2023 Weekly Challenge Week 29: Minolta DiMage A2

Minolta a pioneer in Autofocus Film SLRs was also one of the early pioneers in Digital cameras.  In 1995 Minolta released one of the early digital pocket cameras, a 1.75 MP digital camera the Minolta RD-175.

A mere 11 years later Konica-Minolta would liquidate its Digital Camera division to Sony and focus on producing their Multi-Function printers.  Years later Sony would sell the Minolta name off to a Chinese fly-by night 4th party company which would make cheap modern Digicams using the Minolta name; but these were a far cry from what Minolta used to be.

The Minolta DiMage A2 was released in 2004 and was thus one of the last Digital Cameras Minolta would ever make.  It was in a crowded market of 8mp Bridge Cameras including the Canon Powershot Pro 1, Sony f828, Olympus C-8080 and Kodak Easyshare P880.

 

Normally I only provide 3 reference images, a front, top and back.  But since the Minolta DiMage A2 has a lot of its controls on the side, I decided it was worth including a shot of those controls.

The Minolta DiMage A2 runs a very similar 8mp 2/3" CCD sensor to the Canon Powershot Pro1. It has the same 7x Optical zoom range as the Canon Powershot Pro1 as well.  The Minolta does however have some differences mainly in the way the camera zooms (physical vs electronic zoom), tilting EVF and a different control layout.

There was one thing in particular that I absolutely hated about the DiMage A2 that I have not ran into on any other camera and that was the placement of the power button right next to one of the main function buttons (the Function button used for Exposure compensation and Aperture control in manual mode).  This button was in a very common place where you could easily hold the button down with your thumb while your index finger operates the control wheel.  But when I was trying to operate this function 50% of the time I would turn the camera off instead.

The OVF on this camera was extremely low resolution even when compared with a competing model such as the Sony f828 and Canon Powershot S1 Pro.  It made it useless to gauge exposure preview and focus detail and was only useful for framing a shot.  The fact that it tilted up did however give the EVF a unique property for doing angled shots that I only have otherwise in the much more modern Panasonic GX8.

Overall this camera was more responsive then the Canon Powershot Pro1.  It had a slightly bigger file buffer from the Pro1 meaning it could take several shots in RAW format before having to dump the data to the extremely slow memory slot.  While I shot this camera mostly in JPEG still due to the slow write speed after 3-4 shots in RAW; the practical functionality of RAW shooting was adequate if you were only doing single street shots with short pauses between each photo.

The Minolta AF system was overall faster and more accurate then the Powershot Pro1, and the mechanical zoom was a huge advantage over an extremely slow mechanical zoom the Pro1 had.  In addition, the lens on the Minolta DiMage A2 had a lot less Chromatic abberation at the cost of being slightly softer.  In the end, its a toss up on which one was better but they both had unique properties and gaping flaws unique to each camera.

On the Minolta I found the zoom and AF to be much smoother and faster.  I also didn't have to deal with very obnoxious CA on tree branches or bright objects that the Canon had. It also was able to shoot more photos, including RAW files before pausing to write to the memory card.

The Canon on the other hand had a much better and more familiar ergonomics and control layout, better more vibrant color and contrast, and a better, higher resolution EVF.

In the end, both had their own set of challenges which frustrated me enough to ever consider using either one as a daily shooter or anything other then something I'd take out very occasionally for a challenge shot.  There are plenty of older Digital cameras I'd pick to shoot over either of them because of this reason; but just like the Canon Powershot Pro1 I manged to get a few solid photos from the Minolta DiMage A2 during its challenge week as you can see below.

2023 Weekly Challenge Week 28: Nikon D70s

This week's review is going back to shooting another of the first generation consumer DSLRs (like the Original Canon Rebel I reviewed earlier) the Nikon D70s.

In 2005 the D70s was among the last to have a first run 6mp sensor alongside the D50 and competing against the Minolta 5D/7D two to three years later then the Canon Digital Rebel, Nikon D100 and FujiFilm S2 Pro.  

The Sony a100 and Nikon D40 would come out a year later in 2006 and still have the 6mp sensor, but were well outdated by that point. Sony was just entering the DSLR market after having acquired Minolta and its "A" lens mount and the D40 was marketed as an affordable low-end model to compete with the Canon Rebel series; so Nikon was less worried about using the older sensor in it.

The D70s was a slight upgrade to the original D70 that added an electronic/"Global" shutter and really not much else.  It didn't address the QA problems the original D70 had, and still have a very low average shutter death of 35-40k actuations.  Mine is still going at about 50k as there are of course exceptions to the average shutter life of a particular camera sensor.

The D200 that would launch the same year would make the D70s obsolete, falling into a mid-range APS-C niche that used an older sensor for only a year until the Nikon D80 update was released in 2006.  It was therefore a transition camera model between the D70 and D80 that felt more like just a second run of D70 with very few improvements.

That said, the Nikon D70s is still is an interesting camera to shoot and it certainly has its charm.  Let's move onto the product photos and review:

As mentioned before, the camera was released in 2005 mere months before Nikon introduced the next generation of APS-C CCD sensors in the D200.  It has an APS-C sized 6.1 mp CCD sensor used previously by the D100, D70, concurrently with the D50 and later in the D40.

The first gen Nikon APS-C sensor is pretty solid, and offers a unique color tone and contrast consistent to what you would expect from a CCD based sensor.  Like many other digital cameras under 6mp the images are great for posting at this size "as is" on the web, but there is very little wiggle room for cropping.  It's a great sensor to have for doing a challenge and even shooting in RAW the file size is absolutely tiny as I could get 1.2k images on an 8gb card.  So in essence it becomes like having all the benefits of the RAW format with the file size of a JPEG from most of my other cameras.

Like most DSLRs (minus the Canon Rebel) the startup and shutdown times are nearly instantaneous, and the camera will enter a sleep mode when not in use.  This gives it a huge leg up over pocket cameras and bridge cameras of the time which had both startup/shutdown and shutter lag; none of which the D70s has. It also has a faster write speed to the card so shooting in RAW doesn't have a major impact on write lag to the card that I could notice.

The biggest limitation to the camera is that it only has 5 AF points, so you are best just leaving the focus point in the center and running with it.  It also is limited to 3fps in burst mode making it not the best choice for fast action shots; a feature that wasn't tested during my review.  For something like Street Photography however it is more then fast enough to keep up.

Aside from this, the only issue I ran into was that some newer lenses such as my Tamron 18-400 will not AF properly with this camera (whereas the Nikon D80 and even D200 don't have this issue).  It will just hunt forever on newer 3rd party lenses and never get a focus lock; a drawback which cut it out from being used much on the last day of the challenge as I was planning on using that lens with it.

The addition of the top LCD over the Canon Rebel series is a nice touch, and this along with the lack of startup lag would make me choose this over the OG Canon Rebel if I want to shoot a classic 6mp DSLR from my collection.  Ergonomically it feels nice though the button layout is a little awkward at times.

Overall the Nikon D70s would be a good camera for someone wanting to go back to the very basics of Digital Photography.  Like the Canon Rebel, Nikon D200, Sony a290 and Rebel XTi that I reviewed earlier there is no video mode and no Liveview;  so you have to use the OVF to frame and compose the shot then can review it on the camera's playback later.

It's a fun camera to take out and shoot on occasion, but given its low burst speed, touchy AutoFocus/ lens compatibility issues along with the fact that my D70s is above the "Average Shutter Failure" threshold makes this not a camera I would rely on for anything more serious or as a daily shooter.

With the review done, enjoy some of the photos I managed to take with this camera last week:

2023 Weekly Challenge Week 27: Canon Powershot S40

Released in 2001, the Canon Powershot S40 is my second oldest (still working) digital camera.  The A50 is my only pre-2000 digital camera (released in 1999) that I own as my collection mostly starts at the mid 2000s.  

In 2001 having a 4mp sensor in a compact camera was insane.  Most cameras at this time were using 1-2 mp (or less think "VGA" resolution sensor).  Even the bigger sensor Professional DSLRs at the time were around 3-4 MP (like the Canon D30), so a small sensor that packed in 4mp was really cutting edge stuff.

This camera was a thrift store find. It was untested so I took a gamble but it works.  The physical controls are a little worn out which is to be expected for a 22 year old camera. 

Interestingly enough uses the same battery as the Canon Rebel XTi (which is the reason I chose it for this review- I still had the Rebel charger and batteries charged from last week's review) even if it is 5 years older. So lets get onto the product photos and the review:

As mentioned before the Canon Powershot has a 4mp 1/1.8" CCD sensor which at the time was the cream of the crop for a point and shoot camera (1/1.7/-1/1.8 sensors would remain as the "Big Pocket Camera sensors till the advent of the 1" sensor in the Sony RX100).  This sensor is what makes this camera. 

In addition the S40 can shoot RAW (but like most pre 2005 cameras writes RAW files very slowly to card so I stuck to JPEG), has manual/priority modes and even has some features that I wasn't expecting for a camera from 2001 including 3 shot AEB (Auto Exposure Bracketing) which I discovered on accident.  While there was a significant pause between the 3 shots the camera automatically fired the fact that it existed on a pocket camera from 2001 really surprised me.

It's also worth noting that while I don't review the Video capabilities of a camera the fact that this had Video recording (and it was one of the first pocket cameras to do so) was pretty big for 2001.  It was terrible resolution at 15fps but the fact that you could capture video on anything but a camcorder would have been pretty slick in its day.

This camera is not all sunshine and rainbows however; as many really old Digicams are, and I should touch on those.  Shooting consumer pocket cameras from the early to mid 2000s takes a LOT of patience and the Canon Powershot S40 is no exception to this.  

It has a 3-5 second startup delay before it's ready to take a photo.  It has about a half second shutter delay from when you press the shutter and it takes a photo. Burst mode is pretty much non-existent and it takes 2-3 seconds between shots before you can take another photo. Overall the camera is pretty slugish to respond but not any worse then digi cams I own from 2004/2005 which were a few years newer.

The S40 has some unique design flaws as well, and back in the "wild west" days of digital photography prior to 2010 quirks and gimicks on digital cameras were pretty common. When the S40 came out every digital camera had a different design with a different control and menu button layout or gimmicks and some worked better then others. (As we will see with the Sony f828 when I get to that review)

The first major flaw was the lens cover.  My first photo showed it open without a battery (so the lens didn't extend) but here is what it looks like when it is closed:

Lens covers were common in the early days of pocket cameras especially before the advent of the retracting leaf-shutter style internal lens cover that we are used to seeing on more modern pocket cameras.  Some cameras like the Sony TX and T series (which I reviewed a few weeks ago) would carry this lens cover concept forward to more modern pocket cameras but by this time the covers were better built.

The lens cover on the S40 and similar SXX series powershots up to the S80 was flimsy and prone to breaking such as getting de-railed or stuck due to dirt/sand/debris getting in the track.  Mine still works but you can defiantly tell it is loose and likely will fail at some point in the nearish future- a reason I don't shoot it that often.

Like some other other early point and shoot cameras (such as the Olympus D-490) the cover is also how you typically turn the camera on and off. As I mentioned the Powershot S40 has a startup as well as a shorter (About 2 second) shutdown delay so if you are not used to being patient with digicams it is really easy to jam the cover against the lens while it is still out which could damage both the lens and the lens cover itself.

The second major design flaw is the navigation buttons.  Just like the Fujifilm A345 that I reviewed earlier it lacks the 4 way button with an ok button in the middle set that most modern cameras today.  Instead the S40 has a rocker switch which you push in to confirm menu choices and man did it really suck to use.  

My finger would often slide the rocker up or down when confirming an option, which meant the option I was trying to change got changed right as I was confirming it.  Want your white balance to be on Cloudy?  Nah man you really want Tungsten instead. The rocker on mine has been worn out from age which made accidental toggles with it all the more common.  

But at the end of the day with a lot of patience I actually managed to get a few really solid photos with the Canon Powershot S40 including one that really surprised me and I couldn't re-produce if I tried.  One of those "Happy Accident" sort of shots. So it by far is not the worst Digicam I've reviewed so far in spite of the awkward controls and lag which is pretty typical of older digital cameras. 

It's a camera that's over 20 years old that you can still take out and get some pretty neat photos of which in itself is quite the feat.

2023 Weekly Challenge Week 26: Canon Rebel XTi

 The Canon Rebel XTi holds a special place in my collection:  because this was the camera that really started my passion in Digital Photography. While the one I have now is not my original camera and re-bought ten years later in 2018; this camera was my first really "Serious" Digital Camera, which I've henceforth referred to as my "Workhorse" camera. Currently in this line is my Nikon D7200 though these days I shoot a lot more then just my "workhorse" camera. 

However, the Canon Rebel XTi wasn't my first Digital Camera.  I've already reviewed one of my earlier Digital Cameras (The Fujifilm A345) and tried to review my very first Digital camera with a memory card; though sadly the one I re-bought has a damaged sensor. 

In 2005 I went to isle of Maui in Hawaii with my parents; which remains the only time I've been off the mainland US. I was stuck with a very basic point and shoot camera (The Fuji A345) and for the first time had the wish that I had something better.  It set the spark in motion to get more into photography even if I wouldn't get the Canon Rebel XTi till 3 years later when the price of Digital DSLRs dropped to a price I could afford.

Launched in 2006 (a full two years before I bought mine) the Canon Rebel XTi featured a 10mp APS-C CMOS sensor.  It was an entry level camera competing with the Nikon D40 and Sony A100.  At the time many APS-C DSLRs (which were the most common sensor size unlike Full Frame having the market share these days) were running lower resolution and/or CCD sensors which gave the Rebel XTi an edge in the market.

This camera is one of the DSLRs that made the market shift from CCD to CMOS sensors.  The Canon Rebel XTi's early CMOS Sensor while not having higher ISO capabilities of its CCD competitor had much finer and less ISO grain at its higher ISO ranges (800 and 1600) then the CCD offerings, a trend which would continue and eventually lead to the discontinuation of CCD sensors in DSLRs four years later.

Like the original Rebel this camera was designed to be affordable with the Hobbyist photographer in mind. It lacked a lot of bells and whistles of professional cameras like the Nikon D200 or Canon 1D; but still allowed you to Shoot RAW, have full control over the exposure and use multiple different lenses which was a game changer for Photography for me. 

With good outdoor lighting (as I have been using for my challenges whenever possible) the Canon Rebel XTi still takes really amazing photos with a unique and balanced look 15 years later.

If left on the camera will go to sleep like most more modern DSLR cameras; allowing me to shoot without delay.  Even with turning the camera on and off it's ready to shoot almost instantly unlike pocket cameras or older DSLRs such as the Original Digital Rebel which I reviewed earlier.

As with the A290 and Nikon D200 I reviewed prior it lacks video and live view, so you only have an optical viewfinder and are stuck only doing still photography with it. Having this as my first serious camera may explain why my digital photography stayed as still photography and why I didn't have the mindset for videography when I tried dabbling in it.

In 2006-2008 you had to make a choice between serious photography or serious videography.  The cameras that could do both IE bridge cameras sacrificed the quality of both the Photos and Video in order to offer both video and still photography on a compact camera that could do everything (with a smaller sensor). However the APS-C sensor was the King for getting high-end printable still images.

So without further reminiscing (as I could go on and on about my experiences with my first DSLR; and I think that's suited for another post) here are some photos I took with the Rebel XTi this week; fifteen years after it was my primary camera.