Rating: 
Summary: good value
Review: I bought 3 sets of panasonic rechargeable batteries (1950 mA) from the local warehouse store and they lasted most of a day. They are an affordable alternative to the monster rechargeable batteries mentioned in other reviews and it seems that 2 sets would have been enough. I bought a 256mb compact flash card and a sandisk usb card reader. For all of you new to digital photography (like I am), the camera is pretty much useless until you have purchased all of these.I can say that the camera compares well to my Canon Z135 35mm. For a digital camera, it is a bit on the large and heavy side, but I'm ok with that. I've found the 60 seconds of movie quite useful (in daytime outdoors and bright light only) especially when I saw dolphins in the ocean. I couldn't get a still shot because I never knew when the dolphins would go above water, so at least I was able to get a clip. Also, I was unable to get a shot in medium light (indoor pool) conditions, (using the flash, the subject was fine, but the background wasn't, without the flash, the background was good, but the subject wasn't, using the fill flash was slightly better) but I'm not sure my Canon would have got the picture any better. I've found the camera to do very well, for indoor portraits and outdoor (bright sun) landscapes. I'm not happy with the date stamp feature, because it removes part of the picture (maybe there is a setting to change the way it puts the date stamp?) I also don't like the way it does red eye reduction. It does 3 flashes, and the third is when the picture is actually taken, but after the first (no matter how many times you tell them) the subject believes that the shot was taken and stops posing. Digital photography is great for beginners because you can immediately see what you are doing wrong and correct it.
Rating: 
Summary: Great photos - terrible quality camera
Review: Because of its location and design, the on/off dial will turn when inserting camera into case or pocket - resulting in camera remaining powered with lens extended.
Poor design of memory-card door allows it to spring open during use if you touch the release button.
First camera I got became hot to the touch when used. I called Minolta and was told that I need to send it to them (and pay shipping) and they will check and decide what to do (even though the technician seemed familiar with the problem). Called Dell instead and they immediately sent me a replacement (great support). Unfortuanately, the new camera had all the same problems, except for the heat. I am sending both back.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed...traded for the Canon S230
Review: After reading all the wonderful reviews from various websites and here, I bought the S414 and how disappointing... 1. Terrible focusing. In autofocus mode, about 30% of the photos come out to be somewhat fuzzy. I did everything according to the manual, even using the focus rectangles but the pictures still come out unfocused. This happens both indoor and outdoor. Maual focusing is even worse. You need to view the image on the LCD screen for manual focusing. Since the screen is small, it is very difficult to determine if the image is focused. Under the sun, you can hardly see images on the LCD screen, so manual focusing is nearly impossible. 2. Picture quality is not acceptable. The pictures are often flat and unlively. Colors are not as vivid as I would hope. The date stamp makes the picture looks very unprofessional, since it looks like a large white label instead of having just numeric values. The numbers show up as blocks instead of having smooth edges. 3. Bulky and heavy. The size and weight of this camera makes it really difficult to carry around. In order to carry this, I have the wrap it around my neck, making it really difficult to do anything else without it pounding against my chest. 4. Boot up time is long. I had missed a few good pictures simply because it takes longer for this camera to boot up than it takes others. 5. Definitely not a point-and-shoot. This camera is not meant to used as a point-and-shoot camera. It takes way to long to boot and focus. By the time you're ready to take a picture, you would've missed the shot. Not really suitable for people who want to capture spontaneous shots. 6. Overdone flash. The flash cannot seem to readjust for different objects. It's too bright even for subjects that are upto 2 feet from the lens. Many of my pictues end up being too bright and unfixable even using the bundled software. At times, the flash doesn't even come on when there is backlight. I guess most cameras have flash that don't, but my Canon S230 and Kodak DX4900 does adjust to accomodate so I get great pictures even when there is backlight. 7. Odd size lens. The len's diameter is at an odd 35.5mm. It is very difficult to find anyone carrying filters of this size cheap. You may want to consider this if you intend to use any filters for this camera. In my opinion, this camera is over-rated. Although the price is quite affordable for a 4MP and 4X zoom camera, I would rather pay a bit extra to own a 3.2MP/2X zoom Canon. The picture quality of the Canon S230 I own, which has 3.2MP, is way better than this camera. The fact that I can focus 90% of the time with my S230 makes it much better than the S414, not to mention the size difference. If you're not looking to print pictures greater than 11"x14", a 3.2MP is more than sufficient. One important factor is that my S230 is Made in Japan. The S414 is Made in China. From my previous experiences with numerous electronic, gadgets that are Made in Japan are far far better in quality than those made in China. Hope this will help you make a more informed decision.
Rating:
Summary: Great Camera but poor power source
Review: This is my first digital camera ever. I had been putting off the purchase for a long time because I knew nothing about digital cameras and I was afraid of the learning curve. This camera is really easy to operate and retrieve pictures from. However it chews through batteries at an alarming rate and the Minolta accessories are {spendy}.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect image quality
Review: This is a perfect camara with perfect image quality and rockbottom price around three hundred dollars with deals. How ever the batteries that came with the camara drained off in 2 min. Also, I dont like the sound it makes while the camara zooms in and out, sounds as if the motor inside is grinding some thing. I would also have liked a webcam functionality, which it lacks. Also, the digital zoom is pathetic, don't expect to use it. The screen goes blank for a second and the zoomed picture comes up. Continuous digital zoom whould have been nice. Now that functionality that I like, microphone with movie capture, connect to tv and play pics and movies, picture quality which is the most important thing, easy interface and manual settings for picture capture.
Rating: 
Summary: I love it!
Review: This camera's sweet! The menu display is easy to figure out, although I wish it was illuminated. It's both a manual and automatic camera, so those folks who are into photography will be happy with its versatlility. The only real downside is that it's very hard to open and close the battery compartment, and it eats traditional AA batteries for lunch. Go with NIHI batteries instead. It's small enough to fit in a purse or bag, but large enough that it's easy to handle. I feel some of the digital cameras out there are way too small for comfort.
Rating:
Summary: Minolta Dimage s414 camera
Review: At Amazon's price this camera can't be matched.
I read the other reviews, one of them complained about low light use. This has not been a problem for me.
It does have plastic doors on a metallic body; but this too is a good design: it prevents electrical shorts.
The software is very good too with a strong editing and pic info panel. It loads fast, just like the camera.
I was a little puzzled why the camera isn't widely marketed.
That is a Minolta problem.
Thanks Amazon! S.E
Rating:
Summary: Works great for us beginner digi cam users
Review: This is my first digital camera and we love it. After months of research, I finally decided on the S414. It has been great. The pics are super clear, and we love the easy to use movie feature (which doesn't take up much space on the flash card). The outdoor pictures are definately the best. The only problem I have noticed is some red eye with indoor shots, especially if it's dark in the room. That can be fixed in Adobe though, so it's a minor prob for us. I would definately recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Great camera. Updated report.
Review: I remain very happy with the S414. In fact, I have sold or given away almost all my other digicams. The one problem area with this Minolta had been its heavy battery use, but since I switched to 2,000 mAmp Monster batteries, this has become much less of an issue. I append my original review below:
**************************************************************** This is about my 12th digital camera, and in general each one gets better in several ways as the technology expands. This one takes the place of a Sony P72 which I bought for about the same amount of money 8 months ago. However, the Minolta brings several higher end features to the table, including a 4 megapixel resolution (great clarity in poster-sized enlargements possible) and a true, 4X optical zoom, which was my main reason for upgrading. However, the icing on the cake, it turns out, is the 414's faster CPU, allowing it to wake up quickly and to write and recover faster btwn shots. In fact, it is so quick that it allows for continuous shooting of digital stills at 0.8 second intervals until either the battery is exhausted or the memory card is full. Likewise, it takes fairly good quality video *with* sound, as well as allowing for voice over of still images. The controls are logical, intuitive and clearly marked, the thru-the-lens framing is bright and easy to use, and playback on the 1.8" LCD is clear even in bright haze. Even the synthesized camera-like sound effects are good; they are a pleasing means of non-visual feedback to the user. Of course, it's a camera, so the quality of the photographs is what really counts, and here I can say the Minolta optics are superb, easily trouncing the Sony & Olympus cams I've been using of late. Battery life has not been an issue for me, weight and balance are okay, and even the non-integral (but tethered) lens cap hasn't bothered me. It does, of course, need a much larger memory card right away; with a 256MB CF card I'm getting about 120 shots at the highest resolution.
In short, this is an amazing camera at a very good price.
Rating:
Summary: Big battery problems
Review: I just have this camera two days ago, and I found the performance of the battery really awkful. The menu described the 4 AA alkalines batteries would run 2 hours continues playback. This is not truth. First, I installed the new batteries which the Minolta provied. Not even have an hour, the batteries exhausted. I put a new set of batteries. The result is the same. Also the battery door is hard to close.
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