Konica Minolta Dimage A200 supported in iPhoto 5?

Question

Konica Minolta Dimage A200 supported in iPhoto 5?

Hi.

I am considering replacing my Canon IXUS v2 camera with the Konica Minolta Dimage A200. Primarily because it has a 7x optical zoom and 8MP resolution. But I can't find any info on whether the A200 is supported by iPhoto 5. I've checked Apple's iPhoto compatibility website and it's not listed (but the Konica Minolta Dimage A2 is!) and all I can find on Konica's website is that it's supported by Mac OS 10.1 - 10.3. 10.4 isn't mentioned and iPhoto isn't mentioned.

Anybody have any experience with the A200 and iPhoto? Alternatively, can anybody recommend an alternative camera that is fully supported on the Mac. My main requirements are: optical zoom (at least 7x), resolution (at least 5MP) and build quality.

I have a G5 iMac running Mac OS 10.4.2 and iPhoto 5.0.4

Thanks,

Stuart

Posted on Aug 16, 2005 11:16 AM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

210,509 points

Aug 16, 2005 11:31 AM in response to Stuart Chapman

One way to make that camera compatible if you find it is not is to use a card reader. Then any camera using a standard type memory card is compatible. If you'll be creating lots of large image files you'll find that using a FireWire card reader will greatly increase your upload time (I was able to upload 196 files, about 2 MB each, in well under 1 minute.

OT

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Answer 2

Aug 19, 2005 4:09 AM in response to Old Toad

Thanks OT. Good idea! If it comes to it I can always use the card reader! Ideally, it'd be great if I could just connect the camera direct to my Mac. But, as you mentioned, it would be faster to use a firewire card reader!

Cheers,

Stuart

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Answer 3

Aug 19, 2005 4:29 AM in response to Stuart Chapman

Hi all,

I contacted Konica Minolta tech support and they confirmed that the A200 is supported under Tiger (10.4) and should also work with iPhoto. Here's the email I received:

"The camera will work on OS Tiger but we cannot comment on iPhoto as it is not one we have tested it on however we provide software called DiMAGE Viewer which will work with the camera. We have many customers using the camera with Tiger with no issues."

I then found the following Mac OS compatibility info on Konica's tech support site:

http://www.konicaminoltaphotoworld.com/kmsupport.com/Compatibility.3036.0.html?& L=0#).

To summarise, Konica state that Mac OS 10.1 - 10.3 are fully supported and limited testing has shown that 10.4 works as well. There's no mention of iPhoto compatibility. The document also mentions possible file corruption for transfers over 10 mins and issues with date and time info not being transferred to the Mac. I thought these were a tad worrying so I sent a follow-up email to Konica tech support. Here's the reply I received:

"It should work fine with Iphoto.The information regarding MAC OS X.

There can be corruptions with transfers of over 10mins but not necessarily and therefore it is recommend to split transfers and also the data and time may not be transferred correctly and these I am afraid are issues which should be resolved when newer DiMAGE Software is released, however they might not occur at all and is only a precaution."

So... it's all a bit vague. Seems like it will definitely work with OS 10.4 but you might get some of the problems mentioned above... and then again you might not! Also, in the above reply, Konica mention that these issues should be fixed in a new version of their DiMAGE software. So maybe these issues don't occur if you just use iPhoto? Who knows....

I'm still trying to decide whether the A200 is the camera for me.

Cheers,

Stuart

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