Minolta

From the elegant design and rich metal body to the sophisticated features including a 4.1 megapixel CCD, an ultra-compact 4X Minolta GT APO zoom lens, 12-bit A/D conversion, and Minolta's advanced CxProcess, the Dimage S414 ensures that you'll capture all the beauty and details of the original scene, and you'll capture it quickly and easily.

The S414 can take over control for point & shoot simplicity, or give you control over exposure, color, contrast, saturation, white balance, camera sensitivity, and focus.

A complete multimedia tool, the Dimage S414 also records movie clips and audio.High-Quality Images The S414's high-precision electro-optical system is built around a 4.1 megapixel 1/1.8-type interline primary-color CCD, with 4.0 million effective pixels for fine high-resolution images.

The CCD's pixel resolution will produce 14 x 10-inch (B4) size 150-dpi prints or 8 x 5-inch (A5) size photo-quality prints.

High-Performance 8.8X Zoom (4X Optical, 2.2X Digital) The DiMAGE S414 is equipped with a built-in Minolta GT apochromatic zoom lens.

This sophisticated 4X lens provides focal range of 7.15mm to 28.6mm -- equivalent to a 35 - 140mm zoom lens on a 35mm camera.

The lens encompasses the most used focal lengths in photography, ranging from wide angle for landscapes to telephoto for intimate portraits, and focuses down to 4 inches for extreme close-ups.

Two double-sided aspheric lens elements and AD (anomalous dispersion) glass ensure sharp images at all focal lengths.

Digital zoom seamlessly takes over from the maximum focal length of the optical zoom without interrupting the monitor image.

The digital zoom extends the optical zoom performance up to 2.2 times in 0.25X increments, giving the DiMAGE S414 the equivalent of a 308mm telephoto lens on a 35mm camera.Wide-Area Autofocusing with Focus Area Selection Wide-area AF makes accurate focusing simple.

Within the large focus area are three AF sensors including a central crosshair sensor; the crosshair sensor ensures precise focusing regardless of subject contrast orientation.

The camera automatically locates the subject within the wide focus frames and confirms the point of focus by briefly displaying the active AF sensor.

Focus Area Selection allows the user to select a spot focus area from a 5-point array - a versatile option for creative compositions with off-center subjects.

High Response Digital Imaging With an ultra-fast digital drive, an internal memory capacity of 32MB, and the same high-speed engine (LSI) as Minolta's top-of-the-line DiMAGE 7Hi, the DiMAGE S414 is an extremely responsive photographic tool.

Whether recording, viewing, or editing images, camera operation is smooth, quick, and intuitive.Manual Focus In addition to the autofocus system, the camera can be focused manually while monitoring image sharpness on the monitor.270-Segment Metering The DiMAGE S414's advanced autoexposure system with multi-segment metering evaluates subject and scene brightness and continuously monitors the situation for even the slightest changes.

Information about subject location from the wide-area AF is used along with multi-segment metering to calculate perfect exposures.

The system uses 270 metering segments to calculate the exposure based on subject and background brightness.

With the DiMAGE S414, there's no need to worry that the subject will be lost in deep shadows or washed out in front of dark backgrounds.

For additional subject illumination, the built-in flash fires automatically in low-light or backlit conditions.

Spot Metering For basing the exposure on a small area of the subject or scene, spot metering mode concentrates the exposure reading to the center segment of the multi-segment array.

Digital Subject Programs In addition to a fully automatic point & shoot Program mode, Digital Subject Programs can be selected, which optimizes the camera's exposure, white-balance, and image-processing controls for specific scenes and subjects.

Six subject programs are available:- Macro: Ensures maximum depth-of-field for sharp details in close-up pictures.

- Portrait: Reproduces warm, soft skin tones and creates slightly defocused backgrounds.- Landscape: Ensures sharp images of expansive scenes.- Night Portrait: Balances the flash illumination on the subject with the background ambient light.

This setting can also be used to capture the romantic ambience of illuminated night scenes such as city skylines.

- Text: For crisp reproductions of black text or line art on a white background.- Text & Macro: Accurately reproduces small text or line art.

Creative Exposure Control The DiMAGE S414 is a true creative imaging tool, offering user-controlled aperture priority and manual exposure modes.

Plus, camera sensitivity can be set to auto or to one of four ISO equivalent levels: 64, 100, 200, or 400. And to ensure the best exposure possible, an automatic three-frame bracket can be made in 0.3, 0.5, or 1.0Ev steps.

Additionally, 15-second BULB exposures can be made in manual exposure mode (the camera can be mounted on a tripod and the shutter released with the self-timer or the optional remote control RC-3). CxProcess Image-Processing Technology Minolta's CxProcess ensures that the image from the CCD will faithfully reproduce the original scene.

CxProcess controls image sharpness, color, and contrast while minimizing noise to produce vivid, natural pictures.12-Bit A/D Conversion 12-bit A/D conversion preserves the subtleties of the original image.

With billions of colors and 4,096 levels in each color channel, images possess near-lifelike color and detail.

This is especially evident in portraiture: smooth complexion, fine hair detail, and vivid eye color.Real-Time Histogram Unique to digital imaging, the DiMAGE S414's real-time histogram shows the luminance distribution of the image before the image is captured.

Displayed with the live image, the histogram allows subject brightness and contrast to be evaluated for optimizing camera controls.Grid and Scale Displays The DiMAGE S414's LCD monitor features two new displays for critical composition: grid and scale.

Usually found in large-format view cameras, the grid makes it easy to alignin the camera with vertical or horizontal elements within the image.

The scale can be used in close-up photography to judge the relative proportions of the subject.Image-Processing Tools The sharpness, contrast, and filter controls are image-processing tools built into the camera, allowing image data to be maximized at the scene.

Sharpness accentuates or softens details.

Contrast controls the difference between brightness levels; increasing the contrast makes the highlights brighter and the shadows darker.

And the new Filter effects make a color image warmer or cooler.Color Mode The color mode has five options: Natural Color, Vivid Color, Black & White, Sepia, and Solarization.

Natural Color preserves the actual colors of the scene; Vivid Color accentuates them.

Black & White creates a neutral monochrome image.

The new Sepia mode gives the classic appearance of toning in old photographs.

Solarization creates a partial reversal of tones and colors in the highlights for creative effects.White Balance Control White balance controls how the camera interprets the color of the ambient lighting.

Auto white balance compensates for changes in lighting automatically.

Four preset white balance settings: daylight, cloudy, tungsten, and fluorescent, can be selected for specific light sources.

And for critical control over color, the custom setting allows the camera to be calibrated to the lighting conditions at the scene.

Quick View Mode Captured images can be easily accessed in the recording mode.

Simply press the Quick View button to display the recorded images.

The images can be enlarged to confirm sharpness and the histogram can be displayed to judge exposure.

Index playback, voice memo playback, and movie playback are all available in Quick View mode.Continuous Advance For capturing the action as it unfolds, the DiMAGE S414 can continuously record still images at a rate of approximately 8 frames in 5 seconds (1.6 fps). Movie and Audio Functions To catch extended action as it unfolds, 60-seconds of digital video with audio can be recorded.

Additionally, thoughts and comments can be recorded alone or with a still image.

Voice Memo allows an audio track up to 15 seconds to be attached to an image when the image is captured.

Movie clips and audio tracks can be played back in the camera.Audible Signals Audible signals are used to make positive confirmation of button settings.

A shutter sound effect accompanies the release of the shutter.