Minolta DiMAGE S404 (2002)
The Minolta DiMAGE S404 is a 4-megapixel compact digital camera announced January 8th, 2002. Minolta positioned it as a consumer model with high performance and fast, simple operation. Street price was roughly $499 in the US and £450 in the UK. PCMag UK noted that was $200 to $400 below comparable feature-rich cameras of the era, and called it "a lot of camera for the money."
The S404 was essentially a refinement of the earlier DiMAGE S304. According to DPReview's coverage of the launch, the two cameras were identical in design, control layout, menus, and optical design. The meaningful changes were the step up to a 4-megapixel sensor and a shift in ISO range from the S304's ISO 100-800 down to ISO 64-400. The sensor was a 1/1.8-type interline primary-color CCD with 4.13 million total pixels (3.95 million effective). The camera offered ISO 64 to 400 plus an auto setting. It recorded to CompactFlash media.
Surviving owner commentary is sparse and mixed. One early owner, writing after just two days with the camera, reported that batteries drained quickly, that the lever opening the media storage door was tripped too easily, and that autofocus and flash felt slow to engage. No full specification sheet has surfaced in the sources we've found, so lens focal length, aperture range, shutter speeds, LCD details, weight, and dimensions are all unconfirmed. The sensor's effective imaging area is also a bit murky. One source points out that the S404's sensor diagonal is roughly 8.89mm, about two-thirds of what the 1/1.8-type designation might suggest.
One practical resource does exist: a free service manual ("minolta dimage S404 Parts.rar," containing a parts PDF) has been available for download at eserviceinfo.com since January 2005, uploaded by a user named voivoda. A later user rated that manual 10/10, calling it "very good and detailed." That comment is about the documentation, not the camera. The S404 also turns up on the used market. KEH Camera has listed it as a 4MP compact, and the camera is sometimes badged under the Konica Minolta name following the merger.
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