Konica Minolta DiMage X31

The Konica Minolta DiMage X31 is a good 3.2-megapixel ultracompact camera geared to the novice shooter. If you're looking for razor-sharp images, this isn't the camera for you; nor is it particularly fast. Still, it's a good camera and far cheaper than most ultracompacts, including our Editors' Choice, the $500 (street) 5MP Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T1.

The X31 is lightweight (at 4.1 ounces) and can fit in a shirt pocket, though not comfortably. Its LCD is small, at 1.5 inches; this is the only way to frame shots, as the X31 has no optical viewfinder. The camera is quiet, and the 36- to 108-mm (35-mm equivalent), f/2.8 to f/3.7 3X optical zoom lens doesn't protrude from the camera body when zoomed. The lens cover is a small metal plate that opens to reveal the lens when the camera is turned on, and slides securely over the lens when it's turned off; also on the front of the camera is a tiny but effective self-portrait mirror.

The X31 can be held in one hand for shooting, though it requires two hands for easy zooming. A finger rest in the front can prevent it from accidentally slipping. The camera's few and small controls include a tiny five-way selector button that doubles as a zoom rocker, a playback button, and a menu button, which accesses scene modes and controls for white balance, color modes, flash, drive modes, and so on. The burst mode permits continuous shooting at a languid one shot per second. A slide switch shifts between picture and movie modes.

The camera supports four JPEG image sizes, from 2,048 by 1,536 down to 640 by 480 pixels, and two compression levels. Playback functions include DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) setup, printing, and e-mail copy, which creates a compressed 640- by 480-pixel image for Web transmission.

The X31 can shoot video (MOV) at 320 by 240 or 160 by 120 pixels, up to the capacity of the card, though at only 15 frames per second. The camera takes SD media, but unfortunately, there's no covering for the slot. It also has just enough internal memory to hold up to ten 640-by-480 "favorites."The X-31 runs on two double-A batteries; it showed decent battery life with standard alkaline batteries. Once they died, the lens cover would not close.

The X31's resolution of 925 lines per inch (average of horizontal and vertical) is on the low side for a 3.2MP camera, though its pixel-transition ratio tested fairly well, at 2.5 percent for both horizontal and vertical. Boot and recycle times tested at a fair 3.5 and 3.8 seconds, respectively.

Our test shots were decent but not impressive. Daylight photos tended to be a bit dark and a little soft around the edges, with some graininess in the shadows. The images did show good whites and highlights and well-reproduced colors (if a little warm). Our flash shots, though well illuminated, were slightly red and suffered from noise and fuzziness. Close-up shots, as near as 4 inches from the subject, were particularly good.

The no-frills Konica Minolta DiMage X31 is a solid ultracompact point-and-shoot camera. And, at $200 (street), it's a good value.

< back to