I Decided to buy a digital camera since i have never really had a camera that was capable of taking really good pictures. I spent a while browsing the many different cameras and eventually settled upon this camera. I bought the camera for a little under £180, reduced from £190. It seemed to be a very good price for all of the features it boasted, such as a larger than average LCD screen. It came with a 16MB smart card (which i have found out is one of the more affordable flash memory card formats). This is probably enough to take 40 - 45 images at the default resolution. The camera itself is a small (but not pocket sized) and compact camera that is easy to use and looks like a proper proffessional cammera.
The features of the camera are as follows, which i will comment on each in turn:- @ 2.0 million pixels @ 1.8 inch LCD screen @ 6x optical
zoon, 2.5x digital zoom, @ 5 Flash modes @ Video Mode @ Picture Voice annotations @ Self-Timer @ Various accessories
The 2 million pixel resolitions is probably becoming the minimum standard, but is more than capable of producing high quality, professional images. I take most of my images at the default resolition which is at 1 million pixels and produces images at 1280x960 pixels. At 2 million pixels you can take photos in the region of 1600x1200 pixels. The quality is only limited to how good you are at a picking a picture and then taking it!
The 1.8 inch LCD screen is excellent. As with any LCD screen, when viewing at an angle, the image will become dark and hard to make out. Also, when in darker conditions, the LCD image will appear dark and you may have to adjust the LCD brightness to be able to see your target more clearly. The 1.8 inch LCD screen was bigger than the standard 1.6inch screens on most other similar and lower priced cameras that i looked at.
There are five flash modes, Red eye reduction to eliminate that red eye effect which defaces most pictures involving people. Forced flash which is for photographing in situations with back lit scenes or under flourescent lights. The suppressed flash helps when taking pictures through glass or from a distance. Slow Synchro is used at night which allows the background be taken as well as your target in the foreground. And finally the Auto mode, which is a flash controlled by the camera as it sees fit for the conditions. I am no expert when it comes to photography but i have found that in most circumstances the flash is more than adequate, except when i was photgraphing at dusk. I was stood a short way back (6-8 meters) and the flash didnt have a good enough effect for the photos to be up to the cameras normal quality.
The video mode, even though its limited to 320x240 pixels, is very good. You can only take movies in 60 second bursts, but this includes sound. Having said that, the sound quality is not as good as id like and you have to be pretty close to the camera for the sound to be audible on the playback. The video mode runs at 10 frames per second, but as i said, it is very good quality. One word of warning, the battery life will be greatly reduced if using this feature extensively.
The camera also offers the feature to add voice clips to each photo so that you can havve a 'commentary' on your photos, but this will reduce the amount of photos you can take. The self timer is a failry common feature on cameras and allows you to take photos while being in front of the camera. It gives you ten seconds to position the camera, and then get into position.
The accessories are adeqaute, and of a high quality. The accessories i got with the camera were a shoulder strap that looks and feels excellent, a very nice and good fitting lens cap that attaches to the shoulder strap/camera so that it doesnt get lost. Four batteries (which the camera needs). A 16MB smart media card and an owners manual. The manual has 95 pages of clear and easy to follow instructions to the cameras features. The only let down is when you compare the accessories to other cameras. My sister recently bought a camera, which came with all of the above, plus a mini tripod, a battery charger, a camera case and power leads. However details of these extra accessories for the 2800Zoom are listed in the manual (a minor consilation :) ).
Another point to mention is the battery life. I strongly recommend that you do purchase a power adapter for the camera, even if it is just used when uploading the images to your PC, because it will eat away at the batteries especially when using the video mode or using the camera for long periods.
The on screen menu is clear and very easy to use. You can setup the camera using just three buttons, and wont take you long to get to grips with. It offers excellent facilities for viewing your pictures as well as taking them. You can add a grid to the LCD screen when taking a photo so that you can align the camera with what you are looking at, and can remove all text from the screen so that all you see is what you want to take a picture of. You can also view all of the pictures on the camera as thumb nails for quick browsing. It shows 9 pictures on screen at once (3 rows by 3). Also you can zoom in on the pictures once you've taken them to check the quality in great detail without uploading them onto your PC.
The software included is very easy to use. Once installed (in the usual manor when using the Windows Operaing System), just plug your camera into the USB port (cable supplied), and the software will allow you to view the pictures straight away, and then print/delete/save them as you like.
I have had no problems with the software, nor the camera. Overall I am very impressed with the camera and think, for the money, it is excellent. Considering the camera has come down in price even more since i bought it; there is no reason for you not to buy one!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
(+) Ultra-compact dimensions, fun automatic tools, good performance for the asking price (-) Cluttered menu layout, camera buttons are scarce, specs are almost identical to the Samsung ES15
Advantages: upto 570mm zoom, movie mode, macro, a complete photography solution in one package Disadvantages: slow to focus and shoot, no manual focus, advertising in software, registration terms and conditions
Dec 16th, 2003
exceptional by (5%):
very helpful by (95%):
