Home > Consumer Reviews > Minolta Dimage X 2MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

Let me start by saying I use to teach photography at college and an a critic as far as picture quality goes. A college of mind bought this camera and I was so impressed with the size and features I figured what the heck I'll give it a shot because my Cannon G1 is just to big to carry with me all the time.

One of the most important feature to me was size, I wanted something I could carry around. This covered it, it is small, wow is it small and light. It's slender body fits into my pocket and I forget it is there. As a result I shoot more pics. The other nice feature is the quick worm up time of about a sec. Cameras I have had in the past I missed shots because they were booting up. This camera has a exceptional exposure control in low light, it is hard to take a bad picture.

Now for the down side. The picture quality is OK. I find it a bit smooth and not crisp enough for my taste, but nothing photoshop can't fix. I miss a volume control on the shutter it is either on or off and there are no shortcuts to the menu items to quickly toggle features or delete frames. The view window on the back is fixed and a bit small and dark sometimes, mostly in low light. Also when shooting movies the mic is on the top of the camera rather than the front so if you are in a busy room it pics up everything else as loud as the people you trying to shoot.

Over all for the size it is awesome. I would call it a excellent party, snapshot type camera. If I lost it I would go out and buy another one without hesitastion.

I got the Dimage for xmas this year. It is my first digital camera and I love it! It couldnt be easier to use. The LCD display is really crisp and clear and the camera takes the most beautiful pictures. I am no photographer, but even my photos come out looking great. I was thoroughly impressed. I admit though, I don't use the software they provide. I run it on Windows XP and it is very simple to print and save pictures. The camera itself plugs into the PC and acts as an external drive... you just drag and drop. It couldn't be easier.

I've owned the Minolta Dimage X for about 6 months now, and I have been very happy with it thus far. I will admit I'm not a photography expert, and this is my first digital camera. I'm not the greatest judge regarding photo quality, but I'm definitely happy with it. This camera is definitely an attention-getter, and people will always be asking you to check it out. I love that it fits in the pocket of my dress shirt as well.
The menus on the screen are very easy to use, and there are three size settings and four quality settings. You can also turn off the screen (to save battery life) and use the viewfinder instead. This is handy if you don't have much battery life left. I also like that it tells you how many photos are remaining on the memory card.
There is one negative- the software that comes with the camera is absolutely terrible. It has an ugly lay-out and some of the functions don't even work. If you are doing constant uploading, you may want to use external software. But this is a great and stylish camera for the casual user.

This is my first digital camera and I'm extremely happy with the picture quality and features (like the mini movies). Everyone gasps at the size of the camera and is further surprised at the 3x zoom. Battery life is more than adequate for parties or golf outings. I've dropped the camera once, no problems. Another time it fell into a pond, yet still works perfectly fine.

Why only "almost" perfect? Because the auto-exposure system
always selects the fastest possible shutter speed. So,
pictures I just took on a brilliantly sunny day used a
shutter speed of 1/685 and an f-stop of only 3.5 -- so almost
no depth of field. This was very noticable in close-ups.
The camera needs a "creative control" mode that lets the
user select max-shutter-speed, max-depth-of-field, or a normal
balance. But I still love the camera - and if a new model
comes out with such a feature I'll be first in line again.