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General discussion

Minolta Dimage Z5? What else belongs on my short list?

Apr 12, 2005 11:12AM PDT

My 16 year-old daughter is looking for a 5+MP digital camera with strong zooming capabilities, anti-shake, RAW output for use in Photoshop, 3 fps shooting, and a good reputation for phototography. She's seen a Z3 and its output and was impressed.

I'm an old feature junkie and immediately started looking at $1200+ DSLRs for her but she brought me down to earth.

What should we be seriously considering on our short list? Lumix FZ20? And why?

Thanks!

Ron

Discussion is locked

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Well Now.....
Apr 12, 2005 1:34PM PDT

You really through a monkey wrench into the works when you specified RAW.

There are only 3 cameras that fits "strong zoom, anti-shake, and RAW".

Konica Minolta A2 or A200
Nikon 8800


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RAW
Apr 13, 2005 12:26AM PDT

My bad. I thought the Z5 supported RAW.

Taking RAW out of the equation and sticking with the remaining specs, what options should I be considering?

Thx.

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Removing RAW
Apr 13, 2005 1:29AM PDT
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Bigger considerations
Apr 21, 2005 6:01PM PDT

"The Z5 is lighter weight and smaller.
The Z5 will be less expensive to buy.

Sounds good to me."

The more important differentiation to me between the two cameras is the Z5 uses standard(AA) batteries and would be a much better traveling companion where as the FZ lines strength has always been the F2.8 lens.

It really comes down to whether your daughter will be shooting sports/low-light photography or traveling more.

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Z5
Jul 1, 2005 5:46AM PDT

I looked all over, and nearly bought the Lumix, but went with the Minolta for a couple of reasons.

First of all, it will take my big daddy Minolta flash, which is definitely a plus.

Second of all, it has the progressive shoot mode. Just hold down the shutter button, and you get 20 fps until you let it up, with the last 2 seconds saved (the rest is pushed out of the buffer as the newer shots fill it up).

The only downside to this is the fact that it does have some noise at higher sensitivity levels.

You didn't say what she'd be doing with the camera. If it's something where she could need the raw image option, you might want to go ahead and get a dslr now.