I'm going to Circuit City later today to pick up a 6 mp Konica Minolta Dimage Z6 - 299.99 (closeout). I have been looking for something with faster speeds in start-up, auto-focus, and shutter - my old Olympus C-765 seems to lag a bit at times. I heard that Konica Minolta had announced they were out of the camera business, and that Sony would be doing service for them. Anyone have any experience with Konica Minolta cameras? I guess that the bottom line is that if this camera doesn't perform well, I can run up the street and return it...
Konica will supply Contax series lenses to Sony, I have not heard anything about Sony doing service work on Konica / Minolta equipment.
Sounds like Sony will pick up the service work. http://www.dpreview.com/news/0601/06011901konicaminoltaout.asp#presssony "In addition, we will consign camera service operations for Konica Minolta, Konica,Minolta brand cameras and related equipment to Sony." and "From April 1 2006, Konica Minolta PI will consign the customer service operations for Konica Minolta cameras and related products* to Sony, and Sony will implement service operations from that date onward."
Decided to go with an Olympus SP-500 UZ - better picture quality. Hope the weather gives me some chances to give it a fair trial - oh, and I need CSX and BNSF to pick up some traffic - it's been too quiet around here lately...
I have a Minolta DiMage 7i that I have found very satisfactory for the past few years. The only thing that I do not like about it is its' short battery life! Otherwise, excellent photos.
There were a couple other reasons I changed my mind and went with the Olympus. The Olympus uses the xD memory card which my old C-765 uses. Also, I have an adapter ring for Olympus so I can use my 55mm filters. The K-M had a couple features I liked - the 12x zoom is stabilized, and is supposed to really be good at portrait shots. Both use AA batteries, which I missed with the C-765. The reviews I have read claim the Olympus SP-500UZ is supposed to have a really low power use - I have been using the AA's that came with the camera - so far I think the claims are correct - I have never had a digital that didn't burn up alkaline AA's almost immediately.
