Konica-Minolta A200

Author's Rating:

Pros: 28mm wide angle, stabilizer, macro with flash, very sharp even at high digital zoom

Cons: a little slow to focus and shoot in dark rooms, screen a tad small

The Bottom Line: 
I'd recommend this to anyone who doesn't want to spend the big bucks on a D-SLR and lenses, but wants top quality pictures and full versatility.

Author's Review
I'm extremely happy with the overall features and operation of this camera. Going down to 28mm (35mm equiv) is much more useful for inside work than having a super-zoom camera that only goes down to 38mm (35mm equiv) in wide angle. Others are backing way up inside to get a picture and I just stand there and get everything in my picture. I went on a cruise to Alaska and the sharpness and vividness of the pictures was outstanding. I shot all in extra fine mode and even when I used the full 4X digital zoom at 800 mm, the pictures were fine. I shot a moose about a mile away in a valley while on a train excursion and then used the in-camera 10X cropping ability to make the moose appear like it was only a few hundred feet away on the built-in screen. It wasn't razor sharp, but I showed it to the state nature guide on board and her comment was "Wow, that's a powerful camera." When I had the stabilizer on, I didn't have a single shot with obvious camera movement, even as it got darker outside. Minolta says you can't use the built-in flash with macro, but don't believe it. I cranked down the flash exposure and got phenomenal macro pictures of flowers that look like they came out of a nature book. There are a lot of features, so it's great for someone who wants to play around, but it's also perfect for someone who wants to go completely automatic while learning its capabilities.