• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Minolta Z5. (1 Viewer)

Thanks, Hello Steve

Quacker said:
Welcome to BF Jean Jacques :clap:

Mine is awaiting pick up at a local mail depot. Interesting post Jean Jacques - I will not now have a chance to play until Thursday night.

I care not for point & shoot indoor cameras, so that will not be an issue, I have SLR and compact & other digitals to deal with that. Unless it is really and truly poor then of course that's different. - Hopefully it is a one off or a bad batch.



Steve
Try to go to this link : http://login.yahoo.com/config/login...a&.linkdone=http://ca.f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ User name is petittest passwrd : minolta
I put some picture for you to look at.
 
Good

Henry B said:
Got on to site but pictures did n,t appear,will try again later..
You should see a folder call minolta z5 . All the pictures are in that folder.
Good luck. If you can't is their a way to post them in birdforom.net ?
 
pictures

Jean-Jacques Tr said:
You should see a folder call minolta z5 . All the pictures are in that folder.
Good luck. If you can't is their a way to post them in birdforom.net ?
Got them this time,interesting photo,s for comparison.
 
I have recently bought the Z5 as an upgrade to the Canon S40. Generally the image quality is very good, though the picture tend to be too soft if you use the auto mode. Fortunately there is plenty of room for exposure adjustments.

It does become noisy above ISO160 but this seems to be the same with the majority of the superzoom digicams. The AF is very fast and the zoom is excellent.

I have tried to attach some pictures, apologies if they aren't too exciting but I am new to this type of photography
 

Attachments

  • PICT0213 Standard e-mail view.jpg
    PICT0213 Standard e-mail view.jpg
    133.3 KB · Views: 376
  • PICT0220 Standard e-mail view.jpg
    PICT0220 Standard e-mail view.jpg
    124.8 KB · Views: 358
  • PICT0236 Standard e-mail view.jpg
    PICT0236 Standard e-mail view.jpg
    162.6 KB · Views: 360
  • PICT0193 Standard e-mail view.jpg
    PICT0193 Standard e-mail view.jpg
    140.4 KB · Views: 421
Last edited:
Being disappointed with indoor shots sounds about right for the Z5. I have a Z1 and have always been disappointed with indoor shots. Because of the low iso shots taken in shade arent always so good either. When I first got my z1 I got blurry images for a while until I learnt to use it properly. I would imagine the Z5 is the same. IM sure that this camera has quite a large potential.
Your photos look quite good cookster though shooting on the automode rarely produces really satisfying results with this camera. Try to come off auto and play around more with the manual settings. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

My brother works for expansies and I know that they have stocks of the Z5. I have had the Z1 for 14 months and have never had any problems with it.
 
Hello all - I've owned this camera for 15 days now. My major gripe is the fact that Konica Minolta UK sent out a batch of these to Warehouse Express with no user manual included. They then offered to sell me one for £10!

Eventually, and to date, I have received four! - 2 from Minolta and 2 from Warehouse Express (who had a batch sent) - this was after I had to complain and requested numbers for the head of customer service, eventually Minolta Uk then relented.

Intersting to note I have received four manuals, and each have arrived in an envelope without an apology, letter or even a compliment slip.

As if that wasn't bad enough, I did a mega review on here a few days ago and inexplicably lost it when I tried to preview it!

The DC Review is much better than I can produce, so I'll not repeat. The sharpening can be done in camera, which helps (or photoshop of course). Having not owned any of the other minolta Z range, I can't comment on the difference, but if I was a Z3 owner, I wouldn't upgrade to this.

Camera prices have tumbled and a year or two back I'd have thought for £279 (delivered) this was a good purchase, but I'm reliably informed that is not cheap for a digital camera with 5Mp and 12x image stabiliser etc. - Still what do I know compared to the 4/5Mp Vivitar users with 3x digital zoom for less than £150 on Bid TV or Price Drop TV?

Many years ago, i was a serious SLR photographer. Now I find it fun, so I'm not overly concerned at this camera lack of long exposure (bulb setting) - the days of me timing 60 sec exposures at firework displays or thunderstorms are long gone. It's also fun to get back to basics and use aperture or shutter priority modes again. With the added bonus of switching to auto or programme for others to "point and shoot".

Remember, this camera was only purchased to photograph those birds to close for scoping and too far away for the 4500 @ 4x - one thing that isn't mentioned in the review, the digital zoom works surprisingly well.

In good light the iso 50 will produce great results and the iage stabiliser DOES work - who knows, I might even start to use macro mode - something that never interested me before.

My main gripe with this setup is the optional extras. the zoom is 35-420mm equivalent - there is a wide-angle adaptor (could have made it wider to start with?) there is NO telephoto adaptor/converter - I'd have thought as the current vogue is for superzooms, a 1.4/1.7x converter would have been a good idea? The camera hot-shoe has 3 flashes available, cheapest one being £130+ - I'd have thought more might have gone into the built-in flash. The £15 quid case in handy to carry/protect (fits a trouser belt) - would have been nice to have been included. £60 for an optional AC adapter (included with my Fuji) and of course the ludicrous inclusion of a 16MB SD card.

Them are just my opinions (and whinges!) - the $10,000 question would I recommend purchase? - well, yes if it is your first digital camera, or you're upgrading from a very basic model. Although it isn't perfect, it is still very good.

On the other hand, if I had the Z3 or similar Panasonic (forget the model) indeed any of the big MP/Zoom cameras, it would be fairly pointless upgrading.

The battery life is good, and 4xNiMh or better 8 or 12 with a fast charger (mine is two hours per set) are essential. Main reason is the viewfinder is not very good at all if like me, you wear specs. The large LCD is greatly suited for this, and the better battery life if fully justified, or fully justifies using the LCD screen - if you follow..

I've not posted any prints on here - the review is of the camera, not my pics - besides I've only been out once and that in a blizzard. As already told, indoor use is poor.

Apologies for rambling, and any gobbledigook as I'm not risking previewing and losing this review a second time!

Having used the edit button, I forgot to mention and have just noticed I never got the paper manual for the software either, but care not - life is too short (it's on disk anyway).

May I add at this point & having re-read this post, it sounds a very negative and harsh review. This is really a good camera, very good, and certainly worth the (reasonable) cost - my point is it's not a great camera, but then it doesn't pretend to be. Ergonomically, it looks and feels good - which many people feel important, and also, there are enough menus to satisfy the button pushers amongst us.

Steve
 
Last edited:
Thanks Steve and Jean for comments,suppose its not all that bad for the money then. Is it worth spending much more dosh for the Sony or new Panasonic?
 
Well it depends what you want to use it for. IanF uses the Panasonic (I think) assuming it's the high zoom model with stabiliser. Not sure about the Sony or the prices.

I'm sure Ian and I will meet up again, and then can do a comparison test?

Depending on what camera you already have.

I like Sony TV/Video/DVD's but don't like Sony Digital Camera (just personal preference). - A mate i work with wouldn't have anything as cheap and tacky as Sony HI FI/Audio visual gear!. Saying that, he paid £160 for an original 45rpm single at a record fair for a Shirelles song. - each to their own I think.

Don't spend too much time deliberating, get your pennies spent;-)

Steve
 
I do ahve the Panasonic FZ20. It's a well specified camera and can take some good photos. Two reservations from it being an outstanding camera to my mind are the grainy images in low light - though it has a powerful built in flash - but you need to remember to use it and it has a tendancy to chromatic aberration on bright edges.
 
IanF said:
I do ahve the Panasonic FZ20. It's a well specified camera and can take some good photos. Two reservations from it being an outstanding camera to my mind are the grainy images in low light - though it has a powerful built in flash - but you need to remember to use it and it has a tendancy to chromatic aberration on bright edges.

As you know, I am about to purchase an fz20. I handled the z5 on saturday and really found it hard to get to grips with the manual focussing being a rangefinder arrangement adjusted via the four way button on the back of the camera. At higher magnification the movement caused when pressing the four way made it tough to keep on target when using the evf at least. I do feel that the manual focus ring around the lens of the fz20 will be much easier to handle as I'm used to that arrangement on my 35mm slr.

After I had said that I think I'd been put off the z5 the guy in the shop said he didn't rate it as a camera either because he didn't feel that the lens mechanism was reliable enough. Not quite sure what he meant by that, perhaps autofocus is a bit 'dodgy' in some situations?

Despite the extra cost and the worries I have about proprietry batteries and possibly weight I have convinced myself that the panasonic is the 12x zoom to go for at this moment. Just my opinions though, I'm sure that the minolta z5 will be a good camera for some and it does look funky!

Woody
 
Woody said:
After I had said that I think I'd been put off the z5 the guy in the shop said he didn't rate it as a camera either because he didn't feel that the lens mechanism was reliable enough. Not quite sure what he meant by that, perhaps autofocus is a bit 'dodgy' in some situations?

Woody

I repeat again, this camera is exactly what you'd expect it to be when working indoors - poor!- the autofocus works really well in good/natural light - the camera shop owner has possibly never bothered testing the camera in a "real" environment.

I'm all for criticism, and critical reviews, but preferably one based on actual use. I can honestly say that this is a different camera when used outdoors - quite often indoors it will not focus.

Caveat, it's still a sub-£280 camera not a top digital SLR

Bottom line - if upgrading from a 3x digital zoom, or fixed digital camera this will be worth the money
 
Warning! This thread is more than 16 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top