From the moment you first look at this camera you can't help but think: WOW! Sleek design, metal body, small and perfectly formed. I purchased this camera from PC World, because I actually wanted to see what it feels like, handles like and most of all - it's desirability factor: what it looks like in the hand. Believe me, I wasn't disappointed.
I then picked it up - light but feels very sturdy even with the two rechargeable NiMH inside (Complete with charger!). Not that many buttons on the outside but that adds to the beauty as there is less to clutter up the space. The buttons are of a decent size so you don't need tweezers (metaphorically, of couse!) or childrens fingers to operate the numerous functions via the [menu], [display] and the up, down, left and right arrow keys. Finally on the face back there are the PLAY and RECORD functions for quick and easy recording and viewing, incidentally pressing the record button twice activates the movie mode... very handy as it creates an MPEG file of upto 15fps on the media selected.
On top there is an analogue zoom selector (upto 3.2x optical, 4x digital) which is of a nice size and doesn't seem to get in the way and is
easily accessable without too much fiddling, in the centre there is the focus lock/shutter button.
Underneath, he Casio QV-R40 takes Secure Digital (SD) and Multimedia (MM) Cards and has, on board 10MB, of its own internal storage space - easily transferable between cards and internal. These share the compartment with the 2 AA Nickel Metal Hydride batteries which have considerable life for such a powerful camera (I have had 4 days regular usage and not needed to recharge).
Okay, so I said there aren't many buttons... that doesn't mean this product lacks features - oh no, it is jam packed full! Including the rapid startup time of 1 second this baby is loaded...
RECORDING OPTIONS: Flash: on, off and red-eye reduction Focus: macro, infinity and manual White balance: sunlight, shade, lightbulb, florescent and manual Self timer: 10 sec, 2 sec triple self timer Recording: Snapshot, best shot, movie Metering (focus): Multipattern, centre-weighted, spot metering Image size: 2304x1712, 2240x1680, 1600x1200, 1280x960 and 640x480. Quality: fine, normal and economy ISO: Auto, 80, 160, 320 Auto Focus Area: Spot, multi Sharpness, contrast and brightness settings.
*These are to name but a few, I will definately bore you should I go on!
The PLAY settings are pretty standard for a digital camera but this one allows you to resize the image after taking, crop, rotate, adjust contrast, sharpness, brightness and even colour AFTER taking the pics. Although this is usually the job for a computer it allows you to do all your editing en-route to your local digital processing outlet (Boots, Jessops, etc...), just hand over the card and print your pics that way - handy for those without a computer!
It also has a really handy calendar function which logs on a graphical calendar on what days the pics were taken. Add to this the world time and alarm functions make a nice well rounded product.
This product is available from many internet and domestic stores such as www.pixmania.co.uk, cameras2u.co.uk, dixons.co.uk, currys.co.uk, pcworld.co.uk and others too numerous to mention (just type Casio QV-R40 into Yahoo to see what I mean!) ranging from around £230 upwards - which for a 4 megapixel digital camera is an amazing price! I have managed perfect A3 portraits!
Unfortunately every rose has it's thorn so here are the only 2 stingers I found: First, the manual is very sketchy to say the least, it describes where in and on the camera every feature can be found but does not describe what it does or how to get the best out of each feature (and there are alot!), it gives no technical specifications of the unit itself and although it looks quite thick, it only devotes 13 pages to English - it, however - does its job of introducing you to the camera. Secondly it had the smallest optical viewfinder I have ever seen on a digital camera so this may be a problem for persons with glasses. These two aside and absolutely ace camera!
A final word of advice - should you plan taking night shots invest in a small tripod because due to long exposures the camera must be kept very still.
POST, POST PURCHASE COMMENTS (01-01-04)
Okay, here is the real guts of it. I have used this camera from the past week intensively over Christmas (over 350 shots) and all comments above still stand. This camera is amazing!
Full size images on "fine" setting are stored at 1.7MB JPEG compressed format and decrease in size as you take the quality and size down.
Oh, the rest of the manual is on the supplied CDROM with the software... found it out by accident, in PDF format!
Disadvantages that have come to light are as follows for any prospective buyers out there:
- The digital zoom is all but useless, like all digital cameras steer well clear and turn off the digital zoom when taking pictures, it spoils them.
- The optical zoom is very fast, smooth and precise but unfortunately the focusing is slightly slower at maximum zoom and the camera sometimes fails to focus and you have to adjust your focal point on the image.
- The menu system is very straight forward and the left and right arrow keys on the camera can be customised to a number of functions... but this can sometimes get a little fiddly when looking for the white balance required and focus type selection.
- The shutter lag is also quite a disappointment, as this is a problem with most digital cameras due to the nature of the CPU and depending on whether you have focus locked prior to pressing the shutter release you will sometimes miss that crucial shot... the camera startup time, though is very fast and many a time have I seen that perfect moment and gone from out of the camera case to storage in a matter of seconds.
- The metal body feels perfectly sturdy and beautifully crafted but a grey plastic battery/memory slot door? Also the zoom slider on top feels quite fragile as it is made out of plastic too... a minor niggle.
I have provided this update to give you, the prospective buyer, the chance to know what I didn't when I bought this excellent piece of kit.
So, once again - brilliant and very controllable camera but invest in a tripod (big or small) and some image editing software (maybe Paint Shop Pro 8) to get he most out of the high quality A4-A3 size images it turfs out.
Happy New Year to all and watch this space for the pics.
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Ex-Pro ultra fast 1 hour travel charger including 3 popular adapters, UK, Euro&USA/Canada ... more
- made specifically for Digital Camera's and any other equipment using AA or AAA Ni-Mh rechargable batteries. LED Indications with automatic current selection for batteries, can also charge 2 x AAA batteries (Not included). Automatic Cut off when charged.
Postage & Packaging:Free! Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Ex-Pro High power stabilized electronic mains adapter for digital cameras, Camcorder and ... more
other electronic appliances. The interchangeable DC plugs included are for center plus and polarity protection. Any setting of the output voltage selector switch is protected against unintentional change of voltage. A power on LED and 2 rubber grips for easy handling rounds off the high specification of a neat, compact and easy to carry power supply for worldwide use. Output voltage in 6 fixed steps 2.4v, 3v, 4.2v, 5v, 6v, 6.5v, 7v, 8.4V to match the voltage specifically needed for most digital cameras. 5 inter changeable centre plus and polarity protected DC plugs included. (Plug dimensions 1.7 x 4.75 / 1.7 x 4 / 1.4 x 3.5 / 0.75 x 2.4 / 5.5 x 2.1 all right angled plugs).
Postage & Packaging:Free! Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Dec 24th, 2003
(Jan 1st, 2004)
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