Minolta Z2 (1 Viewer)

I part exchanged my old 35mm equipment for a Minolta Z2 digital camera yesterday, having decided to take the digital "plunge" as it were. This camera has a specification of 4 megapixels and a 10x optical (4x digital) zoom and it is perfectly adequate for what I want it for. I should think it is not the camera for digiscoping, although I haven't tried yet - the lens looks to be too big. However, like I said the camera is ideal for what I want.

This is a neat little camera, and very easy to use. It is extremely lightweight, especially when compared to the enormous weight of my 35mm equipment. The most important thing, apart from lens focal length and amount of megapixels, was shutter lag, and on this camera that is fortunately almost non-existent. There is slight lag, but no more than a tiny fraction of a second.

The only thing I don't like is the viewfinder. Because of its small, grainy nature it is not particularly user friendly and the lcd screen does get hard to view in strong sunlight when the sun is behind you, when you have to use the viewfinder.

As for build quality the camera is well put together, but I very much doubt it would take much rough handling, as it doesn't look, or feel, that robust.
However, it is ideal for a first time digital user, like me, the spec is good and my results, so far, have been pleasing.

I am aware that the Z3 is out, but frankly I am happy with what I've got and I am rather pleased with the deal. :bounce:

I have attached a picture of one of the vast population of Southampton's feral pigeons, taken this afternoon. the picture makes no pretensions, but it is the raw image, and the only alteration has been to resize it down to 800x600.

I made the move 18 months ago with the Nikon CP995 for digiscoping. I was so pleased with the whole concept of digital that I bought the tiny and very wonderful Canon S400 as a "shirt pocket" camera. Now I'm on the lookout for a "proper" camera for more serious work, a replacement for my film SLR.

I certainly don't want another system camera - all those expensive lens that are too heavy to carry, especially with bins and scope. I like the "prosumer" all-in-one concept but I can't make my mind up: Z3, x12, 4Mb vs A2, x7, 8Mb.

I would have got something like an A2 if I could have afforded it, or an SLR, but I only had £300 to spend.

There is one thing I don't like about the Z2 and that is the silly noises on it, such as focusing beeps, button press beeps and a highly fake shutter noise - it sounds like a video arcade game. However, these are easily dealt with by going into the menu and turning the offending sounds off - I made sure of that before purchasing the thing.

As for deciding between an A2 and a Z3, you have a trade between a super zoom 12x on the Z3 is equivalent to 38-420mm in 35mm systems and the higher resolution (8 megapixels) in the A2.