Minolta Dimage 7i
This popped up cheap on a camera store I regularly browse online and I just couldn't help myself. The combination of a 2002 prosumer bridge camera, with a 28-200mm equivalent zoom, nice and fast at 2.8-3.5, articulated EVF, PASM, and RAW shooting were far too much to be able to resist. add in a 5-megapixel CCD sensor and weird looks and you have the Dimage 7i
The EVF is terrible by modern standards, but does have a few tricks up its sleeve for its age, OK one trick. It switches to a B&W view in low light to enable it to still work. The layout is an ergonomic mess of dials, switches, d-pads, and buttons, none of which is close to intuitive, but it does sport a manual zoom rather than being controlled by buttons or a rocker switch and has a manual focus ring. Manual focus also has the ability to zoom in to aid focusing and is surprisingly usable, you have to engage it manually, but it's from 2002, so having the option at all is impressive!
Storage is taken care of by a single CF card slot and power is provided by four AA batteries, it even takes 49mm filters.
Can't wait to give this a proper run and see what it's capable of (or not), until then behold the utter lack of aesthetic consideration in its design.
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Such a cool looking camera! The viewfinder is so blocky 😂
Quote from SpruceBruce on September 1, 2023, 3:40 pmSuch a cool looking camera! The viewfinder is so blocky
I feels like it was designed by eight different people, in different countries, who were never allowed to speak or discuss it in any way at all.
Using it is an ergonomic nightmare, and the viewfinder is a lesson in why EVFs were considered poor for so long. The corners and edges of it (where all the info you need is) are blurry when you look at the centre, and you have to physically move your eye to get them readable, at which point the centre is now blurry (and the opposite edge is now even blurrier).
It's a plain nasty beast in so many ways, but oddly I quite like it...
Haha! I actually quite like the look of it. I adore different looking cameras of that era, and I feel like it captures the look of early digital quite well.
I didn't realize the tilting viewfinder went that far back. I have the Minolta A2 and that's one of my favorite bits about it 🙂
Can't wait to see some pics.
Quote from James Warner on September 3, 2023, 1:34 amHaha! I actually quite like the look of it. I adore different looking cameras of that era, and I feel like it captures the look of early digital quite well.
I didn't realize the tilting viewfinder went that far back. I have the Minolta A2 and that's one of my favorite bits about it
Can't wait to see some pics.
It certainly does capture early digital well, no doubt about that. It's also got a lot of features that would not appear on many other cameras for quite a while as well. Fingers crossed I can get some time with it this week to put it through its paces.
That camera looks like a camera of a Stormtrooper from Star Wars...
E.
Let's take a look at what the 'Stormtroopers camera' can produce...
...and I have to say I love it. CCD colour space is almost at the point of becoming a cliche, but it's what initially stands out on the above shots for me, not just how vibrant they can be in sunlight, but also the accuracy of the more subdued colours. The Zebra crossing light and the last one are great examples of this, with the internet switching cabinet (final image) being the best example fo this, as without the accuracy and tonality of the steel greys in that shot it just wouldn't work against the yellow of the warning label.
The glass in this camera is excellent, and the two ED elements clearly help that, keep in mind that the above are all JPEGs, as the write times for TIFF and RAW files on the 7i are an absurd 18+ seconds!
Let me know what you think, but for a 5-mega-pixel camera from 2002, I'm seriously impressed (the ergonomics are still a nightmare).
