Home > Consumer Reviews > Remanufactured Minolta Dimage Xt 3.2 MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

So small! (its smaller than most cellphones).
3.2 megapixels is just great - clear picture; moreover, minolta has some cool technology that helps to correct the picture if needed.
Strong enough flash - but in the dark, sometimes, pictures are grainy - needed to change the ISO setting by hand a couple of times. 128 mb sd card definitely recommended. (can take fine quality pictures at a low compression rate = better picture quality!).

Love the cool feature of being able to record your own sounds. The LCD is super clear, so when viewing pictures (esp. when showing it to others just after having taken a picture) its really good. The compactness, I cannot emphasize enough. Its smaller than a nokia 3595, and lighter too (with battery). I'm scared that I'll forget it sometimes, & not realize if I have it or not!

The internal zoom rocks!!!! and that causes the startup time to be so fast! I barely turn it on, & its on - unlike most other digital cameras.

Good, clear pictures. Easy to use - for both video, & pictures. What else do you want?
Might not be as good as cannon s400, but almosst as good - definitely in the same league. You cannot make out the difference 99 times of 100.

Oh yes, I've used this as webcam to videoconference too, & it works flawlessly. muchh clearer than most webcams out there! (of course, this should not be your sole critereon when buying this camera ;))

A con --
A couple of times, it gives a picture a blue'ish tinge with some pictures, but never anything that I cant fix in ACD Foto Canvas (good software - free download - go get it, if you have ANY digital camera).

I love this camera, and I still have to read through most of the manual!

If you're looking for a small camera that takes great pictures OUTSIDE, this is it. The mix of reviews this has received is due, in my humble opinion, to the fact that some people have mostly used it outdoors (the high scorers), and some other people have mostly used it indoors (the low scorers). The reason for this discrepancy is that the flash is not that good. If you're shooting indoor, you really need some other source of light for the picture to be of good quality, if you just use the built-in flash, you'll get a decent snaphsot, but nothing to brag about. Everytime I see indoor pictures I get disappointed at the quality (unless I remembered to use other lights) and everytime I see outdoor pictures I'm awed at the clearness and level of detail.

After extensively researching the smaller family of digital cameras available on the market, I chose to purchase the Minolta Dimage Xt, and I am very pleased with it so far. About the only other camera I researched that came close was the Casio Exlim, which is somewhat smaller, but did not have optical zoom or any lense protection, both of which this camera has.

The camera is small. Smaller than my wallet, and I have a small wallet. I often take it with me when I leave the office for lunch or just go out to dinner with a friend, regardless of whether I plan to take pictures, because this camera is so small, that you can take it anywhere and it won't be a burden.

The automatic mode only adjusts the ISO equivalent from 50-160, so it is not useful in low-light situations with the flash off. However, you can manually set the ISO equivalent to 400. This just takes longer than automatic. The video is of fine quality for capturing memories, though with 15 fps, you aren't going to be making any feature films. I can capture 12 MINUTES of video with sound on my 256MB card. This is sufficient for capturing glimpses of your life without lugging around a huge camera.

One of the features about this camera that really impressed me was the e-mail feature. With this feature, you can take your pictures at high-res, then by going through the menu system, you can select which pictures you anticipate wanting to e-mail. The camera will then make copies of those pictures in a seperate folder on your card at 640 x 480, a fine resolution for web.

One thing I would change about this camera is that whatever setting you have the camera on, lets say you are in a museum so you have the flash off and consequently have the camera set to ISO 400, when you turn the camera off (or if it goes through auto shut-off) and turn it back on, it will default back to automatic ISO with the flash on automatic. This is my biggest complaint about this camera and it wastes alot of time.

I also found the menu system on this camera a little difficult to work with at first. When a dialog box for something like deleting pictures comes up, lets say it says "delete the pictures: 'yes' or 'no'" the boxes for yes and no are not sufficiently differentiated to communicate which option is actually selected. One is just dark and one is light. To make matters worse, on some features, the default selection will be "yes," while on others, the default feature will be "no." I think they could graphically communicate which one is selected better and prevent alot of inadvertant picture deletion. Maybe a dotted line?

If you are looking for the smallest camera with optical zoom and a flash that you can take out with your friends, and it is near now (September 4, 2003). Look no further. This is the camera for you. If you look around more you will be wasting your time. If control is your priority, you may want to look elsewhere.

I'm VERY happy with this as my first digicam. I've had it for a month and it's SO easy to work with. I hesitated jumping into the digital world but I'm glad I did. I won't get technical on you. I bought it b/c: previous Minolta user, 3.2 mp w/digital zoom, tiny size, quick start-up time, enough advanced features but doesn't overwhelm me (111 pg manual, easy to read), sleek, no moving parts, did I mention how small it is?!?! I throw it in my purse, diaper bag, pants pocket, fanny pack - it fits in the palm of your hand...the XT goes with me EVERYWHERE! I immediately bought a wallet-size case for the tight fit, neck strap and a set of clear LCD Protectors (a must!) I take pictures of something everyday and just know to charge the battery regularly, as well as download the pix to my computer regularly so I haven't used the 256 SD memory card I have. I will eventually by an extra battery & the Minolta belt case. It comes with a basic Photoshop type Dimage Viewer program that fixes any problems I had in taking a photo. I'm a mom who takes pix of the kids, eBay items, PT business use and this is perfect for this once-loving SLR fan. You can't beat keeping only the pictures you like & being able to take photos without lugging a bag of stuff around. I hated taking a whole roll of pictures & discover only 2 pictures are good. Picture quality is great for this scrapbooking mom; takes photos fast, real shutter time: ??? - the usual lagtime it sounds like most digicams have but other reviewers say it's faster than most, but it's fast enough not to miss what the kids do...so it doesn't bother me. Besides there's a continuous advance shot mode. It makes cool sounds (you can choose or record your own) when you push buttons so you know something "registered." There aren't a lot of buttons to push to get it to do what you want so it's very user-friendly, even the menus. XT can take color, B&W and sepia-tone photos; recording movie & audio will be something I use one of these days & another reviewer mentioned that you can focus in on a portion of a photo you've taken (i.e. let's you see if someone's smiling or their eyes are closed) I read a lot of reviews prior to purchase, professional & consumer and almost bought a Sony Cybershot, but this XT's micro size is it's best feature, you'll want to take it everywhere and you REALLY can. I mean, if you're spending the money, you want to be able to use it ALL the time right? My husband took a great photo of our ceiling fan, it was on medium speed and the XT made it look like a still-shot...ok, not a big deal but it's just a real cool fun camera - you won't be disappointed with this purchase!!!

This is the third very small digital camera I have purchased and is by far the very best. The highest quality picture setting creates files that are far bigger than necessary for even the finest prints. The color reproduction is as good or better than any film camera I have used. The camera is extremely small, yet easy to use. It powers on in 1 second and seems to be able to keep up, no matter how quickly I continue to shoot new pictures. This had been the major problem with digital cameras and in the past, I would loose many great shots because the battery was still trying to recharge...
Definitely buy the camera...