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| Date Reviewed: May 16, 2005 |
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Strengths: fits nicely in hand. excellent zoom. histogram. good battery life. clear pictures. good movie mode. manual and auto settings, good flash options, fast start-up time, anit-shake feature
Weaknesses: no auto alumination assist feature
Summary: Love the camera. This is my first Konica/Minolta camera and I really love it. The anti-shake feature is phenomenal. I would recommend this camera to anyone who wants a super zoom camera.
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| Date Reviewed: Jul 27, 2005 |
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Strengths: Fast Focus, Easy to Operate - can operate in one hand; 12x Zoom is incredible
Weaknesses: I miss the lack of more wide angle - may have to get the wide adaptor next tax return time
Summary: I bought this camera for backpacking. This is my first high quality digital camera. I am using it to replace my manual 35mm's. The z5 is very compact and lightweight, and I will save at least 2 to 3 pounds by leaving my 35mm's and lenses, and 10 to 20 film canisters at home.
I have used the z5 on one backpack trip so far, taking 500 pictures, and couldnt be happier. All the controls are easy to use - I found myself operating the zoom and shooting photos with one hand - with my other hand holding a trekking pole. I used it in in Program Mode, and found the exposures right on. The anti-shake feature is incredible - I handheld the camera for pictures right before dark, and they still came out. I also used the macro, supermacro mode, for closeups, of good quality. I sometimes set the camera at 2 stops darker, and turned on the flash for some closeups of wildflowers in daylight - they came out very good. Don't listen to me though - check out my pictures using the z5 from this backpack trip:
www.journeywest.com/im...
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| Date Reviewed: Jun 29, 2005 |
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Strengths: 12x, Anit-Shake, 5MP, small for zoom, Quick to start/zoom. Did I mention 12x opticial zoom?
Easy for a novice, like myself, to pick up and start taking decent picts with little to no training.
Weaknesses: No RAW image mode, sometimes slower on catching the action shots than other times. I have missed a couple of good shots because of this lag.
Summary: I found that both my wife and I were able to pick up the camera and start taking decent pictures right away. She did run into an issue, where she thought she got some pictures, but had not because she had only half-way pressed the button.
To really learn/use everything that this camera can do, you need to spend some quality time with the well written manual.
Love the ability to take decent sized movies without having to lug around another bag/device.
Great digital camera for both the beginner and intermediate users looking for a good camera with loads of features, but is still easy to use.
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| Date Reviewed: Aug 5, 2005 |
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Strengths: Zoom, Anti-shake, 5mp ccd, compact, easy to handle, quiet, customizable through menu, easy to use dial for picture types, and seems durable.
Weaknesses: flash housing, shutter speeds
Summary: This seems to be a very good camera for intermediate photographer. There is a lot for a beginner, and a pro would ask for more. The camera fits pretty good in the hand, and the grips are in the right places. The zoom is very quick and quiet. The flash housing is not the best. You have to pick it up to use and snap it back in place when you are done. Also, it should have longer shutter speeds for very low light shots. A max of 4 seconds compared to my older Olympus C-700's 16 seconds. This is a great camera for people that want something more out of a point and shoot. It's no SLR, but it's getting close with all the manual options.
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| Date Reviewed: Jan 7, 2006 |
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Strengths: Anti shake, zoom, 2' screen, speed (my main reason for buying the Z5) good movies too
Weaknesses: Needs a better flash, but all digital cameras do.
Summary: WOW! It's almost like having my 35MM SLR again! I took some pictures at a relatives wedding with my Olympus C-700, and missed allot of shots because of it's lack of speed. Made me mad enough to go spend my money for a new
digital camera. Parting with bucks is hard for me, so I did allot of research, and this one fit the bill. I installed a 133X SD card which I'm sure helped the speed too. IT'S FAST! To solve the low flash problem I purchased a Minolta 3600HS(D)External flash. WOW, it's
fast too! It really speeds up the cycle time for flash shots. It's kind of big though, and makes the camera top heavy. It's worth it. I took some night shots in the back yard to try it out for distance. WOW again! With the Z5 set on "auto", it really lit up the subjects at distance of about 30 ft. One of these days I'll set the Z5 on ISO400 just to see how far the flash will go.
This set up has solved my gripes about digital photography (speed & flash). Couldn't be happier!
I found he camera refurbished on line for less than $300.
That made me happy too.
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| Date Reviewed: Apr 4, 2006 |
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Strengths: Zoom, Overall ease of use, most everything
Weaknesses: Low light photos
Summary: Overall, this is a good camera. I was tired of the 3x optical zoom with my old camera, and this one is brilliant. You just can't zoom closer to things. The digital zoom obviously eats into the quality of the picture, but that is expected. This camera fits nicely with all the necessary controls in reach. Movie mode is rough when zooming, but that can be avoided by using the camera as a digital camera and not being too cinematic. The low light images are the only complaints. I am still working on getting good photos (not very hard), but to no avail.
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| Date Reviewed: May 7, 2005 |
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Strengths: 12x optical,5megapixel,fast autofocus,anti-shake which works very well when zooming at long telephoto, 35-430mm gives great flexability in range of shots,very comfortable grip,takes SD&MM cards.
Weaknesses: not Much,Slower autofocus in movie mode but you don't buy a digital camera to make movies.
Summary: This is my first experience with a digital camera.I've always used high end slr's. I was planning a trip to europe and bringing a mini dv camcorder and didn't want to lug a heavy slr with all the cumbersome lens changes.This camera covered all my range of shots with a 1 Gig Memory card gave me almost 400 shots in the highest resolution and fit with my mini dv in one small camera bag. very happy with this camera.
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| Date Reviewed: Mar 23, 2005 |
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Strengths: anti-shake technology, 12x optical zoom, fast focus capability, 640x480x30fps movie mode with audio, filters can be mounted
Weaknesses: size (but what do you expect with a 12x zoom and my last camera was a Sanyo MZ3), very slow focusing in movie mode when zooming in/out, no audio memo with photographs, manual focus mode
Summary: I purchased this camera as I was growing tired with the limited 3x optical zoom that was supported by my Sanyo MZ3. Though I've looked at the Canon S1, I finally decided with this camera since because of 5 megapixel images and 12x optical zoom.
I've been using movie modes to replace carrying around my DV camera. Therefore, 640x480x30fps with unlimited recording duration was a must. The ability of being able to zoom while recording in movie mode was an added feature that I wanted. The added feature of anti-shake technology working in movie mode also works well. In numerous movies that I've made, I still can't hear the motor used for zooming in/out in the movies in a relatively quiet room. The camera doesn't do a good job (I would call it only a fair/poor job) when focusing in movie mode when zooming in/out. It can take upwards of 5 seconds for the camera to focus when at full zoom. Though, this might be insufficient ambient lighting. I'll need to test that out further.
Photos can be taken in Automatic mode surprisingly quickly. I use to have to wait for a camera to focus, but, with this camera, focus to shot taken is less than a second. Manual focus is OK, but, I like the ability of being able to select the distance (in meters or feet) instead of using the sliding scale that the Z5 uses. One feature that's missing is recording clips of audio when taking a photo. I found that very useful when taking pictures for reference use when an audio clip of my voice was useful for giving details of why, where, and what position the photo was taken. Anti shake works surprisingly well as I'm able to hold the camera and take photos at 12x without appreciable shakes.
Overall a great camera. Bonus is that the Sandisk 1GB SD card, which is one of the cheaper 1GB SD card, is fast enough to be used for recording 640x480x30fps movies in fine mode.
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| Date Reviewed: Jun 1, 2005 |
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Strengths: Very simple to use camera, easy to understand directions
Weaknesses: none that I have found
Summary: This is the best camera I have ever used! It takes awesome pictures!! The resolution is unbelievable! Compared to my previous digital camera, well there is no comparison! All of the functions are easy to understand, and simple to operate. If you are an advanced camera afficianoto, you will love the programming functions! I would HIGHLY recommend this to anyone looking for a Great digital camera!
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| Date Reviewed: Jun 21, 2005 |
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 I bought this camera for the 12X zoom and the anti ... Strengths: 12X Zoom, Anti-shake (very good), rapid on, rapid focus in good light, great macro, small size for 12X, uses AA batteries.
Weaknesses: Poor focusing in poor light (no light assist), color balance is off, cosumes battery power more than I though it would.
Summary: 2005-06-23 15:30:13 I bought this camera for the 12X zoom and the anti-shake. And it takes great pictures in good light but it has real problems focusing in poor light and it won't let you shoot if not in focus. Recently, at a graduation with dim lighting (except on stage), I missed many pictures EVEN THOUGH THE FLASH WAS ACTIVATED. I pushed the release and nothing! (I have used a Kodak 6490 for about 18 months prior and had no such problem.) The poorly lit photos that it did take were very grainy.
I was also disappointed in the white balance. When taking pictures of flowers, there was a noticable difference in color between the original and the picture. Manually white balancing solves the problem but that is time consuming.
Battery consumption is more than I expected with a change in batteries required about every 100 to 125 pictures. The Kodak 6490 I had been using had a much smaller and lighter battery and would take will over 200 pictures.
On the good side, The 12X optical zoom is very good. Using the digital zoom is useful but not the greatest. The macro is fantastic! You can't get closer! You can actually get something as small as an ant to almost fill the screen. While it does consume batteries more than I would like to see, it does use AA batteries which are available everywhere.
Overall, I would not buy it again. There are better cameras in the same zoom range, pixel range and price range.
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| Date Reviewed: Apr 7, 2005 |
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Strengths: The larger LCD is very nice when reviewing picture on the camera as well as taking images. The anti-shake mechanism is very useful negating the use of a tripod
Weaknesses: You need to throughly read the manual to fully understand all this camera can do.
Summary: I owned the Z1 prior to getting this camera. The Z5 is more stylish. The larger LCD and anti-shake are very desirable. 5 megapixels contribute to qreat image quality
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| Date Reviewed: Jun 21, 2005 |
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jimpryor
from MI - Member Since:
Jun 2005
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Strengths: Very easy to use! This DiMage Z5 is a replacement for my DiMage Z1 that I dropped in a trout stream.
Great photos! Can hardly wait for the Wide-Angle Converter, that I will order today.
Weaknesses: Not waterproof
Summary: Thanks to DiMage Z5 ( and Z1) I send digital images all over the world, and direct to our local Photo Shop, or our children's Photo Shop for prints
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| Date Reviewed: Mar 10, 2006 |
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Strengths: 10x Optical Zoom, small and compact, Easy to use, excellant resolution
Weaknesses: Drains batteries quickly(recharable batteries highly reccomended) hard to find small carring case, doesnt shoot well in low light
Summary: This is the first digital camera I have owned and I really like it. I am a photographer for our church and the only problems i have had with this camera is that it is very hard to shoot in low light. However, its optical zoom and great pictures (in thr proper light) make up for its poorer qualties. Also i had to get a SLR case for this camera wich was bigger than I would have liked but it still is a great camera.
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| Date Reviewed: Jun 17, 2005 |
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 I am new to the Digital Camera world and purchased ... Strengths: Good visual view when you review pictures. Can use AA batteries and the cards can be purchsed any place.
Weaknesses: Took too long to take continuous pictures kept loading information too slowly and frequently. Missed out on a lot of pictures.
Summary: I am new to the Digital Camera world and purchased this camera at Ritz by their recommendation. It could be me and not knowing what I'm doing but...while I would review the pictures taken the camera would say system error and would not turn back on. I would have to wait several minutes before the camera would come back on. Many pictures came out blury and not focused. Also, some of the pictures that looked good while viewing, didn't come out good when printed. They were blury and not focused as well as they should have been. I did return the camera and when I did, I also found out that basically if your trying to shoot more than 12/15 feet away you need an extra flash or the pictures will come out blury. Possibly, that was my problem. However, I did state when I first purchased the camera that I needed something for long distance that I could focus in on. (for a basketball game, for a concert, a graduation when your sitting way in the back of some place) They said the 12X is it! It's the best for a non-professional and simple to use. For me this camera at $499 with a $50 rebate and 7% tax and being 43 miles away from the store was a lot of hassle for the camera and money. I purchased the Pentax istDS/SLR and I have only had it for 2 days and thing's are going fine right now and the pictures are coming out good. I also didn't need a book "Digital Cameras for Dummies." Also, this camera uses the AA batteries and the same card as the Minolta. So, I didn't have to purchase more items. The Pentax was on sale at Ritz for $799.99 + $99 for a Pentax lens instead of Quantaray.
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| Date Reviewed: Mar 22, 2005 |
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 just picked up my z5 from ritz camera put batts in ... Strengths: 5mp, screen size, 12x zoom,
Weaknesses: Right now, alot!
Summary: just picked up my z5 from ritz camera put batts in and 1gb sd took 5pics noticed two red pics on 2in. lcd then camera had blue dots moving all over the screen? then had system error come up on screen unit shut down, then would not start up again, removed batts then retried would only start up if put on evf setting then tried movie mode took about 30sec. of video had blue dots all over screen in play back same thing and huge glitches also nothing like the z3 i had tried for 2 weeks! got on the phone and called minolta they said to ship in for repair i said no way just bought an hour ago it wiil go back to the store, asked if they had problems with the line (like they would say they did) said no, that if i got another i should have no problems?.....just wish camera would have worked like it was suppose to for $500.00 hope this isn't a repeat of the issues with z3 until new firm ware came out WHAT A SHAME!
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