Great compact camera without a sacrifice in quality
Pros:
Lightweight, compact, easy to use, excellent color and light capturing
Cons:
No rechargeable batteries or charging unit
The Bottom Line:
This is a great little every day camera for the casual photographer and one who wants a compact camera for easy access.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
I purchased this camera on clearance at Staples because I needed something I could throw in my purse when carrying my SLR Digital was too cumbersome. Its compact and lightweight nature is one of my favorite features of this camera.
The 3.2 mp resolution is great for most casual photographers and I haven't noticed a significant quality difference between it and my 6.0 mp camera, mostly because I don't plan on making enormous enlargements of my pictures. I have enlarged up to 8x10 with no problems. The built in optical zoom is adequate for a mild zoom needed in casual situations.
The time it takes between depressing the shoot button and capturing the image to display on the LCD screen is quite fast--actually the fastest I've used in a digital camera. I really appreciate the lack of both a lengthy shutter lag and a lengthy time of writing the image to the memory card.
The color it captures both inside and outside is exceptional. I've taken several photos indoors in pretty crummy lighting conditions and the camera does a wonderful job of detecting and adjusting for a great image capture. Even without the flash the camera does an excellent job.
The LCD screen is of decent enough size to easily view your photos and menu options.
I don't think the menu interface is the most user friendly but once learned, it can be navigated with a fair amount of ease.
My primary complaint is that it uses regular AA batteries, instead of having a rechargeable battery and charger. I've solved this problem easily enough by buying rechargeable AAs and a charger but it would have been nice if the camera came with it.
Transferring the images to the computer could also be easier. With my other digital cameras, I've been able to plug in the camera and access the images directly from my photo editing software as I would the contents of any other drive, but this camera prohibits that, requiring an extra step of either copying and pasting to the drive first, or previewing them all in Windows Picture Viewer and then selectively transferring images.
The direct to printer feature is nice and the camera works well with the Canon Pixima IP4200.
It has a standard tripod port on the bottom, which is also a nice added feature.
I've not quite been able to figure out the video feature. I tried to shoot one but when I transferred it to the computer, it was a plain JPEG Image. I've not spent tons of time on it but it's definitely not as simple as the video feature on my other camera. But at this time, I'm unable to comment further on this particular feature.
Overall this is a great little point and shoot camera. I paid about $150 on clearance for both the camera and the printer and at that price, the camera is well worth its salt. It's portable, compact, and take great every day photos. It will serve the needs of most photographers who just want to take snapshots, pictures for emailing, and other casual photos. If you're looking for a camera for these types of needs, this is a great little choice. This camera is probably a better fit for the beginning or novice photographer than a more complex camera would be because it takes such great photos with little to no manual adjustment. I find myself using this more often than my larger, more complicated camera because this one is designed to be fool proof. I've taken some really excellent shots that I would have had a hard time with on my larger camera, due to my limited skills.
