Form, Function and price converge for an incredible deal!

Author's Rating:

Pros: price,quality, power, a great camera for the beginner or power user

Cons: separate lens cap, no flash sync

The Bottom Line: 
Very simply, it is nearly perfect.

Author's Review
Let me state that I am a Canon man. Have used them for over 30 years with great success. Why then would I buy the Dimage Z10?.

I wanted a 'real' camera not an aluminum matchbox with a lens stuck on it. Small may be beautiful to some, but I don't like them. My wife has an Elph..I hate it, just too small for my big hands.

When you pick up the z10 for the first time it just fits into your hands correctly. Your fingers fall naturally on the controls and you are ready to shot. power it up and immediately you realize that this is an excellent product. The 1.5 LCD may sound a bit small but the quality is superb. It operates at 60 hrz and is by far the best I have seen even on the top end digitals. Turn the dial and the view finder is activated and the LCD goes black. It is truly fascinating how Konica-Minolta has designed this. You are looking at the same LCD, but this time in the view finder! Set the diopter and you are ready to go. Real cameras have diopters.

I guess 8x optical zoom is called an "Ultra Zoom" these days. The lens is very fast and focuses before you can think about it. It uses a multiple AF system that predicts where a subject might move and starts to focus, or keeps the focus as the subjects jump about. It is remarkable. Press the button under your thumb and you can go from long telephoto to wide angle. The wide angle is not as wide as I would like, but the folks at Konica-Minolta have designed an add on wide angle lens. Also the lens is totally sealed. No sand getting in to generate the dreaded Canon E-18 error. The lens also accepts filters. Real cameras use filters.

Flip a switch and you can go into macro mode. The Z10 will focus down to about 1/2 inch! Great for photographing insects etc. Like much of the competition the Z10 has setting for various "situations" and will record short Quicktime movies, limited only by the memory of the SD card. Unlike the competition you can use the telephoto while recording a movie. However it does not record sound. This is not a concern to me, cause I would far more rather use a DV camera for movies. The z10 also has a very unique 'burst' mode that will allow you to go back and pick the frames you want out of about 10 per burst.

The photographs from the Z10 are excellent. The noise is very low, however there is some purple fringing, shooting tree branches against the sky and looking into the sun. A few clicks in the software that comes with the Dimage fixes this. The software is very, very good and runs on Macs and Windoze. It is not Photoshop 8, but it handles histograms etc for the twiddlers out there.

There is so much to say about this camera. It goes from fully automatic to fully manual and has many stops in between. It is great at night with a 15 second open shutter too. Some people have complained about the plastic case. Personally I like the feel of the camera and plastic is no concern. It appears to be high quality ABS and the fit and finish are good. After all, my iBook is plastic as is my iPod.

I urge you to read some of the excellent reviews of this camera and go and handle one. I guarantee you will be sold. Whether you are a novice that wants to grow or an experienced shutter bug this camera will fulfill your needs. Battery useage is excellent. I can't comment actually because I haven't changed then yet, but the Z10 claims 500 shots on 4 alkaline. Swap these for NiMH and you should be able to shoot about 1800 pictures before recharging!

I am simply amazed at the features this camera offers. The menu system is excellent and is shared with all other Dimages. All I can say in closing is "Well done Konica Minolta!!!!

I would rate it 6 out of 5...

Chris