Konica Konica Minolta Maxxum 5D, Everyman’s Digital SLR

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I was recently in the market for a new digital camera and since $1000 camera is nothing to be flippant about, I spent nearly 3 full days reading various online reviews and visiting local camera shops in search of the perfect camera. In the end, I decided to go with the Konica Minolta Maxxum 5D for a variety of reasons, and I have yet to find any significant flaws with this camera.

In the past, it was always my habit to take 2 cameras with me on my jobs, a digital, and a film. I would get reference shots and web-ready shots with the digital, and reshoot with the film for any production-quality images. Thos days may well be hind me now due the the quality, features and versatility of my new Maxxum Digital.

A quick overview:

• 6.1-megapixel
• 12-Bit A/D conversion.
• Digital SLR design for a true optical viewfinder.
• 2.5-inch TFT color, low temperature polysilicon LCD monitor
• Interchangeable lens mount accommodates Konica Minolta AF lenses.
• Auto and Manual focus options, with adjustable nine-point AF area, and Single and Continuous AF modes.
• Auto, Program AE (with Program Shift), Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Manual shooting modes.
• Portrait, Sports, Landscape, Sunset, and Night Portrait exposure modes.
• Shutter speeds from 1/4,000 to 30 seconds, with a Bulb setting for manual control of long exposures.
• 14-segment honeycomb pattern metering, Center-Weighted, and Spot metering options, with AE Lock function.
• Adjustable ISO from 100 to 3,200 equivalents, with an Auto setting.
• Built-in, pop-up flash with four main operating modes and a Slow-Sync function.
• External, proprietary flash hot-shoe for Konica Minolta accessory flash units.
• External PC-style flash sync terminal.
• Built-in support for wireless TTL flash exposure with certain Konica Minolta flashes.
• Continuous Advance and Interval shooting modes.
• Digital Effects option controls contrast, saturation, sharpness, and hue adjustment.
• Adjustable White Balance setting with a manual option and full range of Kelvin temperature settings.
• Color modes include Natural (sRGB), Natural Plus (sRGB), Portrait (sRGB), Landscape (sRGB), Sunset (sRGB), Night View (sRGB), Night Portrait (sRGB), Black & White (sRGB), Adobe RGB and Adobe RGB with embedded color profile.
• RAW and JPEG file formats.
• Images saved on CompactFlash Type I or II memory cards, Microdrive compatible.
• NTSC or PAL selectable video output signal, with cable included.
• Power supplied by a single high-capacity lithium-ion battery pack or separate AC adapter (available as an accessory).
• Optional vertical handgrip and wired remote control accessories.
• DPOF (Digital Print Order Format), Exif 2.2 and PictBridge compliant.

Excepting the large image-info display on the back when you half-depress the shutter, tis camera works and more importantly feels Exactly like a standard SLR. Any action that would normally have a physical feeling in your standard film Maxxum, shutter-click, timer set, extended exposure, feels exactly the same way to your hands. The camera body even has just a bit MORE heft to it than my Maxxum 50-Date film camera. All of the controls are logically placed, with some of them being even better designed than their original counterparts on the Maxxum film cameras, AF/Manual focus control being one that comes immediately to mind, It is placed in roughly the same place as it is on my film camera, but instead of the standard cludgy button, it is now a simple switch .

Konica Minolta has developed an anti-shake mechanism that works wonderfully, and actually took some effort to overwhelm. The images are sharp, crisp, the image review has a very easy to access and excellent zoom feature that coupled with my 75-300 mm lens let me read license plates at 3 ½ city blocks on the camera display itself.

Now on to the bones of contention that I have.

My Maxxum film SLR will auto-engage the flash when it feels the scene needs the additional light, the 5D won’t do that, you have to manually lift the flash hood if you need it.

The purported USB 2.0 cable and interface isn’t 2.0 by any stretch of the imagination. If you want to copy the images in any reasonable amount of time, you will have to remove the CF cartridge and pop it into a true USB 2.0 speed reader.

There is no included DC power adapter, and I’m pretty sure that even if there were, it would no work to recharge the rechargable batter while still loaded in the camera.

The viewfinder sits deeper in the camera than I’m used to with Maxxum cameras, leaving you to press your nose against the LCD display.

The 5D only comes with the DiMage Lite software, making the RAW image modes next to worthless.

Including at lease a basic 128 or 256 MB CF cartridge would definitely be a bonus.

Now on to the images, the below images were all taken from the same distance/angle with a off-body KM 3600HS (D) flash set to wireless TTL. Clicking on the images will link to the original 3008 x 2000 pixel images.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 8th, 2005 at 10:02 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.