Konica Minolta DiMAGE A2 Review

Note that all onscreen images and overlay data can be displayed on the EVF or the color LCD, just flip the display control switch located on the back.

In Program AE mode the camera selects the best combination of both shutter speed and aperture automatically. If you have the "Shift" option enabled you can vary the shutter speed/aperture combinations by rotating the Control Dial. The live Histogram display option is enabled. The yellow "hand" icon is a warning that the shutter speed is too slow to hand hold without blurring.

In Shutter priority mode you set the shutter speed fast to freeze rapid action or slow to blur motion and the camera automatically selects the proper aperture setting. The shutter speed range is 30 seconds to 1/4000 (1/2000 max in S / M modes), Bulb maximum is 30 seconds (ISO 64 / 100).

In Aperture priority you set the desired aperture for control of depth of field and the camera will automatically match the proper shutter speed.

In Manual mode you adjust both the shutter speed and aperture value without aid of the camera's automatic exposure sytem. You use the brightness of the image on the LCD or EVF as a visual exposure meter, adjusting the shutter speed or aperture accordingly. In the bottom right the "DMF" icon indicates the Direct Manual Focusing option is active. This means that you can turn the manual focusing ring to make critical adjustments in conjunction with the auto focus.

Macro (closeup) focus mode allows the lens to be set at full wide-angle or full telephoto to take advantage of the different focal lengths. At the wide-angle position, the larger field of view and depth of field create a strong perspective and a sense of space. The telephoto position isolates the subject and minimizes distortion with a narrow field of view and shallower depth of field. You can focus as close as about 5.5 inches in either telephoto or wide angle.

Setting the Mode Dial to the "MR" Memory Recall position allows you to quickly select one of five user-configurable camera setups. You can program any number of desired camera settings or image adjustments as well as image size and quality, drive mode, color space and more.

Here's a screen display with just about all of the possible image adjustment and camera setting icons displayed. Red-eye flash mode, Adobe RGB color space, flash exposure compensation, color, saturation, contrast and exposure compensation are all enabled. The white balance has been set to fluorescent, the ISO is locked at 64, we're in Macro focus mode with Direct Manual Focusing enabled. If you happen to have this many things set it's a welcome relief to press the "i" button and clear them off of the active display so you can see your subject better.

Here's an animated look at the various screen displays as you rotate the Mode Dial through the different exposure modes available.

Record mode menu:

Page 1
Image Size - 3264x2448, 3264x2176(3:2 aspect), 2560x1920, 2080x1560, 1600x1200, 640x480
Quality - RAW, RAW+JPEG, TIFF, Extra Fine, Fine, Standard
Flash Mode - Fill, Redeye-Reduction, Rear sync or Wireless
Flash control - ADI, Pre-flash TTL, Manual
AEL button - Set the way the AEL button operates
Reset - Reset all settings to default

Page 2

Interval set - Set the interval timer, 1-60 minutes
Bracket set - Step value for AE Bracketing; 0.3 or 0.5EV
Data imprint - Date, Time stamping, Text or Text+serialization
Inst. Playback - Show last image captured for 2 or 10 secs or disable
Voice memo - Off, 5 or 15 seconds

Page 3

Color mode - Vivid sRGB, Natural sRGB, Adobe RGB, Embed Adobe RGB, B&W or Solarization
Sharpness - Hard, Normal, Soft
Noise reduction - On or Off
Monitor amplification - Auto or Normal
Manual exposure - Monitor amplification in Manual mode: Exp. priority or Display priority
Mag Button - Flex magnifier or Digital zoom

Page 4

DSP set - DSP or Memory recall
Tracking AF - On or Off
AE Lock - On or Off
Spot AE area - Center spot or Flex Focus point
Direct MF - On or Off
EVF mode - EVF refresh rate: 30fps or 60fps











Motion video can be recorded at 544x408 or 320x240 resolution with audio. The framerate (quality) can be set for 30fps or 15fps. Recording in 544x408 at 30fps will consume memory at the rate of about a Megabyte per second. Movies can be recorded in normal lighting with the Standard mode or use the Night Movie mode for low-light. Movie clips can be up to 6 minutes at 30fps (Minolta claim) or 15 minutes at 15fps. (So far we have seen the maximum recording time at 30fps vary from under two minutes to over six minutes depending on scene content. Still life scenes or little camera movement yields longer times, fast action and lots of camera movement yields less.)

The interval function can be used to produce a series of still images taken at regular intervals, these images can be combined into a 640 x 480 time-lapse movie. These movies can be up to 240 frames in length, the playback rate is 4fps with no audio.








Movie mode menu options