CES: Minolta's DiMAGE S404 and DiMAGE X Digital Cameras

With the holidays over, it's time to start getting kitted out for your summer vacation. If you pick up your new vacation toys now, at least you'll have something to play with if you need to cancel you trip due to impending deadlines. At CES this week, Minolta is showing off two new digital cameras that you can use to take vacation pictures (if you get one) or to document unpleasant work conditions (if you don't). The DiMAGE S404 is based on Minolta's DiMAGE S304 and features a 4x optical zoom, built-in flash, video recording capability, USB interface and Compact Flash card compatibility. Building on the design of its predecessor, the DiMAGE S404 features 4.0 million pixels and double the SDRAM buffer memory (32MB). The DiMAGE S404 also includes GT LENS technology, CxProcess imaging, and a high speed LSI. The camera features a 1/1.8" type CCD and incorporates a 4x zoom, all glass apochromatic Minolta GT LENS with anomalous dispersion (AD) glass, and dual aspherical elements. The optical zoom lens range is from 7.15mm to 28.6mm, equivalent to 35mm -140mm in 35mm. With digital zoom, the range is equivalent to 35mm - 308mm in 35mm. The DiMAGE S404 also gives you autofocus, auto exposure, an optical zoom viewfinder, automatic white balance, and video recording with audio.

Next on Minolta's digital camera menu is the small and skinny DiMAGE X with a built-in flash. The little thing has an optical system that puts the 3x optical zoom lens inside the flat camera body so that it doesn't have to extend externally. The zoom lens is equivalent to a 37mm - 111mm on a 35mm camera. With its 2x digital zoom, the camera has up to a 6x zooming capability. The DiMAGE X is approximately 3/4 of an inch thick and uses a CCD with 2.0 million effective pixels and powered by a RISC CPU that gives it a start-up time of around 1.8 seconds. The camera makes use of Minolta's CxProcess image processing technology, which is the same technology used in the company's top-of-the-line DiMAGE 7 SLR-type digital camera, and is powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. An 8MB SD Memory Card is included for image storage as well as storing movie clips and audio captured with the gadget. Unfortunately, pricing isn't yet available for either of Minolta's new cameras, but if they look attractive, at least you know what they're called and what they do if you decide to seek them out.