Quality rating (out of 10)

Build: 7.5

Ease of use: 8.0

Image quality: 8.0

Storage capacity with supplied card: 6.5

Among digicams with extended-range lenses, Konica Minolta's 4-megapixel DiMAGE Z3 is something of a 'curate's egg'; good in parts. Stand-out features include the 12x optical zoom lens, the excellent CCD-shift image stabilisation and the CxProcess II image processing.  The camera's odd-looking body, which is more stylish than the earlier Z1 and Z2 models and is available in silver or black, is reasonably compact and comfortable to hold. It's also keenly priced for its features and performance.

The control layout in the new model resembles that of its predecessors. A large handgrip houses the batteries, with the shutter button at its front. Behind it lies the microphone/speaker grille and the macro and flash buttons. The mode dial is further back, with the zoom lever on the back panel. The rear panel houses the LDC monitor, power switch and display mode switch, plus the four-way controller and buttons for accessing the menu, quick view/delete and data displays.

Unfortunately, shifting the SD card slot to the base of the camera body hasn't been successful. The flap that covers the SD slot is easy to open inadvertently and both it and the flexible cover over the connectors could be vulnerable to breakage with extended use. The four-way controller lacks indicators to show the function of any buttons and you have to use the instruction manual until you learn how to navigate the on-screen menu system and access certain controls. The mode dial is pretty standard, and positioned well for ease of use. 

Like the DiMAGE Z2, the new model can record video clips with VGA resolution at 30 frames/second (though it lacks the 800 x 600 at 15fps option on its predecessor). With fast 32x cards it can record to the card's capacity and you can zoom slowly during movie capture. Burst capture is supported at 2.5fps at maximum resolution and at 2.2fps for other image sizes, and there's a progressive capture mode that saves the last five shots of a high-resolution burst or the last 15 low-res images.

The Z3 has the same mirrored LCD display as the Z2, with a switch on the rear panel for swapping between viewfinder and monitor. The LCD's resolution is lower in the Z3 but the viewfinder includes diopter adjustment, although its low eyepoint makes it difficult to use with glasses.

In the main, the test camera produced sharp, accurately-exposed pictures with realistic saturation and accurate colours, although greens were slightly yellowish and the default contrast was a tad high. In-camera contrast adjustment provides effective compensation. Close-up performance was good and the Super Macro mode focused to one centimetre from the subject, although with visible edge softening. Coloured fringing was found along high-contrast edges in shots with strong backlighting but optical distortion was low, considering the range of the lens.

The white balance control performed well in our tests, delivering acceptable colours with the auto setting under all types of lighting except incandescent. Digital zoom shots were slightly soft, probably as a result of interpolation upscaling. The AF system had some problems focusing in low light levels and manual focusing was required for subjects more than three metres from the camera after dark. Test shots taken in these conditions were slightly soft at all ISO settings, even when flash was used, and noise was visible at ISO 400 in both flash shots and long exposures. The Z3's noise reduction system did a good job of controlling image noise, which was extremely high in long exposures at ISO 400 without noise reduction. Stuck pixels were abundant and obvious in these shots and, although their number was reduced by the noise reduction system, it failed to eliminate them.

We measured an average capture lag of 1.1 seconds, which reduced to 0.3 seconds with pre-focusing. The standard continuous shooting mode captured shots at 1 second intervals but the high-speed mode recorded 1280 x 960 pixel images at an impressive 10fps. Shot to shot processing time was just over a second in single-shot mode or around half a second for continuous shooting. Power consumption was excellent.

In its market slot, the DiMAGE Z3 represented good value for money when this review was written. However, in late January, Konica Minolta announced a 5-megapixel upgrade, the DiMAGE Z5 which, if released in Australia, could push down the Z3's price, making it even more of a bargain. [22]

Image sensor:  5.34 x 4.01 mm interline primary-colour CCD with 4,200,000 photosites (4-megapixels effective)
Lens: 5.83-69.9mm f2.8-4.5 zoom lens (35-420mm in 35mm format)
Zoom ratio: 12x optical, up to 4x digital zoom
Lens multiplier factor: 6.1x
Dimensions (wxhxd): 108.5 x 80 x 83.5 mm
Weight: 335 grams (without batteries and card)
Image formats: Stills – JPEG; Movies - Motion JPEG (MOV) VGA/QVGA at 30/15 fps with Audio
Shutter speed range: 15-1/1000 seconds plus Time (max. 30 seconds)
Focus system/range: Video AF with 5-point wide focus area and Spot focus area with Focus Area Selection; range 60 cm to infinity; macro 10-250 cm; super macro 1-100 cm
Exposure metering/control: Multi-segment (256 segments), Spot, Centre-weighted; P, A, S, M plus 5 scene settings.
White balance: Automatic, Preset (Daylight, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Cloudy, Flash), Custom
Flash modes/range (ISO auto): Autoflash & Fill-flash with/without red-eye reduction, Slow shutter sync. Flash cancel by pushing the built-in flash down; flash GN – 8 (m/ISO 100);  range 0.20-4.0m
ISO range: Auto, ISO 50, 100, 200, 400
Sequence shooting: up to 10 fps in UHS mode
Storage Media: 16 MB SD card; holds 6 high-resolution images or up to 110 VGA  shots
Viewfinder: diopter-adjustable EVF
LCD monitor: 1.5-inch digital-interface TFT colour, with 78,000 (approx.) pixels
Power supply: 4x AA Ni-MH or alkaline batteries