Minolta Announce DiMAGE Z1
Minolta have today announced 4 new digital cameras and a new flash unit.
The second new camera is the futuristic-looking 3 megapixel DiMAGE Z1.
“The DiMAGE Z1 is the first in an innovative series of Minolta’s new user-friendly, powerful SLR-type digital cameras. Its 10X Mega zoom, equivalent to 38-380mm 35mm camera zoom, in combination with the digital zoom, offers a 40X zoom range. The DiMAGE Z1 comes complete with a 3.2 megapixel display and weighs in at only 305g. With Minolta’s new drive mode, Rapid AF, and minimal shutter release lag time, this compact, stylish digital camera has all the necessary imaging tools to capture high-quality digital images.”
The 10X Mega-zoom is a fast f2.8 - f3.5 lens allowing fast shutter speeds for sport or natural-light photography. The ten-element, seven-group design employs two aspheric lenses to minimise aberrations and produce sharp images.
The Z1 has a 0.3 second focusing time at a focal length of 5.8mm and 0.4 seconds at 59mm, giving the DiMAGE Z1 the world’s fastest AF among digital cameras with a built-in 10X or greater optical zoom.
The Z1 has a new drive mode called Progressive Capture. Six frames are saved when using standard continuous advance, and 10 frames when using Ultra High Speed (UHS) continuous advance. Standard continuous advance records at approximately 1.5 fps at any image size or quality setting. UHS continuous advance records 1.2 megapixel images at 10 fps.
The DiMAGE Z1 is not limited to capturing static images - high-quality VGA (640 X 480) movies can be recorded at 30fps.
Price and availability are still to be announced.
Website: Minolta Press Release
Website: DPReview - DiMAGE Z1 News