Last updated: 20.02.2010

Review

I treat Xt model as final result of what you can get from this type of package, optic scheme and firmware, started with X model. Comparing to X model what became better:

• Record/playback switch replaced with 4-positional dial, so you can start record video (or sound) much faster;
• Left/right buttons function while taking shots can be customized;
• Enter (.) button moved into the center between cursor buttons, which greatly improves speed and comfort of operations;
• Charger combined with stand, now you can charge battery without taking it out of camera;
• The length of recorded movie now almost unlimited (you must have fast and large flashcard and the capacity of battery is limited);
• Audio recording limited now by 180 min - long enough (battery may exhaust early);
• Macro mode starts with 15cm from camera (independent from focal length);
• Spot metering (great addition to spot focus);

There are some improvements not so useful as previous:

• Camera can work as WebCAM (but if you have TV-tuner or TV-in port on your video card, then you better use TV-out on the camera and get higher bitrate, resolution and quality);
• USB direct print support;
• Noise reduction on long exposures (special software will produce much better results);
• The longest shutter speed set to 4 seconds (without tripod and manual mode support it is useless);
• 5-point AF (no visual difference);
• Color mode;

Information about previous model - DiMAGE X you can find here.

Noise level is greatly reduced on images, mainly due to lower minimal ISO level that camera chose in auto mode - 50. It hard to notice, except of cause the blue sky - it still noisy, but it seems that almost all digital cameras have this problem.

Camera is very light and compact. It is its great advantage. But I have to rotate all images counter-clockwise by 2 degree due to the fact that camera easily rotates on the same 2 degree when I press shutter.

There are cases when the small lens has big advantage over very expensive and cool DSLR cameras, it is when you have to take shot through the small grid (e.g. small cage).

Automatic mode is almost always choose correct settings, but there are still many situations when you need manual mode, but it absent. After analyzing big deal of shot made with this camera I found out that it tends to use limited number of ISO/aperture/shutter speed combinations (such as 50/F3.6/180, ...).

Continuing tests of some flash cards with this new camera (see previous results for DiMAGE X) and got the following results while storing (read speed is almost instant with new Xt!) the test 1600x1200 image in TIFF format (Direct speed is the speed measured while copying 6M file thru USB camera connection, Card reader is USB 2.0 TRENDnet TMR61U2):

The following information and specifications are copied from the official Minolta web site: