Vivitar ViviCam 4100

...top marks.

Vivitar is well known for it's range of mid-priced 'point and shoot' compact digital cameras - the ViviCam 4100 is a fairly typical example of this ilk, but offers several additional features normally only found on more expensive units.

Outwardly this is an entirely unremarkable camera - being a plastic bodied 'fag packet' sized compact digital - to the front is a small built in flash, and a lens with sliding ...
...about the camera, except the Vivitar site doesn't list it as a current model (!) although most of the functions are clearly self-evident.

The default setting is to overlay a date/time stamp on the picture, but this can easily be turned off.

Overall, a basic camera with the additional advantage of being able to record low-resolution movies with sound, easy to use, but lacks the sophistication and optical quality of more ... more

The success of a design is almost entirely dependant on how well a manufacturer can match the needs of a potential buyer, in this case, the ViviCam 4100 scores top marks.

Vivitar is well known for it's range of mid-priced 'point and shoot' compact digital cameras - the ViviCam 4100 is a fairly typical example of this ilk, but offers several additional features normally only found on more expensive units.

Outwardly this is an entirely unremarkable camera - being a plastic bodied 'fag packet' sized compact digital - to the front is a small built in flash, and a lens with sliding cover which functions as the ON switch. There's also a sliding MACRO switch which allows close-up pictures to be taken.

On top is a single shutter button, underneath is the traditional tripod threaded mounting point, although this is located halfway between the camera balance point and the offset lens.

At the back are 'menu' and 'mode' buttons alongside a 2 inch TFT LCD monitor screen and a five button 'navigation' button cluster.

The camera takes standard AA cells, and has 16Mb of onboard memory, which can be augmented by up to 512Mb of Secure Digital (SD) memory.

As well as this, the camera came with a neckstrap, plastic case and driver CD which contained windows drivers and photo-editing software, also a USB cable.

Inside is a four mega pixel sensor, and a concealed microphone.

What isn't perhaps immediately obvious is that the camera is capable of taking low-resolution video footage, with sound - and that's what makes this different from other cameras in this price-point.

With a 128Mb memory card installed, around five minutes of video footage can be recorded, or around 250 pictures at 4Mp resolution (partly dependant on Jpeg compression) - or any combination of the pair.

Menuing is relatively straightforward, and allows for the usual functions; flash modes include redeye, auto, off, there's settings for colour balance, delayed action etc.

The camera will allow a 'digital zoom' of up to 4x - although I've never been entirely convinced by such a feature - I'd rather take a bog-standard picture and crop it on the PC desktop.

The lens length isn't stated, but produces results roughly equivalent to a standard -semi-wide 38mm lens on 35mm cameras - neither is the aperture stated, but the front objective is little more than a few millimetres across - this eliminates the need for any sort of focusing for normal pictures, although means it isn't best suited to poorly lit subjects.

An optical viewfinder is noticeably absent - this means you are obliged to use the camera at arms length, framing the picture on the LCD screen.

The flash is located directly above the lens, so the 'red eye' setting is needed when taking portraits in dim lighting conditions, but the lens seems not to exhibit especially noticeable pincushion or barrel distortion. Like most far-eastern lens designs, it's somewhat sharper in the centre of the image, but given the modest resolution of the camera, isn't especially significant.

I can confirm that my eight year old daughter has satisfactorily mastered the basic functions of the unit, thereby qualifying this as a true 'point and shoot' camera.

I bought this camera for around sixty pounds, and spent another twenty on an additional 128Mb memory card. This is entirely satisfactory for your average 'day out'

In Windows XP, the camera is simply connected to a USB port, and the operating system identifies this as a 'portable storage device' - having guessed this is a camera, Windows immediately offers to copy the data to 'My Pictures' - earlier operating systems may need a driver installed.

There really isn't a great deal more you can say about the camera, except the Vivitar site doesn't list it as a current model (!) although most of the functions are clearly self-evident.

The default setting is to overlay a date/time stamp on the picture, but this can easily be turned off.

Overall, a basic camera with the additional advantage of being able to record low-resolution movies with sound, easy to use, but lacks the sophistication and optical quality of more expensive cameras.

You get pretty much what you pay for, however this scores very highly in terms of 'value for money'.

Optically, it scarcely compares to my 2 Megapixel Olympus C220-Zoom, but at a quarter of the price, and significantly easier to use, isn't going to upset too many people.

The final analysis is 'Cheap and cheerful' rather than 'cheap and nasty'
 

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