Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z6

Connectivity
Software (7.5)
The DiMAGE Z6's software is a pleasant surprise. The Z6 comes with both DiMAGE Master Lite and Kodak EasyShare software. This is sensible because it helps the Z6 to reach two markets – casual snapshooters along with those who are a bit more serious about photography.

EasyShare is ideal for snapshooters. It's a simple, very clear program for organizing and using digital pictures on a computer. It guides users through the process of uploading images to Kodak's site for printing and online sharing, and provides a complete package for those who want to simply manage their snapshots.

DiMAGE Master Lite is a more capable organizing and editing tool. Sharing much of the capability of the software that comes with Konica Minolta DSLRs, this program offers tone curves, histogram manipulation, contrast and color balance tools, hue, saturation and lightness adjustments, sharpness adjustment, and resizing, in a clear interface. It's an unusually powerful tool to come bundled with a camera of this class.

Jacks, Ports, Plugs (7.0)
The DiMAGE Z6 has a jack to accept 6 volts from a DC power supply sold separately by Konica Minolta.

The Z6 has a combination USB / analog A/V jack as well. A supplied cord can connect the camera to a television for either NTSC or PAL output of slide shows. The USB connection allows the camera to connect to either a computer or a PictBridge compatible printer. Konica Minolta recommends against connect the Z6 to a USB hub – it should be plugged directly into the computer or printer.

The Z6 also offers a hot shoe for connecting compatible flashes. But there are only a few of them, because the Z6 uses Konica Minolta's nonstandard shoe.

Direct Print Options (6.0)
The DiMAGE Z6 is DPOF and PictBridge compatible, which means that the user can organize a print order on the camera, and either download the print order to a photo lab or print kiosk, or print directly to a connected PictBridge printer. The camera can also produce index prints and include the capture date on prints.

Battery (5.0)
The DiMAGE Z6 uses AA batteries. We found that it flew through them at a pretty impressive clip, too. Using NiMH batteries, we still went through a few changes in the course of our testing. Some competing cameras use custom Lithium-ion cells, which tend to hold more power than NiMH and last longer. The advantage of AA cells is that they are relatively cheap, and easy to find anywhere.

Memory (2.0)
The DiMAGE Z6 does not have built-in memory, but it is packaged with a 16MB SD card. Camera manufacturers intent on including the cheapest possible memory card with cameras must be the major market for SD cards as small as 16 MB – a card that size is really not large enough for actual use. We'd suggest at least a 256MB card or two, and a 512MB card wouldn't be out of line.

Other Features (7.5)
Anti-Shake – A key component of the Konica Minolta Z6 is the camera’s Anti-Shake function. When the camera detects movement, it shifts the imaging sensor to prevent motion blur. This will yield benefits similar to optical image stabilization. Within the camera menu, the Z6 contains three selectable Anti-Shake modes: Display and Exposure, Exposure Only, or Off.

Live Histogram – Like the Z5, the Z6 also offers a live histogram to communicate exposure information when composing the shot. Histograms are also available within the Playback mode by pressing upwards on the navigational dial.

Save email copy - The Z6 will down-sample an image on the SD card to 640 x 480 pixels for emailing, saving the user from having to open photo software when he or she wants to send a quick image.

Historic shutter sound - Konica Minolta sampled the sound of the Minolta CLE, a 35mm film camera Minolta made decades ago in cooperation with Leica, to produce this sound effect. There's an alternate sound sampled from the Dynax/Maxxum SLR.

Auto shutdown when connected to a computer - The DiMAGE Z6 shuts itself down after 10 minutes of inactivity when it's connected to another device via USB. This power saving feature is separate from the one for shooting mode, which can be set for 1 to 10 minutes. The longer interval makes sense for camera connections, because it's a bother to reset the USB connection after the camera shuts down, and it's common to go for intervals of a few minutes between actions when the camera is in USB mode.