Minolta DiMAGE 7Hi Review

The DiMAGE 7Hi's main functions are controlled by the Function Dial located on the left side. You turn the knob to the option you wish to change and then push and hold the center button while rotating the Control Dial located next to the shutter release. The option settings are displayed on the top data LCD as you rotate the Control Dial.

MEM - Select or store settings in one of five user memory locations

METERING - Select desired metering mode (matrix, center-weighted or spot)

PASM - Exposure mode (Program AE, Aperture priority, Shutter speed priority, Manual)

DRIVE - Change drive mode (Single, Standard Continuous, High Speed Continuous (3fps), Ultra High Speed Continuous (7fps), Self-timer, AE Bracketing)

WB - White balance (Auto, Daylight, Tungsten, Fluorescent 1 or 2, Cloudy, Custom)

ISO - Sensitivity (Auto [100-400], 100, 200, 400, 800 ISO equivalent)

The Mode Dial turns the camera on and off, selects Record, Play, Movie, Setup or Connect to PC modes. It has a very positive locking button to prevent it from being turned accidentally. Out on the front is the shutter release and the Control Dial.

Across the top of the data LCD are the Digital Subject Program modes for portrait, sports, sunset, night portrait and text, these are selected by pressing the silver button. The big "P" (pro-auto) button returns you to Program AE mode and resets all settings to default but can be modified in the Setup menu.

The data LCD lights up for about 5 seconds whenever the shutter release is pressed or when you are changing options or exposure modes.

Data LCD with all possible elements displayed.

Controls on rear: The EVF/LCD switch with the Information control button in the center. On the right is the Spot button which can perform as AF-AE lock, AE-AE toggle, AE lock or AE toggle via menu settings. The MENU button enables onscreen menus, the large 4-way selector lets you easily navigate menu options and select them by pressing the center button. The "QV" QuickView button lets you instantly review the last picture captured and perform most playback functions. It also serves as the image delete button. On the bottom is the Magnify button which enables the digital zoom or enlarged view for focusing, it also magnifies the image during playback.

Located on the left side is the EFFECT selector switch that lets you adjust the image contrast, color, saturation and exposure (and flash) compensation. Like the Function Dial, you select an option and then push and hold the button while turning the Command Dial (except flash compensation which requires the use of the up and down portion of the 4-way controller.) Next to that is the Auto / Manual Focus selector button.

Across the back of the camera are the I/O ports for the optional AC power adapter, the Audio & Video Out port with selectable NTSC or PAL format. And a connector for the optional RC-1000S/L wired remote code that permits tripping the shutter from up to 16.4 feet away.

At the bottom of the CompactFlash card access area is the USB 1.1 data port.

The DiMAGE 7Hi is equipped with a CompactFlash Type II card slot and is Microdrive compatible. The camera ships with a 32MB CF card. Thankfully there are bigger cards like the SanDisk 1GB or the 1GB Microdrive available now as these 5-megapixel cameras can rapidly consume your storage space. A large, Super Fine TIFF image will take up 14.2 MegaBytes!

The camera is powered by four AA type batteries, high-capacity NiMH type is highly recommended and Minolta supplies them. The DiMAGE 7Hi ships with a set of 1850mAH Sanyo NiMH rechargeables and a compact rapid charger. The battery access is underneath of the color LCD on the back of the camera.

All of the DiMAGE 7xx series of cameras are pretty hard on batteries so I would recommend that you have a spare set (or two) of batteries, charged and ready to go when needed. Luckily these cameras all use standard AA type cells which are now fairly inexpensive, even for the highest capacity ones.