Home > Consumer Reviews > Minolta Dimage S404 4MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom

This camera is an upgrade for me and I'm embarrassed by how much I paid for so little camera last time around. So, I chose carefully and have not been disappointed.

Best shooting so far has been at the Tidal Basin last Friday just past the peak of the cherry blossoms. The camera took some amazing shots of the Washington and Jefferson monuments surrounded by the pink splendor. I displayed the shots on my big screen TV to the whole family without any problems. Color was perfect and the automation in this camera really frames the shots well. I'm a so, so photographer so this is a big plus.

Next I tried it out at the Dolphin show up at the National Acquarium in Baltimore. The results were excellent, especially the zoom. I caught the dolphins in the midst of almost every trick including the huge leap to the top of the auditorium to touch the ball. I also took some incredible photos through the glass of the seahorses. The exposure took some tweaking but I was able to figure it out with less than 10 shots. The family oohed and ahhed when they saw them.

For those of you who own Minolta and have grown used to the interface and quality of features, this is a no-brainer. For the price, I expected a bit less and have been consistently amazed by the quality of pictures it takes, especially in automatic mode. My SLR has been sent to the cabinet until I really need it for more complicated shots.

Be sure to have at least 2 sets of batteries and keep them in your bag. Each trip I exhausted the batteries and had to change them. Also, for the $$$, I recommend a 256MB card so you can take 100+ high quality images. That's what 4.0MP is all about.

I am completely sold on this Minolta. It takes fantastic photos, is simple to use and a pleasure to work with. I have been taking photos seriously for over 15 years and have owned over 30 camera, from Canon 35mm to large format cameras. I have not been impressed with digital cameras, though I have used them, until now. This camera delivers crisp, clean images, comperable to a 35mm film camera, and features all the benefits of a digital camera. If you are thinking of a new camera give this one a shot. You can preview your shots, delete them, tweak them on your home PC, it offers it all. I have compared this camera to the Canon G2 (at almost 2x the price) and remain impressed with the Minolta. A few shortcomings - battery drain and a hard-to-see backpanel (in FULL daylight that is - otherwise it is fine) moderate my review from raving to complely impressed. Definately buy the rechargable batteries, Monster, the company that makes Monster Cable, makes some which are very good. I have seen people in these reviews complain that the digital cameras are not 'up to film' in the images they create, but that is a bit of a non-sequitar to me, if you want a film camera, get one. If you want a digital camera you cant do better than this one - literally - for the price.
Enjoy it...

First of all know what you want from your camera... I wanted to be able to print at least 4x6 prints of every picture I took with this camera. That put me in the 4 mega pixel range. I was looking at the Canon G2, Canon S40, Olympus D60, and the Olympus C4040. I'd gone to the local retailers and tested them all out. Then the Minolta S404 came out and hit my personal price sweet spot -> [price]. All the other ones I was holding off on because I knew I would need to spend more money on extra memory and probably an extra battery pack. That put the others out of my price range.
I'm at best an amatuer photographer and this camera turns out to be a very good match for my skills. Most of the time I use the all auto feature, but I've many of the more sophisticated features including macro (real good close ups of plants and small animals), night shot, and portrait. I've worked with some of the more manual features such as black & white and the exposure settings. The camera is extremely easy to use including the menus one uses on the LCD. I'm a computer programmer, so using some of the features is almost second nature.
The photos have come out absolutely wonderful both on the computer screen and in print. I've had 4x6 and 5x7's made. There's an 8x10 on the way in the mail. I've taken this camera to a school field day, a company picnic, Baltimore (Inner Harbor and Aquarium), and Mount Vernon, Virginia. I've also taken it on tour of the neighborhood, where I used the macro function exclusively. I've kept the image settings mainly on 2272X1704 pixels (size)-fine (picture quality) and 1600x1200 pixels - super fine . From time to time I'll use 2272x1704 - super fine.
Using the biggest picture and the highest quality settings produces an 11 MB file. The image capture is excellent, but it takes 15-20 seconds to save the image to the compact flash. I thought I'd broken the camera the first time I took one of these large pictures. I don't consider this a draw back, just something to keep in mind.
The look and feel of the camera -- it's all there. It comes in a silver metal case and definitely does not feel like a light weight piece of trash. The brightness of the LCD can be changed by the user. All the way from off to super bright. When using the camera in bright sunlight don't expect to see the LCD too well. That goes for any machine with an LCD.
Batteries... This camera eats the alkaline batteries it comes with. They last long enough for you to test it out and decide whether or not this camera meets your needs. Buy at least 8 rechargeable AA batteries (the camera takes 4, so you'll have two sets). Get the highest rating possible - I have 1600, but I've seen 1800 too.
When I bought the camera, I also bought a 128 MB compact flash card. If you take pictures like I do, you'll need it. I also bought a compact flash reader. I've found it easier to use than the camera when downloading pictures to my computer. Not to mention, it saves the camera batteries.

I've just been playing with the camera for a few days and, with reservations, I am really impressed. This is a very easy camera to learn how to use. Even in full auto mode there are still options available, such as flash mode, drive mode and exposure compensation. Auto mode also give the macro, portrait, night portrain, and landscape programs. The picture quality is quite good too in auto. The only option at the auto setting is the standard (default) setting. That still gives very good 5x7's and this is the next to lowest quality setting. With a 127M card at 2272 x 1704 pic setting the camera will hold about 100 shots.

What I don't care for is that there are only 2 aperature settings each at telephoto and normal/wide angle. This limits the control over the depth of field in manuel setting. Speaking of manuel settings, don't get the idea that once you bypass the auto setting that you are going to grab focus or zoom rings to manually adjust the settings. Everything is still operated through the control button on the back. This makes adjusting the zoom and the focus a little hit and miss. You'll just have to get the hang of how to play with the button. The autofocus is a little slow if the camera is set to focus only when the shutter button is pushed down. If you are needing to keep up with a lot of action, set the autofocus on full time or turn it off and prefocus manually.

I know that the above paragraph sounds a little negative, but all I'm trying to say that if you are expecting a near professional quality camera, it's not going to come at this price. In all this is a good quality point-and-shoot camera with a lot of options that you can get creative with, and even with the restricted aperature settings, I think that I'm going to get a lot of good use out of it.

I've used this camera for two months now and I'm really pleased. I researched digital cameras for about a month (reading reviews on the internet, visiting local camera shops and talking to people who own digital cameras) before I made my final decision. I wanted a camera that was easy to use, took nice enough pictures to print for framing and/or photo albums, and wanted to stay within a budget of $500.00

The S404 was the only camera in my price range that was 4 megapixels and a 4X optical zoom. I did compare it with the Sony DC75 and the Olympus 3020 and I think you can see a difference between the 3 megapixel and 4 megapixel when you have pictures side by side. The Sony and the Olympus did have more in manual controls, but only a 3X optical zoom and the Olympus didn't have sound with it's video. Another nice feature on the S404 is the voice memo you can attach to the picture. This, plus the fact that subject program buttons (Macro, Portrait, Landscape and Night), the flash/red eye and zoom are exactly like my 35mm point & shoot camera, a Minolta Freedom Zoom 140EX. This was an added bonus for me, I felt like I already knew the S404.

...

Now the fun began. I wanted to try every feature on the camera. Outdoor pictures were great, however in bright sunlight I do adjust the white balance to "daylight". The Macro is fantastic, you can see every detail (very close to my SRL shots), the Portrait mode is a really nice feature and gives your pictures a professional look. I used this for my daughter's high school graduation pictures. After reading some people were having problems with indoor pictures, I tried the different ways and found the best pictures were when I was using "auto", they look great to me. I haven't had the opportunity to use the Night Portrait yet, but I know it works beautifully on my point and shoot and I'm hoping for the same with the S404. I did view some photos other people took of fireworks on the 4th and they look great!

I take all my photos in the 2274 x 1704 imagine size and the fine quality mode. I started using superfine, however I really didn't see much of a difference, and fine uses a lot less space. I do download my pictures using the Dimage Image Viewer Utility, save them, and then I can open them in any other program.

I just started using the print index feature and having 4 X 6 prints made at the local camera shop. (I found this is where the flash card that came with the camera comes in handy, I can drop this one off and I still have one in my camera). WOW!!! YOU CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE FROM PRINT FILM!!! Although I have been getting beautiful print outs with my HP 930C, I have been using a lot of ink and photographic paper. From now on, pictures I want for the photo album I will have printed at the camera shop. The paper is a little heavier, it's probably cheaper and saves time.

This camera is easy to use, fits your hand nicely, and takes beautiful pictures. I met all my objectives with this camera. If you can find one, I highly recommend it!

Problems
As mentioned in other reviews, the auto focus sometimes misses. However the more I'm using the camera, the less this is happening. I really dislike the lens cap, I wish Minolta could have figured an internal lense cover which would close when the camera is turned off.