I am up for anything and want to go everywhere. I regularly kayak, cycle, hike and camp so i am tru...
I am up for anything and want to go everywhere. I regularly kayak, cycle, hike and camp so i am true outdoor person
Member since:23.08.2007
Reviews:50
Members who trust:1
I have now had this camera for a couple of months and i must admit that at first it is rather daunting and somewhat complicated. I previously owned a basic olympus mju mini 'point and shoot' digital camera and this is a big step up.
First impressions were rather shakey. The menu seems over-complicated and the on-screen display is crowded, howver after some background reading anda thorough read of the manual it become relatively clear. There are severeal modes in which to use the camera whereby you can manually adjust the aperture, shutter speed and other setting or there is a auto mode which automatically sets the best options - usually works best for me. There is aswell a video mode and a print mode, whereby you can connect the camera directly to a printer.
Going back to the earlier self-set modes: at first these seem rather pointless to the average camera user who often thinks - 'why change it myself when i can let the camera do it' well the fact is that by manually altering the shutter speed and aperture value you can achieve some great styled shots which i have done with this camera such as movie style blurrs and 'smudged effects'.
The camera also has a continuous mode - very useful for capturing a sequence of shots quickly, this allows 1.2 frames to be shot per second, very good in comparison to other cameras.
On the same subject of modes, the camera also has a very easy to use menu whereby initially use can select pre-set modes for special occassions such as 'fireworks', stary nights or cloudy conditions, very easy to select but the differences in picture quality are tremendous.
The 10 mega pixels and 4x optical zoom also mean that in fact not matter what standard you have the camera set at you photos will always look failry good. There is of the course the option to take photos at 5 mega pixels and thus save more space on your card. Raw format also comes in handy for moments where you need to utilise the remaining space but one must remember that you have to have the software to convert the files to jpegs after.
On the sub-menus within the camera there are lot of little options to make your picture quality better, for example the histogram showing the light balance in the photo, several screen modes for different subjects and lots more.
Externally the camera is very nice too. There is a 2.8in wide screen lcd screen to view your shots on, the lash retracts nicley into the housing, as does the lens. The metal casing is quite rugged and it has survived several drops. However this camera isn't small enough to simply slip in your pocket.
With regard to memory cards the camera requires SDHC cards - faster than normal SDs and it allows the camera to take photos and store them quicker. I purchased the 8g one and it provides me with approximately 1600 photos - plenty. However i would reccommend purchasing a card reader as when uploading photos from the camera to the computer it can be rather slow.
In conclusion i think this camera is a vey good if not slightly pricey buy at £400 approx. It gives the user the more advanced options if necessary but if they wnat they can select the morecomplex modes and take amazing photos.
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