<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: The proof of the pudding is in the eating........
Review: After trying and returning several small digital cameras-Olympus Camedia 395 (poor contrast and SLOOOW), two Fuji Finepix A120s (ghostly blooming), and a Nikon Coolpix 2200 (purple fringeing and lack of clarity)-I've at last found one that takes satisfying pictures!
PROs:
- Image quality is excellent. There are none of the defects of the other cameras I tried. Colours are natural, focus is sharp, and there is no distortion. For one day I had both the Nikon and the Pentax and took lots of identical photos-the Pentax produced a much better result every time.
- Lots of control for those who want it (AE metering, manual focus in addition to auto and fixed, selectable ISO, white balance, saturation, contrast, etc. etc.).
- Functions are easy to select and use. Important ones are on buttons, not menus (e.g. monitor on/off, exposure compensation-both of these buried in menus on the Nikon).
- Red eye is rare, even without the special flash setting.
- The supplied software, ACDSee and FotoCanvas, is just right-easy to use and powerful. What an eye-opener after Nikon's incompetent PictureProject, which is obsessed with an obscure method of arranging photos in collections and has hardly energy left over for worthwhile features.
Speed is average (startup a bit slow, shutter lag reasonable) and so is battery usage if you use rechargeable NiMH. Alkalines are sucked dry in minutes.
CONs
- Manual rather pedestrian, with little explanation of technical features, no tips on how to use them, and no index.
- No video out, which is cheap. I'd rather have this than the gimmicky live histogram-impressive (like those flashing LEDs on 80s stereos). but what use is it?
- Battery/card cover feels as if it's going to fly open if you hold the camera in the wrong way.
- What you see is not necessarily what you get. Unaccountably, the picture on the LCD screen is a bit darker when it's downloaded-easily cleared up by the software, but that shouldn't be necessary. The Nikon was the same, without any way of dealing with it. I didn't notice this mismatch on the Fuji Finepix.
The strengths of this camera FAR outweigh its few weaknesses. The only thing that really matters is that it takes great pictures, and it's easy and fun to use.
Rating:
Summary: Another Bargain!
Review: Hi Folks, I bought two of these cameras and gave one to the spouse. Have been using them for about 4 months, taking several thousand photos. I have extensive experience with amateur-grade film and digital cameras.
When I shop for cameras, I don't get hung up on a brand. I don't care what my camera says on the front of it. I look for specific features that make ME happy.
My requirements for this purchase were, in order: (1) AA Batteries, (2) picture quality, and (3) small size...'cuz big cameras just don't get used by the majority of their owners. The AA requirement cuts you down to a handful of cameras. I don't care, I use my cameras a lot and I don't want to buy expensive proprietary batteries. And when I ditch a camera in a couple of years, I don't want to start over with the battery-go-round. I keep eight AA's charged all the time.
Pros: 100% reliable so far, excellent picture quality, good battery life with NImH, sharp lens, small pocketable package, wide range of options and pre-programmed modes, smooth controls, intuitive menus, seems well-built and sturdy, decent to beautiful flash results, 3 MP is fine for just about anything, EXCELLENT macro mode, remembers all settings during battery changes, lots of information in the LCD display, learning curve about 2 hours for full mastery if you're familiar with cameras and know what to look for. My wife, intensely allergic to anything more complex than point/click cameras, took about 100 pics before getting completely up to speed. But she now has much more control than she had with her old point-and-shoot film camera. And, she RAVES about the Macro Mode, which really is fabulous. This camera is truly an incredible bargain, and a little shopping around saved me about 25% off the standard "discounted" price, with free shipping to boot!
Cons: I have to consider the price in compiling my "Con" list. I don't expect a sub-150-dollar camera to perform like an expensive one. However, the display washes out badly in sunlight; adjustments using the LCD absolutely require that you provide some shadow. For that I downgrade this camera to 4 Stars because it's not perfect. Otherwise, no sound in movie mode, and those are all the gripes I have.
All in all, wonderfully pleased with these cameras.
Rating: 
Summary: Defective out of the box
Review: I had to return it because the LCD display worked for a few minutes, then went very dark. I have ordered another one, thinking that this might be a rare manufacturing defect. I will be using it a lot this summer, so we'll see if the display holds up this time. All else worked correctly. I liked the over-all size & placement of the controls.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Camera
Review: I purchased the camera after owing a 1.3 mp camera. After the 1st time of using the camera, my God-daughter borrowed it to use at school. She loves it and so do I so I had to buy a second one. Easy to use, photos are nothing short of great. I learned by using 2300 mAh batteries, and up, you can take loads of flash photos and not have to worry about battery power loss. I wouldn't hesitate telling anyone to get this camera. They would not be sorry.
Rating:
Summary: Great Camera
Review: I purchased the camera after owing a 1.3 mp camera. After the 1st time of using the camera, my God-daughter borrowed it to use at school. She loves it and so do I so I had to buy a second one. Easy to use, photos are nothing short of great. I learned by using 2300 mAh batteries, and up, you can take loads of flash photos and not have to worry about battery power loss. I wouldn't hesitate telling anyone to get this camera. They would not be sorry.
Rating:
Summary: great digital camera
Review: I spent a week researching the internet and photo magazines before deciding on the Optio 30. A major selling point, besides price, was that it uses the much smaller and popular SD card for external storage. I bought a new 256 Mb card for $40 (after rebate). I've had the camera for only three days and have taken over 100 hundred pictures in varying resolution. I haven't printed any photos, but uploaded into a computer they all turned out really well. The camera is easy to hold and the control buttons are simple to configure. The Optio 30 is ready to shoot about 2 secs after powering it up. The case has a metallic finish which will repel minor scratches, and the lens retracts nicely into the body after powering down. I'm pleased with this purchase.
Rating:
Summary: BEWARE
Review: I would beware not only the camera, but of Amazon.....after having this camera for only 2 months, we had problems with it. We were on vacation in CA and had to buy a new camera. When we returned home we could not return the camera, Optio 30, to Amazon because of their 30 day return policy. We are now stuck with 2 ditigal camera's. Not sure what is wrong with the optio, but it does not focus for you. It is a common problem,as stores I call have had the same problems. I bought a Kodak one, and love it even better. So be becareful on your electronics from Amazon. Their return policy is stupied, and I will never buy anything from them again. Their loss. I lived on shopping with them. Oh well. I just hope I can save people from making the mistake I made......
Rating:
Summary: Good for a first timer.
Review: This camera was a good choice for me mostly because of it's price, but it has great picture quality, even on the middle resolution setting, and a good zoom. I would suggest a bigger memory card, rechargeable Ni batteries, and a tripod for night pictures. It is very easy to download the pictures to your computer or to take the card to a place that prints digital pictures. In hind sight I would've spent a little extra to get a better looking, sleeker camera. Check these cameras out at an electronics store then purchase online to get the best prices.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting little camera
Review: This review is likely to be a little different, as I'm stepping down from a full-featured SLR-like digital camera to the compact Optio 30.
My primary reason for buying the camera was to have a second, small portable camera I could keep in my jacket pocket at all times so I could take pictures of sunsets and various scenes at the spur of the moment.
My first impression of the Optio 30 is that it's a little chunkier than I thought it would be. Although the lens retracts into the camera, it's actually quite chunky. However, the camera is fairly light.
When I received the camera, it had no 16mb SD memory card included, which didn't bother me because I already have a 128mb and a 512mb ordered on the way. It holds about 60 images on a 128mb card at the largest photo size and fine resolution. Downloaded images average about 1.1mb per image, which is fairly normal for a 3 megapixel camera.
It took me a little digging around in the manual to get the SD memory card formatted, which is interesting because I'd already been using it for other purposes. Then I initalized the time and date which seemed easy enough.
I found that a 128mb card hold about 60 images at the highest quality setting. Certainly a 256mb card or larger would make more sense for this camera.
The zoom mechanism is fairly noisy and somewhat imprecise. I guess the idea is you get a rough idea of the zoom and crop on your PC later.
The eyeview finder is small and somewhat like looking through a tunnel (reminds me of Nikons! lol!) Focusing on a close object within a few feet results in parallax error, which is to say your framing will be fairly off. Better to use the LCD for close photo framing.
The LCD is bright and very colorful. It is very easy to frame and use the LCD. Perhaps the name of the game is to use the LCD for framing with this camera, as the eye finder doesn't buy you much accuracy unless the shots are somewhat distance.
The flash is somewhat weak and adds a strange color balance problem. However it is usable. I would tend to shoot without the flash, or simply use it on a sunny day as a fill flash.
The menu system has an easy menu version and a more complicated one. The more complicated one leaves me wondering how often I would want to dig through the menus to activate some of the features of this camera. Probably intended to be used largerly as a point and shooter.
The image quality is very good. The camera does not do well in low light situations, but under normal or sunny lighting it performs quite well. The photos are well saturated, good color, and the autofocus seems to work well. Mind you, it's not the result you'd get from a far more expensive camera.
The free software ACDsee and a few others have little interest for me as I have far better photo software already loaded on my machine. Some might find the software useful.
All in all, within it's limitations, its an okay camera. I would not recommend it as a vacation workhorse, but better as an occasional happy snapper.
I will keep it in my jacket to catch the odd photo. I'm not sure I would use it extensively on vacation. We'll see.
Rating:
Summary: great camera excellent price
Review: We have owned this camera for about 2 months now (never owned a digital before). After researching digital cameras on the internet for a while we decided to go with the Optio 30. We definitely wanted some optical zoom and didn't want to spend a lot of money. This camera seemed to fit the bill. The histogram was something that got high ratings from a camera review magazine. We thought it might be over our heads. It, however, is easy to use and works great. The macro mode of this camera also got high reviews, we thought we'd never use this feature, but have had opportunity to and it also works great.
Have printed about 40 pictures at Walmart, using the Kodak picture maker and the one hour Walmart machine both with excellent results.
This camera uses batteries very quickly. I mean within hours. We tried a rechargeable set of Rayovacs from Walmart, they were as bad as Energizers. We then bought some Lenmar DLCRV3 rechargeables, these batteries are the greatest.
We also purchased a Lexar 256mb memory card, as the built in memory is quite small, especially if you set the resolution for high quality pictures (a must I'm told if you are going to print them).
One problem I have found with this camera is while trying to take pictures of my son's football game (at night) the flash is ineffective at the distance I was trying to take the picture (not the cameras fault). When you turn the flash off the camera automatically raises the shutter speed and then we get blurred action shots. If we consulted the manual and messed with the settings we could probably remedy this problem.
<< 1 >>
|
