Concord Eye-Q Go LCD

Author's product rating:   

Picture Quality	Good
Range & Quality of Features	Excellent
Ease of Use	Very Easy
Durability	Excellent
Overall Look & Design	Excellent
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Ease of use, small size, extra features
Disadvantages:	Not rechargable

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

First of let me just say I love this little camera and it goes everywhere with me. It is not just a camera but also a web cam and has video recording functions, although they are with no sound unless it is connected to your pc along with a microphone.

Specifications:
• LCD Screed : 1.6 inch colour
• Storage : 7 MB
• PC connection : USB
• TV connection : PAL & NTSC
• Auto flash : Yes
• Pixel : 2.0 mega pixels
• Zoom : 4x
• Language : Multiple

System Requirements:

PC:
• MS Windows 98SE/ME/2000 and XP
• IBM PC/AT or compatible, 200 MHz or higher
• Minimum 32MB RAM (recommended 64)
• USB Port
• 56k modem, ISDN or LAN connection (for web camera)
• CD-ROM drive

MAC:
• Mac OS 9 or higher
• Macintosh power PC or higher, minimum 64MB of RAM
• USB port
• 100 MB of available Hard Disk Space

I absolutely love this camera it was bought for me as a birthday present last year and has been everywhere with me since. I think its sleek silver design is great and it is fairly small and very lightweight.

It is so easy to operate that even my mum – who can barely work the video player – can also use it with ease. The operation manual is very well laid out and informative and is mostly written in English without too much jargon.

This camera can also be used as a web camera which is the only feature I haven’t used yet so can’t really comment on. It can also be used as a Video camera. However I have found that the quality received by the video camera is not that great as it is not possible to adjust the brightness therefore footage comes out rather dark. Also when using the video camera function you need to plug a PC/MAC microphone into your PC to capture sound, so therefore you can film outside but can’t record the sound. It is also a good idea to use a tripod (or flat table surface as we do) when filming as the slightest movements affect the picture.

As a camera itself though it is fantastic for beginners to digital photography it has several different picture qualities: Fine, Normal and Economy. It also has three picture sizes; 1600 x 1200, 1280x960 and 640 x 480. Changing the picture sizes and qualities increases or decreases the amount of pictures the camera can hold as well as the picture size and qualities. The least amount of pictures my camera holds are 7 and the highest is over 200 (more than what it says in the manual). You can change these options as much as you like without affecting the pictures that have already been taken.

The slide switch on the front of the camera switches between three modes; Macro - for close-up photos, Portrait – for variable lighting conditions and Distant – for outdoor or bright condition.

The menu of this camera has lots of different options in which you can alter certain aspects of the pictures or camera. These include:
• Self-timer
• Picture size
• Picture quality
• Flash
• Exposure value
• White balance
• Scene selection
• Brightness
• Setup

The battery life on this camera is very good (about 40 hrs of picture taking using a Duracell Ultra CR123 battery. The bad news is that as this camera is non-rechargeable you have to continue to buy batteries for it throughout its life-time – the batteries themselves cost between £3-£5. This battery does not come in a rechargeable form either.

The picture quality of the end-up photos is good but not as good as some of the slightly dearer cameras. Sometimes pictures have a slightly grainy quality but on the whole they are of a good quality.

This camera was bought for £89.99 at Argos and came with a case, strap and battery. It also included the connection cables for the PC/MAC and for the television and the software required for PC installation.

The software with this camera includes the Arcsoft Camera Suite which is an interface which allows you to edit photographs and record footage through your camera. I found this suite extremely easy to use and, although it is only the trial version the photo suite is packed with editing tools and fun extras such as how to turn your photos into greetings cards or calendars. The video suite is not quite as good as it allows you to add transition effects to turn a selection of scenes into a free-flowing movie and also to edit the length of your scenes but it has little else to offer.

I would recommend this camera for any amateur in digital photography who wants to take good pictures and maybe have a little fun with them to. As mentioned before I am not terribly sure of its web cam abilities and its video recording performance is limited but all in all it is still a very good little camera.