Camera doesn't acknowledge card when inserted into camera

An older camera, the DiMage A1 came with a 16mb card. Some cameras are picky about which cards work best. Compact Flash cards are sold in different speeds and your camera may work faster with a faster card. This camera can use Compact Flash type I or type II, and is compatible with the microdrive card. Since this camera was introduced the capacities of Compact Flash cards have increased dramatically so I believe you should be able to use a larger card with no problems but I would check out some of the online photography sites to read about other's experiences. Here is one good resource:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/
Hope this helps!

If you're lucky, the CF card is faulty. It's going to be a very old card now if it's the original one supplied/bought with your A1. You've never upgraded to a larger card in all this time so it suggests you've never needed to. 128 and 256mb cards are virtually worthless now, so I'd be amazed if you couldn't get one for free via Yahoo FreeCycle. You can also try reformatting your card in a card reader/writer, but A1's and A2's often won't recognise a card formatted in this way and it can render them permanently unreadable by all A1/A2/A200 cameras.

If you're unlucky, then you've bent or broken one or more of the pins inside the card slot which connect to your card when you insert it. To check, get a bright torch and look down inside the card slot. Any bent pins will be self evident as there should be a neat double row of pins and missing pins will show up as gaps.

If you have bent pins then you've nothing to lose by trying to carefully straighten them, if you can't or if the pins are broken, then your camera is effectively irrepairable. Scrap A1's and A2's can both provide the part, but retreiving them from the donor camera is really difficult and so far I've never managed to refit one successfully and I've done a few now. A pro repair is simply not cost effective, especially when a perfectly good used A1 goes for around £40-£50 and the better A2's go for around £80-£100. If you're in North America you can expect prices to be even lower.

I bought a card reader and use it instead of directly connecting to computer with camera. Saves battery life and cost under $30 canadian. Simple file transfer this way. At least your camera is still working! Mine is dead and Sony says no parts available.

If this also shows up on the pictures it could be a defective Sony CCD issue. If so, Sony will fix your Minolta camera for free (with free shipping) regardless of warranty. You need to do this before March 31, 2008 so get going! See this link:

http://camerarepair.blogspot.com/2007/11/sony-konica-minolta-cameras.html

The Dimage models that Sony is accepting for the recall repair are:
Dimage 7HI, 7I, A1, Xi, F300, XT, X20, S414.

Hope you still have the camera. If so, Sony will fix your Minolta camera for free (with free shipping) regardless of warranty. You need to do this before March 31, 2008 so get going! See this link:
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/news-item.pl?template_id=1&news_id=131#
The Dimage models that Sony is accepting for the recall repair are:
Dimage 7HI, 7I, A1, Xi, F300, XT, X20, S414.

This sounds like a defective Sony CCD issue. If so, Sony will fix your Minolta camera for free (with free shipping) regardless of warranty. You need to do this before March 31, 2008 so get going! See this link:
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/news-item.pl?template_id=1&news_id=131#
The Dimage models that Sony is accepting for the recall repair are:
Dimage 7HI, 7I, A1, Xi, F300, XT, X20, S414.

Yes, it is possible to control the camera from PC with "DiMAGE Capture".(sold separately)

The DiMAGE A1 has a 46mm (1.8 inch) low-temperature polysilicon TFT color LCD Monitor, which displays approximately 118,000 pixels. This LCD monitor is tiltable (20 deg. downward and 90 deg. upward).

The followings are available as optional accessories for DiMAGE A1: 1. Battery pack BP-400 2. Digital Utility Bag DUB-100 3. DiMAGE Capture which software can be controlled DiMAGE A1 from PC ( It will be available September ,2003)

Start-up time for the DiMAGE A1 is approximately 2.2 seconds in recording mode. It depends on the type of CompactFlash card.