Buck the trend ... .

I decided to buck the trend and buy the Konica-Minolta Z-5 even though some professional reviewers were unhappy with the image "noise" at high ISO setting. However, I just did my first extensive "shoot" with my new Z-5 in a challenging venue: the new Smithsonian Air & Space Museum near Dulles Airport. The lighting in the museum, which resembles a large aircraft hangar, is a mix of natural sunlight streaming in near the roofline, incandescent floodlighting of airplanes at various levels, and lots of dark spots. With only some minor manual adjustments like exposure compensation (to get brighter whites or darker darks in these mixed lighting conditions), I found the Z-5 gave excellent results in white balance (using auto white balance), the image stabilization feature helped a lot because these were low light shots, and the image "noise" issue was not a problem at all. I find that lowest light areas of my photos were a little "soft" and lacking in sharp detail, but I don't attribute this to noise as much as perhaps the Z-5's internal noise reduction software that may overcompensate for low light image noise. In any event, the noise issue raised by the professional reviewers seems a bit overrated. The softness in low light background is perfectly acceptable to me. Bottom line is that the Z-5 produces excellent results, is very ergonomically designed (feels solid and is comfortable in my hands), and in a pinch I can use standard AA batteries (one feature that is often underrated by expert reviewers). The image stabilization is also a feature all digital cameras should have, not just ultra-zooms. My suggestion is go ahead, buck the trends, and try a Z-5.