Minolta Dimage F300 5.3MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

Other products by Konica-Minolta

Product Details

Product Manual [2.33mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 1.3 x 4.4 x 2.1 inches ; 6.6 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000087KY5
• Item model number: F300
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,272 in Camera & Photo (See Bestsellers in Camera & Photo)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 8, 2003

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description
The Minolta Dimage F300 5.3-megapixel digital camera produces high-quality images and incorporates advanced automatic functions. It features a sleek, contoured design similar to Minolta's F100, but offers increased resolution and zoom range, a new noise-reduction option, and Minolta's award-winning subject-tracking autofocus (AF) and Minolta's area AF.

Optics and Resolution
The Dimage F300 features a 5.3-megapixel primary-color CCD with 5.0 million effective pixels for high-resolution images. It incorporates a built-in 3x optical zoom Minolta GT lens for color accuracy, and its 4x digital zoom capability combines with a compact lens design for a wide image-capture range. Three aspheric lens elements ensure sharp images at all focal lengths. With a focal range of 7.8-23.4mm, the lens is equivalent to a 38-114mm 35mm zoom lens.

The image formed on the camera’s CCD sensor is enhanced by Minolta’s exclusive CxProcess image-processing technology to optimize sharpness, color reproduction, tonal gradation, and noise to create clear and natural-looking images. The Dimage F300’s wide dynamic range is provided by 12-bit A/D (analog to digital) conversion to ensure natural color and accurate tonal reproduction.

Storage and Transfer
Images are stored on Secure Digital memory cards, and a 32 MB card is included. Images can be downloaded to either a Mac or PC via USB connectivity, which means it can be connected to any USB-based Windows 98 Rev2Me/2000/XP and Mac OS 8.6 or later computer without installing any software.

More Features
A versatile camera, the Dimage F300 allows complete control over exposure, color, contrast, saturation, white balance, camera sensitivity, and focus. It can also record movies and audio.

Like the Dimage F100, the F300 also comes equipped with subject-tracking AF and Minolta’s area AF. These technologies work together to locate and follow the subject through three-dimensional space within the camera’s extra-wide focusing area, making the autofocus system ready to take a picture whenever you're ready to shoot.

The Dimage F300 combats noise (which can give a grainy look to digital images) by employing a large signal-to-noise ratio to minimize its effect even with higher CCD gain--as well as allowing photographers to select noise reduction to control image quality.

This stylish camera features a slim aluminum body exterior and stainless-steel accents around the lens barrel with an easy-to-hold elegant grip and ergonomic control layout.

Power, Size, and Contents
The camera is powered by one CR-V3 lithium battery and four rechargeable NiMH batteries. It measures 4.3 by 2.1 by 1.3 inches and weighs 6.5 ounces. This package includes the Dimage F300 digital camera, batteries and NiMH battery charger, 32 MB Secure Digital memory card, USB and AV cables, hand strap, sports case, and a CD-ROM with Dimage Viewer and ArcSoft Funhouse software, and USB drivers for Windows and Mac.

Product Description
Once you use the DiMAGE F300 you'll know it's a high-quality digital camera. From the elegant design and rich metal body to the sophisticated performance features including a 5.0 megapixel CCD, an ultra-compact Minolta GT 3X zoom lens, UHS continuous advance, 12-bit A/D conversion, and Minolta's advanced CxProcess, the DiMAGE F300 ensures that the beauty and details of the original scene are preserved in the digital image. Additionally, the DiMAGE F300 can take over control for point and shoot ease, or give you complete control over exposure, color, contrast, saturation, sharpness, white balance, camera sensitivity, and focus. A complete multimedia tool, the DiMAGE F300 also records movie clips and audio.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT picture quality/ lots of fun options, March 7, 2003

By A Customer

After much research, I decided to purchase the F300 because I was looking for more than just a "point and shoot" digital camera. The F300 offers a good balance between manual control and point and shoot or any combination of the two.

Most reviews I read (and Minolta's website, of course) said the camera's buttons ,menus, and function were very "intuitive"; while this is true for the Auto mode, I did have to read the directions for quite a few things--and the directions were not always that clear (see p. 68 then 73 then 54) but I managed to blunder my way to what I wanted after a few minutes of button- pressing.

The software that comes with the camera is cruddy compared to my Photoshop and luckily I didn't have to rely on Minolta's software. I have a Mac, though, so maybe the software looks/functions better on a real computer.

You'll definitely have to get more/ 256 MB SD memory cards since the 32 MB one provided only holds one high-quality picture ( I'm guessing you want a 5 mp camera in the first place because you want many good pictures). The photo quailty is really excellent in many modes and this camera is great at noise reduction.

Lastly, I know this is supposed to be a product review, but kudos to Amazon for not skimping on the accessories and trying to sell off things separately! Everything was included that the mfr recommends and everything was shipped to me EIGHT DAYS EARLY!!

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars solid feature set, 5MP, 3x optical, nice pics., September 22, 2003

By	jemaerca (River Forest, IL, United States) - See all my reviews

the minolta dimage f300 is a solid camera but there are a few complaints that lead to this 4 star rating: no AF assist light, noisier images than competition, a slow moving lens, and all but useless TIFF mode (takes too long to save).

pros:
- 5MP resolution and 3X optical zoom.
- good photo quality, very sharp images.
- LCD on top of camera displays essential info (very rare in this camera class) - to be truly useful though, this should have included shutter speed and aperture.
- subject tracking autofocus performs well.
- good color balance.
- full set of manual controls - aperture/shutter priority, manual exposure, manual focus.
- intuitive user interface plus simple menu system.
- wide ISO sensitivity range for a compact (ISO 100 - 800).
- good macro performance.
- solid build quality, aluminium body.
- good shot to shot times.
- selectable AF points, reasonable AF speed.
- tracking AF workings for slow moving high contrast subjects.
- USB connectivity.
- non-proprietary AA batteries used.
- automatic lens cover.
- small and light: 4.4"W x 2.1"H x 1.3"D, weighing 7.8oz.

cons:
- more noise in images than competition.
- no auto focus assist light - makes focusing in low light difficult, if not impossible.
- slow moving lens - over 3 seconds to go from wide to telephoto!
- slow moving lens leads to slow startup time.
- shutter lag is noticeably worse than competition.
- noticeable barrel distortion from lens at wide angle.
- default tonal balance leads to lost shadow detail, clipped highlights.
- no flash power control.
- only TIFF format is supported, if you prefer RAW format, look elsewhere.
- saving a TIFF file means a virtual camera shutdown for about 30 seconds! this is a deal breaker for me.
- metal case scratches easily.
- doors for memory and battery feel flimsy.
- the included 32MB memory card is inadequate; be ready to shell out additional $$ for more memory.

as already mentioned, the f300 is a competent camera that is compact and quite stylish. if you don't plan to use the TIFF mode, the long save time is a non-issue. the shutter lag is troublesome though and the lack of an AF assist light is annoying. nevertheless, this camera has a lot going for it and is worthy of consideration. in the end, i would recommend the canon s50 over this.

i hope this helps your purchasing decision. peace.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful images, sharp resolution, April 16, 2003

By	Toh Newin "tohn" (Cambridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The images I can produce on this camera in its plethora of manual modes is amazing. The controls are fast and intuitive. It's in the same class as the Canon G2 and other "pro-sumer" cameras - full manual features, large CCD. The only thing it (and others) lacks is a professional class lens. I'm absolutely happy with it, but if I were to object:

The camera works best indoors with a tripod (which I have) because the ISO 400 mode generates too much noise. Outdoors this isn't a problem, but night photography seems to suffer a tad.

Battery meter only has "full, warning and shutdown" so it's hard to tell how far you can go. I use up my 2 NiMHs in 40-50 shots, including post-view of the shots.

I wish the movie mode also had a time lapse mode (where you can set the time), because it's just something to add to software. This would make the camera so much more functional.

The autofocus indicator works well, but it's sometimes hard to get focus on indoor portraits.