Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z2 Digital Camera

The ugliest digicam I've ever seen

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Jan 3, 2005 | 2 out of 2 found this Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z2 review helpful

Pros: Really fast auto focus. Lots of features for shutterbugs.

Cons: No optical viewfinder.

Sometimes the truth hurts. When I first unboxed the Dimage Z2, my immediate impression was that it should be zipping though space, piloted by Darth Vader. Once I got over the futuristic ugliness, I ignored the instruction book, shoved four AA NiMH ba...tteries into it, snapped in the included SD card (16MB! Are they joking?) and started shooting pictures. It really was that easy to figure out. I've only owned & used one other digicam (a Kodak Easy Share point & shoot job), but the Z2 control layout was intuitive. The most important controls--the zoom and the menu buttons--fall directly under the right thumb just where they should be. Likewise, the mode control knob is big, clearly marked, and easy to rotate. On full-auto point & shoot mode, my very first group of snapshots turned out very nice! Image quality is excellent, especially in bright sunlight. The little integral flash unit is more potent than its size implies, and it does a great job indoors. Just for grins, I tried a couple of video clips. At 640x480 and 15 frames-per-second, the ridiculous 16MB SD card only holds a few seconds worth. Still, the video looked pretty crisp, and the sound quality was better than expected. I can't wait to get a bigger SD card so I can shoot a longer clip. Besides the hideous appearance, my only gripe is the lack of an optical viewfinder. One can watch the LCD directly, or one can look at the same LCD through a fake viewfinder. Weird. Overall though, it's a pretty neat package. I'm glad I bought it. Read more Less