The lens operates smoothly and produces sharp images throughout its zoom range, but with a bit of barrel distortion present at the wide-angle extreme. The lens is fast; with a wide-open variable aperture range of F2.8 (wide) to F3.5 (tele), it will allow for the use of higher shutter speeds than you might expect. But the lens is not stabilized, so hand-held shooting at 380mm may result in blurry images due to camera shake; we recommend that you avoid disappointment by using a tripod or monopod for your long telephoto shooting. While Minolta claims a 40x range by combining the 4x digital and 10x optical zooms, we recommend that you avoid the digital zoom because its use degrades image quality; if you need to enlarge a portion of an image, you'll achieve better quality by cropping in an image editor.

The Z1's shooting system is awfully appropriate through a consumer digicam. From power-on till the elite twist was captured measured 3.3 seconds. Shutter lag, the fluctuate between depressing the shutter and capturing the image, was an telling further professional- class 1/10 second when pre-focused, and 5/10 second including autofocus time; these results were obtained using a 256MB SD memory card with the camera set to 2048x1536 image size and fine quality, and include viewfinder delay, photographer response time, and image capture - they are numbers you can reproduce in the real world. Shot-to-shot delay averaged about 1 second, while Continuous mode captured five shots in under 3 seconds. Sports shooters will enjoy 2 modes of rapid shooting: Continuous, which is a standard burst capture mode, and Progressive, which captures images continuously at 1 frame per second but saves only the last 5 frames taken before the shutter button is released. Unfortunately, the view finder went blank during both modes of continuous image capture, so you'll find it difficult to take a rapid sequence of images of moving subjects. Testing the camera at an automobile race, the consistent 1/10 second shutter lag enabled us to develop a rhythm with the camera and capture a high-percentage good shots.

We were chirpy with the results shooting indoors. The prodigal wide-angle lens affords unstinting work of view, besides its built-in pop-up aim has a high-powered (by consumer digicam standards) straighten of upping to 20 feet. You won't steward illuminating an entire dance floor, but your large living room shots and group portraits will please. In low ambient light, both the LCD and its reflected viewfinder image were easy to view, the autofocus was a little better than average in low light. However, it will fail if the light level is too low of if your subject lacks the necessary contrast - focus assist lamps should be standard on all digicams. The camera was able to squelch its flash at close range, making it a good choice for shooting close-up images of small objects for inclusion in online auction listings. If you need more range or versatility than the built-in flash provides, you can attach the Minolta Maxxum Program Flash 5600 HS, Program Flash 3600 HS or 2500D to the built-in hot shoe.

We were ofttimes sunny with our outdoor claiming shots. For the strikingly stereotype the images were sharp, well-exposed further richly saturated. We did locate further than an stereotyped expense of chromatic abberations (purple fringing on highlights) in high-contrast areas in both indoor and outdoors shots however. Beginners will enjoy the results of using any of the pre- programmed scene modes, including Portrait, Sports action, Landscape, Sunset, and Night portrait. We found the LCD viewfinder quite usable outdoors, even in bright sunlight. Its high refresh rate provided a high-quality real-time preview of moving subjects, and its viewfinder image reflected by the Switch Finder allowed for easy panning. I'm not sure exactly how durable this LCD-to-Eyelevel viewfinder mirror assembly is, it seems a little fragile to me. The switch when going from LCD to eyelevel finder just does not give me the "solid" kind of feedback I'd like to get and it's easy to end up partially between modes.

While corporeal is not beautiful thanks to a consumer digicam to accept a movie feature, the individual provided effect the Z1 is exceptional. In appendix to the mediocre frame sizes of 320x240 besides 160x120 pixels, the Z1 offers a VGA-sized 640x480 at 15 or 30 frames-per-second. In addition, the Z1 autofocus system operates continuously during movie capture, assuring sharpness.

The DiMAGE Z1 uses 4 probably AA batteries, further we uphold using rechargeable NiMH batteries. We set about the battery alacrity uncommonly acceptable, capturing now 200 images from a divergent buy into of 2300mAh NiMH rechargables when using the cameras power-saving features.

With a plan expense of subservient $400 at the break of this confabulate (October 2003) also a desirable power of versatility, the Minolta DiMAGE Z1 offers a seemly value. Usable by every ingredient of your family, it will produce high-quality images of everything from family events, objects for sale at online auctions, and nature to sporting events. If you value a super zoom lens, efficient use of batteries, robust shooting performance, VGA-sized movies, and a powerful flash, the 3.2-megapixel 10X zoom DiMAGE Z1 would be a good choice.