As a photographer there are times when you really don't want to lug all your gear around but still want to carry something that will allow you to take some photos but that doesn't make feel somehow restricted. When I entered the digital world of photography, I bought myself a Fujifilm S20pro, which I am happy with and I still use after 2.5 years and it gives me what I call "digital transparencies", with Fuji's superb SuperCCD SR. You can really see Fuji's expertise in the field of film transferred onto their digital technologies. Still at times, I feel somehow restricted even though this camera has a good feature set.
I started looking for another compact to use alongside it (obviously not with it otherwise I would prefer to be lugging my DSLR everywhere), or to put it better, add to my kit and a scarce number of the current crop of top compacts have pleased me (I am a big Fujifilm fan but Fujifilm has to forgive me for saying this, I think that their current top compact, the S9000/9500 is a bit of a misfire and I hope for an upgrade soon). From that scarce number of compact cameras, none seemed to impress me to the point of actually making a resolution of spending some money on them. I always felt that I could spend the money on lenses for my DSLR (Minolta) system and be more satisfied.
But I would still be left with my Fujifilm S20pro for those days I don't want to lug around gear. The problem that actually mostly bothers me with it is it's lack of a continuous shooting mode in RAW mode. I am a big fan of RAW and anyone in the know will understand the reasons. For the rest of the readers, RAW basically provides you a "digital negative" and is of much higher quality than JPEG and from these files you can output higher quality JPEGs or TIFFs than if you use the plain JPEG setting on a camera, this apart from the greater manipulation/correction options you have with RAW.
Back onto my search for a compact, none of the current modern crop of compacts have totally impressed me, until I came across the Dimage A1. I knew the camera, but never really took so much notice of its feature set in comparison to current cameras. The Dimage A1 is the predecessor of the A2 and A200 and is a bit long in the tooth. Nevertheless, I was more than impressed with it. It's features for a camera would by itself save me a great deal of money in accessories, namely the tilting viewfinder (which would save me from buying expensive viewfinder accessories, which other compact uses a tilting viewfinder today?) along with a tilting LCD. I personally don't like to use LCD's as among other reasons, consume more battery power than the EVF (Electronic ViewFinder), and if you are out in the field, ever so more these days battery life is vital. Just this feature would allow me to open up more doors to my creativity and use a camera in a number of ways that I wouldn't be able to use with a conventional camera.
Of note is also its high quality Minolta GT 28-200 zoom lens. Most digital cameras of this class lack a good wide setting in favour of a bigger telephoto end, which I personally think is surely not the way to go and some manufacturers have taken notice of this (i.e. the Fujifilm S9000/9500 provides 28-300mm, but the lens is not the best in the Fujifilm range).
Along with this is a good macro setting (not that the Fujifilm S20pro one is worse, it is actually better as in super macro mode it allows you to go as close as 1cm from the subject, and if you have an external flashgun even better exposures you can get from it),a maximum shutter speed of 1/16000 (this even makes most DSLRs hide in the shadows) and most importantly Anti-Shake. Also included are a Flash Synch socket and compatibility with Minolta DSLR system accessories such as flashguns and battery grip (again, not usual of a compact). All in all, coupled with the image quality (in RAW mode) I would have the perfect companion of my DSLR system and not feel left out of the water at any time. I almost forget to mention it's nice power saving features, like Eye Start EVF that switches on and off the LCD both for power saving and eye comfort and the sensor on the grip that wakes up the camera.
It really makes you think that Minolta designers are actually photographers themselves even if they are not and this is something that has been said a number of times by different photographers and reviewers and that surely is the impression that the camera (or better yet, Minolta cameras)leaves on you.
Unfortunately, Minolta has withdrawn from photo business as of March this year, due to not being able to cope financially, but left behind a legacy and excellent quality cameras. Sony took over Minolta's assets, but I doubt that they would come up with a compact in the class of the A1.
So I have been unable to find an A1 in a trusted market, only leaving Ebay as a solution. I do see some coming and going but they are scarce, but it is surely a camera I will still want to own.
Sometimes looking at the past can be a good thing and there are surely a thing or two that manufacturers could learn from a camera like the Konica Minolta Dimage A1.
I started looking for another compact to use alongside it (obviously not with it otherwise I would prefer to be lugging my DSLR everywhere), or to put it better, add to my kit and a scarce number of the current crop of top compacts have pleased me (I am a big Fujifilm fan but Fujifilm has to forgive me for saying this, I think that their current top compact, the S9000/9500 is a bit of a misfire and I hope for an upgrade soon). From that scarce number of compact cameras, none seemed to impress me to the point of actually making a resolution of spending some money on them. I always felt that I could spend the money on lenses for my DSLR (Minolta) system and be more satisfied.
But I would still be left with my Fujifilm S20pro for those days I don't want to lug around gear. The problem that actually mostly bothers me with it is it's lack of a continuous shooting mode in RAW mode. I am a big fan of RAW and anyone in the know will understand the reasons. For the rest of the readers, RAW basically provides you a "digital negative" and is of much higher quality than JPEG and from these files you can output higher quality JPEGs or TIFFs than if you use the plain JPEG setting on a camera, this apart from the greater manipulation/correction options you have with RAW.
Back onto my search for a compact, none of the current modern crop of compacts have totally impressed me, until I came across the Dimage A1. I knew the camera, but never really took so much notice of its feature set in comparison to current cameras. The Dimage A1 is the predecessor of the A2 and A200 and is a bit long in the tooth. Nevertheless, I was more than impressed with it. It's features for a camera would by itself save me a great deal of money in accessories, namely the tilting viewfinder (which would save me from buying expensive viewfinder accessories, which other compact uses a tilting viewfinder today?) along with a tilting LCD. I personally don't like to use LCD's as among other reasons, consume more battery power than the EVF (Electronic ViewFinder), and if you are out in the field, ever so more these days battery life is vital. Just this feature would allow me to open up more doors to my creativity and use a camera in a number of ways that I wouldn't be able to use with a conventional camera.
Of note is also its high quality Minolta GT 28-200 zoom lens. Most digital cameras of this class lack a good wide setting in favour of a bigger telephoto end, which I personally think is surely not the way to go and some manufacturers have taken notice of this (i.e. the Fujifilm S9000/9500 provides 28-300mm, but the lens is not the best in the Fujifilm range).
Along with this is a good macro setting (not that the Fujifilm S20pro one is worse, it is actually better as in super macro mode it allows you to go as close as 1cm from the subject, and if you have an external flashgun even better exposures you can get from it),a maximum shutter speed of 1/16000 (this even makes most DSLRs hide in the shadows) and most importantly Anti-Shake. Also included are a Flash Synch socket and compatibility with Minolta DSLR system accessories such as flashguns and battery grip (again, not usual of a compact). All in all, coupled with the image quality (in RAW mode) I would have the perfect companion of my DSLR system and not feel left out of the water at any time. I almost forget to mention it's nice power saving features, like Eye Start EVF that switches on and off the LCD both for power saving and eye comfort and the sensor on the grip that wakes up the camera.
It really makes you think that Minolta designers are actually photographers themselves even if they are not and this is something that has been said a number of times by different photographers and reviewers and that surely is the impression that the camera (or better yet, Minolta cameras)leaves on you.
Unfortunately, Minolta has withdrawn from photo business as of March this year, due to not being able to cope financially, but left behind a legacy and excellent quality cameras. Sony took over Minolta's assets, but I doubt that they would come up with a compact in the class of the A1.
So I have been unable to find an A1 in a trusted market, only leaving Ebay as a solution. I do see some coming and going but they are scarce, but it is surely a camera I will still want to own.
Sometimes looking at the past can be a good thing and there are surely a thing or two that manufacturers could learn from a camera like the Konica Minolta Dimage A1.
Links to camera images:
Dimage A1 allround view (image provided by dpreview.com)
Dimage A1 tilting viewfinder (image provided by dpreview.com)
Dimage A1 tilting LCD (image provided by dpreview.com)
Dimage A1 with battery grip BP400 DSLR battery grip (image provided by dpreview.com)
Until next time,
Luis
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