The speed and decisiveness of the camera's autofocus system is also just average, another step down from the A2. In low light, it's perhaps a bit worse than average. In addition to a wide-area AF mode, you can choose Flex Focus Point mode, which lets you move the focus zone around the frame, or Spot AF Area mode, which lets you choose among 11 different focus zones.
The camera is manually focused via a ring on the lens, and it can help you judge focus by magnifying the monitor image to twice its original size. Although this is much more pleasing to use with the A2's EVF, it's still one of the better manual-focus systems available on a consumer digital camera. In our tests, the A200's antishake function, as with that of its predecessor, lowered the minimum shutter speed required for sharp pictures by about one f-stop.
Image quality
Not surprisingly, we found that the Konica Minolta Dimage A200's images closely resemble those of the Dimage A2, which means that they are good but not outstanding for this class. At default settings, colours look somewhat undersaturated, and we also noted a tendency toward modest overexposure. Both traits can be easily corrected with the camera's many image and exposure controls. We also got good neutral skin tones with and without flash.
Again as with the A2, the A200 does not resolve quite as much detail as several other 8-megapixel models, though the difference would only be significant for big enlargements. At ISO 50, noise is hard to find in all but dark shadows. Noise becomes noticeable onscreen at ISO 100 and very bad by ISO 400, where detail rendition takes a significant hit. Some of the A200's competitors are a bit cleaner, but the differences are small enough to have little practical consequence in moderately sized prints.
The well-tested lens used by the A200 produces only slight barrel distortion at its wide-angle end and just a bit of pincushioning at its telephoto position. Other aberrations and artifacts, including purple fringing, are unusually low.
Edited by: Lori Grunin
Additional editing by: Tom Espiner
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