Digital-Camera Reviews

What's impressed me the most about this camera is the quality of the pictures, which, after all, is what you buy a camera for in the first place (unless all you want is snapshots). Spectacular resolution--on a good monitor, virtually indistinguishable from that of a printed photo. Not so hot for moodily lit shots--keep your SLR for that. The camera fits into the hand well (though it's shaped for right-handers only) and is fairly easy to use. It really eats batteries, though, so buy an AC adapter for it. Also, the included software is somewhat weak and buggy. Download Cameraid from the Net, and use that, instead. Happy shutterbuggin'!

Thoroughly pleased with the Nikon Coolpix 700. I was shooting within minutes of taking it out of the box. More features and effects than I will ever need and the photos are great. At just under 10 ounces, this camera is a pleasure to hold and use. I highly recommend it, particularly for not so serious camera buffs or for family use.

I received this camera as a gift. It's my first experience with a digital camera, and it's been great! The reference manual (provided on CD) is easy to follow and extremely helpful. The camera also comes with HotShots, software for importing and editing pictures. The camera is lightweight and easy to use. My only complaint is how quickly the batteries die, but from what I understand, this happens with most digital cameras. A great camera all around!

This is an inexpensive digital, but has some serious flaws. It is a real battery eater, particularly in downloading. The manual suggests using an ac adaptor to avoid eating batteries. Compared to the Canon A70, where all you do is connect and turn the camera on, this requires a complicated download of software, which did not work on my networked computer, and then marking each picture you'd like to copy to the computer.
The camera takes a long time to turn on, focus is not nearly as fast as I want or expect, and works poorly in low light. The manual suggests avoiding that problem by putting the camera in macro and setting distance manually, but for the life of me I can't figure out how and the manual doesn't say. The pictures look of average quality, and I did like the almost intuitive controls, but missed some of the manual adjustments that are present on other cameras, like the A70. I am taking it back, and will spend the extra $$ to get the A70 to replace the one stolen from my car. This one just doesn't cut it.

I liked this camera so much I bought 2 - one for my teenager and one for work. It's my 3rd digital camera and by far the easiest to use with the best quality prints. Can't beat the price! I didn't even have to load any software to view the photos on my computer (Windows XP) simply plugged it in.

I have had this camera for a while now.For the price and features that come with it you will not find a better deal.It is great and I would recommend to everyone.

This camera's 3x optical zoom worked well and it took good pictures inside and outdoors however they did not appear to be any sharper than the pictures I got with a $98 3MP Vivitar.
The Vivitar did not have 3x optical zoom or macro capability which is a definite plus on the Samsung 420.

On the more negative side for the Samsung, and the main reason for just two stars; a new set of alkaline batteries lasted less than one day, taking only about six pictures. That was with trying to minimize my use of the LCD display to conserve batteries.

My wife bought this for me as a present. I dropped it. They sent me a new one. No hassle. Easy to use picture are very good quality and for 10 to 15 bucks a rechargable battery setup makes this an excellent point and shoot.

I have been very leery of digital cameras as the picture quality of some that I've tried ws not so great. This camera changed my mind! I found it on clearance and paid only 129.00 for it so the price for a 4mega pixal camera was excellent. Not only is it extremely easy to use but the pictures are awesome. FAr better than the 35mm that i have been using. It also has the capability to do video w/ sound which is very cool. The only drawback is that it goes through batteries (AA) like crazy. Invest in rechargable batteries if you buy this one. Extremely easy to save your pictures to your PC also. This is one great camera!

I have been used this webcam almost two years. First of all, I want to say it's much better than Creative Labs' which I had used before. Second of all, it's work perfectly either image or voice. There is a new driver for update built-in microphone. After that it has very nice quality on voice, which saves lots of international phone fee for me. The benefits of image as other people said. I have nice time chat with my family and friends via it. Then, it's very easy to install. No useless and complicated software which Creative usually does. Moreover, it's save the desk space. Just hang on top of the screen, which also good looking for laptop. Finally, I HIGHLY RECOMMAND this for people who going to buy webcam, especially for laptop using. There is already a new model in the market which is PCGA-UVC11.

I just don't understand why stores like Best Buy and CompUSA and even most stores online don't seem to carry this Sony webcam. It's like somebody woke up one day and said that anything that is not shaped like a stupid egg is not worthy of being called a webcam and we should not carry it in our stores. So now stores are are all obsessed with anything made by Logitech, Creative Labs or some brand no one has ever heard of. I am able to use my Sony webcam and I bought one for my dad and mom who live overseas and it is INCREDIBLE! We use it for Netmeeting and Yahoo! and it's great. Especially when we can use Supermode. Anyone who uses any other camera is wasting good money and is not truly experiencing what today's web conferencing technology has to offer. I am also very disappointed in Sony for not promoting their own product more effectively and actually writing on the front of the box "For Sony Vaio Computers Only". I mean how stupid is that? Do you not want more customers to purchase your product?

I just bought a SONY Visual Communication Camera after trying several more expensive webcams. It works perfectly in low light and daylight conditions thanks to True Color Technology and Flicker Canceling Function.

The lens are very good. If you compare this Sony webcam with other Sony Digital HandyCam camcorders used as webcams, this small webcam does the job better with larger capturing angle and flicker control. Of cause, I do not want you to compare this Sony webcam with other webcams at its price in the market, because this Webcam does far more better. The picture is clear with vivid colors. Its focus system is realy powerful thanks to SONY professional quality lens. Very good Laptop mounting mechanism is a big plus for this webcam.

I do not know why other reviewer gave it such a bad review. May be, he/she used this webcam with slow Pentium II laptops or so. I have a SONY NV190 Pentium IV 1.7Ghz, it works with the webcam perfectly.

Overall, This webcam can give you more than what you ask for.

I own a Pentax Optio S and am shopping for a spare D-LI8 battery for it. I don't think the battery pictured above is correct. It isn't even the same shape. A real D-LI8 is almost square and the metal contacts are offset to one side. Might want to look elsewhere just in case more than the picture is wrong.

I purchased the Pentax DL18 battery from Amazon...which was fulfilled through JR Music and Computer World. A few items of note:

1) It is the Genuine and Authentic Pentax battery which was shipped with the Pentax S4i.

2) I would always suggest purchasing the genuine branded Pentax battery so you know what you are getting. You just don't want to mess with possible mismatches or where a generic is made to fit multiple applications.

3) If purchasing online from others...make sure you get the true thing. Know what you are buying.

4) Yes....the picture on Amazon is not accurate. It is not black...rather grey. I can assure you I received the genuine battery.

This is a well-constructed generic equivalent (made by PowerSmart in Japan) to the Pentax DL18 Lithium Ion battery for the Pentax Optio S camera. Depending on which vendor you choose, the generic brand may vary. One of the reviewers for this battery is correct about the illustration above; it is not the battery. The battery you will get is gray. It measures 40.5mm x 35.4mm x 6mm. The three terminals are at the edge of the battery, recessed and offset to one side. It is also interesting to note that this DL18 is equivalent to the Fujifilm NP-40 battery. The battery fits snug but not tight inside the camera, so that if you accidentally undo the spring latch, it won't fall out. Functionally, it works great and lasts just as long as the original battery.

We bought this camera as an upgrade from our Canon A40. The big feature for us (after the fabulously quick shutter speed) was the ability to take unlimited videos. (Most other cameras limit the video length because they must buffer the image, whereas Sony cameras can write directly to their memory cards.)

However, we've decided to return the camera. There are 3 movie modes. With a 256 MB memory stick (about $100), you get about 3 minutes of video on the best setting. On the medium setting, you get 10 minutes of video. The third setting does give you 2 hours of video, but is completely unusable. The audio is very poor and the image is blurry and pixelated.

We're disappointed that Sony didn't offer a movie mode in between the terrible 160 mode and the Standard 640 mode. A friend's Sony, now over 4 years old, has such an inbetween setting, and we figured this would be an example of the quality of this Cybershot's lowest setting. Not so!

This is our first digital camera and so far we love it. It feels very solid and the pictures are really great. The camera is very easy to use for pictures and for video. I have not used any of the different picture settings but I did read the manual and they seem easy to use.
The camera comes with batteries and a charger but no AC adapter. This is the only reason (no AC adapter) I gave the camera 4 stars instead of 5. I would recommend buying the AC adapter so you don't use the batteries too fast or an extra set of batteries so you always have a charged pair of batteries.

My husband & I wanted a good digital camera but did not want to spend a bundle. We own other Sony products and know the products are usually high end. We are pleased again with another Sony product. The camera is a little bulky, but the pictures look wonderful and the capability is amazing. More than enough to keep us non-techies amazed!

The book is missing something rather important..."Now that I've captured an image, how do I get the color to match what I see, what's on my monitor and on my printer?"

The section on page 100, Color Accuracy, is incorrect. The author needs to develop an understanding of image color management. An image can be printed out of any number of applications and the color will be the same. The print driver menus can cause the color to change...not the application. Also, a properly color managed image will look similar in RGB and CMYK, not as shown in this book.

This is a good book for hobbyists who are not concerned with accurate color, which is fine as long as the book buyer understands this. Those who are concerned with color calibration and management should spend their money elsewhere.

Printed in full color, this about 140 page-long book suggest a lot of ideas what pictures can be taken with a digital camera. It has a small section on the principles of digital photography and necessary computer equipment, a couple of chapters on photography in general (lighting, background, etc.), and finally gives many examples of what can be done with the pictures by editing them in Adobe Photoshop. After all, the major fun of digital photography is that you can edit an image before printing it! The only problem is that you need to have Photoshop (along with a vector drawing program) and should know how to use them to take full advantage of this book's advice. My overall impression is that although one can find a more detailed and serious books on digital photography and image processing, this one may be a good gift to a person who just got his/her digital camera and needs to read somewhere how to start with it.

I was shopping for a digital camera to use for studio still-life photography. It's a confusing world full of technospeak and options. I bought this book and it was clear as day what I needed to buy and my camera ended up costing me a lot less than I would have guessed. I realized I didn't need most of the features on the higher-end cameras. This book also clarified "flash" on digitals and lighting requirements which had previously been mysterious to me. It's easier than you think.

Since getting my camera this month, I have used the camera to create large high-resolution images for 3 projects: a tradeshow booth, an ad slick, and a product spec sheet. I wouldn't have attempted these projects without reading this book.

This book also helps one see how Photoshop and digital cameras go hand in hand to create profession images. Opened my eyes.

Panasonic would have you believe that the SVAS-10 plays MP3, WMA and AAC music files, but after buying one of the units I was dismayed to find it doesn't. To copy music onto the SVAS-10 you can ONLY use the SD Jukebox software (supplied with the unit) The software encrypts your music before sending it to the unit, making it a very slow process. Even worse, you can never again rename, copy, move or edit music files on your computer, as the player will refuse to play them again. Worse still, if you encounter a problem that requires you to reload Windows on your computer, you can't listen you your music files on the player again - instead you have to delete all the files, and copy them from their origional CD's again. So if for example you have coppied your old records and cassettes onto your computer, and then thrown the originals away, you will only be able to listen to them on that computer - if you later buy a new computer, and copy your files accross to it, you cant listen to your music on the SVAS-10.

All the other features on the unit are fine, and the device does look great - but if you want to listen to music, dont bother with the SVAS-10

it's a good deal especially for the beginner.
but dont put too much expectation on it. it's so tough to use the jukebox software to transfer data. i cant figure it out until now.
pls help me up email me at jeffsun1008@hotmail.com

You will surely need one as a gift.
It's a very, very nice camera... it is my first Digital CamCoder, and I'm trully satisfied. Panasonic has made an outstanding job with this.
Small, fancy, good resoluntion, lots of accessories. Just enough for me... I have to say that is a camera for traveling (not for a proffessional), also usable as MP3 player... really cool if you dont need more than 2MP.
Amazing.

I bought this camera believing the manufacturers' marketing information that it is compatible with the Mac OS. Pretec has now admitted that the Mac drivers for the DC-1500 have not been released, and that there are no plans to release them. DON'T BUY FROM MANUFACTURERS THAT MISREPRESENT THE CAPABILITIES OF THEIR PRODUCTS! If they misrepresent something as basic as this, then how can any other product claims be believed?

I bought this camera last month, and I had alot of fun with it. The picture is so rich and clear, it it even better than some the canon digital camera...my friend has. It is compatible with mac os... Overall, I give 5 starts for this digital camera.

I must say I love this camera. The camera is enough for daily uses, and it is just like a professional camera with spending less money. The best is it takes excellent pictures comparing to my previous Sony fd-91(cost me $900 2 years ago). Yet the features are most likely with the sony I have. The macro pic is also excellent. I am very happy with this camera than the sony I have. I saved a lot of money!

The former reviews are simple terrible. I suppose that they were
'made' by samsung as well?

I purchased this camera to create memories of my new born baby. The camera is reasonably priced, easy to use and even easier to download to the computer. It's a great deal for the price.
I would advise anyone buying this camera to buy the memory card at the same time, however, since there is only 8MB of existing memory.

It's a very nice and very pleasant to use. I use my everyday. But I am looking for a USB cable for mine, I lost it somewhere in this house and can't seem to find it. If they would just come up with a way so people can always find that cable, it wouldn't be so bad. Yes I am a blonde. I loose everything. It is a very nice little camera, especailly since I have small hands.