Customer Reviews

Minolta Dimage G400 4.0 MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Photography has been a lifelong hobby of mine. I love to take candids both indoors & out and I have always wanted a camera that was small enough to take anywhere, fast enough for candids, with high image quality and manual features beyond a point & shoot. I have finally found it in this camera. I have already taken hundreds of pictures and the quality has been great. But I was perplexed why many reviews complained about the poor ability of the camera to focus indoors while others have said they get perfect results.

In fact the autofocus light does continue to blink annoyingly on most indoor shots, even in good lighting, indicating that the autofocus is not locked . But the camera allows you to take the shot anyway and the results always appear to be in focus.. I tried shots even in total darkness (using flash, of course) and the results are fine, despite the fact that the autofocus indicator says that focus in not locked.

How could this be? To see if the autofocus was really working in the dark I tried a simple test. I took a picture in a poorly lit room with the focus light indicating focus was not locked and another of the same subject with the lights turned up, allowing me to lock focus. Much to my surprise I found negligible difference in sharpness- This camera's autofocus in low light actually exceeded my expectation. But you need to get past the fact that the camera is indicating the focus cannot lock and simply look at the results.

Pros
Very small & light weight
Super fast response: opening, closing, and shot to shot
Well priced
Packed with manual features
High image quality: very good sharpness and excellent color accuracy
Easy to use - Menu is a bit complex but fine once you are used to it

Cons (All minor issues)
Poor Minolta customer service
No printed manual
Camera front is easily scratched

I am very, very pleased with my purchase of the Minolta G400; it slides into a pocket effortlessly, offers fairly powerful manual exposure control, good battery life and the fastest startup time I've seen in any digital camera.

I've used a Minolta S404 for all my previous digital photography, so I was looking for a small camera I could keep in my pocket. I confirmed its usability as a quick snap-shot camera at a wedding I attended yesterday; you really can turn it on, take a photo, and turn it off in under 2 seconds. The incredibly fast startup time makes the G400 an outstanding camera for capturing precious, unbelievable, fleeting moments.

Auto-focus in low light takes more time than in bright light, but the longest I've waited has been a little over a second. Overall, the G400 focuses much faster than my Minolta S404, which took one second in the best case.

Battery life is good; the included battery lasts as long as my S404 with 4 AA 1900 mAh rechargeable batteries. I'd encourage having a backup, though, just in case.

I agree with previous reviewers: Canon's panoramic assist mode is nice, but I can live without it. The on-screen menus are different than any camera I've seen, but I understood it pretty quickly. Being different is not always horrible.

Amount of manual control elevated the G400 above the Pentax Optio S4/S4i and Canon S400/410/500. The S4i's incredibly small size (hides behind a credit card!) certainly intrigued me, but its startup time was slightly longer (two seconds, from what I read) and it did not have manual shutter speed control. The S4i does have some manual control, but the G400 has pretty much the maximum manual shutter and exposure control available in a consumer camera. It does not have custom white balance, but I've never used it, so it wasn't an issue for me. I also wanted a tripod mount, a feature missing from some super-slim cameras, but available here, though it's unfortunately made of plastic.

Picture quality is wonderful. Skin tones look good and flora detail is really nice. I took a photo of a tree outside my house and literally did a double take when viewing it on the computer; the leaves looked amazingly crisp.

The Minolta G400 disappears in your pocket and frees your mind from thinking about your camera. Highly recommended for all photographers, beginner to advanced. The only worthwhile camera is the one you have with you, and the G400's size makes it ridiculously easy to carry.

Several camera forums and users speak of difficulty focusing in low light. Mine focuses perfectly in near total blackness and in all shades of darkness to bright light-- It focuses in all modes equally well. It focuses perfectly every time. I can't get it to not focus perfectly. Are we talking about the same camera? Is there a quality control issue with this camera?
This camera has nearly every manual feature you can ask for. The blue light that someone complained about can be turned off (but yes--it does nothing). Someone else complained about not being able to date stamp the pictures. This is wrong. Page 98 of the manual explains how that is done. Another complaint was with Red Eye which is a given with tiny cameras where the flash is right by the lens. Just turn on the red eye reduction setting and that fixes that. You can even adjust flash brightness and LCD brightness. The manual is quite large because there are so many features that most people aren't aware of because they haven't taken time to read it 3 times. It takes 3 times because there are so many custom settings available.
Pictures inside and outside are crisp and vivid. (Angel mode with correct white balance make very beautiful skin tones. . . .)

Do I have any complaints? Yes:
1. Lousy tech support (called them before buying the camera. They were worthless. Have not needed to call them since)
2. Manual is PDF on CD. Have to print it off. Bummer.
3. Navigation through menus is funky. I agree with previous reviewer that your hands are moving all over the place in order to navigate. But after awhile you get it down. Part of the reason you have to read the manual 3 times is to understand the navigation and setting selections.

No camera is perfect. Everyone has complaints on one thing or another. The best camera is one you have with you when you want to take a picture. That usually means small enough to put in a pocket so it is wherever you are and fast enought to turn on and take a picture in a flash before the moment is gone. This camera does it in 1.5 seconds. And of course it must have great photos or why even own it? This is the camera--very fun and fast. Just wish that menu system was a bit easier. . . .

I was trying to decide between this camera and the Canon S400. I chose the Minolta G400 and don't regret it at all.

The main reason to choose this camera is its speed, weight, AND price. This camera is MUCH faster than the canon. The startup time is practically zero, there is virtually no shutter lag, and the shot to shot time is fast as well. I found the canon S400 to be much slower.
The autofocus routine is good.
It is also much lighter (in weight) than the canon which is nice.
The Minolta also has much more in the way of manual control.
The one thing that I wish this camera had is the panoramic option where you can stitch several pictures together using the LCD viewfinder (the canon has this feature). But I can do this with my computer later so this is not a bid deal.
Some people have said that the menu system is not organized well - I agree, but it is really not that bad.
I like that the battery charger (which comes with the camera) is external to the camera so I can charge a battery while still using the camera (I have 2 batteries).

So with the exception of the panoramic feature of the canon S400, I could not find a reason to spend the extra $ to buy it over this Minolta G400. And now that I have it, I am glad I got the Minolta.

My feeling is that the reason the canon S400 is so popular on Amazon is that people see that other people have bought it, so they buy it.
P.S. the Minolta G500 is actually an OLDER model than the G400 even though it is a 5M pixel.

I had a Olympus D-360L prior, an excellent camera, but no zoom. I looked at the Canon S400, Pentax 555, Sony T1, Kyocera 300L. The Pentax had speed issues, the Sony was expensive, the Kyocera had no optical viewfinder and I did not like the split LCD, lens system which I thought would be difficult to control / coordinate. The Canon was almost my choice, but it was a little slower, more expensive, and the Minolta supported SD and memory stick formats. I have a Sony Clie SJ-22 that I wanted to display pictures with, using memory sticks.

The Minolta is tiny, I can fit it into a case intended only for memory cards (Lowepro). It is also lightnening fast, I cannot see how much faster a camera could be. You slide the door, bring the camera to your eye, align the image, and shoot, there is no delay, another picture can be taken with only a 1-2 second (roughly) delay at normal settings.
The directional and telephoto buttons allow you to magnify and move the image on the LCD, the image moves on the screen without any blurring. The display of images is very fast.
The issue of autofocus in low light is somewhat apparent, but actually not that much different than my Olympus. The camera does seem to struggle a little in low light,-some autofocus delays, some exposure issues, but to me these are almost imperceptible, and I suspect they would be to most people. I suspect most compact digital cameras struggle in low light situations.

Overall, outdoor picture quality is excellent, indoor is very good. Relative my olympus, there is not a huge difference, until you start to magnify images, and the greater resolution is evident.

There are small issues with opening the camera cover, initially I found it a little difficult to get a good grip but I now have no problems.

The menu system is not the best in terms of organization, but it is redundant (the same settings are available on many screens), and I have not had problems quickly changing settings.

This is an excellent, compact, fast camera that unlike my old Olympus D360L, I can carry everywhere, in my shirt pocket if I want. It may not be a good choice for someone not used to digital gadgets, but anyone with experience with computers or PDA's should enjoy this camera.


Update 12/05:
I feel even better about this camera now. I've traveled all over the world with it, and it has performed well. The selection button on the back has started to loosen, but otherwise no mechanical problems at all.

I've used the video function more than I though I would initially. Since I can carry the camera easily, I can catch unexpected events-the Air Force Thunderbirds flew over my car in Maine and I caught the event very well on the camera.
The voice recorder allows you to annotate your photos. You can document entire trips with just this camera alone.

Update October 2007: My G400 was stolen from my house <sigh>. A great camera, it was still working well when it was stolen-except for a single loose button. I used it all over the world. If you see one, used, for sale in eastern or central Massachusetts,call me.

I've had this camera (Konica Minolta Dimage G400) now for over two months and I'm very happy with it. The camera was actually developed mainly by Koncia before Konica and Minolta merged. It's basically a rebranded Konica Revio KD-410Z.

I've  compared with three coworkers who bought the Sony DSC-T1: The Sony is about as fast, smaller and sleeker, but performs much worse in low light conditions.  I've seen quite a few pictures that were shot indoors and the flash didn't manage to properly light the scene. I don't think that should be happening with a camera that sells for $150 more than my camera.

To nail this problem we took photos with both cameras under identical conditions. The G400 picture is slightly underexposed, but not bad considering it was almost dark in the room when I pressed the shutter. The T1 on auto setting on the other hand was underexposed by about two f-stops. Setting the T1 to ISO400 helped somewhat, but made the picture very noisy :(

What tipped the scale for me is the overall quality of pictures and the absolutely amazing speed of the camera. In general I found that people talk too much about megapixels.What matters much more than actual megapixels (once you've moved past two megapixels) are the optical properties of the camera like lens, autofocus system, etc. The pictures I've taken so far were almost all very crisp with radiant colors. The colors were usually a bit too warm and could sometimes benefit from a bit of adjustment in Photoshop, but were excellent otherwise.

Overall I'd say the camera has some flaws but is a very nice little point and shoot camera that offers lots of manual adjustments when you're ready for them. And given the current market prices for this camera this is one of the best buys out there. That's why I'm giving it five stars despite having some flaws.

Oh, and I forgot to mention: Don't fall for this camera's big brothers the G500 and the G600! As I understand it, they don't have the fast passive autofocus system the G400 has and the G600 even has a crippled movie mode.

And while we're speaking about the movie mode: 320x240 at 15 frames per second is not quite state of the art anymore and shouldn't be a factor in your buying decision of any digital still camera. If you insist on a decent movie mode, go and buy a digital camcorder. You'll have a lot more fun that way with ample storage space and a working optical and digital zoom.

The G400 is a small, fast camera that performs quite well outdoors. It does not focus well in indoor lighting, though - struggling to get focus lock in moderate to low lighting conditions.

Size wize, the camera is very pocketable. It's not quite as small as the Pentax Optio S series, but it's one of the smaller optical zoom enabled cameras out there. Its construction is quite solid and the camera has a good 'feel' to it. The menu system isn't what I'd describe as intuitive - it's actually close to cumbersome, but it's not too bad to navigate through (though you will find your hands moving all over the place to press different buttons, as opposed to having everything on a 4-way 'OK' controller like most digicams).

Outdoors, the camera really shines. Startup time is tremendously fast - the camera is ready to shoot before you can get it up to your face. Auto focus time is quite quick, especially in good light. Shutter lag with prefocus is non-existant. Total shutter lag with autofocus is quick - under a second in good light. Shot to shot time is good, too - even flash recycle time is quick - 2-3 seconds. No lost shots waiting for startup or flash recycle.

Image quality is very nice - colors look realistic, low noise (for a small camera) and good resolution. It's no SLR, but you're not going to stick an SLR in your shirt pocket, either. There are trade-offs to get this to this size.

Indoors the performance is not so good. The camera fails to lock focus in most 'normal' lighting situations. Continuing to take the picture without lock will usually result in a decently focused pic if your target is fairly close, and there is a manual focus mode as well as 'scene' modes that set a specific focus range. However, it is frustrating for the camera not to lock when other cameras in its class can. The flash is quite strong and shots made with flash are quite good when in focus. However, if you are primarilly looking for a camera for indoor snapshots, you should look elsewhere. If Minolta could improve this aspect of the camera, they'd have a superb product. As it stands now, they have a nice product that works great in good light.

Pros:
Fast start up, focus lock and cycle time
Solid construction
True 'pocketable' size
Good battery life
Lots of options / manual controls
Strong flash
Very nice image quality

Cons:
Poor moderate to low light focusing abilities
Cumbersome menu
No printed manual included - only on PDF (yuck - 200 pages of PDF? Who's going to print that?)
Redeye - but that's a given on small cameras with strong flashes

Pros:
Recognized as a generic mass storage device under Windows XP - No drivers from device vendor required
Small size. Easy to take with you
Manual controls
34mm equivalent wide angle (most P&S cameras are in the 35-39mm range)
SD and Memory Stick slots
Decent battery life
LCD can still be seen reasonably well in bright sun
Good picture quality
Low shutter lag
Decent flash
Many features for the price

Cons:
Big:
Poor AF performance in low light despite Minolta hype to the contrary
Nit picky:
No diopter setting for the viewfinder (Not need by me, yet)
Blue LED on front that does nothing
Unintuitive menuing system takes some getting used to
Zoom not continuous
No date stamp feature
Speaker placement on top left corner is easily blocked by left index finger so the "click" sound cannot be heard
Typos in menus and documentation
Depression on back right of camera angled wrong making the camera more difficult to grip
Non-existent technical support (no reply to my email regarding poor low-light AF performance)
No TV-out option

My review is based on actual hands-on usage. This is my fourth digital camera in five years.

Picture Quality:
----------------
Pros:
For a 4MP camera, I'd say the image quality is excellent. Crisp, clear, excellent exposure, accurate colors, and low noise. I'd say it produces images better than my older 4MP Sony S85. You can customize the color balance, saturation, and sharpness settings.

Cons:
None really. I'm happy with the image quality given it's resolution and price.

Handling & Feel:
----------------

Pros:
The camera is about the size of a deck of cards. The all metal body feels solid. Slide the cover open to power up the camera. It starts up almost instantly. You're ready to take picture in less than a second. The lens instantly retracts when you close the cover. The menu is easy to navigate.

Cons:
The body is flat, so there is nothing to really grip on to. If your hands are sweaty, you can't get a good grip on the cover to open it, so you end up grabbing it from the end. If you do this, you'll end up dragging your fingers across the lens as you're trying to open the cover.

Performance:
------------

Pros:
Low light autofocus worked well. No complaints. It defaults to 6 feet in total darkness.

Cons:
The G400 is supposed to have a special hybrid autofocus that Minolta claims will perform in less than .25 seconds. My camera was probably defective since the autofocus averaged .75 seconds. I returned it, but I would probably give this camera another chance.

Conclusion:
-----------
If I wasn't expecting lightning fast autofocus, I'd rate this camera five stars. It's small, easy to use, and takes great pictures. However, I specifically purchased the G400 because I was looking for lightning fast autofocus. In that regard, my camera was not functioning properly.

I'm a college Freshman who wanted a decent beginner's camera to experiment with photography.

I poked around review websites for cameras in this pricerange, and came up with the Minolta G400. I ordered it over the other cameras primarily because of the awesome startup time (1/3 that of other cameras in its price/feature range). I'm extremely satisfied with my purchase.

The camera is small, light, and feels very durable. The sliding lens cover makes me feel comfortable toting the thing around and handing it over to other people. The batteries charge fast and last a while, and they're very small, so carrying an extra one around with you is hardly any hassle at all.

The pictures look awesome, and the available manual control lets you take pictures in a variety of lighting situations, assuming you have a steady hand. I was primarily interested in using the camera for purely digital work--editing in Photoshop, using in other digital projects--and the camera is amazing for that purpose; the full 4 megapixels aren't entirely necessary for that purpose.

I enjoy taking close photos, capturing small details, and the camera handles this great. The flash works really well, from what I can see, and I took a couple hundred photos without seeing any reduction in battery charge (about one-third were taken with flash).

I recommend this camera to anyone interested in getting their feet wet in the digital photography racket; it's small, cheap, and relatively feature-rich.