Concord Camera 3346z Digital Camera
- Digital Zoom: 4x
- Camera Type: Standard Point and Shoot
- Weight: 0.35 lb.
- LCD Screen Size: 1.5 in.
- Resolution: 3.1 Megapixel
- Optical Zoom: 3x
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Nice features; poor quality
Pros
Inexpensive; good interface and controls; Mac and PC compatible; output to TV.
Cons
Imaging quality was very poor in my first camera because lens defective. Optical viewfinder distorted.
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
IF you can get one with a good lens it's acceptable, as long as you know its limitations.
I own a small inexpensive Concord camera and had been impressed with its value for the price. So I bought this model at CompUSA with a sweet rebate deal.
Unfortunately, even at the price (less than $100) it isn't a good deal. It's easy to use, has a connection to NTSC/PAL so that you can use it as a vid camera or view pics right on the screen, and all the controls are easily accessible. I particularly like the ease of shooting AVIs; some cams make you dive through menus to get this feature. The LCD is middling in low light, a common problem with cheap cameras. Battery life isn't too hot, but again, this is a cheap camera. You can turn off the LCD, which helps. It has a decent autofocus system, and a 3x optical zoom. Both work OK, and there are controls for using a spot or averaging system for focus etc.
The killer problem, however, is that the camera I got evidently has a flaw in the lens or imaging system so that all my pics have a distorted area on them. This makes the camera virtually useless; I'm going to have to return it to Concord.
Another problem is that the optical viewfinder (which is essential to have) doesn't line up with the lens/imaging system. So if you line up a horizontal shot with a sharp horizon (like a body of water) in the optical viewfinder your resulting picture is out of whack, dipping several degrees. I'm not talking parallax; this is distortion in the viewfinder.
UPDATE 1-11-05: I returned the camera about two weeks ago. Today I received a completely new one, complete with batteries and other accessories, no questions asked. So give Concord a big thumbs up for customer service. So far this one doesn't seem to have the defective imaging problems.
Unfortunately, even at the price (less than $100) it isn't a good deal. It's easy to use, has a connection to NTSC/PAL so that you can use it as a vid camera or view pics right on the screen, and all the controls are easily accessible. I particularly like the ease of shooting AVIs; some cams make you dive through menus to get this feature. The LCD is middling in low light, a common problem with cheap cameras. Battery life isn't too hot, but again, this is a cheap camera. You can turn off the LCD, which helps. It has a decent autofocus system, and a 3x optical zoom. Both work OK, and there are controls for using a spot or averaging system for focus etc.
The killer problem, however, is that the camera I got evidently has a flaw in the lens or imaging system so that all my pics have a distorted area on them. This makes the camera virtually useless; I'm going to have to return it to Concord.
Another problem is that the optical viewfinder (which is essential to have) doesn't line up with the lens/imaging system. So if you line up a horizontal shot with a sharp horizon (like a body of water) in the optical viewfinder your resulting picture is out of whack, dipping several degrees. I'm not talking parallax; this is distortion in the viewfinder.
UPDATE 1-11-05: I returned the camera about two weeks ago. Today I received a completely new one, complete with batteries and other accessories, no questions asked. So give Concord a big thumbs up for customer service. So far this one doesn't seem to have the defective imaging problems.
