Well what do you think of the D7D

[dirk]

Hi Peter,

thanks for this information. I personally would prefer to keep the name "minoltainfo". I do not like double names and at the end of the day, everybody is talking about his/her Minolta. IMO I do not care about political decision within a company which are very difficult to market it on consumer products

But back to the Dynax/ Maxxum/ Alphy 7D:

It is a desparate try to seperate markets into diferent "price regions". If Konica Minolta thinks that this will help, fine, the customer will find his way to a fair priced body, no matter what is written on it...

I am totally excited about the new 7D. Finally a signal to old and loyal customers that it is worth to stick with the brand. So everybody knows that there is also a future for the Minolta system. And looking at the specs it seems that you really have true compatibility with most of the old lenses (Nikon has this not).

I am sure this will be a success. Even if there might be some bugs in the first run of the 7D, I am patient...

 

[rincewind]

Do you think the KMADM7D ;-) (MAD-M7 sounds good! lol) will be compatible with lenses from other makers, such as Tokina, Sigma etc.

I have a Sigma 70-300APO that I hope will work ok, the rest of my lenses are all Minolta.

I don't think KM can afford bugs on the MAD-D7. I've had my fingers crossed about this camera from word go and am really looking forward to it doing well

 

[rincewind]

Doh!

I meant: "I don't think KM can afford bugs on the MAD-M7"

 

[Wolfeye]

I personally doubt KM will be successful trying to sell this camera for 2 grand. If that price quote is right I know I'll be selling my G lenses and 5600 flash and going with Nikon or Canon. AntiShake means zilch to me.

 

[rincewind]

Usually the amount in Uk pounds for cameras is the same (or close) to the Dollar amount.

So £1149.99 in rip off Britain, or probably $1150 to $1200 in the US.

Remember it's an RRP and not the price it will end up in sales outlets.

I'm hoping it will be about £900 with some shopping around for a cash sale.

Where did you get "2 grand" from?

 

[rincewind]

I've just had word the price quoted is an offical R.R.P. for the UK.

Jessops have it on their site too.

So it's £1149.99 in UK pounds.
Meaning that it should sell around £900-950

A resonable price for the build quality and features, provided it does well in performance tests.

 

[Wolfeye]

I got "2 grand" from the UK price in pounds. At 1150 pounds I guessed that'd be about $2000 US dollars. Or is one pound now equal to one US dollar?

 

[rincewind]

I wasn't talking about the exchange rate, it's just that cameras in the US are cheaper, much cheaper.
I meant that what I pay in UK Pounds, you pay in US Dollars or not a whole lot more.

It's common to see a camera in the US sell for the same number of Dollars, as we pay in UK Pounds.

For ex&le, the new Canon 20D body is listed at £1279 here in the UK (= $2294) but in the US the list is $1499 (= only £835!!)

It's very unlikey you see a US list price of more than about $1350 for the 7D and a considerably lower price when it hits the shops

I on the other hand, will be paying a whole lot more, if I hopefully get one for £900 that will still be higher than the full US list price before shop discounts

 

[Cndavies43]

It would be nice to see some test results on the 7D. One big feature of the Canon 20D is its use of the 1D MkII processing chip, which delivers really low noise way up the ASA scale. I think the images posted on the K-M web site are great, good contrast and definition, but they are 100ASA shots, so should be so, and also taken with a very good lens.
Not too much has been written about relative merits of different lenses on digital SLRs, even for the Canon and Nikon ones. So I wonder how much better (say) the Minolta 17-35 G lens would be than the new 17-35 lens announced at the same time. There are three main factors for me - colour/contrast, distortion. and resolution. My main source of lens critiques www.photodo.com doesn't include much info later than 2000. Maybe someone knows better, and can point me at some independant assessments like this.

 

[rincewind]

I think it is encouraging, that the native iso settings run all the way from 100-3200iso

I can't see noise being a problem for 2 reasons.

Firstly, KM didn't make the ccd, it's probably the same Sony ccd used in the Nikon D70 and others. That chip has already proved itself capable of great results.
Secondly, I don't believe KM would have allowed a setting of 3200iso, unless their new image processor was up to the job too.

I for one am not worried about the pixel count, sure it would have been nice to have 8Mpixels, but there really isn't that much difference, useful for croping, but not really much else.

You need to add at least 60% on top ( 10+ MegaPixels), to start to see a worthwhile difference.
It's like moving from a 3MP cam to a 4MP cam, not really a huge step, but 3Mp to 5Mp is very noticeable.

When I bought my KM A2, many people on forums I frequent, claimed that there wasn't any major difference between 6 and 8 MegaPixels. (true)

However, now one mid priced DSlr (20D) has reached 8MP, I find it amusing, that the same people are brow beating any new DSLr with 6 MP????? lol

"The proof of the pudding is in the eating" as they say.
If the 7D is as good as it looks, I'll be very happy. That 2.5" TFT looks huge, the body looks tough and the controls are big, chunky and solid looking

Add to that the reports, that all Minolta 'A' mounts lens work (which is more than any other maker can claim) and this camera may be a lot brighter a flame, than it's spec alone suggests!

Don't be put off by the price either, it will be $1350 list in the States, I'm sure.

I had considered the 20D and D70, but unless the 7D goes against my hopes and is a dog, my next cam will be a tasty 7D.

It will be mine, oh yes!