Front (6.5)
The DiMAGE Z6's lens and flash/viewfinder assemblies are roughly cylindrical as a whole, and together they make up the main portion of the camera. The flash/viewfinder is smaller and flatter than the lens assembly. Together, the two have a silhouette like a very squat numeral 8. The lens telescopes from a burnished aluminum barrel with a gold accent at the rim. There's an attractive logo at the peak of the flash assembly. The deep blue oval with white lines across it was designed as the Minolta logo, and the joint venture has retained it. This rendition is particularly appealing – the blue translucent plastic over a mirror finish makes for a bright, bold blue.

The handgrip is the other prominent form. It's narrow and deep, and rounded both from top to front, and from the front to the sides. The shutter release is set near the top of the grip. It's a large, chrome oval, set in a spoon-shaped chrome accent that runs down the face of the grip.

The DiMAGE Z6 falls into the general category of “SLR-shaped” cameras. “SLR-shaped” has usually meant that the camera has a grip for the user's right hand, and a viewfinder aligned with the lens on a camera body that is wider than it is tall. All that is true of the Z6, but it looks less like an SLR than many other cameras of this type. The defining form of SLRs is the body at the back – it's wide and blocky, and it seems as though the other components build up from it. That's not the case with the Z6 – the lens and the grip act as the two most prominent forms. The section between them is a bridge from one to the other. From the front, that section looks a little plain – at the top, it sports a small focus assist and red-eye reduction light, and at the bottom, there's room for a gold-tone metallic badge sporting an “Anti-Shake” logo, indicating that the Z6 has its own form of image stabilization.

Back (7.0)
The back of the lens and viewfinder of the DiMAGE Z6 are capped with a black plastic face, which is subdivided into a viewfinder section on the top and an LCD section below. The viewfinder window measures perhaps 5/8 of an inch diagonally, but behind the glass window, there is a much smaller mask framing the electronic display. There's a large diopter adjustment dial to the right of the window.

The two-inch LCD display is below the viewfinder, and below that is the on/off button and a three-position switch that sets the camera to playback, shooting with the LCD display, or shooting with the viewfinder display.

The section between the lens/viewfinder assemblies and the grip is recessed. The controls for managing menus and playback are in this area, with the four-way controller at the top. The controller itself is a continuous ring, rather than four separate buttons. A separate button in the center acts as an “enter” or “ok” button. The Menu button is below the four-way controller. Below that is the Quick View / Trash button, which allows the user to review recent shots and delete them. The Information button, labeled with an “i+” is on the bottom. It allows the user to cycle through various display formats in both shooting and playback modes.

A rocker switch at the top of the grip controls the focal length of the zoom lens, and magnification in playback mode. Below the zoom switch, the grip is covered in gray rubber, which wraps around the right side of the camera.

Left Side (6.5)
The left side of the DiMAGE Z6 is rounded, following the shapes of the lens and the viewfinder/flash assembly. A large patch of gray rubber wraps the lower two-thirds of the lens, ending just past the tripod socket on the bottom of the camera. A small rubber cover on the side pulls back to reveal the Z6's USB port and a jack for an external power supply. The rubber cover is tethered to the camera body, which is a relatively durable style for a port door – we don't expect this kind of door to break off in typical use.

Above the rubber grip and forward on the camera, the left strap lug pokes out of a slot cut in the camera's plastic skin. The lug itself is a stamped piece of metal. It's too small to accept a strap directly, so Konica Minolta fitted it with a small split ring, and a clear plastic guard to prevent the ring from scratching the camera. There isn't much to like about that arrangement – dirt can get in the slot, the split ring rattles around, and the plastic guard gets in the way. Ideally, it should be simpler, tougher, and less likely to cause problems like scratching the camera, or getting tangled in the flip-up flash.

The flip-up flash forms the top of the DiMAGE Z6's profile from the left side. “DiMAGE Z6” is printed on the side of the flash, and “6.0 Megapixels” is printed below.

Right Side (6.5)
The gray rubber of the handgrip dominates the right side of the DiMAGE Z6. The only other feature is the right strap lug, which has the same drawbacks that the left one does.

Top (6.5)
There's a Maxxum flash hot shoe on top of the Z6’s pop-up flash on the lens barrel. It's great that the DiMAGE Z6 accepts an external flash, and a dedicated one at that. Unfortunately, though, the flash has a non-standard connection to the camera, and only Konica Minolta flashes will work.

The exposure mode dial on the right is a large, 11-position plastic disk with a metal cap. The close-up focus button and the flash mode button are forward of the dial, as is a small hole for the microphone, and a slotted grill for the speaker, which is pretty close to the shutter release.

Bottom (6.5)
The SD memory card loads in the bottom of the DiMAGE Z6, into a slot protected by a flimsy plastic door. The door is not protected by a latch, and we accidentally flipped it open more than once while handling the camera. This is likely to be the first thing on the camera to break. Even before it breaks, it will only offer minimal protection against dust and moisture.

The battery compartment door is much more solid, and features a somewhat more secure closure – the user must press it firmly and slide it open or closed.

The tripod mount is directly under the lens, which makes it easier to align this camera on a tripod, but the mount itself seems to be made of plastic, which is not as durable as the more metal mounts found on other cameras.

Testing / Performance Page 3 of 12 Components Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z6 Digital Camera Review Navigation