Minolta A200 OR Fuji Finepix S7000

[Catbells]

I think that you have to read the DP Review in in context with what you expect from a camera.

I'm not too bothered aboutlow indoor lighting as I don't do that much shooting under these conditions and was prepared to 'forgive' the A200 in that instant - although I had expected better performance than from my S602. However,I was not prepared to accept persistent focus lock problems under good outdoor lighting conditions for which I could find no point of focus by moving the FlexiPoint focus - the S602 always worked for me.

I had already excused the 'soft focus' issue, which DP Review attributed to poor focus,having read that dSRLs produce a softer more natural image to be post processed later.

The problem for me was the number of things that I was trying to work around just kept growing. WhenI downloaded the shots from the camera,I then discovered serious colour differences between adjacent shots when taken with exposure lock. I ran further test shots & concluded that this was due to VIVID Colour Mode and was lessconspicuous in Auto but to some extent still present in daylight mode.

Minolta advised me that they though that my A200 was defective so I decided to return to the store but have not replaced with another A200 basically because my experience was in keeping with what DP Review had stated in their review & to be honest, I doubt if it would have been any different.

I am sure that there are many A200 owners out there that are completely satisfied with their cameras - this is not meant to be a 'dig' at the A200 only a reflection of my experience against my specific requirements from a camera.

[BoneDaddy]

Catbells--

Sorry to hear your A200 didn't work out. What camera(s) are you looking at now?

[mon]

are these not just littel things i mean is you want a cam that is prefet how mutch do you have to pay????

[Catbells]

BoneDaddy wrote:

Catbells--

Sorry to hear your A200 didn't work out. What camera(s) are you looking at now?

For the moment, I'm sticking with my Fuji S602 - better the devil you know!

[mon]

this low light pic is ok got it off here.. wot is bad about this

[Catbells]

mon wrote:

are these not just Little things i mean is you want a cam that is prefect how much do you have to pay????

Life about compromises - in this thread the original question was A200 or Fuji 7000.

Whilst my Fuji S602 has focus issues, they have not been as bad as bad as that which experienced with the A200, that's why I said that the 7000 will give you less focus issues than the A200 BUT you will still find problems especially indoors under low light.

IWCAM is my web site which provides photographs to illustrate walks on and around the Isle of Wight & use exposure lock an awful lot to create panoramic shots with Panorama Factory. The Fuji always manages this no mater what mode I use so much so that it's become second nature. Image my horror when I discovered that with the A200 using Vivid mode (to boost greens in much the same way as Landscape Mode) the adjacent shots were totally a different colour.

To me, that was no small thing and the final straw that which made me decide to return the A200.

Perhaps this was a fault with my A200. Should I have exchanged it for another, perhaps, but I had decided that my experience was in keeping with DP Review's comments & that for me the A200 did not fit the bill.

[Catbells]

mon wrote:

this low light pic is ok got it off here.. wot is bad about this

Nothing - neither did I have much of a problem with this one.

[BoneDaddy]

mon wrote:

are these not just littel things i mean is you want a cam that is prefet how mutch do you have to pay????

In light of the problems that Catbells had with his A200, I don't think he was expecting perfection, just a camera that would focus on obviously simple shots that shouldn't give ANY camera the problems he was experiencing.

From what he's described to us, and shown us with examples, I'd conclude that his A200 was suffering from some serious problems and he was right to return it.

[mon]

crist i am stck now wot cam is good then at same price i am confused as a baby racoon s7000 is deleted now can get for 320 a200 has the focas thing ( auto ) also do you think the a200 is a quick realease and will be replaced quick due to these problems

[Catbells]

mon wrote:

this low light pic is ok got it off here.. wot is bad about this

Or indeed, this one - I was pleasantly surprised that it focused straight away on the clouds.

I just wish to reiterate that on a typical walk in which I had never experienced any real focus issues with my Fuji S602, the A200 did & to such an extent that I found it annoying.

This image which is published on IWCAM.CO.UK has received much praise - I am very pleased with - especially the fact that it was taken at 28mm focal length which is something that the S602 cannot do.