Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3 Digital Camera
- Digital Zoom: 4x
- Camera Type: Standard Point and Shoot
- Weight: 0.74 lb.
- LCD Screen Size: 1.5 in.
- Resolution: 4.2 Megapixel
- Optical Zoom: 12x
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Dimage Z3: Third Time Not (Quite) The Charm
Pros
Improved body, good menu displays.
Cons
Disappointing photo quality on low-light images, very little lens protection.
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
If you're looking for an upgrade from a point-and-shoot and you're not too particular about features, you'll like the Z3 a lot. If you need more, keep shopping.
I recently made the decision to try Konica-Minolta's Dimage Z3 digital camera. Up until now, I've been shooting with a FujiFilm S5000 and have generally been pleased, but have had some minor discontent with the photo quality. The grass seemed to be a bit greener on the Z3's side, but was it?
Here's my frame of reference: I do more indoor shooting than outdoor, so I was looking for a camera that performs well in moderate to low light conditions. The camera needs to be rugged for those times I do go on outdoor excursions or when I lug the thing around town to special events. The controls need to be simple enough to use. It should feel good in my hand. And, of course, the picture quality needs to be good.
I had some concerns about the original Z1 – it felt very plastic and fragile, so I decided to pass on buying it. Ditto for the Z2. But with the Z3, something seemed different – was it the sleek, all-black body?
So did the Z3 measure up? Read on...
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
I opened the box with some dread – not over anything in particular, but I just sensed I was going to be disappointed. The camera exterior is attractive. The old silver body of the Z1 has been discarded for a more impressive looking black body, which has a soft textured feel to aid gripping. It felt okay to hold, but not as good as my other camera – still, not too bad. The camera comes with a lens cover that fits snugly and is attached to the camera with a looping thread so it doesn't get lost.
You'll need to keep the lens cover on this camera, too, because the lens itself doesn't have much protection. My previous camera had a fairly sturdy barrel surrounding the lens, buttressed by a metal ring. The thing actually fell on a hard floor once and, except for a slight dent in the metal ring, sustained no damage. I fear what would happen if the same thing happened to the Dimage Z3, so handle it with care.
Picking up the camera, I felt a little better. It didn't feel as delicate as the Z1. Then I went to insert the 16 MB SD card – the access slot opens easily – too easily. Other reviewers have mentioned this and it's true. The SD memory card does fit snugly in the access hatch, but it's a little uncomfortable inserting the thing through the underside of the camera. It's not likely to just fall out, but that's not a chance I'd want to take with, say, a 1GB card. Better to have side insertion as with my previous camera (which has an access hatch that snaps shut firmly with a positive click).
CONTROLS
One thing I disliked about the Z3 right away is the on/off switch which is combined with the play/record mode selector. The on/off switch is a button in the middle while the ring surrounding it twists to select record with the EVF (electronic viewfinder), record with the LCD, or play. I had a Sony camcorder once with similar construction and after so many twists the external switch broke off. I doubt that will happen with the Z3, but it seems a weaker control.
Pressing the button to power on the camera extends the telephoto barrel lens. To turn it off, you must press and hold the same button for about three seconds. The camera has a power saver so after so much time it switches off, but the barrel remains extended. Pressing any button on the camera body wakes it up, which is kind of nice (my previous camera, you had to turn it completely off, then on again). But I was a bit baffled seeing the message "Retrieving images" flash across the LCD when I powered up. What happens when you have a lot of images? Does it take longer? Is that why it warns you?
Like other cameras in this class, controls are primarily menu-driven and are fairly well organized. I didn't need to read the manual to figure out how to set the date and time, although it was a bit of a challenge finding the ISO setting (it's labeled "Sensitivity"). The Z3 has five ISO settings – 50, 100, 200, 400, and automatic. There is no 800 setting as on my previous camera. For my testing I let the camera choose the ISO by itself.
The Z3 sounds a digitized toy-piano-sounding tone when you press the shutter release – sort of what you'd expect from a toy camera, not a serious one. I didn't manage to find out how to switch that off. Another irritant – while the shutter lag is fine, I did notice you must press and hold the shutter release button down to ensure the picture registers. There were several times I thought I had captured images only to discover, upon review, I hadn't taken it at all.
The flash unit is activated by pulling up on it. I've actually gotten spoiled by pressing a button on my previous camera – it solidly and smartly flips to attention. Just a nit, not a major irritant.
IMAGE QUALITY
While the Z3 seemed to do better on sharpness – with the right lighting and settings – it overall didn't do very well in low lighting conditions. I snapped a few images without flash in my living room, lit by a 100-watt floor lamp and a 75-watt floor lamp. For grins, I took a few images of my TV which was on. An hour or so later, I used the Z3 do headshots for a friend using photoflood lights (these are very bright lights that professionals use).
The living room images weren't very good – quite dark, and a bit fuzzy. The TV images were also fuzzy. The headshot images were okay, but some of those actually turned out overexposed (I used the camera's automatic mode for these).
I did not try the camera in direct sunlight but let's face it – virtually all digital cameras do well in direct sunlight. Heck, my camera phone can do some good stuff if it's high noon. So I don't have anything to say about sunny-day shots.
I'm sure some folks would take me to task for what might seem like a rash judgment on the Z3, but my tack is this: a good camera needs to be intuitive to operate and demonstrate its quality right away.
VERDICT
Konica-Minolta has some more work to do on the Dimage Z-series cameras. The Z3 is their best effort to date, but it's just not as solid a performer as the FujiFilm S5000 I've been using or the S5100 I'm likely to buy next. The controls are acceptably simple to use, but not the easiest or most intuitive. The feel of the camera body has been improved but is still not completely reassuring. And the image quality is not any better than what I've been using and for that, I have to say No to the Z3.
At a street price of about $500, the Z3 is a bit pricey for the quality. I went mail-order and got it for $344, but I'm not going to keep it. The Z3 might be a good upgrade for someone who's stepping up from a really crappy point-and-shoot, but for an experienced or more serious photographer there are better buys out there.
Here's my frame of reference: I do more indoor shooting than outdoor, so I was looking for a camera that performs well in moderate to low light conditions. The camera needs to be rugged for those times I do go on outdoor excursions or when I lug the thing around town to special events. The controls need to be simple enough to use. It should feel good in my hand. And, of course, the picture quality needs to be good.
I had some concerns about the original Z1 – it felt very plastic and fragile, so I decided to pass on buying it. Ditto for the Z2. But with the Z3, something seemed different – was it the sleek, all-black body?
So did the Z3 measure up? Read on...
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
I opened the box with some dread – not over anything in particular, but I just sensed I was going to be disappointed. The camera exterior is attractive. The old silver body of the Z1 has been discarded for a more impressive looking black body, which has a soft textured feel to aid gripping. It felt okay to hold, but not as good as my other camera – still, not too bad. The camera comes with a lens cover that fits snugly and is attached to the camera with a looping thread so it doesn't get lost.
You'll need to keep the lens cover on this camera, too, because the lens itself doesn't have much protection. My previous camera had a fairly sturdy barrel surrounding the lens, buttressed by a metal ring. The thing actually fell on a hard floor once and, except for a slight dent in the metal ring, sustained no damage. I fear what would happen if the same thing happened to the Dimage Z3, so handle it with care.
Picking up the camera, I felt a little better. It didn't feel as delicate as the Z1. Then I went to insert the 16 MB SD card – the access slot opens easily – too easily. Other reviewers have mentioned this and it's true. The SD memory card does fit snugly in the access hatch, but it's a little uncomfortable inserting the thing through the underside of the camera. It's not likely to just fall out, but that's not a chance I'd want to take with, say, a 1GB card. Better to have side insertion as with my previous camera (which has an access hatch that snaps shut firmly with a positive click).
CONTROLS
One thing I disliked about the Z3 right away is the on/off switch which is combined with the play/record mode selector. The on/off switch is a button in the middle while the ring surrounding it twists to select record with the EVF (electronic viewfinder), record with the LCD, or play. I had a Sony camcorder once with similar construction and after so many twists the external switch broke off. I doubt that will happen with the Z3, but it seems a weaker control.
Pressing the button to power on the camera extends the telephoto barrel lens. To turn it off, you must press and hold the same button for about three seconds. The camera has a power saver so after so much time it switches off, but the barrel remains extended. Pressing any button on the camera body wakes it up, which is kind of nice (my previous camera, you had to turn it completely off, then on again). But I was a bit baffled seeing the message "Retrieving images" flash across the LCD when I powered up. What happens when you have a lot of images? Does it take longer? Is that why it warns you?
Like other cameras in this class, controls are primarily menu-driven and are fairly well organized. I didn't need to read the manual to figure out how to set the date and time, although it was a bit of a challenge finding the ISO setting (it's labeled "Sensitivity"). The Z3 has five ISO settings – 50, 100, 200, 400, and automatic. There is no 800 setting as on my previous camera. For my testing I let the camera choose the ISO by itself.
The Z3 sounds a digitized toy-piano-sounding tone when you press the shutter release – sort of what you'd expect from a toy camera, not a serious one. I didn't manage to find out how to switch that off. Another irritant – while the shutter lag is fine, I did notice you must press and hold the shutter release button down to ensure the picture registers. There were several times I thought I had captured images only to discover, upon review, I hadn't taken it at all.
The flash unit is activated by pulling up on it. I've actually gotten spoiled by pressing a button on my previous camera – it solidly and smartly flips to attention. Just a nit, not a major irritant.
IMAGE QUALITY
While the Z3 seemed to do better on sharpness – with the right lighting and settings – it overall didn't do very well in low lighting conditions. I snapped a few images without flash in my living room, lit by a 100-watt floor lamp and a 75-watt floor lamp. For grins, I took a few images of my TV which was on. An hour or so later, I used the Z3 do headshots for a friend using photoflood lights (these are very bright lights that professionals use).
The living room images weren't very good – quite dark, and a bit fuzzy. The TV images were also fuzzy. The headshot images were okay, but some of those actually turned out overexposed (I used the camera's automatic mode for these).
I did not try the camera in direct sunlight but let's face it – virtually all digital cameras do well in direct sunlight. Heck, my camera phone can do some good stuff if it's high noon. So I don't have anything to say about sunny-day shots.
I'm sure some folks would take me to task for what might seem like a rash judgment on the Z3, but my tack is this: a good camera needs to be intuitive to operate and demonstrate its quality right away.
VERDICT
Konica-Minolta has some more work to do on the Dimage Z-series cameras. The Z3 is their best effort to date, but it's just not as solid a performer as the FujiFilm S5000 I've been using or the S5100 I'm likely to buy next. The controls are acceptably simple to use, but not the easiest or most intuitive. The feel of the camera body has been improved but is still not completely reassuring. And the image quality is not any better than what I've been using and for that, I have to say No to the Z3.
At a street price of about $500, the Z3 is a bit pricey for the quality. I went mail-order and got it for $344, but I'm not going to keep it. The Z3 might be a good upgrade for someone who's stepping up from a really crappy point-and-shoot, but for an experienced or more serious photographer there are better buys out there.
