Rating: 
Summary: Great for Beginners as well as advanced users
Review: I just got this camera this month and I love it. I have another Minolta digital as well (good quality) and this one is small, you can fit it into a pocket, its lightweight, easy to use and navigate the menu, battery life seems to be good, and it has a quick start up so you don't miss opportunities waiting for it to be "ready". You can also snap a few shots in a row without much delay at all. Takes great quality photos, the 30 second video is great for quick shots of the kids when they say "Look at me!"
Rating: 
Summary: Easy to use, hard focus, larger memory card needed
Review: I picked this camera up for my wife's use and as a general purpose point and shoot. It's small size, good resolution, and ease of use appealed to me and I'm not disappointed. The camera has a solid weight and feel to it. As a bonus the rechargeable battery seems to have a good capacity. Pictures have good color. Red eye even with reduction pre flash was sometimes a problem. This camera also has a hard focus that brings out every pore in your subject. I found myself sometimes applying some softening in image editing. I used Corel Photo-paint for editing instead of the included (basic) software. I haven't used the 30 sec. video or audio recording features.The one unforgiveable negative is the tiny 16MB memory card included (only holds about 6 best quality images). A camera with this kind of resolution should have a memory card bundled with it that holds at least 24-36 images (64MB). I purchased a 256MB SD card with a more than adequate 100 image capacity. I found the kiosks at some discount stores great for prints @ 29¢ for a 4x6. I haven't tried any larger prints yet. Overall a good buy.
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable for such a small camera!
Review: I used to have the oplympus stylus camera, and it was quite disappointing. Most of my pictures were blurry! Now, I am using this camera, and most to all my pictures are fantastic! I increased the exposure setting, and got even clearer/brighter pictures at night indoors! The flash helps the macro for more detailed & finer shots. This camera has a few main menus that lead to many options.The macro is great at 3mp & 5mp (there's no 4mp option). This camera takes both SD & memory stick! The only complaint is that the battery isn't long lifed, but just enough. The strap is long to wear around the neck & take pictures at the same time without worrying about the dropping the camera or losing it.
Rating:
Summary: Get this camera
Review: I've owned 4 different digital cameras in the last few years, but this is the first one that I'm in love with. Compact, light-weight, 5 MP, brilliant screen, ultra-stylish, easy to use, and takes two types of memory (SD and/or Memory-Stick). Add to that the nifty green light bars on front which zoom back and forth when it turns on (reminiscent of a certain talking car from an 80's tv show) How cool can you get? Few things to note. The strap that comes with this camera is about 18 inches long...way too long for my tastes. The included memory is a very stingy and virtually pointless (in my opinion anyway) 16 MB. So far the only really bad thing about this camera has been my difficulty in finding a case that isn't too big. I've tried everything from a pda case, to a mp3 player case, to a small camera case and they're all too big and bulky for this little beauty.
Rating: 
Summary: Would I buy this again?
Review: I've owned this camera for about a year now and can't honestly say that it was a good purchase.
Things I like most about this camera:
It's a tank - - rock solid, great design for a pocket camera.
Reasonably fast for spontaneous picture taking.
Great for vacations or on-the-go. You'll get great pictures without the wan-a-be photographer look - lugging ten pounds of gear to Jonnie's soccer match!
Things I don't like about this camera:
Because it's so small, you'll find you have several out-of-focus shots due to camera shake/movement as you take the snapshot. You won't find out until you load them up on your computer.
Forget the action shots -- tried many times to adjust using manual mode but all I get is a lot of blur and streaking (great artistic pics however).
You will discover many menus/features as you enter setup mode but you will also need the 200 page online manual to figure them out. For practical purposes you'll use the camera in auto mode and keep it there, unless you have a lot of patience and time on your hands.
In summary:
Great pocket camera for point-n-shoot use. Good for still shots, but not for anything that moves.
Rating:
Summary: BEST pic quality, BEST menus,BEST compact design, BEST VALUE
Review: i've researched Canon 400S Elph, Sony Cybershots, Minolta F100 - all that jazz (see dpreview.com, cnet.com and steves-digicams.com for thorough reviews) and nothing pocketable held up to this Minolta G500 (Olympus left out for consistently poor image quality and construction). Why is the G500 the best? For starters, 5MP vs. 4 - not always the main concern, but it's easily the finest 5MP in its price range. Sure, Sony has some new 5MPs out that are only about $50 more (although the ones as small as the G500 are around $100 more) but they feel cheap, have inferior reviews, and lack the picture quality of this Minolta. The only real competition for high-res digicams that are highly-pocketable is the Canon Elph 400S, but this Minolta is at least comparable in every respect, and of course it has 25% more megapixels. Makes fun camera shooting sounds when you snap pics. Gorgeous displays and intuitive controls. Quick and easy... start-up with cool green light on front. Zoom very quick - zips open and shut. great weight to it - not too heavy by any means, but feels solid in your hands - nice ergonomics. I spent $350 - nothing else around that price point compared. Buy it. Peace!
Rating:
Summary: well priced camera if you want 8x6 prints
Review: I've used the Fugi FinePix S1 Pro, Nikon Coolpix, and Minolta Dimage 7i. This camera will suit your purposes well if you: 1. want to shoot on the fly using automatic controls
2. have a steady hand (as shutter priority doesn't exist)
3. require a compact camera
4. you want 8x6 prints
5. don't want to pay a lot, esp. since better cameras will be out in a couple of years (as technology goes...)
6. you would be willing to sacrifice a few extra features for a good all around shooter The color is really good on this camera- other cameras have had a problem capturing a good red. However for the picky, the optical lens could be of better quality. If you like to have a decent amount of manual control, I would say try the Dimage 7i- which has a lot more features, but a low battery life. That camera also has a better menu. The cost is twice as much. I wanted this camera to just have good quality images I can use to compose into composited art photo stuff. Not pro portaits. This camera has a high enough resolution to crop out things you don't want to use while still retaining a large, good quality image. Its a great value and I would recommend it to any family for general purpose use. And as a tip, if you are shooting somewhere and run out of media card space, you can take your digital media card to many Walgreens stores, where they now have a Kodak Digital Picture station that will burn your raw images to a CD-Rom for about $4.00. That way you can go out and reshoot immediately without erasing too many images- you can worry about deciding what to print once you're back home. The Kodak machines read all formats: SD, CompactFlash, CD-ROMS, Smartmedia, Memory sticks, etc.
Rating:
Summary: Fast startup time, great quality!
Review: Minolta recently released their DiMage G500 5.0 mega pixel digital camera after their merge with Konica. The G500 is one of the first products introduced by the merged Konica Minolta duo. Offering a fairly compact and lightweight design, and a fast startup, this camera shows potential. Konica Minolta has combined design aesthetics as well as enhanced functionality to bring the user a good quality product. With a startup just just over a second and great capture quality, this camera is a great buy! (full review @ bytesector.com)
Rating:
Summary: Miserable low light focus
Review: One of the worst low light focusing i've encountered. As to the "lowest price of the season" that Amazon claims, actually is one of the highest at $339. I got mine 4 months ago $312 at Buydig.com and currently sells $290 elsewhere although it seems discontinued. Pity for Amazon used to have better prices.
Rating:
Summary: Miserable low light focus
Review: One of the worst low light focusing i've encountered. As to the "lowest price of the season" that Amazon claims, actually is one of the highest at $339. I got mine 4 months ago $312 at Buydig.com and currently sells $290 elsewhere although it seems discontinued. Pity for Amazon used to have better prices.
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