Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z6 Digital Camera Preview

The Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z6 was announced back in August and we got our hands on a review unit.  We'll be publishing a full review in a few weeks so we wanted to let you know it was coming and give you a little taste of this 6 megapixel camera with a 12x optical zoom and Konica Minolta's CCD-shift Anti-Shake system.

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The first thing that most people will notice is the shape of this camera.  The bulk of the camera comes from a large lens and large battery compartment.  While it may be too large for some, the bulk comes with benefit.  The lens provides a 12x optical zoom (a 35 mm equivalant of 35-420 mm ).  The battery compartment houses 4 AA size batteries and Konica Minolta claims up to 420 shots with high-capacity NiMH rechargeable batteries.  The other upside of the battery compartment is that it becomes the grip of the camera.  The nice rubberized outer housing helps provide stability for those super zoomed shots.

The camera has an electronic viewfinder (EVF) and a 2 inch LCD.  To switch between using the EVF and the LCD, you need to operate the mode selector below the LCD.  The camera includes many manual modes, including aperture priority, shutter priority, and a full manual.  Several scene modes (Night, Action, Sunset, Landscape, Portrait) round out the automatic features.

Please let me know if you have any questions by submitting them in our forums (by using the "Discuss" link at the bottom and top of the article).  I will try to address any in the full review.  I am very curious to check out the performance of the optical zoom with the Anti-Shake and also check Konica Minolta's claims on battery life.

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