The DiMAGE S304 was announced at the same time as the DiMAGE 5 and 7 at PMA on 11th February this year. The S304 has a 3.3 megapixel CCD (3.14 effective - 2048 x 1536) and a 4x optical zoom lens. It shares much of its functionality and features with it's "bigger brothers" the DiMAGE 5 and 7.

The S304 is part of the new range of Minolta DiMAGE digital cameras, it marks a definite advance in features and resolution for the compact end of the Minolta range. The S304 is one of only two three megapixel digital cameras with a 4x optical zoom lens, the other of course being the Nikon Coolpix 995 and it will therefore be our benchmark for comparison in this review.

This review is based on a pre-production S304, we hope to update the review with results from a production camera as soon as one is made available.

If you're new to digital photography you may wish to read the Digital Photography Glossary before diving into this article (it may help you understand some of the terms used).

Conclusion / Recommendation / Ratings are based on the opinion of the reviewer, you should read the ENTIRE review before coming to your own conclusions.

We recommend to make the most of this review you should be able to see the difference (at least) between X, Y, and Z and ideally A, B, and C.

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