I did this review originally for my Estonian photo site but because there seems to be demand for English version as well then I'll post here a bit shortened version of my review. Please head over to Fotodiip (original story) to check out some photos made with Dynax 7 Digital (it's Maxxum 7 Digital in USA).
Okay, so it's the first digital SLR from Konica Minolta, they're really late into the market but not necessarily too late. Camera has 6.1 megapixel sensor that has a cropping factor of 1,5 meaning that your 24-105mm zoom lens will turn into a 36-158mm zoom and your 50mm fix into a 75mm lens.
I most unique feature is built-in AntiShake that works as image stabilizer and helps to reduce blur created by shaky hands resulting in sharper pictures with slower shutter speeds. Canon, Nikon and Sigma have their equivalents of this technology but all have put it into lenses that are more expensive. Konica Minolta approach gives all your normal lenses image stabilization. There is a cost, however. Looks like battery gets hammered by this feature so do carry extra battery around and switch AntiShake off if not necessary to use (ie. enough light for normal handheld photography). With my first run I got around 300-400 images but I had AS on all the time, used a lot of display, shot in 4-5 minus degrees (Celsius) and tested flash extensively. Because I could keep the camera for only 2 days I did not get battery empty for the second time.
Second thing that really stick out is the amount of buttons and knobs and levers that are placed all around D7D body. I shoot with Dynax 7 film camera myself, it's the "father" of D7D and has 21 buttons. I'm sure D7D has at least the same amount, perhaps even couple more. But I like it very much. This means that most controls are within finger's reach and you don't have to dive into the menus to set flash compensation, mirror lock-up, change ISO or whitebalance. It'll confuse you in the beginning (unless you migrate from Dynax/Maxxum 7) but if you get used to it I think you'll also come to love it (there's a picture in the original story of film 7 and digital 7 side-by-side).
D7D is very flexible meaning that photographer can configure a lot of options, also functions of many buttons and then switch back to "green" Program mode with one press of a button. You can also configure three function sets for fast switching. For example if you shoot wedding and have to move from outside to inside and outside again you just toggle between to settings that have been memorized before. Really handy.
Most of the buttons are just where they were on the film body, some have been improved (9-way control button under your right hands thumb for example). DOF preview button has been moved a bit, whitebalance button added to index finger working area etc.
Dynax 7 Digital is actually slightly bigger and heavier than it's predecessor. Grip is a handful, an improvement. Good rubbery feel and also patch of rubber under thumb so it sits nicely in my hands. Shutter release (it's called like that, right?) could be a little higher but it's better than on the film body.
CF card compartment door is good, strap does keep out so it's no problem to close. There's also a small slide door within the big door so if you only need to connect USB cable you don't have to open the big door. Nice touch.
Back screen is a delight, it's 2.5 inches. Compares really well against 1.8 that is usual for competitors. Menus on the screen switch to portrait if you turn you camera on the side, that's nice. I could not test display visibility in bright sun, we had lousy weather. Small screen on top of the camera has been removed but because I never use it on my film body I did not miss it. Full points to display.
Viewfinder is slightly bigger and brighter than that of Nikon D70 but if you compare it to Dynax 7 film camera then it's not so great. It's just as bright (slightly "warmer" look I would say) but much smaller, but that's the problem with all current crop of DSLR (except full frame Canons).
Menus are clean and simple, no problem using them at all. At any time you are shown only one screen full of options so no scrolling is necessary. Very good usability here.
I tested following lenses: Minolta 24mm, Minolta 50mm, Minolta 24-105mm, Minolta 300mm and Sigma 70-300mm. All worked fine, no problems with AntiShake or anything. When I said "all worked fine" I lied a bit :) I actually got in trouble with 24-105 and 70-300 lenses two times. Camera just would not display aperture and when trying to press shutter message "Lens not attached" (or something similar) was displayed. Turing camera off and on again helped. Don't know what's the problem here, haven't read in in any other reviews so maybe only this camera has this glitch.
Focusing is just as fast as with Dynax 7 film body. D7D actually won out with 70-300 Sigma lens that is pretty dark in the long end (F5.6) as it would focus on dark and low contrast scene (on film body it failed to do so). Camera just kicked into really slow focusing mode and grounded to stop at the right point. Seems that some improvements to the focusing have been made.
Flash raises higher than on the film model, no problem with red eyes at all so no need for red eye flash mode actually.
I did not like shutter sound very much. It gave kind of loud plastic sounding clap. It's hard to compare with film body (because of the motor wind) but I'd say that no improvement have been made. Of course you hear the sound only like 10 cm from your ears so it will never sound too quiet but I don't think it's a camera for shooting piano concerts.
Focusing is also noisy, no competition with Canon USM lenses or even with Nikon D70 kit lens. I think this is bigger problem with Konica Minolta cameras and might have to do with their design decision to put focusing motor within the body and not within the lenses. Use manual focus if you need quiet :)
KM have given up excellent red assist light that allows my film Dynax 7 to focus virtually in the dark. Instead they have opted to use strobe light from flash. There are several things fundamentally wrong with this in my opinion. First you need to manually raise the flash (not very convenient in a fast pace shooting situation). Second, it's really annoying for people and forget about getting some candids or unaware faces on your picture. Then again, who would buy D7D to shoot with on-camera flash? Especially when you can crank ISO up to 1600 and still get acceptable quality? More on that a little later.
Shooting speed is more than enough for my style. I tried continuous mode with JPG and also "pumped" from frame to frame and managed fast times without buffer getting full too soon. I don't shoot sports and I don't shoot wild animals chasing their prey, if you're into that kind of thing then you of course wish for 8 fps and 40 frame buffer. Instead you have to do with 3 fps and 12 frame buffer in JPG format. 4 in RAW (if my memory does not trick me).
AntiShake really seems to work. I don't normally go around shooting 1/20, 1/10 and even 1/6th of a second handheld. Most amazing was, that I could shoot 1/100 with 300mm lens at a not very brightly lit store and get very acceptable results. Thumbs up. Results probably depend on your hands quite a lot, I have medium steady ones attached to my body :)
On the right hand side of the viewfinder you'll see 5 step progress bar showing how much AS is working. If it's 2-3 you'll probably get decent result. If it's more then chances of getting sharp pictures fall considerably. Big screen really helps when checking images for sharpness.
Picture quality is excellent with some downsides. Looks like Dynax 7D seems to underexpose up to a stop in some conditions. In grey overcast day I got constant underexposure by 1 stop. Images looked darker than necessary and histogram backed this feeling up. Fortunately it's really easy and fast to key in exposure compensation if you set this function to back scrollwheel.
Inside and on Rammstein concert I got well exposed images so a bit confused.
On the plus side - colors look really nice, there's enough detail in the shadow areas and I don't think I blew out any highlights. Auto whitebalance worked well, pictured taken in my office turned out ever so slightly greener than necessary
D7D is a joy to use at low light levels. First you have AS but then you have really good quality ISO 800 and even ISO 1600 is largely usable. Of course noise shows up but it looks controlled and it can be worked later if necessary. I have comparison shots up in the original review, just scroll down the page.
Conclusion
If you own Minolta glass and want to take the dive into digital then go ahead, buy the camera, it's a fine piece of machinery. I'd get one for myself if I had the funds but that'll have to wait a little. It sits nicely in one's hands, is really easy and fast to use and big screen plus AntiShake are like added bonuses. However, if you don't have an investment in Minolta lenses then you might want to consider other options as well.
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