This was my Christmas present to myself, from myself, for being a good boy all year. I have a little APS camera which works fine, but the idea of being able to email pictures to friends and family appealed.
The SP2 is a miniature digital camera which will easily fit in your pocket, not much bigger than a beer mat and less that ½ an inch thick.
Main features are: 2.0 megapixel quality 1.5 inch lcd screen Additional SD memory card slot 2x digital zoom continuous video mode built in flash and self timer USB port and cable Video output port and cable Photo viewing and editing software for your PC
All this at the time of purchase for a very reasonable £99 from PC world – I also bought a 64mb SD memory card for about £30 (the on-board 8mb feature was not enough to be useful). Since that time though, the price has been reduced by £20 making it even better value.
Having never owned a digital camera before, I was relieved to see that the manual was logical and easy to follow, especially for the basic functions.
The only thing I was disappointed not to get was even a basic cover / case, but that really is being fussy.
Initial use of the camera proved it easy to use and handle, obviously for a camera of this size the controls are a bit fiddly, but that’s expected.
Depression set in with my new toy when I started looking at and uploading the pictures. Any taken indoors were rubbish, the flash is way too weak and frankly useless, to further frustrate – with the flash on there is an annoying delay between pressing the ‘shutter’ and the picture being taken. Basic picture quality is OK if the photo is taken in good light out of doors. Forget action pictures too – the SP2 will blur the slightest movement in the subject.
So, what we have is a cheap digital camera that behaves like a cheap digital camera – serves me right for not spending decent money in the first place I suppose. But that isn’t all, we haven’t played chase the image yet!!
Horror of horrors, after taking a few ‘practice shots’, I went to review my work only to be presented with a message on the LCD saying FILE NOT FOUND. I took more pictures, hoping that this little glitch was just user error, and sure enough when I went to view my latest creations – there they were, not the pictures I had just taken but the 1st lot !!. And so it went on, I tried with and without the memory card – same thing, I lost loads of pictures.
In the end I gave up and decided to call it a day. The SP2 went back to PC World for a full refund. Credit to PC World, they listened to my complaint and did not even question my request for a refund.
I’ve now ordered an Olympus which I am waiting delivery on……..
More details
Durability
Satisfactory
Reliability
Very Poor
Size
Small
Weight
Light
Instruction Manual
Good
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