> I tend to find that Steve tends to err on the side of optimism on all
> camera's, good or bad. http://www.dpreview.com seems a little more
balanced.

I have read quite a few of their reviews and had not personally formed that
opinion. My perception is that they (like many reviewers) tend to not pick
at quite fine details that would not bother the average user. eg most
reviewers insist on finding some purple fringing in the fiiiine detail of
telephoto shots that is an attribute of forming a colour image from multiple
colour sensors which are slightly spatially separated. This shows up on
edges that run parallel to lines of sensor edges. While I'm sure the effect
is present in my 7Hi pictures I've never noticed it.

I would also agree that dpreview is an excellent site for reviews. I failed
to mention them but also pored over their reviews when choosing my 7Hi.

At the top of the prosumer range personal preference plays a large part. I
was torn between the Nikon 5700 and Minolta 7Hi. Nikon had features like
multi shot focus bracketing where it takes a number of shots in quick
succession and only keeps the one which has best focus (in its estimation).
The 7Hi does not do this. The 7Hi does however have a 64 MB buffer and that
is a VERY great feature for action photography. MOST digital cameras are
junk in your hands for seconds at a time after each shot when you are trying
to take many sequential shots. Not the 7Hi. BUT when it comes to focussing,
while the 7Hi autofocus is very good, if you want the hairs on someone's
head to leap out of the picture, the stamen of the flower in the macro shot
to be utterly crisp or even a bridal group to be picture perfect sharp then
you MUST go to manual focus with the utterly superb magnification mode where
you can focus to the nearest mm or so.

And much more ................
I'm ecstatically happy with the Minolta, but I could tell them a dozen ways
that it could be improved.



        Russell McMahon

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