DIGITAL

1
DIGITAL CAMERA ASSIGNMENT
2
What Am I Gonna Use It For?

• I shall be using the camera for personal use,
  primarily to document vacations, family events,
  holidays, that sort of thing.
• I want to be able to post pictures online but
  don't care as much for actually making physical
  prints.
• I want to be able to capture images in both RAW
  and JPEG format.

3
What The Heck Do I Want?

• I'd like a camera that has interchangeable
  lenses.
• The camera needs to have a non proprietary memory
  expansion slot.
• I'd like to get something with wireless transfer,
  however a USB connection would be acceptable.
• In the later case I would most likely rely
  primarily on external flash memory cards for
  storage and then get a flash card reader for my
  computer, that way I can avoid having to deal
  with cables.
• I'd like the camera to have at least 3
  megapixels.
• More would be better in case later on I decided
  I wanted to start
• using the camera for other things.
• Ideally I'd like the camera to use Li-Ion
  Batteries, but I could settle for Ni-MH.

4
My Choices
The top two camera choices I'd go with, if cost
were not a factor, would be either the Minolta
Maxxum 7D, or the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II. Both
cameras offer interchangeable lenses, RAW and
JPEG format storage. The Canon has a higher
effective resolution at 16.7 where as the Minolta
only has 6.1. The Canon also has a firewire
external connection where as the Minolta only has
USB (neither have wireless). The Minolta offers
a Li-Ion battery where as the Canon uses a Ni-MH.
The Minolta let's you use CompactFlash cards,
Microdrive and SD memory cards, where as the
Canon only supports CompactFlash and SD memory
cards. The Canon costs about twice as much as
the Minolta.
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II
Minolta Maxxum 7D
5
Reviews Comparisons
The available reviews were inconsequential as
they were all personal nitpicks and not genuine
flaws or manufacturing defects. There was no
image quality comparisons for the EOS-1DS Mark
II, only the EOS-1Ds, so I used that as the basis
of my comparison. Here are the results
Canon
Minolta
Outdoor Shot
Outstanding resolution and detail with
good color, and an excellent dynamic range.
High resolution and strong detail, but slightly
high contrast. Accurate but slightly dark-looking
color. Good midtone and shadow detail, with low
noise.
Close-up Shot
Really exceptional resolution and detail!
Outstanding resolution and detail.
Indoor Shot
Great performance with both flash modes, though
the warmer color of the Slow-Sync flash mode and
more even coverage is slightly more appealing.
Good exposure with the external flash, color is
a hint warm, but not too bad.
6
My Final Decision
Overall I think I'd go with the Canon so long as
cost was not a factor. It's faster and has
better image quality and resolution. It doesn't
have Li-Ion batteries, but I can live with that.
Style wise I like the Minolta better, however
that's not too important to me.