Rating: 
Summary: A tale of woe courtesy of Minolta
Review: The Wall Street Journal's gadget column recommended the earlier but quite similar version of this camera (Dimage Xi) so I purchased one from Amazon.com for the Holidays in 2003. The small size is a delight and when the pictures are good they are great and very easy to download to my personal computer (this may be because I have a Macintosh). However, my first extended use of the camera was on a trip to Japan. I discovered that almost anyway you hold the camera to steady it will place a finger in your photo because the rather wide angle lens is recessed into the body and does not pop out during use. I told myself that I would get the hang of it eventually but in the haste of a Kodak moment I always seemed to forgot where my fingers were. About half the pictures from my Japan trip were obscured in this way. Things went downhill from there. The next extended use was during a family outing. I was happily snapping away but now taking my time to frame each shot (remember the finger). About midday the battery died. It turns out that the battery has a rather short life, particularly if you leave the camera on for a few minutes with each picture to play with the zoom and show off your photo. So I lost half a day of family memories. But its gets better. We spent the 2004 Holidays in Europe visiting friends we had not seen for many years. Right in the middle of recording our vacation the camera stopped working. At first I thought it was the battery but a trip to the experts at a big Minolta dealer confirmed that it had died. The dealer said it would take over two weeks to repair in Europe and we were flying back in less than that (and we had none of our purchase receipts and warranty material) so we decided to repair the camera back in the USA. Upon our return I called the number in New Jersey and followed instructions to mail the camera to the repair center. Nothing prepared me for Minolta's idea of customer service. A few weeks later I got a bill for $110 (half the cost of a new unit) to examine the camera with a promise of more costs if something really bad is wrong (more about this later). What about the 1 year warranty? Well, the Minolta customer service people tell me the 1 year only covers the time from date of purchase to receipt of the camera in New Jersey. If you are out of the country when the camera breaks (and not likely carrying the warranty documents to tell you what to do) you are out of luck. Finally, the invoice says Minolta is not responsible for damage due to dust in the camera even if it is under warranty. So I did a little checking around. It turns out that the innards of this camera are not well protected. In fact, I gather that when the lens screen is open just about anything can fall inside and do some real damage. So this is definitely not a camera you want to keep in your pocket even though that is its major selling point. For the record I kept mine in the leather belt case that I bought from Minolta. I cannot recommend this or any Minolta camera because at least one of them has some serious design defects and the manufacturer's warranty service is flawed, to say the least. Bottom line: don't believe what you read in the Wall Street Journal (but my friends who swear by the Washington Post have been telling me this for years).
Rating: 
Summary: Great size, cool factor....cannot make it take good pictures
Review: I recently bought this camera after reading several good reviews and recommendations. Only after a few shots I realized that the pictures were not as good as I had expected. In fact the pictures weren't even half as good as my 2.5 year old 2.0 MP kodak DC3400 camera. At first I thought that maybe I did not understand the camera settings. But after reading the manual and trying to take pictures in different light conditions and settings, I have realized that it is futile to try to make this camera take better pictures. The pictures are grainy in poor light conditions. They are soft even in good light conditions. The camera is also very sensitive and the pictures often get blurred even with the slightest hand motion.
The good seems to be the cool factor (which is why I bought it), and the use of SD cards (which I think is the way to go). But after having used it for sometime now, I have realized that the poor picture quality of this camera outweighs the cool factor, and this camera will go back to where it came from. I will probably end up buying the canon S50 instead.
Rating: 
Summary: Cannot ask for more!
Review: Unless you are going pro, not looking for a point-and-shoot one, you will not go wrong with this camera. Minolta makes wonderful lenses and the most space efficient zoom. I find the picture quality very impressive for almost no (color, shape, contrast, etc.) distortions closer to the edges, even when zoomed in (which is always the case for many point-and-shoot cameras).Minolta finally perfected it after Dimage X and Xi. Minor annoying problems such as battery charging method and power management have been fixed. Other reviewers have said it all. In short, to find a camera with comparable quality and size, you have to go for Canon Elph (which is slightly bigger and heavier) with almost twice the price.
Rating: 
Summary: Not all memory cards work with this camera
Review: I love the camera, but was disappointed to find that the Viking memory card, which was listed as a "recommended" accessory for the camera, is not compatible with the camera. I discovered this after the camera continually "froze up" and refused to reset itself. I actually sent the camera back to the factory to be serviced, but it was sent back with a note saying that the technicians could find nothing wrong with it. When I called tech support again, an alert tech asked me what type of memory card I was using, and the Viking card was found to be the cause of the problem. I tried a Sandisk, and it worked perfectly. Be sure to check the memory card compatibility for ANY digital camera before buying one. There appears to be great variance in what works and what doesn't.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect for my situation
Review: I have two 35 mm. cameras (including a 1967 Canon FT that runs circles around cameras available today), and I still prefer the look of film over digital. But I wanted a small camera for those walking-around situations where I would be inclined to leave one of the film cameras at home, and/or want to tweak and crop the images myself on the computer. The XT is a true "pocket" camera, and fits the bill for me. I agree with many of the reviewers about the indoor limitations of this camera, and find that 5x7 is a practical enlargement limit for indoor shots (although I have made a few really good 8x10 indoor prints in situations where the camera and the subject were really steady). I recommend trying the spot-exposure feature of this camera to concentrate on the main subject. If you are looking for a camera to use all of the time, I would recommend one of the digital Canons. To digress, I don't know why so many (non-artist or hobbyist)people see an advantage in the enormous amount of time consumed by enhancing, tweaking and printing their digital photos out at home. (One woman proudly showed me how she used Photoshop Elements to turn a background patch of lawn into something resembling psychodelic Astroturf.) I use a retail photofinisher for all of my images, and then choose only the best 5 percent or so of my shots for my own home enhancement and printing. Incidentally, I have noticed that many newbies destroy the nuances of their original photos by using the one-click "enhancement" features of home photo software programs. You invested all that money -- take a class, people!
Rating: 
Summary: I want to like this camera, but...
Review: Bought this camera after comparing to other small digitals. I wanted a camera small enough to take everywhere as I am constantly leaving my others behind and end up with no pictures. I think the engineering is incredible in this camera. Unfortunately, even after playing around with all the easy to use options, I cannot get the camera to take consistently good pictures in the situations that I find myself. I mostly agree with the other reviews that talk about poor picture quality. It seems to especially have problems with situations with some backlighting, lots of contrast (white shirt with dark jacket), too cold looking pictures when taken with the flash and a few others. Outdoor quality is much better. Speed is good but agree that it takes quite a while for first picture when using flash. Not sure what I'm going to do. At this point, probably will try to return the camera because, in the end, if I can't get good pictures easily, what's the point?
Rating:
Summary: Great Camera (for the Great Outdoors)
Review: If you're looking for a small camera that takes great pictures OUTSIDE, this is it. The mix of reviews this has received is due, in my humble opinion, to the fact that some people have mostly used it outdoors (the high scorers), and some other people have mostly used it indoors (the low scorers). The reason for this discrepancy is that the flash is not that good. If you're shooting indoor, you really need some other source of light for the picture to be of good quality, if you just use the built-in flash, you'll get a decent snaphsot, but nothing to brag about. Everytime I see indoor pictures I get disappointed at the quality (unless I remembered to use other lights) and everytime I see outdoor pictures I'm awed at the clearness and level of detail.
Rating:
Summary: Very Poor Picutre Quality
Review: I recently recieved the Minolta Dimage Xt as a present. Immeditately I was intrigured by the small design and groundbreaking internal optical zoom. After several pictures, I soon realized the the shape of the camera did not make up for the poor picture quality. All of the pictures appear grainy and under lighted. The flash is not effective even with close objects. The result is a dark, grainy, [...] picture. [...] Compared to all Canon cameras the Minolta Dimage Xt produces terrible images. My brother owns a Canon S200 and we took identical shots his appeared bright and rich with color. Mine was grainy, dark, and lacking depth or color to the face of the person. I have replaced my Dimage Xt with a Canon SD 100 which is great. I am completely satisfied. Canon cameras seem to produce great pictures. I would highly recommend buying one instead.
Rating:
Summary: Fun, fun, fun
Review: Dimage XT is a competent digital camera and takes good-quality pictures. I'm not sure about some reviewers' negative comments. Maybe they work for competition. You should not take anyone's word but should try out the camera in a store to see it for yourself. You'll be amazed at its cool-ness and fun-ness and also good picture quality. I think this is the best ultra compact digital camera. If your serious about photography you may want to get a Canon or Olympus SLR digitla camera as your main equipment but use this as a fun, capture-teh-moment-kind-of back-up. Luv ya all.
Rating:
Summary: Digital Grandpa
Review: This camera is easier to use than an old Kodak Brownie, but with several generations of electronic improvement. Don't need a bulky camera bag and the assesories that go with it. Takes great pictures, and lots of them with an additional 256mb sd card. Well written intruction manual explains all the easy to use functions and great capability of this camera. I have owned many cameras, Leica, Cannon, a couple of digitals, etc., over my years as an airline pilot. This small but capable Dimage xt drops in any pocket and when a photo op comes up it is ready and more than able to take a quality picture. Very pleased.
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