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	*	5.0-megapixel CCD delivers uninterpolated images as large as 2,568 x 1,928 pixels.
	*	Tack sharp 7x optical zoom lens covers a 28-200mm equivalent focus range.
	*	TFT LCD viewfinder is surprisingly usable under low light conditions.
	*	Enhancements over the D7Hi include Anti-Shake mode, 14-bit A/D, tilting LCD monitor, and faster maximum shutter speed of 1/16,000.

Manufacturer Overview
The Minolta DiMAGE A1 is the latest in a family of DiMAGE electronic SLR models that stretches back to the original DiMAGE 7, the first five-megapixel prosumer camera, introduced over two years ago (early 2001). As you'll read below, the new DiMAGE A1 carries on the proud tradition of the line, with a host of innovations and improvements over the previous DiMAGE 7Hi flagship model.

In 2001, Minolta shook up the high end of the prosumer market, by beating everyone else to the punch with the first five-megapixel prosumer digital camera. And it wasn't just "any" five-megapixel model either, but the Dimage 7, an electronic SLR design with a remarkably high quality 7x optical zoom lens, a host of advanced image-control functions, and an all-new electronic viewfinder using ferroelectric LCD technology for impressive low light performance.

In 2002, Minolta upped the ante again first with the Dimage 7i, which added numerous features, and offered dramatically improved focusing speed and shutter response. They also announced the Dimage 7Hi, which added an external flash sync socket, higher-speed continuous shooting for full-resolution files, and an extra-fine JPEG image-quality setting. The Dimage 7 was an impressive camera when it was introduced, and Minolta's improvements implemented in the 7i version were well-considered, intelligent, and bountiful. With the 7Hi, they brought the camera fully into the photo studio, with the external flash sync connector, in addition to increasing continuous-mode speed, and offering an extra-fine JPEG mode as an alternative to TIFF or RAW files. Finally, the Dimage 7Hi offered several options for color space, including both normal and "vivid" sRGB options, and Adobe RGB.

Now, Minolta improves on an already great camera model with the Dimage A1, which boasts the same 7x lens, five-megapixel sensor, and finely-tuned exposure control. In addition to all of the great features from the 7Hi model, the Dimage A1 also offers 14-bit A/D conversion, a tilting LCD monitor, blazingly fast 1/16,000 second maximum shutter speed, tracking autofocus, and a grip sensor that actually senses when you have the camera in-hand, to save power in the continuous autofocus mode. It's a nice update on an already great camera. Read on for more details.


Highlights

• True 5.0-megapixel CCD delivering resolutions as high as 2,560 x 1,920 pixels.
• 14-Bit A/D conversion.
• Digital Electronic viewfinder with 90-degree variable position, and 0.44 inch internal TFT LCD display.
• 1.8-inch TFT color LCD monitor that tilts upward 90 degrees.
• 7.2-50.8mm lens (equivalent to a 28-200mm lens on a 35mm camera) with a maximum aperture of f/2.8 to f/3.5, depending on the zoom setting.
• 2x digital zoom.
• Auto and Manual focus.
• 2x and 8x viewfinder magnification options in Manual focus mode to assist focus determination.
• Macro option at either telephoto or maximum wide angle zoom settings.
• Auto, Program AE, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual, and four Digital Subject Program shooting modes.
• Shutter speeds from 1/16,000 to 30 seconds, with Bulb setting for manual control of long exposures (up to 30 seconds).
• 300-segment Multi-Segment, Center-Weighted, and Spot metering options, with AE Lock function.
• Adjustable ISO with five settings. (Auto, 100, 200, 400, 800)
• Built-in, pop-up flash with three operating modes, a dual-mode flash metering system, and manually adjustable intensity.
• External flash hot-shoe for Minolta accessory flash units.
• External PC-style flash sync terminal.
• Built-in support for wireless TTL flash exposure with certain Minolta flashes.
• Standard and High-Speed Continuous Shooting, Interval, Movie, and Night Movie shooting modes.
• Digital Effects Control for Exposure, Color Saturation, Contrast Compensation, and Hue (color filter) control, with Bracketing.
• Adjustable White Balance with seven modes, including a manual setting.
• Sharpness and Color control via menu options. Color modes include Natural (sRGB), Vivid Color (sRGB), Black & White, Adobe RGB, Adobe RGB with embedded color profile, and Solarization.
• RAW, uncompressed TIFF, and JPEG file formats.
• Images saved on CompactFlash Type I or II memory cards, Microdrive compatible.
• "Storage-Class" USB interface.
• USB cable and interface software for connecting to a computer and downloading images.
• NTSC or PAL selectable video output signal, with cable included.
• Power supplied by a single high-capacity lithium-ion battery pack or separate AC adapter (available as an accessory).
• Optional vertical handgrip and wired remote control accessories.
• DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) compliant.

Many of our readers will be familiar with the recent Dimage 7Hi, so I put together the following major feature comparison between the Dimage 7Hi and the Dimage A1.

Executive Overview
Minolta's previous Dimage 7, 7i, and 7Hi digicams have proved so successful among consumers, that the company apparently decided to keep a good thing going. The new Dimage A1 offers the same exceptional features found on the previous models, with a few updates that further extend its capabilities. The A1 continues with the 5.0-megapixel CCD, ultra-sharp 7x optical zoom lens, and host of fine-grained user controls that contributed to the earlier models' popularity, but adds a number of subtle but significant enhancements like 14-bit A/D conversion and a new Anti-Shake system. The camera also boasts a higher maximum shutter speed at 1/16,000 second, a grip sensor that controls the Fulltime AF option, and a tilting LCD monitor. As with the Dimage 7Hi, the Dimage A1 features extensive creative controls (including an option to use the Adobe RGB color space), sophisticated camera functions, and a user-friendly interface that make it appealing to advanced users, while its simple to use full "auto" mode lets you hand it to a novice with confidence. The camera's ergonomic design looks and feels a lot like a conventional 35mm SLR, with an elongated lens barrel and a lightweight magnesium alloy body with plastic outer panels hosting the numerous dials, switches, and buttons. Although the profusion of controls makes the camera appear complex, they're all logically arranged and actually fairly easy to learn. Minolta has packed a lot of functions into a very workable layout, with a range of features normally found only on more expensive professional-level digital cameras.

A 2/3-inch progressive-scan primary-color CCD with 5.3 million pixels (5.0 million effective), provides a maximum resolution of 2,560 x 1,920 pixels, among the highest available in a consumer digital camera as of this writing in early August, 2003. The 14-bit A/D converter and relatively large pixel size provide a wide dynamic range (detailed highlights and shadows) and fine tonal gradation, with as many as 16,384 levels captured in each RGB channel. The CCD's light sensitivity ranges from ISO 100 to 800, and may be automatically controlled by the camera or manually selected by the user. The Dimage A1's updated color space flexibility includes two sRGB options (Natural and Vivid color), in addition to standard and embedded-profile Adobe RGB options for professional use in a color-managed environment.

All that sensor resolution would be useless, however, if the lens couldn't resolve fine detail. The Dimage A1 appears to feature the same advanced apochromat 7x zoom GT Lens that was so impressive on previous models in the line, one of the sharpest and lowest-distortion digicam lenses I've tested to date. Comprised of 16 glass elements in 13 groups, the GT lens has two anomalous dispersion (AD) and two aspheric glass elements for sharp, detailed images with minimal distortion and glare. The 7.2-50.8mm focal range (equivalent to a 28-200mm zoom in 35mm format) provides the flexibility for wide-angle interior and landscape shots, as well as close-up portraits and distant action in sports photography. The manual zoom ring is a pleasure to use, with a wide rubberized grip and smooth, mechanically-coupled lens action. A maximum aperture that ranges from f/2.8-f/3.5 (depending on the focal length setting) is fairly "fast," helpful for low-light and action photography. The Macro capability lets you capture subjects as close as 9.8 inches from the lens, which translates to a very small 1.5 x 2.0-inch minimum capture area. A host of focus controls provide a lot of flexibility, and on-demand manual focus lets you tweak the autofocus setting without switching from auto to manual focus mode.

One area of significant departure for the A1 though, is its use of a conventional TFT LCD for its electronic viewfinder (EVF), rather than the unique reflective ferroelectric LCD that was used on the previous models. The ferroelectric LCD was the source of much comment and rather polarized feelings amongst the user community, with some lauding it for its very smooth appearance and excellent low-light capability, while others were put off by the "crackled glass" effect caused by either camera or subject motion. The new TFT-based design seems to have very high resolution (Minolta hasn't published a spec for its pixel count) and does an excellent job in low light as well, while not showing the "crackled glass" artifacts seen in the earlier design. (I predict that the new EVF will be a big hit with users, eliminating what was a negative point for many prospective users. Like those of its predecessors, the A1's EVF offers unique flexibility, with a variable position eyepiece that tilts up as much as 90 degrees. The camera's 1.8-inch LCD monitor also tilts downward about 15 degrees or upward 90 degrees, making it more convenient when shooting at high or low angles.

The Dimage A1's exposure system offers three metering options: 300-segment Multi-Segment, Center-Weighted, and Spot. The default Multi-Segment option divides the image into 300 separate areas, placing emphasis on the main subject, but integrating luminance values, color, and autofocus information from across the image to accurately calculate exposure. Like similar AE metering systems on other cameras, the Center-Weighted and Spot metering options place most of the exposure emphasis on the central portion of the frame, or a small spot at the very center of the frame, respectively. Exposure modes include Auto, Programmed AE, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Manual, plus four Digital Subject Programs specifically set up for Portrait, Sports, Night Portrait, and Sunset exposures. These presets use not only aperture and shutter speed settings to best capture the subjects, but also Minolta's exclusive CxProcess image processing to optimize color balance and skin tones.

On top of all these features, the Dimage A1 also provides a Digital Effects Control that can be used to adjust Color Saturation, Contrast, and Filter (hue). The Digital Effects adjustments are particularly notable for their fine gradations and wide range, allowing you to customize the camera's color and tonal response to precisely match your personal preferences. A Color Mode option offers special color effects and a black and white shooting mode, which can be adjusted via the Filter Effects setting. Exposure Compensation is adjustable from -2 to +2 EV in one-third-step increments. A Digital Enhanced Bracketing option for taking three bracketed exposures of an image, features two different values adjustable to either 1/3 or 1/2-stop increments (the one-stop option available in earlier high-end DiMAGE models has been dropped in the A1. In addition to exposure, this feature can also bracket any of the Effects options, including contrast and saturation. A customizable AE Lock button can be set to lock only exposure, or both exposure and focus. White Balance is adjustable to one of four preset options (Daylight, Fluorescent, Tungsten, Cloudy, and Shade settings), along with Auto and Manual options. Shutter speeds range from 1/16,000 to 30 seconds, with a Bulb setting that permits manual control of exposures as long as 30 seconds. Maximum lens apertures are f/2.8 at the wide-angle end and f/3.5 at telephoto. A real-time histogram display mode helps verify exposure before capturing the image. (There's a histogram display option in Playback mode as well.)

Autofocus performance is a key area where the Dimage A1 shines. Autofocus is powered by a Large Scale Integration (LSI) chip that rapidly processes image data through a high-speed 32-bit RISC processor. A lot of jargon that simply explains why the A1's AF system is noticeably faster than average among high-end "prosumer" digicams. The autofocus system can determine focus in one of three ways: Wide Focus Area averages readings from a large area across the middle of the frame (indicated on the LCD by a set of widely spaced brackets); Spot Focus Point reads information from the very center of the LCD (indicated by a target cross-hair), and Flex Focus Point lets you move a target cross-hair to virtually any position within the viewfinder, so you can focus on off-center subjects without having to aim, lock focus, and then recompose the shot.

The built-in, pop-up flash offers two methods of flash metering. Advanced Distance Integration (ADI) bases its exposure on the lens aperture, feedback from the autofocus system (how far the subject is from the camera), as well as on a separate metering flash. Pre-Flash TTL (through the lens) uses only the small metering flash prior to the main exposure to gauge how much light is reflected by the scene. The Dimage A1 also includes a top-mounted hot shoe for attaching Minolta external flash units (and any compatible third-party units). An external flash sync terminal offers a standard "PC" style sync jack for connecting to studio strobes or other external flash devices. Flash modes include Fill-Flash, Red-Eye Reduction, and Rear Flash Sync, with Flash Compensation available from -2 to +2 exposure equivalents (EV) in one-third-step increments. A Wireless flash mode lets the camera work with certain Minolta-brand wireless flash units. A manual flash mode fires the onboard flash at full, 1/4, or 1/16 power. Since manual flash mode doesn't use a pre-flash, it's perfect for driving studio strobes via conventional slave triggers.

Additional Dimage A1 features include a Movie (with sound) mode with Night exposure option; Voice Memo mode; Standard and High Speed Continuous Advance modes; 2x Digital Zoom; Interval Recording of two to 240 frames in one- to 60-minute intervals; 10-second Self-Timer; and three Sharpness settings. Five image quality levels include RAW uncompressed files, and TIFF, Extra Fine, Fine, and Standard compression settings. Resolution options for still images include 2,560 x 1920; 2,080 x 1,560; 1,600 x 1,200; and 640 x 480 pixels. Movie resolution is 316 x 240 pixels.

Not to be outdone on the output phase of digital imaging, Minolta has incorporated Epson's PRINT Image Matching technology, which ensures that Dimage A1 images captured in autoexposure mode and output on compatible Epson printers will be automatically color balanced to provide true-to-life hues and saturation.

Powered by one NP-400 rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack (an optional AC power adapter is available), as well as an accessory hand grip that lets you power the camera from either six AA cells or two NP-400 packs, the Dimage A1 represents an amazingly versatile package for the serious amateur or prosumer photographer. USB and A/V cables also accompany the camera, for connection to a computer or television set. My prototype evaluation unit did not come with a software CD, but I assume that Minolta will include a standard software bundle along with the camera.

Design
Released as an update to last year's Dimage 7Hi model, the Dimage A1 shares a similar external design, with the same all-black body and general styling. The Dimage A1 features a true 5.0-megapixel (effective) CCD, sharp 7x optical zoom lens, fine-grained image controls, and optional fully manual exposure control, with a few minor improvements over the previous models. Updates include 14-bit A/D conversion, a faster maximum shutter speed (1/16,000 second), a grip sensor that controls Full-time AF, and a tilting LCD monitor, among others.

The Dimage A1 is similar in design to a traditional 35mm SLR, but an elongated lens barrel on the left side of the camera gives the camera more of a "T" shape, extending behind and in front of the body slightly, with a hand grip on the right. Control layout is slightly different from the Dimage 7Hi, but still logical and intuitive (once you get gist of things). The Dimage A1's rather bulky body measures a substantial 4.61 x 3.34 x 4.46 inches (117 x 85.0 x 113.5 millimeters) with the lens at its shortest position, but the combination of magnesium alloy chassis and (mostly) plastic body panels make it lightweight for its size (approximately 23.4 ounces, or 663 grams with an NP-400 battery and CompactFlash card loaded), but nonetheless a substantial handful. An accessory camera bag would certainly be the preferred method of carrying and storing the Dimage A1, but the positions of the eyelets for the included neck strap at least let the camera hang level when it's suspended from them. (This last being a detail I wish more camera manufacturers would pay attention to.)

The camera's front panel houses the Minolta GT 7x Zoom lens, Self-Timer light, and the front of the pop-up flash compartment. Encircling the lens are two adjustment rings: a rubberized grip on the front end for actuating the zoom lens, and a ribbed Manual Focus ring at the base of the lens. A set of 49mm filter threads on the inside lip of the zoom lens accommodates filters and conversion kit accessories, but I'd caution readers to be careful how heavy a lens they attach there. Because the threads are on the lens barrel itself, the zoom mechanism must support any weight attached there. A pair of tabs on the outside edge of the lens serve as a mount for the accessory lens hood. Also visible from the front of the camera are the Shutter button and Front Control dial, located at the top of the hand grip. An indentation near the top of the hand grip comfortably cradles your middle finger as it curls around the grip. One of the more interesting features of the Dimage A1 is the grip sensor on the front of the hand grip, visible in this shot as a set of vertical metallic bars. When activated, the grip sensor actually senses the presence of your hand and only triggers the Full-time AF function (or optionally, the electronic viewfinder) whenever the camera is held, saving some battery power. (You can turn this feature off through the setup menu, for working on a tripod or when wearing gloves, which Minolta states may decrease the effectiveness of the sensor. - It's evidently a skin-resistance sensor.)

The right side of the camera holds the CompactFlash memory card slot, covered by a hinged plastic door. The A1 accommodates Type I or II CF memory cards, including IBM MicroDrives. Just above the compartment door is the shared-use A/V Out / USB jack for direct connection to a computer or television set. At the very top of the right panel is one of the two neck strap attachment eyelets.

The left side of the camera features a host of controls, including the Function dial, flash sync terminal, Digital Effects dial, Auto/Manual Focus switch, Custom White Balance button, speaker, and Macro switch (on the side of the lens). The Function dial, located at the top of the panel, controls the Memory settings, Custom Function settings, Metering mode, Drive mode (Self-Timer, Continuous Shooting, etc.), White Balance, and ISO. The Effects button lets you adjust Contrast, Color Saturation, and effects Filters in conveniently small increments. Both dials have buttons in the center that activate whatever function you've selected with that dial. The Focus button simply switches back and forth between Single AF, Continuous AF, and Manual focus modes. The Custom White Balance button manually adjusts the white balance setting, while the Macro switch on the lens barrel activates the Macro shooting mode. The second neck strap attachment eyelet is at the top, next to the Function dial. Also visible on this side, at the edge of the electronic viewfinder eyepiece, is the diopter adjustment dial, which adjusts the viewfinder display to accommodate eyeglass wearers.

The top panel accommodates the pop-up flash compartment, with two small tabs on either side to hook a fingernail under to open the flash, and an external flash hot shoe on top, protected by a sliding plastic cover that is completely removable from the camera body. The hot shoe employs a custom electrode setup and mounting bracket for Minolta accessory flash units, and so isn't compatible with standard hot-shoe flashes. In addition, there are a number of controls that access various camera functions, including the Mode Dial, a Shutter button, a Selector wheel, and a small Data Panel display that shows battery status, camera settings, and the number of images remaining. The Information and Magnification buttons are just below the status display panel, and angle down toward the rear of the camera. A tiny microphone in front of the Mode dial records sound when shooting movies or recording voice memos.

The remaining controls are on the camera's rear panel, along with the electronic viewfinder eyepiece, LCD monitor, and battery compartment. The Dimage A1's electronic viewfinder (EVF) now features a high resolution TFT LCD, rather than the reflective, ferroelectric display used on earlier models in the line. The new display seems very sharp and clear, with none of the motion-induced artifacts seen in previous models. The viewfinder also tilts upward almost 90 degrees, offering a variety of viewing angles. When the camera is set to the Auto Display mode, an infrared sensor on the right side of the viewfinder eyepiece senses when your eye is near the viewfinder and automatically activates the EVF display. Control buttons on the back panel include the Display Mode switch (tucked in a corner beside the LCD monitor), which lets you choose between EVF and LCD display, or Auto switching between the two. Also on the rear panel are the Power button, Mode switch, Rear Control dial, Menu button, Four-Way controller, Quickview / Delete button, Anti-Shake button, and AE lock button. At the bottom of the rear panel, a connector compartment houses the DC In and Remote connector terminals, and is protected by a flexible flap.

The camera's bottom panel is fairly flat, with a slightly textured grip pad surrounding the metal tripod mount. Also on the bottom panel is the camera's battery compartment, which features a locking, hinged door. The battery compartment is just far enough from the tripod mount to allow quick battery changes while working with a tripod, something I always look for in a digicam, given the amount of studio shooting I do.

An optional power/grip unit is available for the A1, adding a vertical grip handy for portrait-format shots, and allowing the camera to be powered by either two NP-400 batteries, or by conventional rechargeable AA cells. I really liked the increased battery life the NP-400 provided for the base unit, but the power grip lets you have your cake and eat it too, powering the camera from more inexpensive and widely available NiMH AA cells.

Viewfinder
The electronic viewfinder (EVF) is one area in which the DiMAGE A1 marks a significant departure from the tradition established by the 7, 7i, and 7Hi. The earlier cameras used a unique reflective ferroelectric LCD for their EVFs, which had both strengths and weaknesses. On the positive side, the image was very smooth-looking , with little or no visible pixelation, because each pixel of the ferroelectric LCD displayed full color. (Rather than just red, green, or blue, as with conventional LCD displays.) The 7-series cameras also had the first EVFs that I considered truly usable in low light shooting conditions. On the downside, because the ferroelectric LCD's pixels were time-multiplexed (they actually switched very rapidly between red, green, and blue) and were fairly coarse with abrupt rectangular edges, the EVF displayed odd "crackled glass" artifacts in response to camera or subject motion. The net of all this is that people tended to either love or hate the EVFs on the 7-series cameras, with the net vote probably coming down on the side of not liking it.

To expand a bit on the subject of EVFs, let me note that I've long held a hearty dislike of them, for a variety of reasons. For one, resolution is often considerably less than on the rear-panel LCD, and the view doesn't remotely compare to that through a purely optical viewfinder. A bigger concern though, is that most EVF displays are woefully inadequate for low-light shooting. The high refresh rate required to provide a "live" view of the subject means that the CCD just can't collect enough light in each frame to make the EVF display usable. Time and again, I've seen EVF-equipped digicams that are capable of taking pictures in conditions far darker than levels at which you can see what you're shooting in the EVF. Without a low-light-capable viewfinder, you're reduced to guessing where your subject is in the viewfinder.

That said, Minolta's EVFs in the DiMAGE 7, 7i, 7Hi, and now the A1 have proven exceptions to my thinking. The Dimage A1's EVF works down to incredibly low light levels, and also has very high resolution under normal lighting. I had previously attributed the usability of the DiMAGE 7's EVF to its use of ferroelectric LCD technology, but it now appears that it's other factors within the camera itself that results in the excellent low-light performance. Below a certain light level, it switches from a color display to a monochrome one (although the final camera images are still captured in color), apparently as a way of increasing sensitivity and reducing image noise. Whatever the case, the net result is that the EVF on the Dimage A1 is about as sensitive as my own eyes at a given illumination level, making it eminently usable at any light level most users will care to shoot at. Given that it's about as sensitive as the average eyeball, it's fair to say that a purely optical viewfinder wouldn't improve low-light capability a great deal.

The Dimage A1's EVF also features the innovative auto-switching capability first seen in the original Dimage 7. You can choose to have the viewfinder display always appear on either the LCD or EVF, or switch between the two automatically. Inset behind a pair of vertical windows on the right side of the viewfinder, a set of infrared sensors detects your eye as it approaches the viewfinder, switching the view to the EVF and disabling the LCD monitor if you have the auto-switching option enabled. To save on battery power, you can optionally (through the Setup menu) set the Auto mode to simply turn the EVF on and off, keeping the LCD monitor disabled.

Minolta also addressed the only complaint I had about the auto-on feature of the EVF. Previously, if you left the camera hanging from its neckstrap, the EVF eyepiece would press against your chest, triggering the infrared eyeball-detector circuit. While you could avoid the problem by flipping the tilting eyepiece up when carrying the camera, that was a bit of a hassle, and easy to forget to do. A new setup menu option fixes this problem by optionally coupling the eyeball detector with the hand grip sensor. You can set up the A1 so its EVF only turns on when you're looking through the EVF and your hand is on the handgrip. Kudos to Minolta for a very clever solution to a minor but annoying usability issue.

As noted, the electronic viewfinder eyepiece tilts upward 90 degrees, offering a range of viewing angles. A Diopter Control dial adjusts the viewfinder to accommodate eyeglass wearers, across a range of -5 to +0.5 diopters. (This covers a wider range of eyesight than I'm accustomed to seeing in eyepiece adjustments. It handled my 20/200 vision with no trouble at all.) The viewfinder has a reasonably high eyepoint, making it fairly usable with eyeglasses, but the field of view is slightly restricted when your eye is further from the eyepiece.

The rear-panel, 1.8-inch, TFT color LCD monitor is also offers a bright, clear image display. New to the A1, the LCD monitor lifts off of the rear panel, and can tilt upwards about 90 degrees, or downward by about 15 degrees. Like the electronic viewfinder, the LCD monitor displays a range of exposure and camera information in both Record and Playback modes, activated by the "i+" button. A Histogram setting displays a small "live" histogram overlaid on the viewfinder image, showing the distribution of tonal information in the image. This is handy tool for determining any potential over or underexposure, before capturing an image.

I've often found digicam manual focus features of limited utility, largely because it can be so hard to tell when you've achieved proper focus. LCD screens just don't display enough image detail to be able to tell whether an image is exactly in focus or not. Some manufacturers offer modes in which the viewfinder image optionally can be magnified by 2x or 4x but even that often falls a little short. (2x is clearly inadequate in my view, 4x starts to be useful.) In the A1, Minolta offers viewfinder magnification of 2x or 8x to assist with manual focusing, and the 8x level works very well for determining critical focus. Kudos again for this feature, I'd like to see other manufacturers emulate it.

In Playback mode, the Dimage A1 optionally displays a fair amount of image information, which is again controlled by the i+ button. The same button also accesses an index display mode, which you can set via a menu option to show either four or nine thumbnail images to a page. The Magnify button enlarges captured images, so that you can more closely check on fine details. A histogram feature is also available in Playback mode, by pressing the up arrow key.

Optics

Equipped with a 7.2-50.8mm, glass lens with multiple aspherical elements, the Dimage A1's lens is equivalent to a 28-200mm lens on a 35mm camera. This is a very nice range of focal lengths. The 28mm wide angle setting is particularly welcome, since most digicam lenses don't go that wide without accessory lens adapters. Likewise, 200mm is a good medium telephoto length, about as long as most folks can comfortably hand-hold without image stabilization, although Minolta's new Anti-Shake feature should greatly help out here. Unlike most digicams I've worked with, the lens zoom operates by rotating a collar around the lens barrel, coupled mechanically to the lens elements themselves. I like the precise control this gives, as opposed to the rocker switch controlled motor that most digital cameras use to rack the lens in or out. It definitely requires two hands, but the direct manual control will feel great to photographers accustomed to film-based SLRs. (I will say that the action of the zoom lens feels a little "cheap" though, with more of a plastic-on-plastic feel, rather than the smooth lubricated-metal feeling I'm accustomed to in higher-end removable SLR lenses.)

The lens consists of 16 elements in 13 groups, including two AD (anomalous dispersion) glass elements and two aspheric surfaces. All that dispersion/aspheric mumbo-jumbo is by way of explaining that this is a very high quality lens. Way back when I first tested the original DiMAGE 7, I was amazed by how little distortion and corner softness it displayed, and as far as I can tell, the A1 still uses the same lens. Images are very sharp corner to corner, with very little of the softness I've come to expect from digicam lenses in the corners of the frame. Aperture control can be either manual or automatic, with a maximum aperture of f/2.8 at wide angle and f/3.5 at telephoto. Focus ranges from 1.6 feet (0.5 meters) to infinity in normal mode. Activated by a small switch on the lens barrel, a Macro focusing mode focuses in on objects as close as about 5.25 inches (13.3 centimeters) from the lens surface in telephoto mode. (Minolta follows the practice from film-based photography of specifying focusing distance from the "film" (CCD) plane of the camera, rather than the front element of the lens. This avoids confusion over distances as the length of the lens changes in response to zoom adjustments, but would lead one to expect that the A1's macro performance is less than it actually is.) In my tests, the A1 captured a minimum area of just 1.96 x 1.47 inches (50 x 37 millimeters), a very small area indeed. You can enter Macro mode in either maximum wide angle or a small range of telephoto lens positions. A plastic lens cap with spring-loaded catches hooks into the inside lip of the lens, protecting it from dirt and scratches. The lens cap has an eyelet for attaching a strap, to prevent it from being accidentally lost.

The DiMAGE A1 provides both manual and automatic focus control. The camera's specification sheet describes the autofocus system as a "Video AF system," which uses phase-detection focusing technology rather than the much more common contrast-detection system. The advantage is that the camera not only determines whether or not the lens is in focus, but also how far out of focus it is, and in which direction (near or far). With this information, the camera should be able to focus much more quickly, since it "knows" roughly how much, and in which direction, to adjust the focus, rather than having to "hunt" for the best focus at the outset. The AF system will still have to do some hunting for the best setting, but it should spend less time doing so than a contrast-based system. The D7Hi was one of the fastest-focusing prosumer digicams I'd tested, and my testing of a production model A1 showed that it was at least as fast.

This system does seem to be pretty effective, as the A1 shows some of the shutter lag times are among the fastest I've seen for autofocus-equipped prosumer digicams.

The DiMAGE A1's autofocus system offers both Single-Shot and Continuous AF settings. In Single-Shot AF, the camera only sets the focus when the Shutter button is halfway depressed. In Continuous AF mode, it adjusts focus at all times, continuously keeping the frame in focus. While this definitely demands more power from the battery, the grip sensors on the front of the hand grip tell the camera to focus only when being held. The DiMAGE A1 lets you determine the area of the image the camera uses to set the focus from, by selecting one of three autofocus options: Wide Focus Area, Spot Focus Point, and Flex Focus Point. The default option is Wide Focus area, indicated by a set of four widely-spaced brackets in the viewfinder image. By pressing and holding down the center of the Four-Way Arrow controller pad, you can switch between Wide Area and Spot Point autofocusing modes (the latter indicated by a target crosshair in the center of the viewfinder). If you release the controller pad when the Spot AF target is displayed, you can then use the four arrow buttons to move the target around the viewfinder area -- this is what Minolta calls Flex Focus Point AF. Wide Area AF bases its focus on the most prominent subject detail in the portion of the image that falls within the AF brackets. Spot Focus bases its focus on the very center of the frame, where the target crosshairs reside. Finally, Flex Focus lets you move the focus point to anywhere within the frame, by manually moving the target crosshairs around the image area with the arrow buttons.

The Focus switch on the camera's left side toggles back and forth between Single AF, Continuous AF, and Manual focus modes. In Manual Focus mode, turning the ribbed ring around the base of the lens barrel adjusts focus. As you focus, a distance readout reports the current focal distance in meters or feet at the bottom of the LCD monitor (or EVF), under the MF icon. The Direct MF menu option lets you manually tweak the autofocus selection without explicitly switching over to MF mode. You simply halfway press the Shutter button (triggering the autofocus system) and then rotate the focus ring to fine-tune the focus. This is useful when the camera is having trouble focusing on a difficult subject, but isn't too far off the mark.

As mentioned earlier, Minolta has implemented very handy 2x and 8x magnification options to assist with focusing. In my experience, 2x really isn't enough to determine fine focus using a camera's LCD screen, and 4x is a help, but only marginally adequate. The 8x option offered by the A1 was a revelation though, letting me set focus very precisely, shot after shot, on a wide variety of subjects. Even relatively small movements of the focusing ring produced very noticeable changes in the magnified display. The manual-focus focus-assist magnification disappears as soon as you half-press the Shutter button, or press the magnify button a second time.

The AE Lock button, located in the upper right corner of the back panel (below the Mode dial), locks the focus for a specific portion of the subject without having to hold the Shutter button down halfway. Pressing this button can also lock exposure. You can configure this button in the settings menu to switch between AF/AE Hold, AF/AE Toggle, AE Hold, or AE Toggle functions.

In addition to the 7x optical zoom, the DiMAGE A1 offers 2x Digital zoom. By default, pressing the Magnification button on the top panel activates an instant 2x digital zoom. (Keep in mind that digital zoom simply enlarges the central portion of the CCD image digitally, rather than magnifying it optically and, as a result, image resolution decreases in direct proportion to the magnification achieved.) In Manual Focus, this button optionally produces the temporary magnification of 2x or 8x mentioned above.

A set of 49mm filter threads around the inside lip of the lens accommodates Minolta's range of accessory filters and conversion lens kits. I really like having the fixed filter threads on the front element of the zoom lens, making it easy to attach auxiliary lenses and filters without any additional adapters or other gadgets. I do worry a little about the wisdom of hanging very much weight on the front of the telescoping lens assembly though. I guess it will be fine for relatively lightweight attachments such as macro adapters and filters, but I advise caution with any sort of larger accessory lens.

"3D" Predictive Focus Control and Subject Tracking
Based on information from Minolta, the A1 appears to have a much more sophisticated AF system than found on previous Minolta digicams. Details are a little sketchy, but when it's running in Continuous Autofocus mode, the A1's AF system monitors the focusing distance, and projects it into the future. Using this information, it continues to adjust the focus during what would otherwise be the "dead" time between when the shutter button is fully pressed and when the camera actually snaps the picture. This could help focus accuracy for moving subjects significantly, particularly when using long telephoto focal lengths.

The A1 also incorporates Minolta's Subject Tracking AF, which we saw one form of in their F100 and F300 consumer cameras. If you put the camera in Continuous Autofocus mode and half-press and hold down the shutter button, the camera will lock on and track a moving subject across the frame, adjusting focus as appropriate. You need to initially have the subject under the active AF point, but from that point on, it will follow the subject around the frame. I really don't have an ability to evaluate capabilities like this quantitatively, but in playing with it a bit, the AF point did indeed track subjects fairly well, across perhaps 80% of the total frame area. I couldn't move the camera too rapidly, or it would lose the subject, sometimes hopping and re-locking on an adjacent object, but the capability still goes quite a bit beyond what's available in other cameras on the market.

Anti-Shake System
rand new in the A1 is the first vibration-reduction system on a Minolta digicam. Details on it are sketchy, but it apparently actually moves the CCD assembly to counteract camera movement, rather than the more usual approach of moving an optical element inside the lens. I didn't conduct any sort of a formal test with it, not having any quantitative way to measure its effects. I did find it very effective (surprisingly so). To see the effect "live," I ran the zoom all the way out to full telephoto, then turned on the 8x focus-assist magnification on the LCD. With Anti-Shake inactive, it was virtually impossible to keep the resulting LCD image stable when holding the camera by hand. When I turned Anti-Shake on, the results were immediate and dramatic. The image quieted down by what had to be a factor of four or more.

In my power testing, I found that Anti-Shake exacts a stiff price in terms of power consumption, increasing power drain by fully 70% over similar operating modes with Anti-Shake disabled. The A1 is very intelligent about when to turn on Anti-Shake though, by default only turning it on when the shutter is half-pressed, or when the 2x or 8x viewfinder magnification mode is enabled. A menu option lets you further restrict Anti-Shake operation to the actual moment of exposure itself, reducing the power hit even more.

I don't know how much of a premium the Anti-Shake function adds to the cost of the A1, but hope it isn't too much. Optical stabilization makes a huge difference in usability of longer telephoto focal lengths, but is a feature that has found little support from a price standpoint in the past. (Other cameras incorporating optical stabilization have generally not fared well against cheaper competition lacking the feature.) I'm hopeful though, that the range of sophisticated user that the A1 is so obviously aimed at will understand and fully appreciate the value of Anti-Shake technology.

Exposure

The DiMAGE A1 offers excellent exposure control, with very fine-grained adjustment of such image attributes as sharpness, contrast, and color saturation. While I found the camera's user interface a little confusing at first, with its myriad buttons, dials, and switches, I liked it a lot once I got the hang of it. (The combined use of functional dials, selection buttons, and the rotating command wheel is similar to the design of Minolta's film cameras, and very reminiscent of the earlier Sony DSC-D770, a camera that developed a significant "cult" following. While something of a departure for the digicam market, this interface has proven very popular with users of both Minolta's film cameras, and the much earlier Sony camera.)

The Mode switch on the rear panel selects the basic operating mode: Record, Playback, or Movie. Within Record mode, the Exposure Mode dial selects the camera's exposure mode. Choices are Manual, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, Program AE, Auto, Memory Recall, Portrait, Sports, Sunset, and Night Portrait modes.

In straight Auto mode, the camera controls everything about the exposure, except for flash, zoom, and focus. Program AE mode keeps the camera in charge of the exposure, while you have control over all other exposure options. While in Program AE mode, you can rotate either of the control dials to scroll between a range of equivalent exposure settings. Thus, you can bias your exposure toward a faster shutter speed or greater depth of field as circumstances dictate. Aperture Priority mode lets you select the lens aperture setting, from f/2.8 to f/11 depending on zoom, while the camera selects the most appropriate corresponding shutter speed. In Shutter Priority mode, the user selects the shutter speed, from 1/16,000 to 30 seconds, while the camera chooses the best corresponding aperture setting. Switching to Manual mode gives you control over both shutter speed and aperture, with a Bulb setting available for longer exposures. Exposure time in Bulb mode is determined by how long you hold down the Shutter button, up to a maximum of 30 seconds. (I strongly recommend use of the optional wired remote in Bulb mode, as the pressure of your finger on the shutter button is bound to jiggle the camera somewhat, blurring the image.)

As described above, the DiMAGE A1 also offers four preset scene modes (referred to as Digital Subject Programs). Controlled by a button on the earlier DiMAGE 7Hi, these modes are now accessed via the Exposure Mode dial. Portrait mode produces better-looking people shots by enhancing skin tones and decreasing the depth of field (to create a slightly blurred background). Sports mode provides faster shutter speeds to freeze action, and maintains focus on quickly moving subjects. In Sunset mode, the camera employs slightly slower shutter speeds to let in more of the ambient light, and lets you record the warm colors of the scene without compensating for them in the white balance system. In Night Portrait mode, the camera also uses a slower shutter speed to allow more ambient light into the image, however it also records true black values and preserves the bright colors of artificial lighting. The Exposure Mode dial also features a Memory Recall setting, which lets you save as many as five registers of settings. Selecting a setting automatically applies the settings to the camera, which can be recalled by turning the Exposure Mode dial to another position.

The DiMAGE A1's default metering mode is a 300-segment evaluative system, which takes readings throughout the image to determine exposure. Center-Weighted and Spot metering options are also available via the Function Dial. Spot metering is useful for high-contrast subjects, as it bases the exposure reading on the very center of the image, letting you set the exposure based on a small portion of your subject. Center-Weighted metering also bases the exposure on the center of the image, but the camera takes its readings from a much larger area in the middle of the frame. You can also hold or lock the exposure reading for a particular part of the image by pressing the AE Lock button on the back panel. This button can be programmed to act as either a "hold" or "toggle" control. "Hold" mode does just that, it holds the current setting until you release the AE Lock button again. Toggle mode locks and releases the exposure/focus setting with successive actuations of the AE Lock button. Halfway pressing the Shutter button also locks exposure and focus, but only in autofocus mode.

The DiMAGE A1's light sensitivity can be set to Auto, or to ISO equivalents of 100, 200, 400, or 800. As with other consumer and prosumer digicams that sport ISO 800 options though, I didn't find the ISO 800 setting to be particularly useful, as the image noise level was so high. A Noise Reduction option is newly available for longer exposures and higher ISO settings, and greatly reduces the amount of image noise that would otherwise result. Exposure compensation is adjustable from -2 to +2 exposure equivalents (EV) in one-third-step increments, and an auto-bracketing option can snap three shots in rapid succession, varying the exposure between each in steps of 0.3 or 0.5 EV units. Exposure compensation is adjusted using the Digital Effects dial, while auto bracketing is activated by rotating the Function Dial to the Drive position, pressing the center, and then rotating the Control dial until the auto bracketing icon appears in the LCD or EVF display. Exposure step size for auto bracketing is set through an option in the record-mode menu system.

Like the DiMAGE 7Hi before it, the DiMAGE A1 offers very flexible control over white balance, color rendition, and tonal range. Its white balance system offers a total of seven options, including Auto, Daylight, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Cloudy, Shade, and Custom, which is the manual setting. The Custom Set mode determines white balance by snapping a picture of a white card. The camera then adjusts its color balance to render the white card with a neutral hue, and saves the setting as the Custom option. As many as three Custom settings can be saved, very useful if you need to switch back and forth between different lighting conditions quickly.

Contrast and Color Saturation controls are adjustable in 11 steps across a fairly broad range of settings, using the Digital Effects dial on the camera's left side in conjunction with the Front Control dial next to the Shutter button. To make adjustments, you rotate the Digital Effects dial to either setting, press the button at its center, and then rotate the Control dial to choose the desired setting. The DiMAGE A1 also offers a Filter setting on the Digital Effects dial. Depending on the color mode selected through the Custom Settings menu, the Filter option adjusts the overall color cast of the image, again in 11 steps. The color range here varies from rather blue to rather yellow, exactly the color axis that you'd want to adjust to compensate for different color temperatures in your lighting. Positive adjustments warm the image, while negative adjustments produce a cooler color balance. In Black and White mode, the Filter effect tones the image from neutral to red, green, magenta, blue, and back to neutral (zero position).

The combination of fine steps and wide adjustment ranges in the Digital Effects controls mean you can really customize the A1 to exactly suit your preferences for color and tonality. Most cameras offering saturation, white point, and contrast variations treat them more as special effects, rather than as adjustments for fine-tuning camera response. We seem to be seeing more evidence of other manufacturers offering "fine tuning" options like this (Olympus prominent among them), but I'd really like to see it become more widespread.

The Color Mode option of the Record menu offers Natural and Vivid sRGB color modes, as well as Adobe RGB, Embedded Adobe RGB, Black and White, and Solarization settings. Adobe RGB color space has a much broader gamut or range of reproducible colors than does sRGB, the color space used by most digital cameras and computer monitors. (The Embedded option simply means that the color space information is embedded in the image file.) Adobe RGB images will look rather dull when displayed on monitors tuned to the sRGB standard, but when used in a color-managed work environment, they can capture and reproduce a much greater range of colors. For its part, Solarization partially reverses the tones in an image, while the Exposure Compensation adjustment controls the intensity of the effect. The record menu also offers a Sharpness adjustment, for controlling the amount of in-camera sharpening applied to an image.

Continuous Modes
The DiMAGE A1 features a range of continuous shooting modes, accessed via the "Drive" setting on the left-side Function dial. In addition to the standard Continuous Advance mode, the DiMAGE A1 also offers Interval, High-Speed Continuous, and Interval and Time-Lapse Movie modes. (Note that the Drive setting also access the Self-Timer and Auto Exposure Bracketing modes as well.) In standard Continuous Advance, the DiMAGE A1 captures approximately two frames per second, for as long as the Shutter button is held down (numbers are for small/basic images). Depending on the resolution and quality settings, as well as the amount of memory card space, the maximum number of frames and the frame rate will vary. In my testing, I found Continuous mode captures did indeed have a frame rate close to two frames per second, but saw some variability in the timing when shooting at smaller image sizes. The buffer seems to hold three shots, as the camera would grab three frames at the roughly 2 frame per second rate, then pause briefly before grabbing the next three. The pauses grew longer as more frames were captured, eventually becoming as long as 12-13 seconds.

High-Speed Continuous mode captures a series of full-size images at approximately 2.8 frames per second. Behavior was otherwise very similar to that of normal Continuous mode.

Interval mode captures a series of images at specific intervals over time, providing a built-in time-lapse capability. The DiMAGE A1 can capture up to 240 images in the sequence, with frame intervals ranging from 30 seconds to 60 minutes, and a delayed start time from 30 minutes to 24 hours.

Interval and Time-Lapse Movie mode creates a series of still images and a 640 x 480 movie clip at the Interval settings specified through the Record menu.

As mentioned above, the Drive setting also accesses the Self-Timer and Auto Exposure Bracketing modes. The Self-Timer fires the shutter either two or ten seconds after the shutter button is pressed. The shorter delay is very handy when you need to prop the camera on something to take a photo in dim lighting, and don't want the pressure of your finger on the shutter button to jiggle the camera. The ten-second delay is long enough that you can run around to get into the photo yourself. An LED lamp on the front of the camera blinks and the camera beeps as the self timer is counting down, the blink and beeps becoming faster in the last few seconds.

Auto Exposure Bracketing mode captures a series of three images (one at the metered exposure, one underexposed, and one overexposed). You can set the exposure variation between exposures to 0.3, or 0.5 EV. The A1's automatic bracketing options go beyond simple exposure bracketing though. Turning the Rear Control dial cycles through a range of bracketing options, including Continuous-Advance Bracket, Single-Frame Advance Bracket, and Digital Effect Bracket (which brackets either Filter, Contrast, or Color Saturation settings). The ability to bracket hue, contrast, and color saturation is really helpful for handling difficult subjects.

Movie and Sound Recording
The DiMAGE A1 has a Movie mode that records moving images with sound, for as long as the memory card has available space. The amount of recording time appears in the LCD or EVF monitor display, and appears to be limited only by memory card capacity. (That is, there is no arbitrary limit on the length of individual clips.) Movies are recorded at 320 x 240-pixel resolution. Through the Record menu, you can set the movie mode to Auto, Standard, or Night. Night mode records black and white movies in low lighting situations, and is far more effective in dim lighting than the vast majority of digicam movie options I've seen. The Auto setting tells the camera to automatically decide between Standard and Night modes, based on the exposure conditions.

A Voice Memo mode records either five or 15 seconds of audio to accompany still images. This mode must be enabled before image capture. When enabled, a microphone icon appears in the LCD/EVF display, and the camera automatically begins recording audio for the specified amount of time immediately after image capture.

Flash
The DiMAGE A1 features a built-in, pop-up flash, which operates in either Fill-Flash, Red-Eye Reduction, Rear Flash sync, or Wireless modes. To release the flash from its compartment, pull on the two small tabs on either side of the casing and lift up the flash head. Close it again by simply pushing the flash head back down. The Flash mode is changed through the Record settings menu. In Fill-Flash mode, the flash fires with every exposure, regardless of lighting conditions. Red-Eye Reduction fires a series of small pre-flashes before firing the flash at full power for the exposure itself. This makes your subjects' pupils contract and reduces the occurrence of the Red-Eye effect. The Rear Flash Sync mode fires the flash at the end of the shutter time, rather than the beginning. If you have moving objects in a relatively brightly lit environment, this will produce a sharp image of your subject, with a "motion trail" following behind it. The flash is in the Off position when it's closed. The Wireless mode lets the camera work with wireless remote flash units, with four channels available through the settings menu, so different camera/flash setups working in the same area won't interfere with each other. (Minolta makes two flash units that support the DiMAGE A1's wireless capability, the Program Flash 5600HS [D] and 3600HS [D].)

The DiMAGE A1 is also unusual in that it offers two methods of flash metering. Its default mode is called ADI, which stands for Advanced Distance Integration. In this mode, it bases its flash exposure on the lens aperture and distance feedback from the autofocus system, as well as on the light reflected back from a pre-flash. By determining how far away the target subject is, the camera knows how much flash power is required to illuminate it, and so is less likely to be fooled by subjects that are unusually light or dark overall. As a fallback, a Pre-Flash TTL (through the lens) method bases the exposure determination solely on a small metering flash before the main exposure. Used in conjunction with the spot autofocus option mentioned earlier, the ADI flash metering should be much more accurate with small subjects against a different colored background than the pre-flash method.

For use with studio strobes and conventional slave triggers, the DiMAGE A1 has a manual flash power option. This lets you set the flash power to Full, 1/4, or 1/16 power manually. In this mode, the flash fires only once, at the moment of exposure. The single flash prevents false triggering when working with conventional slave triggers.

The DiMAGE A1 also includes a top-mounted hot shoe for attaching an external flash unit. The shoe design and contact arrangement are set up for Minolta's own dedicated flash units, but I imagine that compatible models are available from the major third-party flash manufacturers (Sunpak et. al.). Minolta's own Program Flash models 2500(D), 3600HS(D), and 5600HS(D) work with the DiMAGE A1, and two macro flashes (Macro Twin Flash 2400 and Macro Ring Flash 1200) will work with an accessory macro flash controller.

An external flash sync terminal (the so-called "PC" style connector) accommodates just about any third-party flash unit. This makes the DiMAGE A1 much more appealing to photographers who already have an existing strobe system for the studio.

I had a chance to play a bit with a couple of Minolta's dedicated flash units while I was testing the previous DiMAGE 7Hi, and must say I was impressed. I only shot with the 5600 model (a conventional hot-shoe mounted unit, but with the added capability of wireless control) in a fairly small area, so didn't test the maximum range over which the wireless TTL control would function. (I'm sure it has some maximum range over which it's effective, but don't know what that is.) That said though, the camera/flash combination worked exceptionally well. Very slick, given that no extra controller or other hardware is needed to establish the wireless link between the flash and the camera. (This has to be one of the neatest flash arrangements I've seen yet on a digicam!)

For closeup work, the T2400 macro twin flash is a very capable setup too. - A large ring mounts to the front of the lens, and serves as a support mount for a pair of tiny flash heads. The little flash heads are powered by a flash controller that looks just like a normal hot-shoe flash unit, but has two sockets on its front instead of the flash tube. The ring has multiple mounting points around it for the little flash heads, so you can direct the light to come from top, bottom, or either side with equal ease. The flash controller also lets you set the power ratio between the two heads, so you can have a "main" and "fill" light on your macro subject. Very flexible, very slick (if not a little odd-looking). Highly recommended if you intend to do any really extensive macro work. (This should be a great solution for people selling tiny objects (coins, jewelry?) on eBay, looks like a sure winner for dentists looking to document their work, entomologists wanting really good bug pictures, etc, etc.)

Color Space
This is probably as good a place as any to talk about the DiMAGE A1's color space. The original DiMAGE 7 used a proprietary color space with a much wider color gamut than the sRGB space used by most digicams. (As well as by most computer monitors, consumer-grade printers, etc.) The result was that it could capture a much broader range of colors than other cameras, but this also meant that the raw JPEGs straight out of the camera looked rather flat and dull when viewed on a typical computer monitor. To get the full color to appear, you needed to run the image files through Minolta's DiMAGE Viewer software utility, and convert their color space back to sRGB. (Or whatever other working space you wanted to use. Many graphics professionals work in the so-called "Adobe RGB" space popularized by Photoshop(tm), which is supported by many graphics programs and printers, and also offers an expanded color gamut.)

While the expanded color gamut was a real boon to graphics professionals and others interested in breaking free of the constraints of sRGB, for the average amateur it amounted to just one more step to go through before they could fully enjoy their photos. Worse, if someone wasn't aware of the color space issue, they'd probably write off the DiMAGE 7 as having rather flat, undersaturated color.

With the DiMAGE 7i, Minolta stepped back closer to the mainstream in the color space department, adopting a color space that was much closer to sRGB, to the point that files from the 7i could be used in an sRGB environment without special processing. While there was still some undersaturation in parts of the spectrum, the 7i's unprocessed JPEG images were much more visually appealing than those from the original 7.

With the DiMAGE 7Hi, Minolta further moved to embrace standard color space definitions, but this time they also included an option for a space with a larger color gamut than that supported by sRGB. The 7Hi had three color space options (plus black & white and sepia), two based on sRGB, the third being the broader-gamut "Adobe RGB" space. The two sRGB spaces are the default one, with normal color rendering, and a "vivid" sRGB option, which boosts color saturation a fair bit. The DiMAGE A1 follows in the footsteps of the 7Hi in this regard, with the same color space options available.

This increased color-space flexibility will come as a welcome addition for many pros and advanced amateurs who want to use their cameras in a color-managed environment. The Adobe RGB space avoids many of the color limitations of the sRGB space, which are most evident in highly-saturated reds. Working in Adobe RGB lets you maintain detail in bright reds and greens that can't be properly represented in sRGB space. Switching to Adobe RGB for your photography does involve a fair degree of commitment though, as you'll need to set up your entire workflow to support it, including both screen rendering on your computer's CRT or LCD, and printing to your printer. Computer monitors are built to the sRGB standard, and require software support (as in Adobe Photoshop or other high-end image manipulation package) to portray Adobe RGB images properly. Likewise, most consumer-grade photo printers assume sRGB as the starting point, again needing color management to properly output Adobe RGB files. (Many professional photo printers are set up to work in Adobe RGB by default though, so check to see what your printer's default color space is.)

Shutter Lag/Cycle Times
When you press the shutter release on a digital camera, there's usually a lag time before the shutter actually fires. This time allows the autofocus and autoexposure mechanisms to do their work and can amount to a significant delay in some situations. Since this number is rarely reported by manufacturers or reviewers, and can significantly affect the picture-taking experience, I routinely measure shutter lag and cycle times using an electronic test setup I designed and built for the purpose. (Crystal-controlled timing, with a resolution of 0.001 second.)

NOTE: My qualitative characterizations of camera performance below (that is, "reasonably fast," "about average," etc.) are meant to be relative to other cameras of similar price and general capabilities. Thus, the same shutter lag that's "very fast" for a low-end consumer camera might be characterized as "quite slow" if I encountered it on a professional model. The comments are also intended as only a quick reference: If performance specs are critical for you, rely on the absolute numbers to compare cameras, rather than my purely qualitative comments.

The DiMAGE A1 is every bit as fast as its predecessor, the DiMAGE 7Hi, which was one of the fastest prosumer cameras on the market. The A1's autofocus system is very fast, regardless of the zoom setting of the lens, with full-autofocus shutter lag times of roughly 0.61 seconds regardless of zoom position. (Most cameras have a faster shutter response with the lens set to its wide angle position, vs the telephoto setting.) This is faster than the vast majority of prosumer digicams currently on the market, making the A1 better suited for sports and other action photography than most competing models. Its manual and prefocus lag times are also pretty fast at 0.225 and 0.171 seconds respectively, but not as far ahead of the rest of the market as its full-autofocus performance is. Continuous-mode operation is pretty speedy as well, with cycle times of 0.52 seconds (1.92 frames/second) in normal continuous mode, and 0.35 seconds (2.86 frames/second) in high-speed continuous mode.

The A1's buffer capacity is a little puzzling. In single-shot mode, the camera can capture at least 7 shots without pausing, but in its continuous modes, it only captures images in bursts of three frames at a time. (The exception being RAW-format files, which permit sequence lengths of up to 5 frames.) A seven-shot buffer capacity is quite good for a prosumer camera, but the 3-frame burst length in continuous mode (when you arguably might most need more buffer capacity) is rather limiting.

Overall though, with fast autofocus-mode shutter response, quick single-shot cycle times, and a very fast high-speed continuous mode, combined with an excellent 7x zoom lens, the DiMAGE A1 is one of the better prosumer cameras on the market for sports and nature photography.

Operation & User Interface
The DiMAGE A1's user interface is much more sophisticated than most digital cameras on the market, as it provides significant external control over commonly used settings. As a result, the DiMAGE A1 should be more intuitive for film-based photographers who are accustomed to the "tactile" interface of the traditional 35mm SLR. The difference is immediately apparent in the mechanically-coupled zoom lens control, which provides much more direct control than the motorized rocker switch zooms used by most other digital cameras. The rubber collar grip surrounding the lens barrel is clearly marked with corresponding focal lengths, so you know immediately the zoom setting at which you're operating. Manual focus is more of a "fly by the wire" adjustment, in which a ribbed focus ring at the base of the lens is used to control the internal motor that actually makes the adjustment. In my opinion, the zoom control is more important, however, given that the majority of users will spend more time in Auto Focus rather than Manual Focus mode.

With the notable exception of the overall flash operating mode, you can control almost all of the essential camera functions without having to resort to the on-screen LCD menu system. Most of the camera adjustments are made by rotating a dial, pressing a button, and turning one of the control dials. This may sound like a lot of steps, but in practice I've always found external mechanical controls like these much faster to navigate than LCD menu options. In addition to the Mode switch and Exposure Mode dial, the major interface elements include a pair of function dials on the left side of the camera, Front and Rear Control dials, and the top-panel LED data readout (or, you can refer to the LCD or electronic viewfinder displays.) Initially, I found it a little awkward to have to view the left side of the camera to select specific parameters, but after a few hours of using the camera, I found myself simply counting the clicks on the dials there to select the options I wanted. Bottom line, while they're rather unusual in the digicam world, the DiMAGE A1's controls lend themselves to quick, sure operation for experienced users in the heat of concentrated shooting sessions.


Control Enumeration


Shutter Button: Located on the top right-hand side of the camera, this button sets exposure and focus (in autofocus mode) when half-pressed, and trips the shutter when fully pressed.


Front Control Dial: This ridged wheel sits just behind the Shutter button, conveniently under your index finger. All of the most commonly used camera settings are adjusted by using this wheel in conjunction with one of the function dials on the left side of the camera. It also controls aperture and shutter speed in Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority exposure modes and shutter speed in full-manual mode.


Exposure Mode Dial: In the right rear corner of the top panel, this dial selects the camera's exposure mode. Options are Manual, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, Program AE, Auto, Memory Recall, Portrait, Sports, Sunset, and Night Portrait modes.

Camera Modes and Menus

• Record 1:
  • Image Size: Sets the pixel resolution of captured still images. Choices are 2,560 x 1,920; 2,080 x 1,560; 1,600 x 1,200; and 640 x 480.
  • Quality: Specifies the compression level of still images. Options are RAW, TIFF, Extra Fine, Fine, and Standard. RAW is a proprietary format, for use with Minolta's DiMAGE Viewer software only. (It captures the data directly from the CCD, and losslessly compresses it.
  • Flash Mode: Choose from Fill-Flash, Red-Eye Reduction, Rear Flash Sync, and Wireless. Rear Flash Sync is a slow-sync option that combines slower shutter speeds with the flash. The "Rear Flash" refers to what is commonly known as rear-curtain sync, in which the flash fires just before the shutter closes, rather than just after it opens. With rapidly moving subjects, this produces motion blurs that trail the sharp, flash-exposed image, rather than preceding it. The Wireless setting allows the flash to work with wireless and remote slave units, with four available channels. Wireless operation with Minolta's excellent 5600HS[D] flash unit is very smooth.
  • Flash Control: Selects the flash metering method. Options are ADI Flash, which uses distance information from the autofocus system together with a pre-flash to determine flash exposure, or Pre-flash TTL, which uses only the preliminary metering flash to gauge exposure before the shutter opens. (The Manual option lets you control the flash output directly, by pressing the Exposure Compensation button and turning a Control dial.)
  • AEL Button: Controls the function of the AEL button on the camera's rear panel. Options are as follows:
    • AE Hold: Locks exposure while you hold down the button.
    • AE Toggle: Toggles exposure lock on and off with successive presses.
    • Spot AE Hold: Determines the exposure with the spot metering area when the AE Lock button is pressed.
    • Spot AE Toggle: Toggles the spot area AE lock on and off with successive presses.
  • Reset: Resets the recording mode menu options to their defaults.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
• Record 2:
  • Interval Set: The DiMAGE A1 has a built-in intervalometer, that lets you snap photos at preprogrammed intervals. This control sets the interval between exposures anywhere from 30 seconds to 60 minutes, in one-minute increments over most of its range. You can also set the number of frames to be shot, from two to 240, and the delay time for starting the series, anywhere from 30 minutes to 24 hours.
  • Bracket Set: Sets the size of the exposure step between shots in Auto Exposure Bracketing mode. Options are 0.3 and 0.5 EV.
  • Data Imprint: Imprints information on captured photos. Options are Year/Month/Day, Month/Day/Hr:Min, Text, or Text with a numeric ID string. Selecting either Text option brings up a "virtual keyboard" display, with a complete alphabet and numbers, including a variety of special symbols and accented characters.
  • Imprint To: Designates whether the Data Imprint option imprints on the images directly, or only in the Exif data in the file headers.
  • Inst. Playback: Optionally enables an immediate playback of each photo, for either two or 10 seconds after capture.
  • Voice Memo: Turns the Voice Memo mode on or off, which lets you record either five or 15 seconds of sound to accompany still images.
    
    
    
    
    
    
• Record 3:
  • Color Mode: Selects the color mode. Choices are Natural (sRGB), Vivid (sRGB), Adobe RGB, Embedded Adobe RGB, Black and White, and Solarization. Note that the two sRGB modes and Adobe RGB are completely different RGB color spaces. (Use the sRGB modes unless you're working in a color-managed environment that supports Adobe RGB.) These options are also available externally, via the Function Dial.
  • Sharpness: Selects between varying degrees of in-camera sharpening: Low ("Soft"), Normal, or High ("Hard").
  • Noise Reduction: Turns the Noise Reduction feature on or off, which greatly reduces the level of image noise resulting from longer exposures.
  • Monitor Amplification: Activates automatic monitor amplification, which controls the display of the live image. Options are:
    • Auto: Automatically intensifies the monitor image in low light conditions, turning the image black and white (though the image is still recorded in color). This is the default option. (Note that the focus-assist viewfinder magnification option isn't available when the monitor is operating in "amplified" mode.
    • Normal: Does not amplify the image in low lighting.
  • Manual Exposure Setting: If shooting in Manual exposure mode, you can also set the monitor to Exposure Priority (image reflects exposure settings) or Display Priority (normal display). Normal display is helpful for seeing what's going on when you have the camera set to use a small lens aperture and fast shutter speed, for use in conjunction with an external flash.
  • Mag Button: Controls the function of the Magnify button on the camera's rear panel in Record mode. It can either toggle the 2x digital zoom on and off (Digital Zoom setting), or activate the 2x or 8x electronic magnification, to aid focusing in manual focus mode (Flex Magnifier setting).
    
    
    
    
    
• Record 4:
  • DSP Set: Assigns the Digital Subject Programs either to their specified places on the Exposure Mode dial or to the memory registers in Memory Recall mode.
  • Tracking AF: Activates Tracking AF when shooting in Continuous AF mode, which "tracks" a moving subject.
  • AE Lock: Determines whether or not the exposure is locked with the Shutter button.
  • Spot AE Area: Sets the default spot metering to the center of the frame, or links it to the Flex Focus Point AF Area selection.
  • Direct MF: Enables or disables Direct MF, which lets you manually adjust the focus while in AF mode.
    
    
    
    
    
    

Movie Shooting Menu Options

• Movie Mode: Options are Standard Movie, Night Movie, or Auto Select. Night movie mode switches to a monochrome recording mode to achieve much higher light sensitivity with less image noise. (It's a pretty significant boost, making the A1's Night Movie mode one of the most effective I've seen for low light levels.)
• Reset: Resets Movie mode to its default settings, adjusting Exposure Compensation, Contrast, Color Saturation, Filter, White Balance, Movie Mode, and Anti-Shake.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Playback Menu Options
The Playback menu offers three pages of options, all accessed by pressing the Menu button.

• Playback 1:
  • Delete: Lets you delete the current photo, all photos, or only marked photos.
  • Format: Formats the CompactFlash card, erasing all files (even protected ones). There is an option to cancel, in case you select "Format" accidentally.
  • View Folder: Selects the folder on the memory card to view in Playback mode.
  • Lock: "Locks" captured images to prevent accidental erasure. (NOTE: This protects against "delete" operations, but not against card reformatting.) You can lock the current image, marked images, all images, or remove protection.
  • Copy: Makes a duplicate copy of either the current photo or of all marked photos.
  • Index Format: Lets you choose between four- or nine-image thumbnail image displays.
    
    
    
    
    
• Playback 2:
  • Slide Show: Initiates a slide show of photos on the memory card.
  • Playback: Chooses whether to play all photos or only marked ones in the slide show.
  • Duration: Sets the duration for each "slide" in the slide show, from one to 60 seconds, in one-second increments.
  • Repeat: Chooses whether or not to repeat the slide show after all photos have been displayed.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
• Playback 3:
  • DPOF Set: Sets up photos for DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) printing on a compatible standalone printer. This selection lets you choose whether to print the current photo, all photos, or only marked photos.
  • Index Print: Chooses whether or not to include an index print of all photos in your DPOF order.
  • Cancel Print: Deletes all print orders on the card.
    
    
    
    
    
    

Setup Menu Options -
The following menu options are available in any exposure mode, and are accessed through the Setup tab at the top of any menu screen.

• Setup 1:
  • LCD Brightness: Adjusts the brightness of the EVF or LCD display.
  • Shortcut Help: Displays the available button shortcuts.
  • Transfer Mode: Designates whether the camera acts as a storage-class device or a remote camera when connected to a computer.
  • EVF Auto Switch: Changes the behavior of the EVF and LCD when the Display Mode switch is in the "auto" position. Options are:
    • Auto EVF/LCD: Switches between EVF and LCD. (One turns off as the other turns on.)
    • EVF auto ON: The LCD remains off at all times, the EVF comes on when your eye is at the eyepiece or your hand covers the grip sensors. The LCD doesn't turn on when you pull your eye away. This helps conserve battery power.
  • Video Output: Select either NTSC or PAL timing for the video output signal.
  • Language: Sets the language for menu screens to Japanese, English, German, French, or Spanish.
    
    
    
    
    
    
• Setup 2:
  • Custom Setup: Assigns one camera function to the Custom option of the Function dial. Options are Image Size, Image Quality, Flash Mode, Flash Control, Sharpness, or Color Mode. (Color mode is the default.)
  • File# Memory: Chooses whether or not to number images sequentially across memory cards. If set to "yes," the DiMAGE A1 will remember the last number used to name a file, even if a different card is inserted. (A common feature, but very handy to prevent accidentally overwriting images when they're copied to your computer.)
  • Folder Name: Selects the folder naming scheme as either Standard or Date format. Date format integrates the current date into the folder name, to help keep track of images on your computer later.
  • Select Folder: As an aid to organizing large numbers of photos, the DiMAGE A1 lets you set up separate folders on the memory card. If you have more than one folder defined, this menu selection lets you choose which you want to use to save photos in.
  • New Folder: Creates a new folder to save photos on the memory card.
  • Date/Time Set: Sets the camera's date and time, with options for different display formats.
    
    
    
    
    
    
• Setup 3:
  • Reset Default: Resets all menu choices to their factory default values. (Very handy for getting back to "square one" after making a number of settings changes.)
  • Audio Signals: Turns the camera's beep sounds off, or activates "electrical" (option 1), or "mechanical" (option 2) camera sounds.
  • Focus Signal: Enables an audio signal that indicates when focus has been set.
  • Shutter FX: Turns on or off an audio confirmation sound when images are captured. Option 1 uses the AF signal from the Minolta Dynax/Maxxum 9, and the shutter sound from the Dynax/Maxxum 9 SLR. Option 2 uses an electronic AF signal and the shutter sound from the Minolta CLE.
  • Volume: Adjusts the camera's volume for playback sounds and other audio signals.
  • Power Save: Sets idle delay before the camera enters low-power mode. Options are 1, 3, 5, or 10 minutes.
    
    
    
    
    
    
• Setup 4:
  • Anti-Shake: Selects whether the Anti-Shake System is activated only during the exposure itself or any time the Shutter button is halfway pressed.
  • Full-Time AF: Enables or disables Full-Time AF mode.
  • Grip Sensor: Turns the grip sensors on the front of the camera on or off. When on, the sensor controls continuous autofocus operation and possibly EVF operation, depending on other menu settings.
  • Control Dial Set: Customizes the operation of the Selector wheel on top of the camera in different exposure modes.
  • Manual Exposure Setup: Controls the functions of the Selector wheel and the Rear Control dial in Manual exposure mode.
  • Delete Confirmation: Turns the delete confirmation screen on or off.
    
    
    
    
    
    

Image Storage and Interface
The DiMAGE A1 uses CompactFlash Type I or Type II memory cards for image storage. The camera ships with only a 16MB card, clearly inadequate for the file sizes produced by the A1. (A token gesture by Minolta to enabling purchasers to use the camera straight out of the box, with the recognition that any serious user will immediately purchase a high-capacity card on their own.) Third-party CF cards are available separately in memory capacities as high several gigabytes, either in the form of conventional Flash Memory, or as a rotating disc, as in the IBM MicroDrives. The CompactFlash slot is on the right side of the camera, covered by a hinged plastic door that opens easily and snaps shut crisply. The card inserts with the connector edge going in first, and the rear of the card facing the back of the camera. A small button beside the slot ejects the card by popping it up slightly, letting you pull the card the rest of the way out (put the eject button into a vertical position first by pulling up on its bottom edge).

Although individual CompactFlash cards cannot be write-protected or locked against erasure or manipulation, the Dimage 7i lets you lock individual images or groups of images through the Playback menu. Once protected, images cannot be erased or manipulated in any way, except through card formatting. The Playback menu also lets you delete images shown in the LCD display, format the number of images in the Index display, create a custom slide show, set images up for printing on DPOF compliant printers, and copy images to camera memory or a new CF card.

Four image resolution settings are available: 2,560 x 1,920, 2,080 x 1,560, 1,600 x 1,200, and 640 x 480 pixels. Files may be saved in any one of three JPEG compression levels, as well as uncompressed TIFF (indicated on the camera LCD as "SuperFine"), and a compact RAW format. (By its nature, the RAW format only saves the full-resolution image size.) The number of remaining images that can be stored on the memory card appears in the lower right corner of the status display panel, in addition to the selected Resolution and Compression settings. (A minor quibble: With very large memory cards and the smallest image size/compression settings, the counter tops-out at 999, a minor annoyance.)

The table below summarizes the compression ratios and number of images that can be stored on the 16MB memory card that ships in the box with the camera in the US, with each Resolution / Quality (JPEG Compression) combination. (Note the large size of the 640x480 files: If you're planning on shooting small images for the web or email, you'll definitely need to re-save these at a higher JPEG compression ratio.)

A USB cable and interface software accompany the DiMAGE A1 for quick connection and image downloading to a PC or Macintosh computer. It appears as a "storage class" USB device, meaning that no driver software is needed for Mac OS versions 8.6 or later or for Windows Me, 2000, and XP. Download speed was quite fast, as I clocked it at 751 KBytes/second on my Windows XP machine. (A Sony VAIO 2.4 GHz, with 512 MB of RAM.)

Lost Images? - Download this image-recovery program so you'll have it when you need it...
Since we're talking about memory and image storage, this would be a good time to mention the following: I get a ton of email from readers who've lost photos due to a corrupted memory card. It's tragic when it happens, there are few things more precious than photo memories. Corrupted memory cards can happen with any card type and any camera manufacturer, nobodies immune. "Stuff happens," as they say. A surprising number of "lost" images can be recovered with an inexpensive, easy to use piece of software though. Given the amount of email I've gotten on the topic, I now include this paragraph in all my digicam reviews. The program you need is called PhotoRescue, by DataRescue SA. Read our review of it if you'd like, but download the program now, so you'll have it. It doesn't cost a penny until you need it, and even then it's only $29, with a money back guarantee. So download PhotoRescue for Windows or PhotoRescue for Mac while you're thinking of it. (While you're at it, download the PDF manual and quickstart guide as well.) Stash the file in a safe place and it'll be there when you need it. Trust me, needing this is not a matter of if, but when... PhotoRescue is about the best and easiest tool for recovering digital photos I've seen. (Disclosure: IR gets a small commission from sales of the product, but I'd highly recommend the program even if we didn't.) OK, now back to our regularly scheduled review...

Video Out
The DiMAGE A1 provides a video output jack with an accompanying video cable. The signal timing can be set to NTSC or PAL via the Setup menu. The Video output duplicates the contents of the LCD in all modes, permitting it to be used as an auxiliary viewfinder.

Recommended Accessories

• Camera case
• Additional battery
• AC adapter
• Larger capacity memory card

Test Results
In keeping with my standard test policy, the comments given here summarize only my key findings. For a full commentary on each of the test images, see the DiMAGE A1's "pictures" page.

As with all Imaging Resource product tests, I encourage you to let your own eyes be the judge of how well the camera performed. Explore the images on the pictures page, to see how the A1's images compare to other cameras you may be considering.

• Color: Excellent color, hue-accurate and appropriately saturated. The A1 did a really excellent job with color overall, producing pleasing, accurate color in most of my test scenarios. Colors were hue-accurate and neither over- nor under-saturated. The Auto white balance setting did quite well outdoors, while the Manual option fared better under more challenging light sources. (Although the Incandescent setting did quite a good job with the difficult household incandescent lighting of my Indoor Portrait test.) Skin tones were just about right, and the tricky blue flowers of the Outdoor Portrait came out quite nicely as well. (Slightly darker than in real life, but with just the right shade of blue.) Overall, arguably the best color I've seen yet from Minolta, and excellent by any standard.
  
  
• Exposure: Good exposure accuracy. A contrasty tone curve, but an effective contrast adjustment. The A1's exposure system did a pretty good job, responding to the various metering challenges in my test suite more or less the same as other top-ranked cameras. (That is, it required about the same amount of exposure compensation as most other cameras, slightly less than average compensation in the Outdoor Portrait test.) The A1's default tone curve is fairly contrasty, but its optional contrast adjustment helps tame the contrast when working with harsh lighting.
  
  
• Resolution/Sharpness: High resolution, 1,150 lines of "strong detail." The A1 performed pretty well on our "laboratory" resolution test chart. It started showing artifacts in the test patterns at resolutions as low as 800 lines per picture height vertically, and as low as 600 lines horizontally, but I found "strong detail" out to at last 1,150 lines both vertically and horizontally. "Extinction" of the target patterns occurred around 1,350 lines. One odd note though: For some reason, there were a large number of tiny black specks between the target lines. (These were most visible between the finely-spaced diagonal and horizontal lines, although they were also quite evident between the lines of the hyperbolic resolution wedges.) Given the regular spacing of these artifacts, I have to assume that they somehow result from the A1's image-processing algorithms. I didn't notice these artifacts in any of my "natural" test subjects, perhaps because they only appear to be triggered by very finely spaced, high-contrast detail in the subject.
  
  
• Image Noise: Noise levels and "grain pattern" roughly in the middle of the 5-megapixel pack. While I don't currently perform a quantitative noise test, I've decided to begin including subjective comments on noise performance here, due to the high level of interest among readers in the topic. As CCD resolution has increased (and pixel dimensions on average have shrunk), image noise has become an increasing factor. Five-megapixel digicams on average show higher image noise than did their two- and three-megapixel forebears. In the case of the A1, its noise levels are clearly higher than those of many lower-resolution cameras, but is about in the middle of the range of five-megapixel models I've looked at. It's "grain pattern" is also about in the middle of the range, coarser than some and less coarse than others. (I've found that the "grain size" of image noise seems to affect how objectionable it is as much or more so than the absolute amount of it. More tightly-patterned noise is much less apparent than that with a coarser pattern. The A1 falls somewhere in the middle of the pack, both in terms of absolute quantity and pattern size.
  
  
• Closeups: Excellent macro performance, and the flash does a good job up close. The A1 performed well in the macro category, capturing a tiny minimum area of only 1.96 x 1.47 inches (50 x 37 millimeters). Resolution was very high, with strong detail in the dollar bill. The coins and brooch were soft due to the very short shooting distance, an optical fact of life at such short shooting distances, and not the fault of the camera. There was some softness in the corners of this shot, mainly in the top left corner of the frame, but not bad when compared to the results produced by most cameras I test. (The soft coins and brooch make it difficult to determine corner softness in the remaining corners.) The A1's flash did a very good job throttling down for the macro area, and exposed the shot evenly. An excellent performance overall, particularly with the flash.
  
  
• Night Shots: Excellent low-light performance with good color and low noise, and a surprisingly sensitive autofocus system. The DiMAGE A1 offers full manual exposure control, and a maximum exposure time of 30 seconds. It thus does very well under dim lighting, especially given its adjustable ISO and Noise Reduction features. The A1 produced clear, bright, usable images down to the 1/16 foot-candle (0.67 lux) limit of my test, with good color at all four ISO settings. The camera's Noise Reduction feature did a good job of controlling image noise, although noise was still pretty high at the 800 ISO setting. Still, a very good job overall. The A1 doesn't have an autofocus-assist illuminator, but I found its AF system to be surprisingly sensitive, focusing at light levels as low as 1/4 foot-candle (about a quarter of the brightness of a typical city night scene). I did find though, that the AF system sometimes became confused when it was near its low-light limit, indicating focus when it wasn't even close. Fortunately though, in those situations, I could almost always tell that it was out of focus, simply by looking at image in the LCD display, and refocusing by half-pressing the shutter button again generally did the trick.
  
  
• Viewfinder Accuracy: Excellent accuracy from the electronic viewfinder. The A1's electronic "optical" viewfinder (EVF) was very accurate, showing almost exactly 100 percent of the final frame at both wide angle and telephoto zoom settings. The LCD monitor was likewise very accurate, since it shows the same view, just on a larger screen. Given that I like LCD monitors to be as close to 100 percent accuracy as possible, the A1's LCD monitor is essentially perfect in this regard. (The A1's EVF is also nice, in that it works down to unusually low light levels, avoiding a common failing of electronic viewfinders.)
  
  
• Optical Distortion: Higher than average barrel distortion at wide angle, but very low chromatic aberration and very sharp images, from corner to corner. Optical distortion on the A1 was somewhat high at the wide-angle end, where I measured approximately 1.0 percent barrel distortion. The telephoto end fared much better, as I found only 0.3 percent pincushion distortion there. While its distortion at wide-angle is higher than average, the overall results are still quite good for a long-ratio zoom lens, as such lenses generally tend to show much higher distortion levels than lower-ratio zooms. Chromatic aberration was very low, showing only very faint coloration on either side of the target lines. (This distortion is visible as a very slight colored fringe around the objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target.) The A1's images were also unusually sharp from corner to corner, with very little of the softness in the corners that I've come to expect from digicam lenses. All in all, the A1's lens appears to be of unusually high quality.
  
  
• Shutter lag and cycle time: Very fast shutter response, great cycle time. I refrained from reporting on shutter lag and cycle times when I first looked at a prototype A1, and it was well that I did: Compared to the somewhat sluggish response of that early model, the production-level A1 proved to be one of the faster-responding digicams on the market. Full-autofocus shutter lag hovers right around 0.6 seconds, regardless of the zoom setting, near the fastest of any prosumer digicam I've tested. Cycle time runs a little over a second for large/fine files, and the buffer memory holds as many as 5-6 shots before the camera has to slow down to wait for the memory card. While by no means in the same category as most digital SLRs, this would be a great prosumer camera for shooting sports and other fast-paced action.
  
  
• Battery Life: Really excellent battery life. Thanks to a beefy Li-Ion battery pack, the DiMAGE A1 has about the best battery life of any prosumer camera I've tested. I'd still advise purchasing a second battery on general principles, but this camera is one that you could get by better than most with just a single battery pack.

Reader Comments!
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