This is soooo different for me. I have a Canon Powershot G2 that I absolutely love. I wanted to try a camera with an optical zoom and didn't feel like spending $1,000 for a Rebel that I didn't have any extra lenses for. I also wanted to be able to use Compact Flash. This camera takes some getting used to, but I can already see the potential for great shots. My best advice is READ THE MANUAL. It is very well written and easy to understand. With 8 megapixels to work with, it is easier to fix shots that leave something to be desired.

Let me be honest. I don't like digital cameras! I have a Canon F1 for 25 years that I have used to take pictures in Canada when it was -35c. When I want better quality, I have a Fuji 645zi. It will be many years before digital catches up.

However, I have realised for a while that I am missing many shots in my day to day life because I don't think they are worthy of committing to film. So at the end of 2004 I started reading the magazines to look for a digital camera. And what a lot of nonsense I had to read!

ANYHOW, YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO ANY HARD WORK - JUST BUY THIS CAMERA!!

What is great about it is it works on auto straight out the box and its sharp 28-200 image stabalised lens gives great results on default settings. After a few hours, I changed the default colour setting to Vivid and moved over to shutter priority and got even better results.

But this camera has over-rides for everything, including the ability to power the flash down to 1/8th power and use it to fire slave studio flash.

It has 8mp and can shoot in RAW, RAW+JPeg or JPEG. it uses compact flash cards and I have been using a Lexar 1GB card with fast processing between shots.

It also comes with a neat remote control unit, which allows self portraits etc.

This is a go-everywhere camera. Very light and compact. Will become my camera for business trips. And with 8mp, if I take a shot I want to enlarge beyond 8x10, it can be easily done.

Check this beauty out-you won't be disappointed

I have had a Nikon Coolpix 4300 for about two and a half years and in that time have taken over 2500 pictures. One thing I definately wanted was a camera with a longer zoom. I travel by bicycle and like to carry my camera everywhere (that is why so many pictures!) so I did not want to go to the size and expense of a digital SLR. As I seached for cameras with longer zooms, there were two I liked the range of- both the Canon Pro1 and the Dimage A200 which was not released yet. The 28- 200mm (35mm equivelent) zoom gives me a great range from wide angle to telephoto. A very useful range making many different pictures possible. I also was attracted by the anti-shake feature. A camera with a long zoom (some go to 300mm on digital prosumer cameras) is not useful if you cannot hold it steady enough to get a clear picture. Despite the length of the zoom, the camera is surprisingly compact at about 4 1/2" by 4 1/2" and easily fits into my fanny pack which is exactly what I wanted.
Another great feature is the adjustable LCD monitor which is sharper than the one on my Nikon. This allows you to aim over your head or at a low angle and still see what you are shooting at. You can fold it in facing the camera body to protect it and also to shoot using the EVF viewfinder which means you are using less battery power. It will turn completely forward so you can do a self portrait using the remote control to trip the shutter. The remote can also be useful for long exposures on a tripod like night shots. For night shots, it even has noise cancelation where it will take a second picture with the shutter closed to record any "hot spots" from pixels and subtract them from the final picture so it is clearer and doesn't have white dots on it. I tried this and it takes great night shots- the best I have gotten with any camera I have owned. I used a tripod of course. This slows the time between pictures a little, but if you are taking this type of picture you are used to waiting.
The time between shots it pretty quick. Faster than my Nikon certainly. It has manual or auto focus (I used manual with it at infinity for my night shots since this like many auto focus cameras can have trouble focusing in low light situations). The macro can be used at either the wide angle or telephoto ends of the zoom. I have not really tried that yet. Nor have I tried the movie format which is said to be very good. There are two resolutions you can use for that. That is not what I bought this camera for anyways.
I thought my little Nikon 4mp camera took nice pictures,but the Dimage A200 blows that away. It is simple enough for a novice to use it on "Auto" but has enough features to please most professionals too. I have mostly used "Auto" so far and as I become more familiar with the camera, I will be able to take advantage of more of its features. I already have taken pictures with it that when I look at them I am amazed that I took them. They are very sharp- from the wide angle through telephoto. This camera fit my needs and then some- with the options available as I become more experienced with them. If you are serious about photography and yet want to keep it simple, this is a great camera! I don't need or want to carry all that other gear.
Notice I have not talked about the eight megapixels? That is because it was not a consideration for my purchase and enjoyment fo this camera. Four is a lot for most uses especially since most users will not be making prints larger than 8x 10. But this camera gives you that possiblity. I guess that sums up this camera the best- all the possibilities it gives you. All in one small package. I love this camera! Yes, the photo is what the eye sees, but this will definately help you to capture what you see. I very highly recommend it!

Bis jetzt - Weihnachten - hab ich ca. 250 Fotos damit gemacht. Die Kamera liegt sehr gut in der Hand, die Bedienungselemente und -knöpfe sind schlüssig und an der richtigen Stelle untergebracht, man findet sich schnell zurecht. Man braucht die wichtigen Einstellmöglichkeiten nicht lange suchen und nicht groß merken. Ein wichtiger Vorteil: Die Kamera-Menüs sind sehr übersichtlich. Das feinauflösende, farblich neutrale Display ist dreh- und schwenkbar, eine feine Sache, wenn man unbemerkt oder aus schwierigen Lagen fotografieren will. Remote-Auslöser ist bereits dabei. Der Li-Io-Akku ist in 45 Minuten aufgeladen und hält lange, aber ich werde mir noch einen zweiten zulegen. Auf eine 1 GB CF Speicherkarte (im Lieferumfang ist gar keine enthalten) bringe ich ca. 250 - 275 Fotos, das hängt vom Seitenverhältnis der aufgenommenen Bilder ab (also 4:3 oder 3:2). Die Speicherung der Bilder erfolgt sehr rasch. Ich habe eine Sandisk Ultra II im Einsatz. Das Auslesen aus dem Speicher zur Darstellung der geschossenen Fotos auf dem LCD Display geht damit ruck-zuck. Sehr angenehm war ich von der Bildqualität überrascht. Nachtfotos mit Christbaum und Straßenbeleuchtung an Weihnachten wurden mit Anti-Shake und 800 ASA wirklich recht ansehnlich. Das Bildrauschen ist natürlich bei dieser Empfindlichkeit sichtbar, aber kein Problem, bei solchen Aufnahmen geht es in erster Linie um die eingefangene Stimmung. Bei niedrigeren Empfindlichkeiten ist Bildrauschen natürlich kein Thema. Bis 50 ASA kann man die Empfindlichkeit einstellen, und Bilder mit 50 oder 100 ASA taugen für die größten Vergrößerungen. Die Objektivqualität ist ausgezeichnet, es gibt in meinen Augen nichts zu bemängeln. Mit dem Drehzoom von 28 - 200 mm ist man schnell bei der Sache! Ein Manko hat die Kamera allerdings schon: Bei Innenaufnahmen lässt sich der Autofokus Zeit. Da bin ich etwas enttäuscht, das sollte flotter gehen. Auch die Schärfe ist generell bei Innenaufnahmen so eine Sache, findet der Autofokus den Punkt oder nicht? Hier gilt es für die Minolta - Ingenieure noch nachzubessern.
Das Handbuch auf PDF hat über 170 Seiten (etwa A 5 im Quadrat), man tut gut daran, sich es auszudrucken und ein bisschen herumzuschmökern, um die vielen Möglichkeiten der Kamera auch ergründen zu können - falls man nicht auf der Programmautomatik stehenbleiben will. Eine ausgedruckte Kurzanleitung ist dabei. Fazit: Eine handliche, bestens ausgestattete Kamera für den ambitionierten Fotografen, der sich mit den Grundlagen der Fotografie auskennt und auch etwas Ehrgeiz hat.

Weil die A200 meine erste Digitalkamera ist, bin ich wahrscheinlich besonders begeistert. Ich bin als halbprofessioneller Pressefotograf super zufrieden mit dieser Kamera. Vorher war ich ein Spiegelreflex-Fan (Nikon F301, F501 und F60) und habe mich echt schwer getan mich zwischen einer Digitalen Spiegelreflex und einer kompakten zu entscheiden. Ich bereue meinen Entschluss jedoch bis jetzt nicht.

Die Vorteile der A200 aus meiner Sicht:

Klein und handlich, aber nicht zu winzig.

Man bedient sie wie eine Spiegelreflex. Vor allem der manuelle Zoomring ist spitze. Viel schneller und präziser einzustellen als jede Zoomtaste. Auch die anderen Bedienungselemente wie z. B. das Wählrad für die Programme und die Plazierung der anderen Tasten erinnern mich sehr an meine alte Nikon und machten mir die Umstellung leicht.

Die Bedienung ist sehr einfach aber trotzdem stehen sämtliche Features zur Verfügung, die man braucht. Besonders freut mich, dass man ein Gitter bzw. eine Skala in den Sucher einblenden kann, dass man sehr schnell den Weißabgleich einstellen kann (Kunstlichtsituationen ohne Blitz. Auch die Belichtungskorrektur und die verschiedenen Autofokus-Optionen sind sehr einfach und schnell einstellbar. Weiterhin ist das schwenkbare Display sehr praktisch. Und der Anti-Shake Mechanismus ist spitze. Ich kann aus der Hand mit 200 mm Brennweite und 1/8 Sekunde scharfe Fotos machen!!!

Der Akku hält ziemlich lange. Ich habe neulich über 150 Fotos gemacht, wobei davon ca. 100 mit Blitz waren und der Akku war noch nicht annähernd leer.

Die Qualität der Bilder ist laut aussage unserer Layouterin sehr gut. Es gibt aus Profi-Sicht nichts zu meckern. Sie kommt mit den Digitalfotos genau so gut klar, wie vorher mit gescanten Papierabzügen.

Die Speicherung der Bilder geht relativ schnell. Auch die Auslöseverzögerung ist zumindest bei normalen Lichtverhältnissen im Freien kaum zu spüren.

Es gibt auch Nachteile:

Das Gehäuse könnte ruhig ein wenig größer sein. Kompaktheit ist ja gut, aber für meine großen Hände.....

Der Autofokus ist bei Innenaufnahmen sehr langsam. Das ist das einzige echte Ärgernis. Schnappschüsse mit Blitz sind kaum möglich, weil das Scharfstellen zu lange dauert und das Sucher- bzw. Displaybild schon kurz vor dem Auslösen verschwindet. Das ist der einzige Grund, warum ich keine fünf Sterne gebe.

Ein weiterer Negativ-Punkt ist die Audio-Aufzeichnung bei Videoclip-Aufnahmen. Das permanente Einstellgeräusch des Autofokus ist auf den Videoclips in sehr störender Weise zu hören. Kümmert mich aber wenig, weil ich eigentlich gar nicht vorhabe, die Videofunktion zu nutzen. Trotzdem sollte das doch zu beheben sein.

Der eingebaute Blitz könnte noch eine Nummer kräftiger sein. Wie bei den analogen Spiegelreflex-Kameras. Da bin ich besseres gewohnt.

Der Sucher bietet kein gutes Bild. Zu niedrige Auflösung. Aber den brauche ich nur, wenn es draußen sehr hell ist. Ansonsten ist das Display nämlich sehr gut und immer ausreichend hell.

Fazit:

Bedienung: sehr gut
Handlichkeit: gut
Fotoqualität: subjektiv sehr gut
Umfang der Funktionen: sehr gut
Autofokus-Geschwindigkeit im Freien: gut
Autofokus-Geschwindigkeit Innenräume: mangelhaft
Akkuleistung: sehr gut
Preis/Leistung: gut
Zuverlässigkeit: Noch keine Wertung, erst zu kurz im Gebrauch

Gerade für Umsteiger von analogen Spiegelreflex-Kameras ist die A200 gut geeignet.

Habe mir zu Weihnachten die Dimage A2 gekauft, nachdem ich mich (als Laie) wirklich sehr intensiv über die 8 MPix Klasse vorinformiert habe (hierzu möchte ich noch kurz für diejenigen, die es noch nicht wissen, erwähnen, dass es im Internet sehr gute und ausführliche Profi-Testberichte zu den diversesten Digicams gibt). Mein Fazit: Ich bin mit der A2 noch immer höchst zufrieden, weil nämlich:
1. die Kompaktheit der A200 meiner Meinung nach kein echter Vorteil gegenüber der A2 ist,
2. der 3-Freiheitsgrade-LCD nur dann ein Vorteil ist, wenn man unbemerkt jemanden fotografieren will.
3. der fix eingebaute Sucher der A200 keine Verbesserung darstellt, außer die Auflösung des schwenkbaren LCD kommt der des Suchers der A2 gleich (ich verwende bei meiner A2 vorwiegend den Sucher)
4. Die Zoom-Optik und die Anti-Shake Einrichtung definitif keine Neuerungen sind.
5. die Menu-Führung und die Anordnung der Knöpfe auch bei der A2 nicht unübersichtlich sind.
Die Schnelligkeit beim Speichern kann ich nicht beurteilen, weil ich die A200 nicht getestet und auch noch keine Testberichte gefunden habe (die der A2 liegt jedoch laut Testberichten in der Spitzenklasse).
Der nicht immer perfekte AF im Innenbereich fällt mir auch bei der A2 auf, wobei ich sagen muss, dass ich mir die Kamera zugelegt habe, um richtig fotografieren zu lernen, anstatt nur das Knopferl zu drücken, und das schließt auch das manuelle focussieren ein.
Mein Rat an alle A200 Interessierte: Zieht nach wie vor auch den Kauf der A2 in Erwägung!!

Als begeisterter Minolta Dimage 7 Hi-Benutzer war ich doch sehr gespannt auf dieses Nachfolgeprodukt der A2 (mit der ich auch schon gearbeitet habe). Leider wurde ich ziemlich enttäuscht. Zwar stimmen Auflösung, Bildqualität, Geschwindigkeit, manuelle Einstellmöglichkeiten und Menüführung perfekt (dafür gibt's 5 Sterne). Doch auf so manche Dinge, die selbst bei der 7 Hi den Anwender verwöhnten, muss der ambitionierte A200-Fotograf verzichten: Blitzbuchse für Studioblitzanlage, drahtlose Blitzfernsteuerung und Verwendung von Standardakkus (kein Stern). Auch ist das Einsetzen und Herausnehmen der Speicherkarte ziemlich fummelig und der kleine Entriegelungsstift wird wohl auch nicht lange durchhalten. Schade auch, dass das Gehäuse so putzig klein ausfällt. Hatte man die A2 noch satt in der Hand, muss man bei der A200 aufpassen, dass einem diese nicht aus dieser fällt (wegen der gelungenen Anordnung der Bedienelemente trotzdem noch 2 Sterne). Ergonomisch eher für 12-jährige geeignet, haben Sie hier das perfekte Konfirmationsgeschenk gefunden.

Die A200 soll der Nachfolger der A2 sein. Hier nun ein Bericht, ob sie das Niveau der "Alten" auch hält.

Die Kamera bietet 8 Megapixel, einen Zoombereich von 28-200 mm, und das Anti-Shake-Programm (Bildstabilisator), wie es in der A2 und der neuen Dynax 7D auch verwendet wird und wurde.

Bei der Bildqualität hat sich nicht's geändert, das das gleiche Objektiv und der gleiche Sensor eingebaut sind.
Vergrösserung bis 50x70 sind hierbei kein Problem.

Neu ist der dreh- und schwenkbare Monitor. Dafür wurde aber der früher ausklappbare optische Sucher fix eingebaut.
Auch bietet der digitale "optische" Sucher nur noch VGA-Auflösung.
Die A2 hatte hierbei eine Auflösung von 922.000 Pixel!

Auch ist das Gehäuse um einiges kleiner und handlicher geworden.
Das hat aber leider das Handling eher verschlechtert als verbessert.

Der Akku ist, wie schon fast üblich, wieder ein anderer. So kann der Besitzer einer A2, sofern er auf die A200 umsteigt, die Akku's gar nicht verwenden. Dies ist sicherlich ein grosses Manko. 150 Fotos hält der Akku cirka durch, um dann in 2-3 Stunden wieder einsatzbereit zu sein.

Die Bedienung ist wie bei Minolta sehr intuitiv und macht keine Probleme.

Der Autofokus arbeitet sehr schnell und auch die Auslöseverzögerung ist auf dem Niveau der A2.

Die Fotos werden wahlweise auf einer Compact-Flash-Karte oder einer Microdrive gespeichert.
Auf einer 1 Gigabyte Karte finden ca. 250 8-Megapixel-Fotos platzt.

Fazit: Die etwas "abgespeckte" Version der A2. Kein Nachfoler der A2!

Nach langem Testen diverser Digitalkameras der gehobenen Preisklasse, habe ich mich dann für die Minolta A200 entschieden. Eine echt runde Sache: Super Bildqualität, mega Ausstattung, die keine Wünsche offen lässt (Echtzeithistogramm, manuelles Zoom, interpolierter Digitalzoom, usw). Ich kann diese wirklich gelungene Kamera nur jedem empfehlen, der mehr als nur Knippsen möchte. Selbst ein Profi kann hier Gefallen finden, ist sie doch wesentlich kompakter und leichter als eine SLR mit fast der gleichen Ausstattung, RAW-Format ist natürlich auch vorhanden. Ich kann nur wiederholen: SUPER, SUPER, SUPER!!!!

The GREAT:

This camera has absolutely AWESOME image quality. I and my wife have used the macro feature on flowers, spiders, lady bugs, kids toes.... anything. The level of detail this camera can get with macro controlled AF + 10x optical zoom is just great.

The exposure controls are easy to get to with a quick-menu button that gets to only white balance, exposure, ISO, and whatnot. Other buttons are laid out intuitively when you get your hands on it. Program mode allows you to adjust f/ after AF-half press with a simple wheel behind the shutter release. Great preset modes. Quick preview button is a cool feature if you don't want the images to pop up every time you snap one off, but want to see the last one easily when you please.

The anti-shake really does help taking pictures with the 10x zoom. (please, for the love of all things holy, DO NOT use digital zoom! You can crop later and get the same image!!) Actually, i turned on the AS as soon as I took it out of the box and never looked back (feature also has a button to easily turn on/off to save battery)

The camera also comes with the Full version of Quicktime for video editing, and a basic photo viewer/editor. The DiMage viewer is O.K., but not as feature rich as a Photoshop nerd like me would like, and not user-friendly enough for a beginner. I would rather Konica struck a deal with Paintshop/PS-Pro from Corel than pay software developers to make mediocre software.

The could-use-work:

The cycle time with the flash on is not great, 3-5 seconds maybe (didn't get a stopwatch out), cycle time with RAW is atrocious, but I think would be better if I had a pro CF type II high speed card instead. The internal RAM gets past the write time on smaller files, but can't keep a full 12mb RAW image and

The really annoying:

This is not an action camera. This is not a low natural light without a flash camera. This is not a low light AF camera. HOWEVER: When I can get it to focus in lower light/indoor levels, the Anti-Shake made better pictures without a flash than my Canon A75 ever thought of.

Also: The only camera in this class I've heard of having great low-light AF is the Sony DSC-V3 because it uses a laser to find the subject. AND: If you want precision-fast AF, get a Digital SLR. Overall though, I feel the AF on this camera is sub-par even with my little caveats no matter what light level. Konica-Minolta really should work on this in their next camera in the A series.

Conclusion: (...) I still have some reservations that I should have gone with the Sony DSC-V3, or the Panasonic DMC-FZ20k. But I'm in love with the zoom/macro/features/megapixels/image quality/buttons-buttons-buttons of this camera. I think I would have been more at ease if I had had a chance to get my hands on these models, which you usually can't find in a store. If you're a photo-buff on a budget, get this camera. If you're looking for a party/family camera with great resolution but only 4x zoom, I'd go with the Sony. The Panasonic is similar to the A200, has better reviewed AF, a Leica 12x lens, but the features/buttons aren't as cool and useable (i've read). There are other cameras from Kodak and Such, check out as many as you can to find YOUR camera. Make it fit what you're taking pictures of. BTW- if you're not planning to print over 8x10 size photos and stick with 4x6 and 5x7 prints from wally-world, get a 4-5 megapixel camera. You don't need 8 megapixels for that.

(ps - if you want a 1300 mAh battery for this, Sterlingtek.com has one. Haven't ordered one yet. but pricegrabber has good reviews of them.)

Overall, this is a very nice camera. I bought it because a few weeks ago I used a friends Canon EOS Digital Rebel to shoot some pictures of his son's baptism. I really realized how much I missed a zoom ring and an a manual focus ring on a camera. I did some research and decided the DiMAGE A200 was the most modern camera in its class, had the best feature set of any SLR-like camera at the best price and had a manual zoom ring on the lens.

These reviews probably tend to be overly positive since the author just invested a bunch of money in the product and would be unlikely to trash it. But I am genuinely very pleased with this camera. I am by no means an advanced photographer. But I am simply not attracted to the small one-dimensional point-and-shoot cameras. I guess I am the absolute intended target of the A200. My initial impressions, based on one day of playing, is that this is a very advanced camera. The feel of the camera is excellent. The weight and size are just enough to give a solid feel while still compact. Controls are very intuitive and reading the manual for a few minutes lets you jump right in to some very advance, but easily programmable features. Basic guidance in terms of navigation etc. are supplied at the bottom of each screen. Particularly nice are the 5 sets of programmable image settings. These then are available on each startup on the `MR' setting. Very easy and excellent feature that I have not seen mentioned too much in the more formal reviews. Consistent with comments in some of the more detailed reviews on the web, colors were a bit muted on the `native' color setting, and the AF was a tad slow indoors or at high zoom. Color can be either enhanced by selecting the `vivid' setting or offline in the supplied software. Oddly enough, color seemed better on the tele-macro setting than on the regular setting. The DiMAGE viewer software is simple and straight forward. What I really like is that it does not look like a product of the Disney company. It is clean and professional looking and is clearly intended for a pro-sumer audience. Anyway, back to the camera. In general this is a really nice camera and I am certain that as I become more familiar with it I will take better photos. However, I would mention that one immediate point that struck me, and that I have not yet seen in online reviews, is the quality of the auto white-balance indoors. It consistently gave very yellow images. This was very easily remedied with a few buttons to set the white balance to either the pre-set `tungsten' setting or by measuring it and saving in one of two memory settings. However, I was surprised that this was necessary. Outdoors, automatic white balance was fine. This may prompt me to stick with my Olympus 3040Zoom for indoor shooting and use the DiMAGE primarily for outdoor shooting where it really shines. A few minor odd-bits: I can't seem to understand what the reason for the `control wheel is' in that every function it serves is redundant to other control options on the camera. For some reason the designers felt it necessary to build in artificial shutter sound effects when you take a picture. I suppose it is a good thing to have sound verification that the exposure has taken place, but is a little juvenile. Luckily, all system sounds are easily changed, turned down or off.

Pros: Excellent fit, finish, feel and dimensions. Excellent documentation. System firmware is simple to navigate and full-featured. A welcome return to a manual zoom ring. Easy to use features and intuitive navigation. Very useful preset image settings. Practical and functional software package with an adult user interface.

Cons: Disappointing auto white balance indoors. Lens cover has no attachment strap and will likely be lost within a year. EVF is a little grainy, I would never use it for manual focus. The LCD is much higher resolution and more suitable for manual focus.

Bisher besaß ich diverse analoge Minolta Spiegelreflexkameras (Dynax 505si Super, 7000 AF, 9000 AF) sowie die digitale Dimage E201. Der größte Nachteil bei letzterer war das fehlende optische Zoom. Durch die Geburt meiner Tochter entschloß ich mich, in eine brauchbare Digitalkamera zu investieren, damit ich nicht unzählige Fotos entwickeln lassen muß und alles bequem auf der Festplatte archivieren kann. Nachdem ich bisher mit Minolta sehr zufrieden war, fiel meine Wahl schließlich auf die Dimage A200. Bisher habe ich diesen Entschluß nicht bereut: Die Bildqualität ist ausgezeichnet, die Bedienung intuitiv, das Handling o.k. Einzig den automatischen Weißabgleich sollte man bei normalem Glühbirnenlicht lieber auf manuell stellen, um bessere Ergebnisse zu erhalten (bei anderen Lichtquellen funktioniert er tadellos). Der eingebaute Blitz ist für Schnappschüsse ausreichend, ansonsten verwende ich einen Metz Mecablitz mit entsprechendem Adapter. Sehr vernünftig finde ich auch das manuelle Zoomobjektiv: erstens ist man schneller, stellt den Bildausschnitt exakter ein und spart auch noch Akku. Die Möglichkeit, im Autofokusmodus manuell einzugreifen, ist mitunter sehr nützlich (Direct Manual Fokus). Dafür vergrößert die Kamera auch das Sucherbild. Alles in allem findet man in der Dimage A200 eine perfekte Digitalkamera mit Spiegelreflex-Feeling.

I was really undecided on whether or not to get this. I have a HP Photosmart 945 which is a decent but not great camera, and had recently gotten a DXG flash "camcorder" for shooting home movies and whatever. Some of my indecision was all the higher end cameras like this one use compact flash memory and proprietary batteries, while the "consumer" models get by on SD cards and AA's, rechargeable or otherwise. SD cards are darn cheap, and AA's are everywhere.

However, I really felt the limitations of the 945, the worst for me being very slow writing to the memory no matter how fast a card I used. It eventually came down to this or a Rebel XT. From the sample pictures I've seen the Rebel is a better camera, but it's much more expensive and to really take advantage of it you need to buy extra lenses. Plus, I had to admit to myself I'm not a professional photographer.

The selling points to me on the A200 were the anti-shake mechanism and an advertised movie mode of 30fps. I was a little skeptical of the movie mode, as the 945's "movie" was something like 233X200 at about 15-20 fps and poor quality, and I didn't expect much better.

So I ordered one and UPS delivered it a few days later. At first feel I thought I'd made a mistake, the A200 is plastic and feels like it. It's real little, much smaller than I expected. The manual zoom is just a sliding cylinder...I thought I'd bought a very expensive plastic toy. That is until I took the lens cap off, and thought, "That's a nice piece of glass."

To shorten my next few days the A200 is capable of great shots, but you can still take lousy ones if you're not careful. The focus and detail in the pictures are fantastic, as well as the color. But it does take time to learn to adjust the settings. While it does have an auto setting it's not a generic point and click, and you're wasting your money if that's how you take pictures. While the manual zoom felt cheap at first, now I positively love it over the push-a-button zoom most cameras have.

I was initially disappointed with the anti-shake, and wondered if it was even working. It will enable better quality pictures in dim light down to about three shutter speed settings below what you could otherwise. Setting my shutter speed on manual I got down to about 1/15 of a second. Telephoto shots in daylight is where it really shines, just remember to use the spot focus in the center of the image (normally it's predictive) and they'll come out sharp.

The movie mode, however, blew me away. I got the little DXG mostly because I could take movie clips of any length, and was willing to live with mediocre quality at 320X240. It has a very limited light range where it gets good results. The A200, however, is like going from grainy first generation videotape to HDTV, it's that much better. The movie length may "only" be about 10-15 minutes per clip, but unless you're putting your camera on a tripod and filiming an entire event, do you really need to take clips that long? The A200 lets you edit clips in-camera, and comes with movie editing software, plus for Mac users it saves to quicktime format. One caveat is to turn off the autofocus, otherwise the little typewriter noises will drive you nuts.

The only real weaknesses I've seen in this camera is the indoor white balance for natural light photos has to be manually set to tungsten, otherwise the pictures have a marked yellow cast. This to me is a minor problem as it takes two seconds to adjust it. What is very annoying to me is how small many of the buttons and controls are. In particular the main function ring, which has a control button in the center, makes it hard for me to press that button without activating something else instead. However, this seems to be the trend in cameras as they're all getting very-very small.

Overall for people wanting more than the average camera, but not wanting to go to all the expense of a DSLR, or wanting to combine a camera with a decent camcorder, this is a great buy.

I have been interested in photography for years, but this is the first good quality camera I have ever owned. I found this camera very easy to use right out of the box. After just a few minutes I got up the courage to take the camera of auto and see what else it could do. I found the menus easy to navigate and was able to produce great results with just two days of practice. The macro setting is amazing and the anti shake feature lives up to its promise. I haven't even needed to use a tripod. I am extremely happy with my purchase and look forward to getting many years of use out of this camera.

As a owner of 2 other 35mm SLR cameras and a digital camera I didn't expect this camera to take photo's as good as my film cameras. I was supprised with the detail and sharpness in the photo's this camera took. I took photo's using macro mode of flowers on a bright summer day and the color came out perfect. This camera has everything except the ability to change the lens. The 28 - 200mm lens works great. In short I would recomemnd this camera to anyone who wants more than a point & shoot and expects great photo's. A great camera.

Although I've had the camera a short time, I've found the quality similiar to my Minolta 35mm SLRs. At first I thought the learning curve was going to be a daunting task but if you take it one step at a time its not so bad; its just remembering all the features that K-M has given you in one small package. I do wish that the camera had a longer telephoto like the Z-5, however, the lens range is what I use the most often anyway. With the card adapter that I purchase, I can use both Compact Flash and SD cards. People mention size and compared to my 35mm SLR they are similiar and the A200 is a good secure fit for the hand. I also appreciate the range of the adjustable LCD viewer, it certainly makes it easier to handle some of those shots you want without having to get in awkward positions. I probably could have given it 5-stars but I need more time with it.

Dies ist meine siebte Digitalkamera nach Modellen von Canon, Sony und Olympus.

Die Bildqualitäts ist sehr gut, wie eigentlich bei allen Modellen dieser Klasse. Jedenfalls haben Monitorkalibrierung und Laborqualität einen viel größeren Einfluss auf die Bildqualität.

Die Bildverarbeitung in der Kamera ist bei Jpeg Bildern sehr behutsam. Manche Leute sind entäuscht von den sehr natürlichen Farben der A200, die etwas langweilig wirken. Leider sind wir inzwischen an die farbübersättigten und überscharfen Bilder der meisten Digitalkompakten gewöhnt. Wer's bunter mag findet aber genügend manuelle Einstellungen um sich auszutoben.

Um die Kamera richtig zu nutzen, sollte man sich ausgiebig der Bedienungsanleitung widmen und auch die physikalischen Grundlagen moderner Kameratechnik nicht vergessen. Diese sind z.B. auf der KonicaMinolta-Photoworld Internetseite erklärt. Das betrifft besonders die Punkte Bildrauschen und Fokussiergeschwindigkeit, die bei allen vergleichbaren Modellen gleich problematisch sind.

Im Auto Bereich (bis ISO 200) gibt es nicht viel zu meckern. Bei ISO 800 ist das Bildrauschen natürlich deutlich sichtbar. Das liegt aber an der CCD Technik. Mit gängigen Rauschverminderungsfiltern (z.B. in PaintShopPro 9) ergeben sich aber gute Resultate. Zusammen mit dem fantastischen Anti-Shake System werden Innenaufnahmen ohne Blitz zur Freude.

Fokusprobleme können sich mit dem Wide AF ergeben, da dabei die Kamera den Kontrast des ganzen Bildes auswerten muss und das kann dauern. Schneller und genauer, auch bei schlechten Lichtverhältnissen, gehts mit dem Spot oder FFP Autofokus, bei dem nur ein Teil des Bildes verarbeitet wird. Findet der Sensor keine Kontrast versagt natürlich jedes kontrastbasierte AF System. Da hilft nur die manuelle Scharfeinstellung, die allerdings etwas mehr Übung erfordert. Es geht aber.

Ich habe mir die A200 aus drei Gründen gekauft. Das manuelle 28-200 Zoom, dass deutlich einfacher zu handhaben ist als die üblichen elektronischen Zooms. Den Sucher, der auch für mich als Brillenträger gut geeignet ist. Und besagtes Anti Shake System, mit dem man locker mit 1/25s aus der Hand photographieren kann.

Alles in allem bin ich mit der A200 sehr zufrieden.

I purchased this camera a couple of weeks ago. I just love this camera. It is so easy to use even in manual mode. I just have to turn a mode knob to apature or shuttle and turn a little wheel by the snap buttom to what I want. On my olympus 740 this was in a hidden menu and ended up loosing the perfect picture by the time I got there. The 7x manual zoom is more then enough. A lot quicker turning something myself then hitting a button and waiting. A $10 set-up ring allowed me to use my extra lenses and filters that I had with my other camera.
My two complaints
1. The on/off button is inline with the snap button. The first couple of times I turned off the camera instead of taking a picture.
2. I havn't figured out how to turn off the sound. It plays music when you turn it on. It also make the sound of a manual camera when taking a picture. This is nice but not when you are trying to take pictures of animals in the wild.

This camera would be great for beginners and even an amatures that don't want to spend the price on a digital slr.

Just be carefull about who you buy it from. I had a scammer on Amazon that tried to get me to western union him over seas. Never pay for anything on Amazon unless you use Amazon payment system.

This is truly a great cam - at least on paper.
The sample images I've found on the net are excellent, with clean and smooth detail. Colour rendition is outstanding, such as dynamic range. The features of the camera are attracting to many.
Still, there is one serious issue: AF indoors.
In the store where I tried the A200 were plenyt of light coming from above, nothing to consider as low-light, just some indoor environment with enough light to take a photo usually, for an average cam.
Unfortunately the A200 just simply could NOT make a focus lock, after several seconds. I gave it up. Indeed, the camera gave it up.
Too bad for a product with such good parameters fails on one of the most important things, focusing ability. Yes, I am talking about focusing ability and not speed.
One star is for the clean images, the other is for the wide feature set.
However, it is reported that outdoors the camera locks focus under a second. Taking photos of landscapes and buildings, this is a nice cam. But for action and indoor shots (even with flash) it is a disaster.
Try before you buy.

I have shot Minolta cameras for 40+ years and they are as good as it gets. This camera will do just about anything you want it to. If you are an advanced amateur, as I am, you will love this camera. Very versatile, and though it is mostly plastic, it is Minolta quality throughout. I highly recommend it.

Nun hab ich zu meiner Dimage Z1 (jetzt fotografiert meine Partnerin damit), mir nach langen suchen und Testen Dimag A1/A2///Canon Pro1// Canon 300D usw. die Minolta Dimage A200 zugelegt.
Die ersten Erfahrungen nach 3 Monaten sind wieder überzeugend,wie bereits bei der Dimage Z1. Aber der Vergleich hinkt. Die Dimage Z1,siehe meine Rezession, ist eine Spitzenkamera aber die Dimage A 200 einige Klassen besser.
Was mich besonders überzeugt ist der manuell einstellbare Zoombereich, 5 manuell wählbare Voreinstellungen für denkbare Situationen wie Dämmerungsaufnahmen, Unter - Überbelichtung, Portraitaufnahmen usw.
Natürlich macht das die Automatik auch, aber man kann die manuellen Programme individuell einstellen. Ich hab dies für Aufnahmen mit Filter vorprogramiert. Auch mit Converter sollte man manuell ein Programm selbst voreinstellen und speichern.
Weiterhin ist das Handling der Kamera sehr gut, alle Tasten(Knöpfe) schnell und gut zu bedienen.
Menü sehr leicht verständlich und schnell zu handhaben. Blitz ist leider etwas zu schwach und auch eine CF Karte fehlt beim Kauf.Was denkt sich Minolta dabei? Vertaut man darauf das die Kameras Spitze sind? Daher nur 4 Sterne. Auch ist das Zubehör sehr sehr teuer. Ich verwende Converter von Kyocera, früher bei meinen Spiegelreflex eingesetzt. Dank Filtergewind von M49 und dazugehörigen Adapter(war im Bestand von mir) setze ich alles Zubehör von meinen Spiegelreflex ein. Filter von Cokin. Es gibt auch keine Schattierungen. Alles in allen ein Leichtgewicht, trotzdem sehr gut zu handeln, liegt perfekt in der Hand, Schwerpunkt gut ausgeglichen und den Rest besorgt die Technik. Nie mehr verwackeln, dies ist perfekt gelöst. Diese Rezession bezieht sich auf Fotografieren mit der A 200. Zum filmen sollte man sich eine Digicam kaufen. Diese Technik kann man getrost weglassen.

I did a bunch of reseach before buying this camera. I wanted something that was more then a point and shoot but less then a dSLR which costs a bit more then I can afford these days. I knew going into it that the AF wasn't the best for the camera, but the Antishake and the ease of adjusting the ISO, Apeture, and Shutter Speed made it a worthwile purchase.

This thing shoots really really sharp low noise shots in even the darkest corners of rooms. Write times aren't that bad, only a bit long if your shooting RAW.

This Camera also has a really cool mode called Ultra-High Speed that shoots like 40 frames a second. Its great for capture really high speed moments in time.

I also really like the manual zoom. It really gives you the feeling of control over the camera.

The only drawback is the AF, but you can overcome that with the Direct Manual Focus feature, which lets you override the AF by turning the focus ring.

If you can afford it, buy it, it won't let you down.

I bought my Dimage A200 about 6 months ago based on extensive research for a prosumer point-and-shoot camera. I own a Nikon D70, and was looking for an alternative to lugging around my D70 and all of my accessories. At the time, I was torn between the Dimage A200, Canon Pro1, and the Nikon 8800. In the end I found an incredible deal at my local store and got the Dimage A200. Since then I have found so many features on this camera that the only accessories that I find necessary to bring with me is a Circular polarizer (49mm.), extra battery, and the supplied Lens Hood and remote control. If you already own this great camera, the Lowepro Rezo TLZ 10 is the PERFECT camera bag for the minimalist photographer.

The features that I discovered include the ability to control Filter Level on camera at a range of +-5. Although not perfect, this allows me to leave all of my warming and cooling filters out of the bag. In addition, when switched to Black and White image capturing, you can select from 10 different color filters and levels that include red, blue, green, purple but no yellow (oh well).

One of the reasons I chose this camera was because I can have the ability to have near total manual controls. When I set my A200 on manual, I set the viewfinder to "Exposure Priority" and with the use of the Live Histogram, I can look for the exact effect before I release the shutter. This puts the guesswork out, but I also have the ability to use the Exposure and Filter Bracketing function when necessary.

With the different combinations in options a photographer has with the A200, it would be irresponsible for me not to mention the "Memory Recall" mode. In any mode, i.e. manual, shutter priority, aperture priority etc. I can save all of my current settings via the "menu" into any one of 5 slots. As a reminder for myself I make a note on a standard Post-it note that fits perfectly in the LCD cut out. This feature is such a lifesaver especially when shooting in that little window of time during the dawn and dusk hours of the day. Not only are all of your setting saved in the Memory Recall mode, but any setting that you leave in the "creative" modes, will be recalled upon selecting that mode even after you power off and change batteries.

The "White Balance" set to auto and the preset white balance selections are decent, but the ability to save 2 custom white balance settings gives a notch above the competition especially useful when moving between two different lighting situations. Just have to remember to bring a white index card in you bag.

"Color saturation" and "Contrast controls" give yet another creative options to your pictures. Most cameras that I've run into only give you a High Medium Low settings for color and contrast. The A200 instead gives +-5 degree levels.

"Second Curtain" flash sync is a selectable feature that controls when the flash fires being at the beginning or the end of a long exposure shot.

The flip monitor as mentioned in other reviews is such a big seller for me, being a previous owner of the Canon A80 and now the Canon A620. An unmentioned ability of this variable angle monitor is to shoot "around the corner" having the camera 90 degrees left or right not just above or below as mentioned in other reviews.

I know I haven't mentioned all the features of this camera, but I figure you could get that from reading other reviews. By no means am I comparing the A200 to my Nikon D70, I am merely suggesting that the A200 is my Compact and especially Lightweight alternative (19.5 oz with battery). I gave the Dimage A200 a 5 star because of the loaded features and the ability to have complete manual control over your shots. All of the features I've mentioned can also be accessible in Program mode (virtually AUTO mode) for those that just want to point and shoot.

I have had mine for several months now & like it overall. It doesn't have everything I want, & more than I need. It's just under a DLSR & much better than a point & shoot. The features are easy to use, once you remember to set them. Change the battery, lose your settings. There isn't an internal battery, so you have to reset everything.
One BIG problem with this camera that I didn't notice till I needed it. Shooting in the darkness of night! Man what a pain!! It doesn't like night shots, even with the night portrait feature! If you want to take a shot of the moon, you MUST use a tripod. Even than it's not exact. Any movement & the shots is blurred. The camera takes forever to focus enough to take a shot at night, & you can't hold it that long.

I've heard people talk about indoor shots. Yes, they suck! Especially if the lighting is with halogen lamps! Even shooting in RAW mode, the pix come out harsh. You can manipulate the shots when in raw, which is great! So don't be discouraged.

Unless Minolta/Konica updates the firmware so it can shoot better, I'd look at other cameras if you're going to take any pix at night (moon, fireworks, Chritmas decorations etcc).

The bright side. You really don't need the additional lenses. On full back (normal position), the shots are quite wide, & zooming out is great too! I have the monster wide angle, it offers more, but only for vast landscapes, bigger than a house.
Macro or close up shots, WOW! I bought a fake flower to practice on, & you can see the thread lines. I have their macro lens & am buying additional lenses for close ups.

When shooting people, be careful. This camera doesn't miss anything (except where to focus). Every blemish shows up, it's an 8MP that's what it does.

High speed shots, this thing is wild. It's like an old movie clickety clickety. Keep in mind though, the shots are quite small on the fastest setting. You can catch a bird flying, but movie mode will too (at a better resolution).

All in all, I love this camera. I have some accessories & a few bags for it. It's light (plastics help), turns right on & goes to town. Keep in mind though. Battery life is small. I have two batteries & keep an auto converter handy for the charger. Also, Ultra or Highest speed CF cards are the way to go. Especially on RAW+JPG. RAW is 11.5 megs plus the jpg shot. You can get an update from Minolta for using 4gig plus cards, when you want to shoot more. That's about it. I'd suggest buying it, even with the flaws. It's fantastic, quick to use & light. You can carry all of the pieces on a hike & not be greatly concerned. One more thing! The buttons are sensative! When it's on, you'll change things quickly when you pick it up & touch a button.

The quality of the this camera and lens is good but the auto focus operation is quite poor. Low light auto focus is next to impossible and even in good light the auto focus performance is quite slow. The EVF performance in low light is not very good. I was hoping this camera would be my answer to an "almost SLR" but it underperformed. Picture quality was good and flash performance was quite good as well.

You can read about all the cool features (and trust me, there are a lot of them) from konica minolta's website, but what I really want to attest to that you can't always necessarily trust from the manufacturer's website is QUALITY. If you want really high-quality pictures (and are willing to take some time to learn how to use the settings properly), then this camera will not disappoint you. I'm hoping to start selling my photos in the near future, so image quality is extremely important to me. I wanted to get a dSLR, but simply couldn't afford to get high-quality one with a decent assortment of lenses comparable to the 28mm-200mm lens (22mm - 300mm with accessories) that the Dimage A200 has. Eventually, I still plan to get a dSLR so that I can have such luxeries as a 600mm telephoto lens, but for now, the A200 is performing better than I could have hoped for and has all the same settings that most dSLRs have (except for interchangeable lenses of course). Maybe some other people got lemons (or aren't using their cameras properly), but the autofocus on my camera is working perfectly. I must admit that it's slower in low light situations, but it almost always gets there eventually (and in the rare instances when it doesn't, you can use the direct manual focus to fine-tune it...not the easiest thing in the world, but it does work). The battery doesn't last as long as I would like, so I recommend getting at least one back-up. I got a generic one for about $15 after tax and shipping and it works great. Also, I want to clarify that the camera DOES NOT lose its settings when the battery is changed (this could be because I have a spare battery and can replace it immediately instead of waiting for it to charge, or other people got lemons or aren't using the cameras properly). The camera's built-in macro capabilities aren't fantastic (i.e., you can't get very close to your subject), but getting the close-up lens (CL49-200) solves that problem. Now I have crystal clear pictures of things I otherwise never would have seen (e.g., a butterfly's tongue). Also, if a 200mm lens isn't enough for you, you can get the ACT-100 telephoto converter to extend your lens to a supposed 300mm (however, my personal experience shows it to be something more like 290mm). And that's my only real complaint about this camera (which I was fully aware of before purchasing it)--I just wish it had a longer lens. My old camera had a 380mm lens and I really miss having that much range. Then again, if the A200 had a 380mm lens, it probably would have bumped up the price to something I couldn't afford anyway. All-in-all, this camera is fantastic and anyone who takes the time to learn how to use it properly should not be disappointed.

I am a graphic artist, and I am thrilled with the pixel quality of this camera. I see no color mis-alignment as in other cameras. I am especially thrilled with the anti-shake technology; I have been able to shoot indoor pictures at night under ambient light with no tripod! More than half of my shots are not blurry!

After reading many reviews for this camera and exploring the many other cameras out there, I finally decided on the Minolta A200. While the camera is really outstanding in normal situations, the auto focus is absolutely useless in low light. Moreover, the camera vibrated roughly when it was trying to focus. Pictures taken in AF mode in low light were very out of focus. I assumed the camera was defective and returned it to Minolta. But when I received it back from them (after 3 weeks), it still had the same problem. The camera is completely unacceptable, if you're ever planning to take a pictures indoors in moderate to low light. I really can't understand anyone giving it a positive review.

I spent hours researching the many digital cameras on the market and their reviews. I decided upon the Minolta A200 because I previously owned some Minolta film cameras and liked the image quality. I'm unsure what my expectations were with the A200. For the first week I had it, I despised it. I had even called Minolta Customer Service but it was a Saturday and they weren't available. I read and re-read the manual. I searched on the internet and learned additional information about aperture settings, ISO, and shutter lag. By week two, it wasn't the broken camera I thought it was. By week four, I had taken some really nice photos and learned a lot about its many features. I have a long way to go, but I've had this camera for five weeks now and am really quite attached to it. It has some shutter lag between the RAW shots and in low light, but with a little patience and some creativity with the controls, the photos are quite good. After having talked with friends about auto focus and low light, it appears that it exists with most digital cameras. Still, I've taken photos with the A200 in extremely low light situations with minimum movement, of course, and the photos were very good. I recently took pictures at a birthday party for a two-year old. I didn't use a flash at all and the party was indoors due to rainy weather. 95% of the photos were without any blur. I have often found that flash pictures, at least when I take them, leave the subject bright and washed out so I try to avoid flash pictures whenever possible. I also used the A200's video capabilities recently. I forgot to change the video setting back to the picture setting when taking a family photo so I ended up with a video of everyone saying "Cheese." Some mistakes are blessings in disguise. The video auto-focus at the smaller setting makes a clicking noise, but at 800 x 600 I haven't noticed any noise at all. The zoom can also be used while taking video though it takes just a couple of seconds to refocus on the subject(s). The color pictures (natural setting) are true-to-life, the black and white setting is really fun, and the macro is adequate. I rarely use the "Vivid" setting. I did purchase the close-up lens, but have learned that the wide angle macro is fine and crops nicely. From my findings, it appears that the close-up lens must be used at a determined length to be in focus and the center of the subject is in fine focus but the outer area can be fuzzy. I will probably not use it enough to have justified its purchase. I did purchase the Konica Minolta step-up ring (49mm-62mm), the Konica Minolta Circular Polarizer (62mm recommended by KM to prevent vignetting which it does) and a 62mm metal screw-on lens cap for the filter to protect it. These were NOT inexensive filters but in my opinion a worthwhile purchase. There is very little grain at ISO400 so I am pleased about that. I'm still learning about photographing action shots. My success has been minimal in that area but it probably means learning more about its many settings. My only wish for this camera is that it had a 300mm zoom. Still, with 8MP, cropping works just fine. I have become very attached to this camera. It has been and continues to be such a rich learning experience. It is NOT a camera for someone who is expecting a point and shoot. It will certainly disappoint. It will not have the shutter speed of a dSLR. It requires some patience in low-light, but the results are really nice. I am quite happy about this camera and what it can do.

I have had a Minolta film camera for many years and was very pleased with it so when I decided to shop for a digital camera I already new about Minolta's quality. I knew I wanted a digital camera with @ least 7 MP, and this one has 8! Took me a little bit of time to figure out all of the features and get used to shooting with a digital camera, but I am so pleased that I bought this one. Even without the close up lens, (which I plan to buy when it is available) I have taken shots with this camera, uploaded them to a photo gallery online and had them enlarged up to a 20x30 and the quality IS AMAZING! I would also suggest the Tiffen filters that not only protect your lens but also give you some amazing effects!

I bought the Konica Minolta A200 , took it on vacation with me, took numerous pictures with it and printed several of them. The quality of the prints were awful, I have a HP 3.3 mp digital camera that take much better pictures. I have tried different program for printing the pictures, I have went through the manual, I have used the tripod, nothing seems to work. If there is not anything wrong with this camera it is not worth $552, and I have no vacation pictures to enjoy & share.

I reviewed my a200 last summer, I thought it would be interesting to note how I feel about the camera now.

For the majority of people wanting a "pro" looking camera without having to buy all the accessories it'll do, but I've run up into several limitations.

A lot of people haven't heard that Konica-Minolta has left the camera business, and in particular this camera seems like an orphan stepchild. There's no battery grip or underwater housings available, nor any extended batteries save the very expensive and hard to find EBP-100.

Last fall I bought a Nikon D50, and the difference couldn't be bigger. The Minolta has an incredibly slow autofocus, an ISO sensitvity of only up to 800, lots of noise in the pictures, and the RAW format files are something like 11 megs per picture. It has little infrared sensitivity and good luck getting anything other than a Minolta flash for it.

The higher sensivity of the D50 pretty much negates the advantages of the Minolta's "anti-shake," I just turn up the sensitivty or use a wider apeture, and the pictures look fine.

The average person will likely say, "yeah, but I don't care about all that," in which case the a200 would be a good choice for them. I quickly found myself hitting it's limits, and grudgingly keep it as a backup camera/camcorder. The movies it takes are actually pretty good, but even then there's some workararounds. Quicktime isn't supported very well by free movie editors, and the included verion of Ulead only makes Video CD's.

I pinched for a copy of Sony Vegas as I can use it for other things, but it's gotten to the point I no longer care for this camera and wish I hadn't spent so much money on it. Bottom line, if you're serious about doing real photography, get a digital SLR.

I have travelled to Europe twice and counted on this camera to bring back great shots, and I haven't been disappointed. Added the wide angle lens and it has been outstanding.
The only thing negative I would say is that the batteries are hard to find if you are in a foreign city.

I've been using Minolta equipment of some sort for over 20 years now. Had a 7Hi which is a good camera but this a200 is even better. 8 Mega pixels is way better than 5.1 -- the movie options are better (800x600) -- the anti-shake feature is a lot better than the 7Hi. Limitations however are as others describe--battery is difficult to find, if you use the RAW format (which why would you NOT use the maximum capacity of the camera) it becomes a storage hog. I routinely convert the RAW file to TIFF to use with iPhoto and suddenly a 11 MB file jumps to over 45! Ouch!

I am currently in the middle of switching computers and I hope that using Apeture will create a lot of hard drive space that was otherwise soaked up by this supersize TIFF's.

Durability--the 7Hi is a durable day to day camera--dropped it a lot--finally had to buy a new camera because the power switch broke internally. The a200 is a tempermental camera--I'm on my second because my first one got dropped gently onto pavement from a car seat--no big deal I thought until I turned it on and it was clearly out of whack -- couldn't focus properly and there was a slight vignette on one side. Sent it off to be repaired--this was March--months later (July?) Sony says they won't fix it (no parts etc--) I insist they do have parts and to send them. Meanwhile I bought a new one for less than I spent on the first one and it's been dropped twice and it doesn't seem to mind. Sony has agreed to reinburse my cost of the first camera but I can't get either the repair place or Sony to write me a letter. Sony is very bad in my book these days. Camera wise anyway.

I use my a200 as a day to day haul along in the car to take pictures of whatever as I see fit. It is great for this sort of thing--flowers, fall leaves, people, cars, whatever. It is a good all rounder without spending thousands of dollars. I'd give it 5 stars if it weren't for my bad experiences with Sony trying to get them to honor the warrenty. Bad Sony! =(

Things I have that I'd get more of--more than one spare battery, a spare charger, at least 1 GB flash card -- haven't tried a faster type of card to see if that improves things but it does get slow with the RAW setting--but the movie option makes up for that.

I'd get a high end camera like a Canon but they don't offer a movie feature--nor do they have a swivel view finder (really do use that feature regularly).

For $500 or so--it's a good deal--especially if your'e like me and just don't want to invest big bucks in something that is too easily damaged, lost, or out right stolen.

In English

she is my favorite... . it enchants to me. it is small cofashion, practices. the screen is helpful since I am very short. and I can raise camara or to remove... or to remove photos from the floor with no need from tirarme.. to do it... I have removed photos at night with triprunes and without. they very leave or those that remove in very slow slow speed. or in bulb. they enchanted to me... very recommendable. but I have found out that konicaminolta this letting do them... is a true pain. because it is by much very good... for my anything that to envy to other used marks but. excellent. I recommend it.

Pros
Wide Angle Lens is best in class. Natural colors. Manual zoom. Threaded lens barrel.

Cons
A bit slow, but do often you need fast shot to shot speeds?

The Bottom Line
Consider this trade off for a wider than usual wide angle, but less than usual zoom. You'll get more use out the wide end of the lens.

Full Review
KonicaMinolta was bought by Sony, who discontinued making Minoltas, but says they will honor the warranties. This means this camera is falling quickly in price. You can get it for almost half its original price.

It has been knocked by reviewers for two reasons...poor autofocus and noise problems. The noise doesn't seem to be an issue, unless you need ISO 400 . Unless its almost dark, or the subject is moving quickly in low light, the anti-shake system means you can take almost any shot with ISO200 or even lower. You do get some noise with ISO400, but its still good for 4x6 prints. ISO800 is really noisy, but lets you photograph in near darkness without a flash, and the pictures look brightly lit. In short, I don't find the noise to be any more of problem than other digicams, and if you compare professional reviews, neither do most reviewers.

As for the focus issue, the camera's default mode is the wide area focus. For some reason, the camera will often focus on the closest object in the scene, which may not be what you want. This is especially common indoors. I don't know what the advantage of this wide area focus is, but it certainly causes problems with low light focusing. You need to get into the camera's menu and change it to Spot Auto Focus mode. This mode will let you select one of eleven spots for it to focus on. Select the spot in the middle. The camera will now behave like any other autofocus camera, and will not have any focus problems.

Once the focus problem is solved, there is plenty to make this camera my favorite. The best feature is the 28mm equivalent wide end of the 7x zoom. Most digicams have a 35mm wide end. The difference is noticable in landscape shots, and in indoor shots. You will really appreciate this wide lens. Sure, other zoom cameras have 10x/12x zooms, but much of your photography will be done with the wide end of the zoom. My old camera had a 10x zoom, and I found I hardly ever used the high end, but often wished for a wider wide angle. With 8 MPs, you can zoom and crop on the PC if you need better telephoto.

The anti-shake feature really works. This camera replaced an Olympus C2100UZ with image stablization, which for its time was top of the line in big zoom digicams. I can say I'll never buy a camera without an image stablizer/anti-shake feature. It lets you take handheld pics in low light with low ISO. It also lets you take pics from a moving platform, like a car or boat. Its not perfect, but it works most of the time.

The custom white balance works just a bit better than the camera's auto white balance does, and you can save two custom settings and easily switch between them. This is good if you are moving around between different types of lighting. Speaking of saving settings, you can save all your resolution/white balance/exposure/color settings into one of 5 memory spaces. This lets you set the camera up for five different situations, which are quickly accessed. This is much easier than changing many settings settings as you move indoors/outdoors and through different lighting situations.

The controls are arranged nicely, and there's even a nice rubber thumb pad that helps you grip the camera. The manual zoom ring works better than an electric zoom lever found on most cameras. The manual focus ring is useless, because the monitors are not high enough resolution to judge focus. Luckily, if you make the above change in the autofucus, you won't need the manual focus, except in extremely low light. The manual focus can then be used to set the focus for the approximate distant to the subject.

The A200 has a threaded lens barrel, which lets you leave a UV or polarized filter on it, without the cumbersome adapter tubes that most cameras use. The lens cap is high quality, and won't fall off, unlike many cameras. It also has a flash hot shoe.

The picture quality is very good, especially after you learn to use the menu settings for exposure and white balance. Color is natural, instead of overblown. Canon is the biggest offender at overblown colors. Notice how much red is in a Canon photo. The A200 pictures will have accurate color, especially if you use the right white balance setting. Of course, if you like the overblown color look, there's a menu setting to turn it on. The camera's auto white balance is ok in a pinch, but if you have time, the colors look a little better with the custom white balance. If you like to play with Photoshop, the A200 can shoot in Raw, which lets you adjust white balance and other settings on your PC.

There simply isn't a better combination of resolution, lens, automatic settings and manual controls out there, unless you go to a digital SLR. An SLR with enough lens to duplicate the A200's would cost much more than the A200. For most folks, the A200 will be more than enough camera, yet it's still simple enough for a novice to use. A novice could start taking pics right away with this thing, and then develop his craft by experimentation with all the manual settings available.

To start I with I have to say that I couldn't agree more with the Jan 3rd 2007 review. I purchased this camera a year ago now (Wow, has the price dropped!).I had thought about a DSLR at the time. However, I still do mostly shoot film, especially black & white prints and color slides. I decided that a DSLR was going to be way more money then I wanted to spend on a camera that I wasn't going to use constantly. I did some research and came upon the A200. Now bearing in mind that the A200 is my first digital camera, I do have to say that I was, and still am very happy with it. The auto focus is dreadfully slow on the default setting in low light situations. However, I took the advice of the Jan 3rd 2007 review, and have eliminated that problem. The pics are noisy ISO 400, however I think I've used that setting 2 times in the year that I've owned it, not a problem for me. One more pro and one more con. First, this camera has a EVF or electrical view finder. This is opposed to a optical view finder that DSLRS have, or better yet, like all of the film cameras have / had. This can make composing pictures with movement a bit difficult. You're not viewing the scene in real time, so there is a bit of a lag in time between any movement in the scene and what you see through the view finder. Not anyhting that would make me not use the camera, just a little tricky in certain situations. Another pro about this camera is the fact that is has a ISO setting of 50. Most camers do not include a ISO this "slow," the slowest end ISO's on most cameras range somewhere bewtween ISO 100 and ISO 150. This isn't a feature I use constantly, however I do use it, and I like knowing that the option is there when I do want to use it. I have taken some really nice pics with this camera, now, they don't (and digital pics never will) compare to a beautiful color slide or contrasty B&W print. Still, this camera delivers,I have had some excellent prints result from using it. You really just have to read the owner manual and learn how to fine tune it. To this day (like the auto focus fix as an example) I am still learning how to improve on using it. It might not techinically be considered a "Professional camera," but you can definitely get "Professional" quality results from it.

An excellent replacement for an ex-advanced amateur who wanted to depart from add-on lenses and still retain some of the attachable features.

I had one of these cameras (3 years old) and dropped it on vacation this spring and destroyed it. After reviewing the other available cameras decided to just get the same one again. I would have had to more than double my cost plus get a different memory card to have a better piece of equipment.

Thanks