What features would you like to see

[Travis]

PMA 2004: Konica Minolota today made a development announcement about a new digital version of their Maxxum 7 / Dynax 7 SLR. The Maxxum 7 Digital will have a six megapixel APS sized CCD, will have body integrated anti-shake (just like the DiMAGE A1/A2) which will work with all lenses and will be fully system compatible. This camera should be available in 'Fall 2004'. We, along with a few others had an opportunity to take a few pictures of an early pre-production camera.

What we know so far (both told and observed)
Digital SLR based on Maxxum 7 / Dynax 7
Six megapixel APS sized CCD
Body integrated anti-shake, works with all lenses
White balance control button on rear of camera
ISO control button on rear of cmaera
Selectable AF modes (nine point AF)
Left dial exposure (-3 to +3 EV) and flash compensation (-2 to +2 EV)
Right dial exposure mode and drive mode
Dual command dials front and rear of camera
14-Segment honeycomb-pattern metering
ADI and Wireless flash support
AF/MF button
External PC Sync flash terminal
Three user memories
Large 2.0" LCD Monitor
Eye-start viewfinder proximity sensor (power on)
Available Fall 2004

 

[Ag001]

A wish is a wish and I wish I could substitute a roll of film in my existing Minolta SLR with a 'digital film insert' which could then download pictures onto my computer. One SLR for all - that is my wish -today I would like to use a film and tomorrow a 'Digital Film Insert' in place of film.

 

[Pat_trev]

Are there plans for program modes like the
Maxxum 5 has (action, night, macro, portrait, etc)? I find these presets very helpful...

 

[fkf]

>A true DSLR would be from the ground up based on the 4/3 format chip. Painful for some with a bunch of legacy glass .. myself included .. but a smart move for Minolta nonetheless. Now a 4/3 format with the FOVEON chip .. that would be really a breakthrough, say at 8 milloin pixel sites (24MP) .. that does both stills and video clips .. would appeal to prosumers and pros alike. The other features -- are more readily varied because they tend to be software driven, or established solutons .. like anti-shake on the chip mount, etc.

 

[peterblaise]

Hi Minolta-friends,

You think Minolta should make a 4/3rds system that uses new lenses, not our existing lenses?

So, then, tell me again the reason to buy a Minolta-brand DSLR if, according to your preferences, it doesn't fit my Minolta lenses?

If I have to trash my current kit, why go with a late comer to the market?

Even Olympus is more mature in the 4/3rds system, and Sigma is making lenses for them - Sigma and Minolta have a running battle and I can't see Sigma jumping on the bandwagon to make lenses for a Minolta 4/3rds camera (even though supposedly all 4/3rds cameras should have the same lens interchange).

Minolta already has a DSLR with an APS-sized sensor - the RD 3000, using V-mount lenses (quite nice, and interchangeable with the APS film camera body). Got one? ;-)

Been there, done that, lost my shirt, so to speak!

I think a 35mm lens based DSLR will be the highest possible sales route since anyone with a Minolta AF lens can buy one and use it immediately, and with different lenses, it's a hard sell with no respect for existing Minolta customers (maybe a flash will fit?).

My 2 ¢.

Anyone else dreaming of ... what?

Click!

Love and hugs,

Peter Blaise Monahon Minolta Vivitar Tamron Fujifilm Ilford Kodak Adobe Hewlett Packard et cetera Photographer http://www.peterblaisephotography.com/

 

[fkf]

>Peter, your argument has some validity to those who are invested in 35mm gear. Technology however marches on. Thus Minolta has three choices in this particular development -- each with its rewards and risks. It can lead the parade into the newer technologies, it can march in the parade, or it can fiddle on the sidelines. Staying with the current 35mm formats lenses .. I submit is the last of these options. > While I claim no expertise on the input technologies of digital photography .. you will agree that imager chips have different characteristics when compared to film. From what I read, for starters, film can tolerate light at a substantial angle from perpendicular to its plane without much adverse effects on the image's periphery, whereas an imager chip much less so. Thus optics for digital are better when they are designed "telecentric" on the back side of the lens. (Telecentric lenses are a specialty design commonly used in machine vision inspection applications where the captured image is used to measure precise distances among points on a part, where such points may or may not be in the same plane; the size field of view of the part inspected needs to be smaller than the diameter of the telecentric lens's front element, since the light rays captured by that element are parallel -- not convergent as is the case with "normal' photographic lenses. For digital photography on the other hand, the exit pupil diameter needs to be larger than the chip diagonal for the telecentric design to fulfill its intended function). In this context, I submit that, virtually all 35mm lenses are technologically obsolete .. no matter how much one loves their lenses (and I have my several [costly] Zeiss lenses).

Thus my reference to the 4/3 format (four times more die space than the 2/3 format (which is larger than the popular 1/1.8 chip in today's 3-6MP consumer digicams) with room for higher pixel count than today's versions. My reference to the FOVEON partially addresses the issues described above -- for the most error free images in terms of detail and spatial resolution with full color images.

One might consider the 4/3 chip as an organizing format -- at the intersection between cost and optimal performance, much like the 35mm format became the standard in the "compact " film camera arena in a bygone era. The universally interchangeable lens mount of the 4/3 may or may not survive as competing suppliers incorporate their unique feature/benfit mixes. And there are other feature sets to differentiate among brands. Moreover, not all makes need to serve the same markets, thus additional ways to slice the global market are available. But the common benefits that derive from a completely new design approach around the 4/3 -- are more compact and lighter weight designs -- and with improving anti-shake technologies camera weight quickly shifts from benefit in the past to burden today.

I may be dreaming but that is the dream I am pursuing.

Frank K-F ====================