Concord EyeQ 2040 2mp Digital Camera

Rating:
Summary: Excellent camera for the price.
Review: I bought this camera earlier this year at Office Max for only $50 with two reasons in mind. One of them was I wanted a cheap digital camera that took good pictures and I could bring anywhere. This way if something happened to it, it wouldn't matter since it didn't cost a lot anyways. The second reason was that it takes 2 AA batteries. I like this because all I need is 4 rechargeable AA's and I'm set. I wasn't sure of how good the pictures would be since I always used to hear 3 megapixels or better was a must. Not at all, I have taken hundreds of great photos with this camera of many things, including lots of different scenery and the pictures look amazing. My friends and family can't believe some of the pictures I've taken with just this camera. I always use the 1600x1200 resolution on the highest quality since I have a 256MB SD card. Speaking of that, the internal memory is only 7MB, but with how cheap SD cards are now, getting a 256 or 512MB SD card shouldn't be a problem.

PROS:
-Great camera for the right price
-Takes great photos
-Can record movies
-With a 512MB SD card you can take about 700 photos on the highest quality/resolution, more than enough for a vacation. You can also record lots of video, I recorded 21 minutes of video on my 256MB card and still had 60MB of space left.
-Battery life isn't too bad. I remember reading somewhere that it can take 120 photos without the flash before the batteries die. I went on a vacation and took around 130 photos and they still worked afterwards.

CONS:
-Doesn't record sound in video. Something I kinda wanted, but don't care THAT much for, especially since I really bought this camera for pictures.
-Pictures get kinda blurry if you shake the camera while taking a picture I don't know how common this is in digital cameras though.
-Can only take up to 512MB memory cards. For me this is no problem, but it might be for someone out there.
-Pictures look kinda crappy if you zoom up. I don't remember for sure, but I think this was a downside to digital zoom. I try to avoid zooming in as much as possible, or if I do I zoom in just a little.

Rating:
Summary: Great Starter Camera
Review: What's Included:
Concord Eye-Q 2040 Digital Camera
Mini USB Cable
TV Cable
Wrist Strap
Carrying Pouch
2x AA Kodak Alkaline Batteries
ArcSoft PhotoImpression and ArcSoft VideoImpression (Picture Editing Software)
User's Manual and Multilingual Quick Start Guide
CD-ROM including Multilingual User Manual in PDF format

Intro: I was looking for a low-priced camera with a color LCD, decent megapixels and a reasonable price, and I found one.

Hookups: The computer reads the camera as a USB mass-storage device, not a digital camera. This makes it possible that you don't have to load any drivers if you have Windows XP or ME. You will have to load the camera drivers for previous versions of Windows. You just drag and drop the pictures with practically no waiting, even for videos. You can also hook this camera straight-up to your TV via the camera's "Video Out" and the supplied video cable to view your pictures and videos.

Memory: Camera includes 7 MB integrated memory. Also accepts Secure Digital cards to store pictures and movies on from 8 to 512 MB.

Display: The smoothness of the 1.6" color TFT LCD really surprised me, 27 fps to be exact. I expected it to be choppy, not the case. Very smooth video feed. The only way it can be choppy is if you move the camera very fast. You can view your pictures and videos as thumbnails on the display if you want. The display tells you, when it's on, is: the camera mode, flash and white balance settings, battery level, image quality and resolution, self-timer (if on), memory card (if inserted), and frame counter (how many pictures you have taken and how many you have left).

Interface: You can switch between taking pictures and reviewing taken pictures on-the-fly via a switch on the back. You have to go through the menu to delete pictures and videos though, no delete button.

Settings: "White Balance" and "Exposure Value" can be adjusted to your liking. The brightness of the display can also be changed. Auto-shutoff time can be off, 15, 30, 60, or 90 seconds. You can also change the picture resolution and quality as stated in the next section. Flash can be set to "On", "Off", or "Auto". White Balnce can be set to "Auto", "Sunny", "Flourescent", and "Tungsten".

Picture Capacity: The manual says you can take only 7 pictures at the highest quality, but the camera can handle 9. You can go all the way up to 205 pictures at the lowest quality using the included 7 MB integrated memory.

Picture Quality: Pictures are taken in the JPEG format. Picture quality is determined by the combination of picture resolution and quality. The resolutions available are 1600x1200 (2.0 MP), 1280x960 (1.2 MP), and 640x480. The picture quality can be "Fine", "Normal", or "Economy". At the "Fine" quality and at 1600x1200 (the highest possible quality), you can manage 9 pictures. At the same resolution and "Normal" quality, you can get 21 pictures at almost the same quality. I couldn't tell the difference. I can easily compare the highest picture quality of this camera to a one-time-use camera. Pictures can be better quality if you hold the camera still for about a second when you snap a picture. Action shots are nearly impossible due to the slow shutter speed.

Flash: The flash really surprised me and others. In a completely dark room, I can take great pictures. I showed some pictures to my parents and they were very impressed when I told them the room was completely dark. You just have to make sure you are a few feet away from the subject to get a good picture or it'll be whited out.

Videos: Videos are taken in the AVI format. This camera cannot act as a webcam, you take pictures and movies with it. This model can take 34 second videos at highest quality with the included 7 MB integrated memory. The videos are quite smooth, better than I expected, 15 fps to be exact.

No Macro Mode: There is no macro mode with this camera, making all close-ups a little blurry. The focal range on this camera claims to be 1.2 meters to infinity. So, to get good shots you have to be that far away.

Zoom: Wasn't a big deal to me, but the included 4x digital zoom is a nice touch.