Minolta Dimage S304, S5, S7 - details and lots of pics! (UPDATED)
By
Michael R. Tomkins, The Imaging Resource
(Sunday, February 11, 2001 - 16:39 EST)
As PMA starts, Minolta shows three new digital cameras - and we have details along with lots of exclusive pictures!
Minolta has for the first time officially shown three new digital cameras at PMA 2001... The Dimage S304, Dimage 5 and Dimage 7 digital cameras are being shown under glass with limited specifications available, but we are proud to bring you numerous exclusive sample pictures of all three cameras below!
The Dimage S304 features a 3.3 megapixel 1/1.8" CCD image sensor, 4x optical zoom lens equivalent to a 35-140mm lens on a 35mm camera, and is described as having "high performance AF and AE", as well as "quick response and easy operation".
The Dimage 5 and 7, meanwhile, share an identical body with a 7x optical zoom lens and what Minolta calls a "Digital Hyper EVF" (Electronic Viewfinder). The Dimage 5 uses a 3.3 megapixel 1/1.8" CCD, whilst the Dimage 7 gets a 5.2 megapixel 2/3" CCD. This difference in sensor size means that even though the cameras use the same lens, the 35mm-equivalent focal range differs between the two. The Dimage 5 sensor/lens coupling gives a 35mm-equivalent range of 35-250mm, whilst the larger CCD in the Dimage 7 is equivalent to a 35mm range of 28-200mm.
We have only provided two images of the Dimage 7 below, as the camera body is essentially identical to the Dimage 5. Note the final image, which shows Dave Etchells holding an extremely large print of an image taken by the Dimage 7 - even at this size we were very impressed by the print quality from a development camera, although obviously we don't know what conditions the image was taken under or what modifications if any had been made to it...
UPDATED 2001-02-12 13:01ET: Whoops! We'd accidentally left in a part of our template that links to full specifications pages, which we don't have for these cameras yet. We've removed these links now, apologies for the inconvenience!
UPDATED 2001-03-28 13:21ET: Double Whoops! Thanks to IR reader Hugo Martinez for notifying us that the larger version of the 6th Dimage 5 image was broken. Turns out we'd made a typo on the filename... This has now been corrected - lust away, Hugo!
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