Just noticed your post about the Minolta Dimage 7 hi. I have one and use it every day. I absolutely love the camera.
In the past three years, I have had a Sony FD-73 (sold it), sony FD-92 (sold it), Canon G3 (sold it), and now have a Canon Powershot Pro 90 IS, a Nikon Coolpix 995 that I use with my Leica scope, and the Dimage.
The Dimage blows away all the others. It has 5 megapixels and takes great quality photos. The macro settings are fabulous for flowers and butterflies, and it has a 7x zoom. I picked up an Olympus 1.5 Teleconverter for it that increases the reach to 10.5x. As far as speed goes, it is amazing compared to everything else I have used. You can get the first shot within a couple of seconds, and if you set it on continuous mode, it takes 7 shots per second! Great for moving subjects. There is almost no shutter lag. The other feature that makes it my favorite is the electronic view finder. It functions almost like an SLR. It has fully automatic settings, as well as fully manual capabilities.
The only negative I can think of is that it is a battery hog. It takes four AAs, and I am lucky to get a couple of hours from a freshly charged set. I bought a powerpack for it that allows me to shoot for 3 - 4 hours, which is a help.
For the money, I think it is a wonderful camera. I can't imagine ever parting with it. You can check out some of the photos in my gallery to see what it can do, although all of the uploaded photos are very low res compared to the originals.
Hope this helps - send me a Private Message if you want to know more.