Anyone see the Kodak Minolta DiMage Z6 camera yet?

[Deja Q]

I like the 12x zoom (equiv to 420mm zoom on 35mm camera). And SD card compatibility too. And the anti-shake system, which is highly appealing to me...

But I've heard of some problems with chromatic abberration (color fringing at contrasting edges) when the zoom lens is used.

Have you used this camera?

Or should I go out, buy it, take some snaps, and see for myself? :D

[ET Awful]

1. That's "Konica-Minolta" not "Kodak" :)

I've never used the Z6, but I had an A1 for a while and was very pleased with it.

The AS system that Minolta uses works beautifully.

I'm not sure what you use for photo-editing, but there is a Chromatic Aberration removal tool that works VERY well built into Paint Shop Pro (the newest versions anyway, I can't say for sure on the older ones).

You could try looking for users opinions over at dpreview.com There are some brutally honest folks over there on the review and forums boards.

[Deja Q]

2. My fault; I promise never to post again after 11:30PM, but...

:dunce: :D

dpreview.com was a site I checked out; not much in the way of commentary and I was hoping for their official review (which was why I got the Finepix E550)

But I did find out enough that the Z6 makes for soft prints (use unsharp mask like I do for scanned film and that problem is nixed)

But for chromatic aberration, an ounce of prevention is usually better than a pound of cure. I do have PSP9, before the buggers at corel bought JASC out. It works, but in pictures with lots of purple in them, discretion is needed.

I've played with the Z6 - antishake is indeed awesome. But I am concerned about noise levels beyong ISO 100, even though I've got a noise cleaner that I use for film images (which makes film about as sharp as digital, but I can use large print sizes and maintain a non-stretched 300DPI (13x19")).

Comparing pics of the Fuji and Konica-Minolta, Fuji is clearly superior in the chromatic aberration department. And comparing one scene pic that's identical between the two, there's virtually no haloing around contrasty objects on the E550. The Z6 has is quite obvious here. :-(

I've downloaded a sample pic oif the Z6 and will work on it, to see if I can go above the 8x10" maximum that one reviewer had said. (a 6mp camera that's useless above 8x10" isn't worth anyone's money. Not when every store has a card plaque reading "Can print beyond 20x30"!!!" which is still a lie as 20x30 involves a lot of cropping to maintain the original pic's aspect ration, unless there's a 3:2 setting and most people don't use that...)

[ET Awful]

3. There are a few others that offer large zoom and image stabilization

You might want to check into Olympus and Panasonic cameras as well.

[Blue_In_AK]

4. I love it when you guys

talk that "photographer" talk. :P It's all Greek to me.