Konica Minolta Dimage E500 5MP Digital Camera 3x Optical Zoom

This overall, is not a really great camera. You can probably find a better value for your money elsewhere. I just wanted something to take out to the bars and get pictures with my friends, and it was always a hassle getting it to actually take the picture. No matter what setting (night was the worst), you need to hold the button down for 2-5 seconds before it flashes. Everyone would end up breaking their smile by the time it took. Also, not it's fault, but I didn't realize it took AA batteries; it wasn't a Lithium Ion battery. If the camera was NOT EVEN ON, it would drain the batteries. It would literally drain the batteries within a day if they were in the camera, no matter if it was on or off. I did a workaround by placing one battery in the wrong way. As you can imagine, going to the bars and constantly flipping one battery was not my ideal camera.

I bought this camera a few years ago but, after my recent experience with it, decided to write a review.

I never had battery issues, as I started off right away with AA Nimh rechargeables. I don't know why anyone would use anything but rechargeables nowdays.

I've found the camera easy to use. The only things I don't like are the macro feature is useless, there's no viewfinder, and the microphone for video is useless.

Having said that, we were in Minneapolis after Easter and, while loading up the car, I put the camera on the roof so I could have hands free to put the bags in. About two miles down the road, going 60mph, I heard something rattling on the roof. The camera! I started to slow down, and, in the rear view mirror, saw a silver flash as the camera flew off the roof. More silver flashes as it hit the pavement and lay in the middle of the lane with cars whizzing over it.

We turned off on a frontage road and went around, expecting the worst. Fortunately, no one had run over it. The batteries were gone, although we did find one in the ditch. The SD card was halfway out and the zoom button was also missing. I put fresh batteries in it, pushed the SD card back in, closed it up and turned it on...It still worked! It still takes great pics, although I have to use a pin to push the zoom contacts in or out.

This is one tough little camera.

I deleted my earlier review of this camera where I gave it a 1 star because it won't power on whenever I changed the batteries. After changing the batteries to a more powerful one, it was OK. I changed the batteries from the normal AA alkaline, to rechargable AA Ni-MH, and now I use industrial AA alkaline. The camera itself is not bad. It's easy to use (except in low light) and prints out beautiful pictures. It's just very picky with batteries. (This camera refused to power on when I was about to hike on the glacier in Alaska with my family and a bagful of AA batteries I bought with me were all useless.) Since this camera is no longer being produced, you are on your own if you have problems and no longer under warranty. Use your judgment.

Do not buy this camera. Battery drain is fast even with rechargables. Regular AA batteries do not even work in mine. New batteries will not even power it up. I'm going to buy more of the most powerful rechargables and keep many nearby. My wife hates camera, will not use.

Many times it loses its focus ability. You have to power down and back up again and cross fingers. When it works, it takes good pictures, but frustration level is high. Shutter lag is bad, you will miss the action. Stay away.

Three years ago I bought a refurbished Minolta Dimage F100 camera. It was a 4MP caera that in my opinion was the best. Funny thing is that I never used it in 4MP and took all my pictures in 3MP. After 2 years of ROUGH usage by my son, my wife and I, it got stolen. I wanted another camera that was as good, and with my previous experience with a Minolta, I decided to buy a new Minolta camera that fit all my requirements: sd memory, aa batteries, Minolta, at least 5 MP. I bought this piece of ____.

At first it was great. Then it got bad, just like everyone else reviewing, blurry pictures, grainy pictures, battery drainage, etc...

After playing around with it, I did find fixes for the problems. The blurry image comes from a very slow shutter speed in auto mode. Toddlers will not freese for you to take their pictures. I needed to take pictures of my kids in action. I no longer use auto. I set it to active. I set the ISO manually to 200 to fix the blurriness. I lowered the color saturation to medium to help with the grainy pictures. As for battery drainage, I had previously bought a bunch of rechargeable batteries that I keep in my camera bag.

All those fixes make the camera usable again. But the best solution to the problems I will do in a month or so. I will buy a Canon A620. It may be bigger, but my wife will stop complaining that she hates the camera.