Digital-Camera Reviews

I got this camera for my birthday and for a cheap camera it has the best picture. My mom bought an extra 128 memory card so my camera took 10 minutes of video and 100 pictures. I think the camera is a really good one. When you switch the camera to heart mode, whenever you take a picture it has pretty designs. When you hook the camera up to your computer the camera has sound on the video mode but when you play it back on the camera, it will have no sound. I would recommend this camera.

Pros: compact, excellent price, great pictures, easy-use, 16 Mb built-in memory and produces video with sound

Cons: no optical zoom (not a big deal)

After a long search and try-outs of 3.0 MP digital cameras from reputable brand names, I found DIGIMAX 301 from SAMSUNG an excellent acquisition. I bought it from WalMart (near $ 118 bucks), a great price for a really nice camera. I have seen some notes from previous non-satisfied reviewers on the Internet, but I found later their complains are unreasonable and incoherent. Then I decided to write this review.

USABILITY: The manual is very well written, full of figures and diagrams. You can get the basics right away. You can download the manual written in several other languages (which was very helpful for my in-laws). Once you set the camera according to your desired settings, it is just a matter of "point and shoot". My in-laws (old guys and obsolete regarding modern technology) went out on the second day after I purchased this camera, and they took nice shots and movie clips. If they can do it, you will do it as a master. The camera has a macro function that takes very close shots. This function is enabled/disabled by a lateral switch. Indeed, once I forgot to disable it, and I got blurry pictures of long-range shots. But this was my fault, and I could realize it right away. Some previous reviewers said they got unfocussed photos, and this is the probable cause of their frustration.

PICTURE QUALITY: So far I got excellent pictures considering it is a 3.2 MP camera. Day light, close shots, night shots with and without flash, all them are just perfect. The best way to prove this is to show some of my photos, http://members.cox.net/mrpinto/DIGIMAX301.htm (note that some of them are really large files, i.e. up to 1 Mb size). The flash works fine, it does not produce overexposed close shots, neither underexposed long-range (up to 10 feet) shots. With a tripod you can get nice night shots without the flash, and best of all they come out clear, no grains and with nice resolution.

SHUTTER LAG: The camera initially shoots with less than 2 seconds, then it takes 6-7 seconds to be ready for the next shoot if you are using flash, the maximum resolution, and if you set the camera to preview the shot image. If you remove this last feature and set the camera to take normal resolution pictures without flash you can drop the shutter lag down to a fewer seconds. Note that if you use low quality batteries the shutter lag dramatically increase, since the batteries will not be able to deliver power to the flash right away (an usual problem of all digital cameras). Consider using rechargeable batteries with capacities above 2000 mAh, and you will have fewer problems with shutter lag.

BATTERY LIFE: I have not found any digital camera that does not efficiently consume battery. If you frequently use flash and the LCD screen, then you probably will wear out your batteries very fast. Once again, this is a common problem of all kinds of digital cameras. I bought an inexpensive charger along with four Ni-MH batteries (about $ 10 bucks), and they do their job nicely.

EXTRA FEATURES: There is the option to downgrade the resolution of your photographs, which is nice in case you want to send pictures to you friends over the Internet, who uses dial-up connections (small files). You do not need to buy an expensive memory card if you are able to print the pictures at home. With 16 Mb built-in memory you can take about 36 photographs with right-resolution and normal pixel definition. Using such settings, I could print perfect 8x10 (letter size) photographs, no grains and no low pixel definition. If you want improve the pixel definition (to ultrafine), you can store up to 12 photos, but the gain is just a little. To download the pictures to my PC is easy as drag-and-drop. If you are not able to do this, just buy a SD card and develop your pictures at a local department store (you can get a generic 128 Mb for $ 25.00 on WEB stores). The camera software has a PRINT function that will help a lot the not-friendly PC users. Finally, I forgot to mention, you might use your camera as a simple recorder.

I bought this item because I thought there was a charger in this kit based on the previous review.. there ISN'T a charger included... but it's still worth the money... the case is very small, just big enough to hold the camera, battery and memory stick. I needed an extra battery [price] and memory stick [price] anyway. i am happy with this purchase

This is a great kit , has all the essentials and is worth the money . If you were to buy the battery and charger seperately it would be more or less the same price but it also comes with a memory stick and a little pouch for it all .

In my accessory manual for my FD200 it lists this
item. That means it will aslo work with the FD200.

So take heed FD users, this will work for you TOO!

Pity it didn't come with the camera, but for outdoor use it's a real lifesaver. Especially for those bright days when it's exceptionally hard to see the viewfinder.

These batteries do last longer than any other rechargable battery that I have used thus far.

Buying rechargeable batteries is simple - look for the "mah" rating. Sony at 2100mah has most powerfull AA on the market.

I purchased several Firewire webcams for an evaluation, and this one is the clear winner. The Orange Micro iBot and both of the ADS Pyro models have much poorer image quality and are virtually useless in dark settings. The Fire-i, on the other hand, has a crisp, clear picture with low noise, and still captures clean images even in low light settings. The quality from the camera compares well even to consumer camcorders.

The main disadvantage of this camera is the lack of a stand or tripod. It comes with a clip to attach to the top of a laptop, but since the clip only opens about 1 cm, you can't really attach it to anything else. The camera will rotate all the way around the clip, but the hinge for tilting is very limited in range.

Highly recommended, despite the stupid clip.

I recently purchased Unibrain's Fire-i Digital Camera, I must say I was extremely impressed with the easy installation. I use to own a USB web cam and recently switched to Unibrain's Firewire Camera, the picture was fare more superior along with a much faster frame rate. I highly recommend this camera to anyone who is looking for a high quality web cam.

I've never heard of Viking before but decided to try it. Setting up on my ancient Toshiba 2130 (it's a 486dx75) was so fast and effortless. It didn't come with instructions, but none were needed - i just slid the card in and Windows did the rest.

The 64MB CF card can hold about 65 pics in normal mode (I use a Nikon CoolPix 800) so that should be more than enough for a weekend trip. Using the laptop adapter should provide for limitless photos.

I'll look for Viking products from now on. And to think they just sat in coffee shops singing about Spam.

The search for aproppiate memory devices can prove frustratingly complicated on compatibility aspects, not to mention price, however Viking Components has answered my prayers time and again. This flash card, like other products from Viking Co i ve purchased, has performed excellently on a digital camera and laptop computer, (with the aid of the adapter). This combo is far easier to use than than the uncomfortable plugging and unplugging of slow USB cables, since it becomes, in essence, another drive in your laptop. Overall this has expanded my phototaking possibilities and made my life much easier transferring them.

The SD card worked great until my Boston Terrior decided to find it on the floor and used it for a chew toy. It is now a mangled mess.

This is the first expansion card I've purchased for my
Palm. Its everything I've anticipated. Its easy to insert,
the memory access it fast.

The price for the 64MB cards have come down alot. I've
tried to do research on the different brands of SD cards.
I found more positive comments about Viking cards rather than
the SanDisk card. I'm sure SanDisk work fine, but I've not
read as many positive things about it.

All things being equal. The Viking was a few dollars cheaper,
and IMHO is a visually better looking SD card.

The price made me investigate this camera for my daughter's birthday, but when I used it I wanted to keep it for myself!!! This camera is SO easy to use and figure out. The user manual is clear and straight forward, and you even get a case with it!! My "good" digital camera didn't come with a case! This is a great "first" digital camera for the kids that they can learn to use in a snap!

I was looking for a cheap digital camera which let make take pictures of a decent quality, and I got more than what I expected. This camera has 600x800 normal and fine, 1600x1200 normal and fine and 2048x1536 super resolutions. It has 8 mb internal memory, which lets you take from 7 to 60 pictures. Even in the lowest resolution, you can take good 4x6 sized pictures. It has settings for close ups, night pictures and a 10 second timer, which works great for when you want to be in the picture. It has zoom functions and different flash settings. It works as a webcam, works good in Yahoo! messenger. It takes 60 sec video but with no sound, so it's not very useful. It comes with the USB cable and it's worked great for this past 6 months with Windows XP. I don't like the editing software that comes with the cam, but you don't have to install it, you can use anyone you want. You can also buy a DC adapter on the Vivitar website, they have excellent customer service in case you have any questions. I recommend rechargeable NimH batteries or if not you'll have to buy good Energizer alkaline batteries for it to work well. I tried using Panasonic and Rayovac alkaline batteries and they only last for 2 or 3 pictures and don't work at all with the special features. Overall, it's a really good camera for that price!!!

This product is really great! With our TV and touch-tone phone we can visually interact with our business associates, friends and family! We use it to stay in touch with my children's grandparents who live in another State, for business and as a security device.

It is really simple to use - and especially user friendly for elderly people who just can't or won't use a computer. The picture is much better than PC cameras and so is the sound.

My children talk with their great grandparents using ViaPhone over a standard phone line, and their grandparents can enjoy seeing them as they grow.

We just love ours, and purchased several for our family members who live out-of-state. The video and sound is not altered at all. The video and audio quality is the same quality as our television and phone line!

It is also versatile! We use ours as a home security device, and it flashes our call waiting on our TV screen while we are watching televison so we can decide if we want to get up and answer the phone. After using ours for several months now, we can't even imagine being without it.

We highly recommend this product for anyone who has family out of the area or who is doing business from home or office with customers who are not in your area.

Our kids love it too, especially when their grandma calls. :)

THIS BAG IS VERY WELL MADE, VERY WELL THOUGHT OUT
CONGRATS TO ADORAMA FOR ANOTHER GREAT PRODUCT