Customer Reviews

Minolta Dimage S304 3MP Digital Camera w/ 4x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I purchased this camera after quite a bit of research. I looked at Sony, Canon, and Fuji cameras. The Minolta S304 had the features I wanted (plus some extras), for a great price.

The only negative is that it eats batteries like there is no tomorrow. But that is a problem with ALL digital cameras. You must get at least 2 sets of rechargeable batteries if you're going to take the camera out for a day of shooting. Don't use standard Alkaline batteries, they won't last 30 minutes.

One hint for improving battery life. The LCD screen is the major culprit for eating batteries. If you're used to taking pictures through the viewfinder, continue doing so with any digital camera. Turn off the LCD. The batteries will last at least twice as long.

Memory cards are very very cheap today. If you're going to spend $... on a camera, spend the $... for a 128 mb memory card. That way you'll have plenty of memory to take all the photos you want without having to delete the bad ones in the middle of your day to save card space. With the Minolta S304 set on Fine and an image size of 1200x800, I can take 172 photos on a 128 mb card. That is a LOT of pictures.

As for those people who have problems using the USB hookup. Why are you still using Windows 98?? It was the very first version of Windows to have USB support and it was beyond buggy. Upgrade to at least Windows 2000. I have Windows ME and the USB works flawlessly.

Great camera, great features, and it looks like a real camera.

This camera is awesome, what makes it even more spectacular is the price. I could not be happier with it. First, it has great zoom capabilities. Second it is 3.3 megapixels for under $.... What more could you ask for?! Well, you may not be able to ask for a lot more, but you sure get it.

Before I bought this camera I did a lot of research. I even visited some of the local camera shops and electronics stores to get a feel for the different cameras before I ordered one on the net. Boy, it sure paid off. There were some that had a body made of plastic. I don't intend to spend $... on something that is made of plastic. Others were very small and were uncomfortable to hold. The Minolta is the perfect size and weight.

When I hooked it up to my system for the first time, I was able to upload pictures in minutes. Another nice feature is that you can take up to 60 Seconds worth of video, very nice. The video even loads up to the system easily.

In addition it uses a Compactflash card. These are pretty reasonably priced. A 16 MB card came with the camera. Most of the pictures I have taken so far are about 500K, so you can store quite a few pictures. I also purchased a 128 MB card at a good price here on ..., so I have plenty of space to store pictures before committing them to CD via my system.

I only have one warning. You need to buy Ni-MH batteries. Then charge them for at least 24 hours, the first time. If you don't the camera will keep coming back and telling you that your batteries are dead. When I called support they kept telling me that I had to buy a special brand of batteries. This wasn't the case, you just need to fully charge the batteries.

From what I have seen this is one of the best buys you are going to get on a camera.

I consider myself something like a "moderately advanced" amateur photographer. I ever used SLR cameras and professional films with good results. That is my first contact with a digital camera; so I belive some of my opinions may be shared with beginners in digital photography.
These are my impressions of Minolta S304 (1 month after purchase):

Pros:
- Very beautiful, small, solid and well constructed, giving impression of a durable machine;
- Ease of use in almost all situations;
- Very good control of important parameters like white balance, ISO sensitivity ("usable" ISO 800), sharpness and color;
- Good optical zoom (140mm);
- Good macro performance even with flash;
- Good pre-programmed scenes;
- Very good flash;
- Very responsive;
- Manual control;
- Good movie capability;
- Good connection with computer;
- Excelent picture quality (nothing is more important in a camera, isn't it true?).

Cons:
- Only two options of aperture;
- Moderate low light capability (larger aperture=3);
- Some autofocus problems in low light;
- No autofocus assist lamp;
- Poor optical viewfinder;
- LCD problems in low light and sunlight, sometimes you can't see what you are shooting (I think it is a common disappointing problem with digicams...);
- Dust can enter between LCD plastic cover and LCD itself, what is very difficult to clean up (I don't know if it is a problem with the camera I purchased or a commom problem with that model. If you have one, please let me know.).

My conclusion is that Minolta S304 is an exelent camera with some problems I can live with. For that price, I think there is no competition nowadays. As I mentioned above my final point is picture quality and this camera deliver very good samples.
If you want to see some of my samples, please go to (...)
Pictures were taken at 2048X1536 size, with fine or standard image quality, converted to sRGB and resized down to 800X600. No other "software manipulation" were made on original pictures.
I would apreciate any opinion. Please remember I am a beginner and if the pictures are not so good, don't blame the camera...
Thank you all and good luck!

I purchased this camera after a lot of research. Initially it was not in my budget but a [amt] price drop happened at just the right time.
The camera takes very sharp pictures, I have a 1.3Mp camera and these pictures are an order of magnitude sharper, especially when you crop, enlarge, etc.
I do agree with another review, you MUST have rechargeable batteries and let them charge overnight or you will only take about 20 minutes of pictures and get a low battery signal and the camera will shut down. I bought 2 sets of batteries just to be sure to have one set always charged.
The optics on this camera are very nice, no chromatic abberations (purple fringing), very little flat noise, colors are very good, even better (print wise) when run through the Image Viewer software.
I highly recommed this camera for the quality of optics, the fair amount of manual control and great photos!

Ths is a great camera. I have waited for many years to get a quality digital camera with 3 Meg Pixels for under $500.00. The only disappointment is that Minolta lists that you can use alkaline batteries, which is not correct. They recommend Ni-MH, which is the only batteries I have found to work properly. Using alkaline batteries result in a low battery indication after only a few shots. Getting the Ni-MH and charger are worth the extra money. I only wish that Amazon carried the batteries and charger. On standard photo setting the supplied 16Meg memory will only store 20 pictures. I recommend getting a 64Meg memory and the USB memory reader attachment for the PC. Download to a PC is easy directly from the camera. A 6V DC adapter is also available for powering the camera, but I haven't found that this is necessary.

I like the Minolta's in general, especially because they tend to have excellent optics that render sharp photos with very true color reproduction, and this one is no exception. Physically, it reminds me of the Kodak 4800, though it is built better and has a heftier feel. The 3.34 megapixel resolution is about as much as anyone will ever need (makes very clean 11" x 14" enlargements), and the optical 4x zoom is a honey. The 16 meg memory card is okay to get started, but of course a bigger card and a card reader are nice additions down the road. The camera has good battery mgt, good USB connectivity and decent software (not really a Minolta strongpoint). All in all, this is a camera that will disappoint no one, though for the money I'd go with Diamge 5.

I've had this camera for about 10 days now and I love it. I have owned high-end 35mm cameras and the picture quality of the S304 is much better. My only gripe is that the date imprint is too large. I have turned it off and will use the Arcsoft Photoimpression software that came with the camera to date the photos in Arial 8 point. You can select the color of the text to contrast with the background. The NiCad batteries that came with the camera were only good for the initial 30 minutes of exploration (playing)! The NiMh rechargeables have been going strong since then...Best 3.3 MP for the money. Lots of features: voice memo, remote controllable, fully auto or fully manual for the creative photographer. Great zoom range (equal to 35-140mm in a 35mm camera). 60 seconds of movie recording and the list goes on and on.

I've had this camera for almost 2 weeks. Overall, I am very satisfied with its performance. The pictures are better than my 35mm film camera (Minolta freedom zoom) This could be because of the obvious advantage of digital cameras - the ability to delete bad pictures right away. With a good printer and paper, I can't tell the difference between developed film, and my digital printouts. I love the 4x optical zoom, and I was surprised to see the the lense hardly sticks out more for 4x zoom than for no zoom. By the way, for amazingly detailed reviews of digital cameras, I highly recommend dpreview dot com. I can be kind of picky, so don't let this list of cons scare you too much.

Cons:
- Sometimes pictures are too bright when flash is used. This happens more often when white or light colors are in the picture. As another reviewer mentioned, sometimes you can't make out the details, or the color, if the object is a very light color. This can be corrected sometimes with the software once the picture is on the computer.
- Sometimes the pictures are a bit out of focus. From what I have heard, almost all cameras have this problem in low light, but sometimes in good light, I will get a slightly blurry picture.
- I dont know how fast other cameras eat batteries, so I can't compare. I do agree with other posts that they seem to die quickly. I guess the capacity of batteries is rated in milli-Amp hours. The camera recommends batteries with at least 1500 mah. Most good battery brands have a 1600 mah battery, I found one brand, Monster, with an 1800 mah AA battery. I bought 2 sets and a charger. (was only able to find them at Circuit city) Seems to work OK, but does eat them up, especially if you look at the pictures a lot on the LCD.
- Film time limited to 60 seconds, no matter how much memory you have. Film requires very bright light to turn out good. Its not a problem in the day, you can just open your window blinds. At night though, I needed to put on every light in the room. Our living room(11x15, with medium colored wall) has 2 60 watt lamps, and that was not enough light, I has to bring in our halogen light. Our kitchen has brighter walls, and 5 60 watt bulbs. That was enough. I guess this makes sense though, since you can't use flash for a film. The sound is OK, but there is some background noise.
- The optical viewfinder does not show what the picture will be like. The image catptured will go further to the left, right, and down, than what you see in the viewfinder. Now that I know, I just keep that in mind.
- To save batteries, I really with there was an option to make the LCD not turn on when you turn on the camera. You always have to hit a button twice to turn it off. No big deal, just annoying.

I think this camera has been overshadowed by its cousins - Dimage 5 and Dimage 7. But the S304 uses much of the same technology in a smaller package. The S304 has been compared to Nikon Coolpix 995 and this compares favorably at a much lower price. And if you are looking for a 'conventional' digital point and shoot this should be high on your list.

Pros: 4x zoom lens, 5 preset shooting modes (portrait, macro, landscape etc), movie mode with sound, lot of optional manual settings allows you to 'grow into' the camera, great value for a 3 megapixel camera with the recent price drops, sleek looks(!)

Cons: Some problems with autofocus in low light (but a lot of point and digicams have this problem).

Please note that this camera uses a proprietary color space. Conversion to sRGB color space using the included software improves the colors as they appear on the monitor. But this is a fast process and is also optional. (There is not much difference after the conversion - for most people who will be using the camera).

Please note that many of the other sites where you may find lower prices may not be reliable. Of course, you need not worry if you are ordering from Amazon !!

And if happen to be a user of this camera please share your feedback and comments here.

I think it's a great camera for the $$. 4x optical gives great results. Drawbacks include autofocus takes time in lower light situations. Probably common with many digital cameras. Eats batteries, but 2 four packs of rechargeable AA batteries solved that problem.