Konica Minolta Dimage Z6

Performance
The Konica Minolta Dimage Z6's performance ranged from average to quite good. Its battery life is impressive, but we found its performance slightly more sensitive than most to battery charge.

Since the Z6's lens needs time to extend, start-up to first shot took just under 3 seconds. After that, our shot-to-shot time was typically about 1.7 seconds without flash and 2.7 seconds with it.

The Konica Minolta Dimage Z6 was much perkier in its continuous-shooting modes. At normal speed and high resolution, we captured around 16 images at a rate of 1.8fps. Dropping down to the lowest resolution increased speed to almost 2fps.

We timed autofocus at a fast 0.4 second in good light and 0.5 second in low light. However, our actual low-light shooting experience wasn't quite as fast in extremely dark conditions. Nevertheless, the Z6 performed admirably, considering its lack of an AF illuminator.

Shooting speed in seconds
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Shutter lag (typical)

Time to first shot

Typical shot-to-shot time

Sony Cyber Shot DSC-H1

0.4 

2.0 

1.3 

Konica Minolta Dimage Z6

0.4 

2.5 

1.7 

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ4

0.5 

2.8 

1.1 

Canon PowerShot S2 IS

0.6 

2.1 

1.3 

Konica Minolta Dimage Z5

0.7 

3.5 

1.3 

Kodak EasyShare Z740

0.7 

3.9 

1.6 

Image Quality
The Konica Minolta Dimage Z6's exposure metering generally worked well, clipping highlights only a bit. Colors were generally accurate, if not vibrant (the Vivid setting helps). Automatic white balance worked well outdoors but delivered a warm cast indoors under tungsten lighting. Skin tones, however, ranged from accurate to overly ruddy.

Although the Anti-Shake technology worked extremely well, some of our images came out softer than we had hoped, particularly with the zoom extended to its full range. Details, while visible, also looked less than crisp throughout the focal range.

At the Z6's maximum ISO sensitivity of 320, noise levels should be lower than they are; however, images appeared fairly clean at IS0 100 and less. We noticed little purple fringing at wider focal lengths, but this aberration became more visible when we fully extended the lens.

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