Konica Minolta Dimage Z3 Review
The Konica Minolta Dimage Z3 is a four megapixel digital camera with a 12x optical zoom lens. At the time of this review, February 2005, this is the longest optical zoom lens available on a compact digital camera.
Coupled with a comprehensive set of features the Dimage Z3 is likely to appeal to someone who is fairly serious about photography and is looking for more than a simple point and shoot model.
Image Quality
It seems to me that if you buy a digital camera with an extended zoom lens there is often a trade off with picture quality and the Konica Minolta Dimage Z3 is no exception. Starting off with the sample outdoor shots, there is a loss of detail in the lighter colours. This is compensated for to some degree by the fact that the detail shows up quite well in the darker colours. One area where the Dimage Z3 performs better than some of its rivals is that there was less evidence of purple fringing when the zoom was fully extended. Purple fringing is where the edge of light coloured objects tend to have a purple line added to them. This problem affects all the cameras with an extended zoom lens that I have tested to a varying degree.
Indoors I was happy with the portrait shot. There is a slight loss of detail in the hair. Again this is a very common problem and the Dimage Z3 coped reasonably well with it. The shot of the bottles which is taken in very poor light doesn't come out very well. The camera struggles to focus properly and the flash is too bright as well.
The test for colours produces an average result. The colours are duller than those produced by a number of other cameras.
Shutter Lag
Shutter lag is the time it takes to take each picture. A constant criticism of digital cameras is the delay in between clicking the shutter button, the picture being taken and also the camera being ready to take the next picture. With the Dimage Z3 I was able to take five pictures in the space of 13.02 seconds. That works out at a rate of 2.6 seconds per picture. I am not claiming that this is the most scientific tests, but it should give you an indication of the recycling speed of the camera. At the time of writing this is a new test I have added for my reviews. Early indications are that this is very close to the average speed. My test is carried out indoors under standard conditions and it is possible that you would see better results outside.
Features
For composing images and accessing the menu there is a 1.5" LCD screen. If you prefer there is an electronic viewfinder. The viewfinder has Diopter correction. This allows you to focus the viewfinder to suit your eyes.
When you are taking your first shots with the Dimage Z3 the camera can be used in fully automatic mode. This is where camera makes all the decisions relating to shutter speed and aperture settings. All you need to do is point and shoot. To back up the automatic mode there are a number of pre programmed scene modes. These assist the camera to take the best possible shot for a number of standard photo opportunities. The scene modes available are: Portrait, Sports action, Landscape, Sunset and Night portrait.
The pop up flash unit has a range of 4m. This reduces when the zoom lens is in use. The flash modes you can choose from are always on, always off, automatic and slow sync. Slow sync is often used in night photography where you would like the background to be lit as well as the subject. Red eye reduction is also available to you.
To add variety to your photography you can shoot in black and white and sepia. There is a vivid colour setting as well. When you want to appear in the picture there is a self timer facility with a ten second delay.
The movie mode is advanced. You can shoot a movie until the memory card is full. The maximum resolution is 640x480 with a top speed of 30 frames per second. This is good enough to view on a television screen.
Close up photography is catered for by a macro mode that lets you get in as close as 10cms. There is also a super macro mode that lets you focus from just 1cm away.
There are a number of more advanced functions available to use. These include Programmed AE, Aperture priority, Shutter priority and fully manual exposure. These are backed up with shutter speeds that range from 30 seconds to 1/1000 seconds, white balance settings of Daylight, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Cloudy, Flash and Custom. There are three types of metering you can use Multi-segment (256 segments), Spot and Center-weighted, plus exposure compensation and exposure bracketing. You also have access to ISO equivalents of 50, 100, 200 and 400, picture sharpness and contrast controls, noise reduction and manual focus.
Konica Minolta supplies all the necessary cables and software to connect the Dimage Z3 to a computer, television set and a PictBridge compatible printer.
Ease of Use
Obviously with any camera with the number of features that the Dimage Z3 has you will need to spend time studying the manual if you are to get the most out of the camera. All in all I found the camera quite easy to get to grips with once I had used it for a while. The shooting modes including the preprogrammed scenes are accessed through a dial on the top of the camera. Buttons are available to set the flash mode and to use the macro mode. There are plenty of options on the menus to get to know, but the menu system itself is fairly intuitive.
Cost
You can pick up a Konica Minolta Dimage Z3 for around £235. This compares to around £225 for a Fuji Finepix S5500 and £215 for an Olympus C-765. The slightly higher cost is the price you pay for the extra zoom capabilities.
Style
The Konica Minolta Dimage Z3 is shaped along similar lines to a traditional 35mm film SLR camera. It has a good grip on the front that allows you to steady the camera when you take a picture. It has dimensions of 108.5 x 80 x 83.5 mm and weighs around 335g. I would suggest picking up a camera bag for carrying it around.
Batteries and Memory Cards
Power is supplied to the Dimage Z3 by four AA batteries. It will pay in the long run to pick up a set of rechargeable batteries and a charger to go with the camera.
Images can be stored on either Secure Digital (SD) cards or Multi Media Cards (MMC). The one supplied by Konica Minolta with the Dimage Z3 is only 16mb and this will soon become full with 4 megapixel images. Therefore it is advisable to pick up a high capacity card too. Click here to save money on SD cards
Points I like:
Extended zoom lens
Easy to get a good grip reducing camera shake
Where it is not so hot:
Small LCD screen
Only 16mb memory card supplied
Summary
The prime selling point of the Dimage Z3 is its extended, 12x optical zoom lens. There is a price to pay for that level of zoom though as the picture quality is not as good as the majority of digital cameras that I have tested. It is possible that you can improve the quality of the pictures by working with all the different settings and controls the camera has. Before you buy I would recommend taking a look at the Olympus C-765 and the Fuji Finepix S5500.
Konica Minolta Dimage Z3 Front View
Konica Minolta Dimage Z3 Back View
Konica Minolta Dimage Z3 Top View
Sample Menus
