11 out of 11 people found this review helpful.
There are probably better cameras, but this suits me well enough.
Date of Review: Nov 27, 2006
The Bottom Line: Great value, if you don't mind putting in the extra effort and dealing with a slightly slower picture-taking process. The end result will be high quality photographs.
This camera is a really solid value, and for the price I paid, I'm really satisfied, even impressed. My price of $270 included a cheap carrying case, a Li-ion battery pack, and two AA Ni-MH batteries with a charger. It has a very sleek design; the grip makes it feel secure while taking pictures or just holding it. The flash comes out when the power is turned on, whether you need it or not, and there is a simple flip-open enclosure for the USB connector and memory card (SD). There is a very generous 2.5 cm LCD screen in which to review your pictures as well. The battery slides neatly into the bottom where there is also a place to attach a tripod.
The battery life seems fine. The Ni-MH batteries lasted about 250 exposures, just as the owner's manual said they would, using only the viewfinder, never reviewing a picture on the LCD. I haven't figured out how to recharge the Lithium-ion battery pack though. I can't seem to find a charger to do the job. Just in case your rechargeables die, this camera is friendly to any AA sized battery as well.
If you like automated photography this may be the camera for you. There are settings for nearly every scenario imaginable including close-up, action, nighttime, self portrait, and the one that you will likely use most often - AUTO. There is also a setting in which you can set the exposure to a custom level, but it's fairly limited.
The focus is also automatic. I'm actually fairly disappointed in the auto-focus. It takes ages to finally settle on a focus that it thinks is correct and still often finds the wrong subject and you have to start over. To make matters worse, there is no option of manual focus. I'm disapointed with the availability of manual adjustments in general on this camera.
The autoflash is also not up to par for me. Essentially in any indoor environment with the autoflash on, it will flash. This often results in over-bright pictures and loss of natural color indoors. I've had success with turning off the flash unless the auto-exposure fails, but that is fairly annoying.
The final downside that I'd like to note is that it's slow picture taking all around. After turn-on it will take a few seconds before it's set, then the auto-focus has to do it's thing, and then you can take the picture, with a slight shutter delay and you have to be sure not to move for a second or it will blur.
It's possible that I've touched too much on the cons in this review. Overall my experience has been positive. I didn't want to spend a ton of money on a camera, and this one is CAPABLE of taking amazing quality pictures (6.1 MP)for a relatively small cost. The quality and resolution of the pictures really is the best I've ever had in a camera and when I take a good picture it's really, really good. The main problem I have with it is taking a picture which looks fine in the brief review in the viewfinder and then pulling it up on the computer to see that it blurred and it's too late to take another. So be careful and pay attention to what you're doing and you should be happy with this camera once you get used to it.
