Customer Reviews

Remanufactured Konica Minolta Dimage A2 8MP Digital Camera with 7x Anti Shake Optical Zoom

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The main reasons I bought the Dimage A2 camera was for the manual zoom lens that starts at 28mm, the anti-shake feature, the tilt adjustable viewfinder, (the only digital camera I know of that has this great feature) and the ability to shoot RAW or RAW + JPEG at the same time. This camera has many more features and adjustments which can overwhelm some people. I had a few of the focusing and exposure quality problems some other reviewers reported but after updating the firmware and spending allot of time reading the manual thoroughly twice and reading online suggestions from other owners and trying different adjustments, I've managed to improve the focus and exposure quality of my photos. A soft focus shot still shows up once in a while though. I think the focusing sensor needs to be enhanced. KonicaMinolta's own website has an excellent section on the Dimage A2 that explains with illustrations, all of the A2's features and their purpose. The manual informs you on page 35 that the camera will have trouble focusing on a low contrast area or if it's too dark or if the subject is near a very bright object or area. Also, I suggest you not use focus matrix mode, it is not reliable enough in my opinion. Use the Flex Focus Point or the Lock focus modes instead. By the way, I have read some posts from other A2 owners that the lens on their A2 has excessive play. Mine has no play at all, it is on solid so I must assume that this is a quality control problem at the factory and may be one of the factors in some autofocusing problems some A2 owners are having. This is a good camera but, it has limitations. My wishes to improve it are; I wish the Dimage A2 could take advantage of high speed flash memory because it is annoyingly slow at writing data to the flash card, especially RAW and RAW+JPEG. I used a regular Simpletech CF card and a Sandisk Ultra card and Lexar 80x card to see if it made any difference and it did not.
At least a 2" LCD that could tilt down at least 45 degrees would be excellent. Reduced noise at all ISO's but especially at ISO 200 and above. A wireless remote control that could work up to 20 feet away would be a great accessory feature. A more powerful flash. A wider and more responsive manual focusing ring and a larger color histogram display. And of course, improved precise autofocusing in all modes. I hope the A3 or whatever they call the next model in the A line series includes these features.
The Dimage A2 is a camera for people who are active in photography and like to experiment but don't want to invest a ton of money on DSLR's and lenses. If all you want is to put your camera in program or auto mode and shoot, then buy a point and shoot camera not the Dimage A2.
Remember, this camera and indeed, all advanced cameras demand that you invest a bit of time studying and experimenting with them to get the best from them