not that you care about me reading the manual? being quiet now.
Good luck and let us know what you get.

I have a thing for quality. I am afraid that I am going to be disappointed with a 2mp camera. A while back, someone one this forum had taken some pictures using a Nikon Coolpix 995. Had pictures of the upcoming NSX and Subaru rally car and others from an Auto Show. I am not sure if the images were shot at a larger format and then reduced, but I was in complete ahhhh of what I saw. Clearity and color reproduction was amazing. Is there anything out there that is similar to quality, but maybe a few bucks less?

I bought a Olympus C-3040 a few weeks ago from a fellow ceg'er. I have been using it in a digital photography class and have been very happy with the results. One of the other guys in the class has a Nikon 995 and has been having some problems with picture noise, even when taking the pictures w/o compression.

Grymes, how large do you plan on blowing these up? Are you going to print them out? Both are important considerations when determining how many megapixels you really need.

-Pete

Photoshop is like a brother to me. Photo-editing is a majority of what I do. I see myself using this to mainly capture my life and store on my camera. When I capture a frame that knocks my socks off, I would most likely print and could even see myself framing.

-Brian

My current love.

I have an e10 at my disposal at schoool, mmmmmm.

If you plan on doing some printing, I wouldn't get anything less than 3mp, it just limits you too much in size and image quality. Heck even a 3mp doesn't look all that great on an 8x10

-Pete

I have a Dimage X that I bought about 2 months ago.

Very happy with it. Excellent to carry around. It takes decent pictures and is very easy to use.

I upgraded to a 64 MB SD-Card. It will hold around 122 Pics at max resulution/standard quality in JPEG format. Standard quality is enough for most applications. I tried the other settings but didn't really notice much of a difference.

The software included with the cam is crap. But you don't need it anyways... the cam installs as an extra drive on your computer via USB, and you can actually use it to transport data from one machine to another ;-)

Great viewing freeware can be found at www.irfanview.com . It has batch functions (convert size / resulution for selected files), create webpage with thumbnails from directory, view directory in full screen etc.

The battery is very small and has limited capacity. When broken in (i.e. after a couple of charge cycles) it should take up to 100 pics on one charge, depending on how much flash you use and how long you have it running to look at the pics.

I use it as a snapshot camera and it is absolutely perfect for the purpose: small, lightweight, idiot-proof ;-)

HTH

The DiMAGE X is beginning to look subpar for my likings. I am now considering the Minolta DiMAGE F100. Thoughts?
I also see myself using this camera for presentations board for design projects.