Excellent 6 Megapixels picture quality in a small package

Author's Rating:

Pros: Fast startup and autofocus, excellent images, good battery life, durable high-quality materials, Fast USB

Cons: Does not come with a case. Have to open the lens cover to playback photos.

The Bottom Line: 
Excellent high quality camera that takes great pictures, is easy to use, FAST startup and good battery life. What more could you ask for? Highly recommended.

Author's Review
I have owned this Konica-Minolta G600 digital camera for 3 months now. This is the best digital camera that I have owned. My other camera was a 3 year old Minolta Dimage. The G600 is a remarkably small yet solid camera that is made out of steel with very little plastic used in the camera. It has a solid feel and the added weight cuts the jitters that would occur with a much lighter camera. This camera will easily fit in your shirt pocket.

The camera comes with a battery, charger and carrying strap, but no carrying case. This is my only nit with this fine camera. I suppose you don't really need a case because the clamshell type sliding lens cover keeps dust out, but I still use a small 3rd party case to keep the camera looking brand new.

Operation of this camera could not be simpler -- there is no on off switch just slide the lens cover open and the camera is on -- shut the lens cover and the camera turns off. No manual switch to accidently leave "on" and drain the batteries.

The Dimage G600 has a great lens and takes incredibly sharp and detailed photos. You can zoom in and digitally crop the photos without any noticeable loss of detail. The native resolution is 2400x1600 pixels. For the price of this camera most other cameras are only 4 or 5 megapixels whereas the G600 is 6 megapixels.

This camera takes great pictures and is easy to operate. There are a lot of features in the menus so take the time to read and understand the user guide -- Minolta packed a huge amount of features into the menus and there is great control over the photographs you take. However the simple operation makes it easy for a novice to use. My wife is a technophobe but she finds the camera easy to operate. Just slide open the lens cover, look at the LCD viewfinder, and press the shutter button. I use two fingers to slide the lens cover open, my first and middle fingers in a V. The lens cover is snug, some people may think it is a minus but I prefer it this way.

Most of the time, even indoors, I set the Dimage G600 to the "flash off" position. The camera takes great photos in natural light and room light without needing the flash. I am not a fan of flash photography. If you must use flash turn on the redeye reduction feature or you will get redeye -- the lens is just too close to the flash.

The image quality of this 6 Megapixel camera is excellent. The colors are rich and the lens is sharply focused. The macro feature in particular is great, you can get about 2" away from the object you are photographing. We photograph jewelry close up with this camera as well as flowers from the garden, and the detail and richness of color of these closeups is stunning. Far better than you would expect in a point and shoot digital camera and in fact this was one of the selling points for me. There is a standard tripod thread on the bottom if you like to use a tripod.

It would be nice if Minolta included a remote control for this camera but considering that the camera is in a league with those costing more than $100 more I guess that is acceptable. A remote would be nice when shooting macro mode close ups on the tripod.

This camera is FAST. As soon as you slide open the camera lens, the Dimage G600 is ready to start shooting pictures. This is one of the best features of this camera -- there is no waiting for the camera at all. The camera has a 3 to 1 zoom which is like a 35-105 mm lens. This is a good optical zoom range for a point and shoot camera.

Unlike the previous Minolta Dimage I owned, this one requires you to slide open the lens cover in order to playback photos. This is a minus. However, contrary to what it says in another review, you do NOT have to slide open the lens cover to transfer photos to your computer. Just plug in the USB cable and the camera turns on. Transfer of photos is fast and easy -- just plug in the USB cable and the PC recognizes the camera as a removable drive. It is easy to transfer photos.

Battery life on the Dimage G600 is very good compared with many other cameras in this class. It uses a proprietary Mintolta NP-500 type battery. The battery costs $49 apiece at a camera shop or you can do what I did which is buy aftermarket spare batteries from www.power101.com, three for $18 including shipping. That's right folks, I had three of them delivered to my door for $18. And these aftermarket spares work just fine. I keep one battery in the camera at all times, one in the charger, and a couple of fully charged batteries in the box. The batteries are very small rectangles measuring 2" x 1-1/4" x 5/16" and are lightweight. If you are not using flash the batteries last a very long time on a charge.

Overall this camera is an excellent value for the money. Most places sell the Minolta Dimgage G600 for $349 but I paid just $269 at Costco. New York camera stores are about $240 plus shipping. I would recommend this camera to anyone who wants a high quality, compact format digital camera that takes great photograps and has good battery life. After using the camera very frequently for 3 months I am still more than satisfied with the Konica-Minolta Dimage G600, and would recommend it to anyone.