A slight dissapointment, but still good (Minolta Dimage Zoom 2330)

Member Name:

Product:	Minolta Dimage Zoom 2330
Date:	19/05/01 (21 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 12 Frames per second

Disadvantages: Slightly high price for what it is

Here is a camera that has everything that most people are looking for. The Dimâge 2330 can connect to a Macintosh or PC using a USB connection.

It has a built-in zoom lens of 3X and a digital zoom of 2.5X with a built-in flash.

The size of the camera is 116 mm x 73 mm x 62 mm or 4 9/16 inches x 2 7/8 inches x 2 7/16 inches and weighs 280 grams or 9 7/8 ounces without the batteries .

Four AA size alkaline batteries power it, you can also use lithium, NiCd, or NiMH type batteries and It can be operated with an optional AC adapter.

The Macintosh users have The Adobe PhotoDeluxe 2.0 and the Window users have PhotoDeluxe Home Edition 4.0 included with the camera.

Prices range from $419 to over $500, so shop around.

Other Features
The Dimâge 2330 uses a high-resolution 2.31 million pixel CCD for prints as large as 20 centimeters x 30 centimeters or 7 7/8 inches x 11 13/16 inches at 150 dpi. All pictures are saved in the JPEG file format.

Number of pixels in full mode is 1,792 x 1,200 pixels, which gives you approximately on the 8 Meg card, in the Fine Mode - 8 pictures, in the Standard Mode - 13 pictures and in the Economy mode 33 pictures.

Number of pixels in half mode is 896 x 600 pixels, which gives you approximately on the 8 Meg card, in the Fine Mode - 28 pictures, in the Standard Mode - 43 pictures and in the Economy mode 99 pictures.

The Built-in Flash has Autoflash, Autoflash with red-eye reduction, Fill-flash, Fill-flash with red-eye reduction, and Flash Cancel.

There is a 10 second Self-Timer and a continuous drive of 1 frame per second. When shooting in the economy Half mode you can get up to 12 frames per second.

There is a Video Output terminal for connection to a TV set. They also include a cable for the connection so you can view pictures right on your TV set.

The LCD
The color LCD monitor on the back is 46 mm or 1.8 inches. Turn
ing the LCD monitor off when just using the optical viewfinder will save you on battery power.

The optical viewfinder is similar to most 35mm cameras.

You have a Playback Menu for deleting images, zoom playback, a slide show presentation mode, DPOF printing information and changing the folder.

There is a Zoom option to 4 times magnifying the image and then you can scroll around it using the 4-way switch. There is a thumbnail index mode of 9 frames to quickly search through the stored images. You can check total images, date and time.


The Lens
The lens has 9 elements in 6 groups. (Including 3 elements with 3 aspheric surfaces)

The high resolution CCD has a high quality optics including low-dispersion, high-refraction glass elements and three aspheric surfaces. This is for color correct images and minimum distortion.

The Dimâge 2330 has an RGB primary color filter that retains color fidelity to the original scene.

The zoom offers a versatile 3X optical zoom with a focal length range from 8mm to 24mm (equivalent to about a 38mm to 114mm in 35mm film format) f/3.4 - f/3.6.

The 2.5X Digital Zoom gives it an additional function of 7.5X magnification, this is equivalent to a 285mm focal length in 35mm film format.

For close up shoots you can get as close as 4 centimeters or 1-9/16 inches to infinity in the normal mode and 0.98 inches in the macro mode. This gives you good control for a nice close up.

Overall
This little camera is simple to operate and is a lot cheaper than cameras that have the same options.

The reason I wouldn't recommend it may be my fault, the camera itself has plenty of options and works great. What I could not accomplish was the perfect picture, what I mean by that is the pictures look good but I have taken pictures with cheaper cameras and they would give me a cleaner and sharper looking picture.

Even though I don
't recommend this one, Minolta has always been one of my favorite camera manufactures and I will continue to check out their cameras. They usually give you the best quality money can buy.

Summary: