I am finding a little more time to return to Ciao after a long absence. Will try and catch up with o...
I am finding a little more time to return to Ciao after a long absence. Will try and catch up with old friends. As to the writing side of things... well, I have few things to write about.. Now it's just a matter of finding the time... Derek
Member since:26.04.2005
Reviews:74
Members who trust:93
I had nearly £40 worth of Amazon vouchers built up from my on-line activities with various Internet affiliate programs I belong to. And when I had one of their promotion e-mails I thought it was about time I used some of them up. I was particularly attracted to the Vivitar 6324digital camera. I noticed it was 6MP, 3 times optical zoom, and had a 2.4” LCD viewing screen. What’s more it only measured some 9.5cm X 6.5cm and would fit neatly in my pocket without me even knowing it was there.
Total cost delivered was £55.88 including tax and delivery - I had opted to pay a delivery charge of £5.01 and it was with me 2 days later.
Thinking it was going to be “cheap and nasty”, I was pleasantly surprised at its quality. Fitting nicely in the palm, it feels very light, but weighty enough to feel like a quality piece of kit. It came with all leads and software necessary to download to my computer and it’s own carry-case
that could be worn on a belt if required. I inserted the 2 AA batteries and started to explore the camera.
I noticed that whilst the camera has its own internal memory of 16 MB, it would take an SD memory card of up to 2GB. As luck would have it, I had received that very morning, a brochure through the post for our local Staples Office supplies who were offering the 2GB SD cards for a penny under £20. As it is in walking distance of my house, I went out with the camera and purchased the card.
On insertion the camera immediately recognised it and all photographs I took were automatically stored on the card without me having to go through any complicated set-up procedures. Whilst the manual is very informative, I tend to learn better by using these instruments, and I had no difficulty with this little camera at all.
I already own a Canon Powershot that uses 4 X AA batteries and lasts only about 10 minutes if kept switched on at the most, and I was expecting this Vivitar to go through its 2 batteries like wildfire, but I was pleasantly surprised. I have taken about 20 pictures so far and still have the two batteries installed that came with the camera. And with this I have zoomed and focused and used all the auto features and then connected to my PC and downloaded the pictures. The batteries are currently reading that there is a quarter charge left – another useful feature that is not on my more expensive Canon is the battery indicator. The camera also has a facility that detects if it’s been left switched on and will automatically switch it off to save on battery power.
The only thing that I do miss with this camera is the absence of a conventional view finder, which makes it a little difficult when taking photographs in bright sunlight, but I can live with this by simply pointing the camera and then viewing the photograph afterwards by shading the screen, which is a little difficult to do whilst actually taking the shot. If it’s not good enough, I can simply erase it and take another. These (viewing and erasing) functions are easily available on the back of the camera by single buttons dedicated to the tasks.
The number of pictures I can get on the card at the highest resolution is 676 with just 4 in the internal memory. At the lowest resolution, suitable for viewing on a computer, the internal memory will store up to152 photographs and the 2GB card will store 222,579. Of course there are lots of different settings in between the lowest and the highest quality photo settings.
The camera also takes good quality video footage (image size= 320 x 240) and with the 2GB card I can get up to 124.30 minutes. So I’ve not only got a camera to hand, but a video camera too if I want it.
The camera can also utilise the pictbridge facility, which means that I can connect it directly to my Canon IP4300 printer (or other pictbridge printers) without having to even switch my computer on.
The 3 times zoom can be used when viewing pictures as well as taking them, so this is a handy facility to examine pictures more closely and if I’ve made an error, I can then simple take another one.
The camera has a full menu where you can switch off the auto-mode and manually change settings of the white-balance, image size, quality, sharpness, colour, saturations, date imprint on your photos etc. All handy stuff if you wanted to try your hand at some creative photography. There are also three focus modes – Standard, macro for taking those close-up shots, and infinity for taking views
There is also a self-timer, that is handy should there be nobody around and you want to take group photographs with family and loved ones and actually want to appear in the shot yourself.
Finally, the software that comes in the box, contains a Photo Explorer to view all photos you have on the camera before downloading, and some photo-editing software, together with full instructions that read on your computer. You can also connect the camera to the computer to use as a webcam for use on programs like Yahoo messenger etc.
All in all, for the price, I’ve got to say this little camera has amazed me and is ideal for anyone who would like to have something small and handy at the ready when out and about, and doesn’t want a large, heavy camera around the neck.
Snap. I bought this camera with my Amazon vouchers and think it is a very handy little bit of kit and excellent value for the price. I've found by messing around with the settings you can get pictures on a bright sunny day
donley 27.09.2007 16:44
I could not live without the viewfinder.
Good review
Morning_Becomes_Electra 08.09.2007 23:40
An excellent camera review. This does sound a surprising little camera.
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