5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
Cheap and it works
Date of Review: Jan 17, 2005
The Bottom Line: It works well if you spend the time nessary to learn how to use it.
I've had the camera for a few days now and so far so good. If this camera cost the same as other 5-mega pixel cameras I would likely pass it up. However I purchased the camera for $119 us. For this price I would have been satisfied if it worked at all upon receiving it. After many of the negative reviews I have read regarding this camera after ordering it, I had very low expectations that It would even be worth the measly $119 I paid for it. Fortunately it did work when I did receive it, and it does take good 5 mega-pixel images. I used the camera in full automatic settings for exposure and ISO and focus distance. The images I captured were excellent for the most part. I took several out door images, which where taken in a bright, snowy, midday environment. These out door images came out excellent, they were crisp and sharp and showed plenty of detail, and they did not over expose. The indoor pictures were good also. However my white cat always came out over exposed (in contrast to the dark background) when I used auto expose and flash. I have had several bad pictures also however and many other have complained about. Some Images were blurred, out of focus, and either under or over exposed. However once I took the time to read the manual and actually learned how to uses the camera, my images now rarely come out bad. While I am happy with the quality of the pictures there are some negatives regarding this camera. The auto focus is on the slow side, especially in bad lighting conditions. This makes it hard to get quick point and shoot images. Also the camera controls are a little cumbersome as a whole and take some getting used to. Also the USB link is a little slow when loading pictures from the camera to your pc (this is easily fixed with use of a faster CF card and card reader.) Like I said to start with, if the camera cost $400 and $500 I would look elsewhere for a camera with out some of the short coming this one has. However it does not cost that much, and for the price I paid, it is a truly excellent buy.
