Digicams: New Little Megapixel Monsters, Part II

Minolta Dimage Xi, Continued

Its outdoor behavior, though it was cloudy which does not help, was no better. The result is that the Dimage Xi comes last in the color tests.

The Dimage Xi also tends to underexpose. The photos are often a bit too dark. Fortunately, it does not suffer too much from vignetting (brightness differences are under 10%) or distortion, which is very low in wide-angle and virtually non-existent in telephoto.

The Dimage Xi wins if you want a camera with a good, big zoom lens. The colors are still a bit untrue, but the detail is mostly very good. Combined with the zoom, this enables you to bring out details that were invisible in the photos taken with the other cameras.