Dimage 7

R&R PHOTO

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Minolta Dimage 7 Digital 5.2 Mega Pixels

I have been using the Minolta Dimage 7 for the last six months. At first I bought it to take pictures of my cameras that I sell on eBay. I have come to enjoy the quick satisfaction of the digital picture and cost-saving of the non-film camera. With the use of a computer and my Epson printer I can quickly make a very satisfactory to excellent print. Don't get me wrong I still enjoying my vintage cameras with black and white film but when it comes to color I think I'm going digital. I was called away on travel and wanted to carry very little equipment and decided to carry the Minolta and my laptop I needed the laptop for my job anyway. This gives me the capability of working on my Web when I travel. I have been dabbling with infrared on and off for the last year, I read an article about using the a digital camera with an infrared filter in black and white. I purchased a HOYA infrared R 72 filter at first I thought I would have to remove the filter before each shot. But found that you can look at and also get the infrared effect through the viewfinder. Having to travel light I did not pack my large tripod and found that by selecting ISO 800 I was able to hand hold most shots. This is a sample of one rainy days outing in Balboa park in San Diego CA. At first I thought about taking both standard black and white and infrared and showing them together. But decided that was too cumbersome and black and white would take away from the infrared plus a don't have my scanner and darkroom with me.

click on the thumbnails to make larger

	Camera Setting B&W 1600 / Fine These first shots were taken ISO 100 and handheld. I than ran them through Photoshop 6 and changed the document size from 22 by 16 inches to 10 by 7 inches with a resolution of 72.
The only changes I made was to use the sharpening filter. I made no changes to Contrast or anything else. The next step was to use the save for Web feature. All images are saved as JPEG's at around 45 K.



At this point I selected ISO 800 and noticed no difference in quality.

I am very pleased with the results of my infrared test. This was much easier and the results can be seen right on the spot. I can't wait to try Printing these. So if you're ready to try something new, think infrared and digital.