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April 30, 2005
[ KONICA MINOLTA DiMAGE G600 ]
Price: $899
Rating: 3.5 stars
The goods: The Konica Minolta is a 6 megapixel camera that fits in between the simple point and shoot consumer cameras and the digicams that offer greater manual control of functions.
The G600 is an attractive, rugged little camera that will fit in a pocket and feels as though it will withstand careless handling.
All the important automatic functions – focus, exposure and white balance – are spot on. Images straight from the camera are good without any post-camera processing. Both the optical viewfinder and the LCD are bright and clear.
The lens covers a 39mm to 117mm range (in 35 mm film equivalents), which gives an ideal focal length at the long end for portraits.
The camera is supplied with a 16meg SD memory card, which is inadequate, so factor into the cost the additional expense of a 128meg card. The G600 also takes the Memory Stick and MultiMedia cards.
Like this: The macro mode on the G600 is very good, delivering well exposed and pin sharp close-ups. If photographing flowers is a priority then the Minolta is the camera for the job.
The software supplied with the G600 is outstanding. For most people it will be all they need to do post-camera tweaking.
Dislike that: The manual controls, which are limited, are not immediately accessible by external buttons and knobs. Making manual selections of ISO speed or shutter speed must be done by plunging into non-intuitive menu settings. Most people will find that manual control is so complicated that it can only be done with the camera in one hand and the instruction book in the other. This means that the G600 will almost always be used in automatic mode. So it is best thought of as a point and shoot camera with some pretensions.
Parting shot: The natural competitors of the Konica Minolta G600 are the Canon Powershot S60 and the Olympus C-60. The Canon is a 5mp camera and the Olympus is 6. The Canon and Olympus have more easily accessible manual controls which will appeal to some customers and deter others.
Posted by terry at April 30, 2005 12:00 PM
