Review 3 of 26
Price Paid:
$299.00
from Circuit City Summary: I had wanted to advance from the point-and-shoot set and get more creative with my photography. However, the thought of shelling out $300+ for an SLR that I''d have to learn and pay the lab costs for (even with point-and-shoots, I have a lot of pictures I don''t like) didn''t sit well with me.
This camera was a happy compromise. I bought it as an open box buy. The only thing it lacked was the 4MB Memory Stick. But, since I knew that wasn''t going to be enough for me, I shelled out for a 32MB stick (I now have several).
In the year I''ve had the camera, it''s worked wonderfully with few drawbacks. The ability to change exposures and shutter speeds is utterly amazing to me. Pictures that others mess up come out perfect on this unit (maybe I should say, "More perfect than theirs").
My unit doens''t have the movie mode, but I don''t think I''d have a real use for that. I''d need a bigger memory stick.
The swivel display is a mixed blessing. In bright sunlight, it''s a curse sisncle there''s no separate viewfinder. But, to get shots where you can''t get right behind the camera (e.g. self portraits, shots around tight corners, etc), it''s a god-send.
Downlaod is easy. On Windows platforms, it appears as an external hard drive. Speed may not be up to snuff for some, but I''m happy as long as I can empty my 32 or 64MB sticks in under 5 mins. Strengths: - Ease of use.
- Flexibility
- Quality of image. Good for e-mailing (with e-mail mode) or prinitng out 4x6''s. Also good enough to take to a Kodak PictureMaker kiosk.
- Swivel display
- Memory stick. Can be locked so you don''t accidently erase something. Haven''t used other media (e.g. SmartMedia cards) for anything but MP3 players, so I can''t comment on them.
- Ease of download. Weaknesses: - Flash. Had mixed results. Seem to have better results changing exposure time, etc.
- For lack of a better term, response time. In most cases, the time from when you press on the shutter release to when the image is captured is fine. Most people will stay still. However, some who are not used to it may think they''ve taken the picture when they haven''t. I asked two people on top of the Empire State Bldg to take a picture of me using this unit. They both swore that it worked. They just didn''t press it down long enough. Thank God for the swivel display.
Also, some friends have a 15 month old boy. It''s a trick to get a picture of him because he''ll move much faster than the camera will react. Many times, I''ll have to autofocus and wait for the right moment.
- Focus. Much of the above problem may be related to the autofocus feature. On the whole, no problem with the focus. However, lately, when taking pictures of objects in the distance, focus can be tricky. I chalk it up to my lack of experience.
- No additional viewfinder. I love the LCD display (especially the swivel), but on sunny days, you have to pray you have the pic frames correctly. Similar Products Used: - A really basic Polaroid digital camera. That was great for photo IDs, but it "lacked definition" for other things. Customer Service: - No experience... yet.
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