Amateur Photographer - 27.09.2019

subscribe0330 333 1113Iwww.amateurphotographer.co.ukI21 September 2019 59

Thescreen on the back is

small but serviceable

JohnWade reviews an early, but still

usable, digital bridge camera

Minolta Dimage 7

THETURN of the 20th
century was a transitional
time for digital photography.
It was pretty much accepted
that digital cameras were
here to stay, but for average
consumers, choice was
restricted to compact-type
models. There were very
few digital SLRs around but
their prices were counted
in thousands of pounds
against the mere hundred
or so needed to buy a film
SLR of the time.
Into this climate came a group
of acceptably priced cameras to
bridge the gap between compacts
and SLRs, with reflex-style
electronic viewfinders to simulate
the view taken in by the lens. The
Dimage 7 is one such camera.
The camera is silver and stylish,
and looks like a 35mm SLR with
half the body chopped off. The
spec includes shutter priority,
aperture priority, program and
manual exposure modes, plus
autofocus with a macro setting for

BLAST FROM THE PAST

LAUNCHED 2001

PRICE AT LAUNCH£650-700

GUIDE PRICE NOW £20-35

Tech Talk

closefocusing down to

25cm. The f/2.8-3.5

Minolta GT lens offers

a 35mm equivalent of

28-200mm zoom, and

images on the^2 ∕ 3 -inch

sensor can be recorded in

JPG, TIFF and raw formats.

The 1.8-inch LCD

screen on the back is small

by today’s standards, but

adequate. To conserve power,

it automatically switches off as the

camera is raised to the eye, when

a smaller viewfinder LCD switches

itself on, and vice versa. A video

option, pop-up fl ash and choice of

shooting modes – portrait, night,

sport and more – are among

other features. It runs on four AA

batteries and records images on

Compact Flash cards.

So maybe the picture quality

isn’t what you’d expect by modern

standards, and its 5.2 megapixels

sound primitive today. But it still

turns out a decent A4-size image

at 200dpi. Not bad for a digital

camera that, on eBay, can

sometimes sell for as little as £10!

What’s goodR e fl e x - t y p e

shooting; viewfinder flips up to

90°; manual zoom control.

What’sbadViewfinder flares

when shooting against the light;

eats batteries fast.

Viewfrom the top with the

viewfinder angled up at 90°

Minolta Dimage 7 with its

pop-up flash open for action

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Passionateabout photography since 188

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