Konica Minolta Dimage XG Silver Digital camera [3.2MP 3xOptical]

To me a digital camera should be small and easy to use. Surely that's one of the main selling points, isn't it? You may find another camera slightly smaller than this, but surely that's going to be difficult to hold - even now I sometimes get a finger in front of the lens. But hey, that's another advantage - have a quick look at what you have taken on the and take another photo immediately if it's no good. I often carry this around in my shirt pocket and forget about it until it's needed. I just have to make sure there is nothing else in my pocket to scratch the surface.

And rapid? I certainly haven't seen any other camera that is ready for action in such a short time. For the normal zoom cameras you have to wait for the lens protection shutter to slide away and the lens to physically come out from the body before it is ready for use. This is normally a few seconds. But this could be enough to miss those spur-of-the-moment occasions. But this beauty takes less than a second and it's ready for use.

I normally take fairly low quality images as they are mainly for displaying on the web. But even printing from 1600 x 1200 images on to photographic paper at 5" x 7.5" (using Bonusprint)

Uploading to a PC is ultra-fast using the USB cable. Copy 64MB of images in 30 or 40 seconds, easily. (This reminds me of one of my earlier cameras with serial port connection. 2MB of images used to take nearly an hour to upload!)

Conversations I have with friends that have just bought their first digital camera always ask me - "how many mega pixels does your have?" Although this camera is "only" 3.2 mega pixels, I am sure that using the highest resolution you can safely enlarge photos to 8" x 12" or larger without any problem (in fact I will try this myself shortly). So I cannot see any reason for higher resolutions unless you are a professional photographer and want to publish in glossy magazines.

I was a little concerned about the battery, as with other models that use AA batteries you can alway buy these easily. The NP-200 lithium battery is a different story altogether! But one time when I was taking photos at 1280 x 960 I'm sure I got over 300 photos without having to recharge.

An added bonus is the charger which can be used at any voltage between 100 and 240 Volts and 50 to 60 Hz. So you can charge it almost anywhere in the world. OK, you will either need a UK 3-pin to wherever you are adapter, or a separate lead, but these are easy to find anywhere.

There are other Minolta X series cameras around WITHOUT the optical viewfinder. But I nearly always use the optical viewfinder for framing the subject and the screen for viewing afterwards. The screen is not such a good idea for attempting to frame your subject if it is in brilliant sunshine and/or moving.

Do I recommend the Minolta Dimage XG? Most certainly!