Konica Minolta Dimage A2

DiMage A2 image by Steve Harwood (Image rights)

An eight megapixel, fixed-zoom-lens digicam, successor of the Minolta DiMAGE A1.

Excellent manual controls, with buttons for just about everything. A manual focus ring and a manual zoom ring make for an excellent camera

Features

• 8MP resolution
• Optical zoom of 7X --- 28-200mm.
• Macro at 28mm and 200mm.
• It has a tilting LCD 1.8", tilts 90 degrees up, 10 degrees down.
• Electronic viewfinder (almost 1 megapixel) tilts 90 degrees up.
• Can automatically or manually switch between two types of view
• Flash hot shoe
• Pop-up flash
• Multi-channel wireless TTL flash
• Wireless flash triggered by pop-up or hotshoe-mounted flash
• Manual zoom and focus rings
• Automatic focus switches to monochrome in low light for increased

focus range (due to higher contrast of monochrome versus color)

• Optional spot focus point can be set for any point on CCD
• Area, center-weighted and spot exposure (spot can be selected as

for focus

• Uses compact flash cards to at least 4GB
• JPEG, SuperFine JPEG, TIFF, RAW
• Lithium-ion battery pack
• Optional battery grip (shown) houses 1 or 2 battery packs and adds

vertical shooting shutter release

DiMage A2 image by Kimmo Kulovesi (Image rights)

• Selectable LCD view --- exposure effect or "open aperture" perfect

for long exposures in dark conditions (or small aperture shots)

• APO lens --- often reviewed as "tack sharp", "excellent"
• Tripod socket centered on lens
• CCD-based vibration reduction

This camera is a real breakthrough as it combines just about every desirable feature in a non-SLR camera. Many of the features are just now being introduced on SLRs, and in half-baked fashion.