As an active rock climber wanting to record my experiences as I was climbing, I was looking for a compact camera without a protruding lens and as high a pixel count as possible. I narrowed the field down to Konica's own X60 due to its fast start-up times, but on looking at Konica's web site was seduced by the features and massive pixel count of the new X1.
I bought the camera online for a very reasonable £179 and waited eagerly for it to arrive. Four days later on receiving the camera I was immediately struck by its simple design beauty - much like an Ipod - "less is more". It arrived in an attractive anodised red finish (silver and black also available) and I started playing straight away.
I do have a couple of gripes with this camera. Firstly it is quite slippy to hold with no features on the anodised body to add purchase and after a couple of days I found the lens cover mechanism would stick half open then half shut when closing down the camera although it does seem to have stopped doing this. I will have to monitor this and it may yet necessitate a return to the dealer.
Apart from these slight disappointments I have found the picture quality to be excellent especially from such a small package comparing well with the results from my digital SLR. The macro function is excellent, especially when used with a tripod that fits to the standard screw fitting on the base. Start-up times are not the fastest in class as are the speed of focussing prior to a photo being taken. This may put off those requiring instant "whip-out and shoot" ability, but for most users it is still nippy enough. The anti - shake feature is a definite boon for those lower light levels when a flash is inappropriate.
Uploading pictures to my Mac was a doddle. Slotting the camera into its supplied cradle attached via USB to the computer. The computer recognised the camera without needing drivers or software and uploaded the pictures into I-Photo quickly and without fuss. The PC was just as easy to use once the supplied drivers had been installed. Battery life seems very good considering the very bright 2.5" LCD that must be used at all times. I would recommend buying a second battery for extended trips as the cradle will charge the battery without the camera present meaning that you will never be without power for those unplanned photo opportunities. Buy at least a 512M SD card if you want decent photo capacity (176 full size pictures and 20 minutes of 640x480 mov video).
Picture quality has turned out to be superb with vibrant colours and crisp images under all settings. The focus system is by central spot which enlarges automatically when using telephoto mode(3x optical + 4x digital) and metering can be set to either spot or multi-segment mode. As well as the anti-shake feature the camera has all the bells and whistles that all good digital cameras posess. White balance, manual and auto settings, a range of useful preset programs including a superb macro function allowing as close as 2" focusing. Also useful if you use the camera for sports coaching is an ultra high speed multi shot function with which one can record up to 15, 640x480 images at 10 frames per second. excellent for analysing a tennis swing and so forth.
Overall I have been very impressed with this little gem, which offers astounding value for money as well as excellent features. The camera would not be out of place as a spare in a professionals pouch or slipped into a pocket at a trendy party or wedding.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Let me know if you add any pictures taken with the camera when you are able to add them. Fionaxx
COOOEEE 16.01.2006 11:57
That was a good first review - I look forward to reading more from you in the future. One tip is to always add a price and where to buy the product in future reviews when possible . Fionaxx
callancool 16.01.2006 02:20
Needs lots more info, and a definate return to dealers
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Jan 15th, 2006
(Jan 16th, 2006)
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