Review 1 of 17
Price Paid:
$900.00
from Online Summary: This is the first camera I had that took decent pictures, and got me interested in photography as more than a casual hobby. It was a bit of an oddity, seemingly foreshadowing the SLR look in a time when digital cameras were still experimenting with shaped like the Nikon Coolpix 950.
In keeping with the SLR theme it had a 3X (fixed) zoom lens, which is typical of most "kit" lenses. Many people think this camera was a genuine SLR, but in truth it used a prism as a beam splitter, sending some light to the finder and some to the sensor. As a result it did have the best feature of an SLR, a genuine through the lens optical viewfinder, which was a rarity back then.
This camera was also sold as the Pentax EL-2000. Strengths: General SLR fit and feel.
Can take good pictures in reasonable settings.
LCD flips up for reviewing pictures.
Optical viewfinder!
Could take a NIMH battery or 4AA batteries in an adapter.
For the time if offered good performance, today it's slow. I liked this better than the HP 945 I had later, even though the 945 had arguably better qualities.
Compact flash storage--at least they still make them.
As I remember it had an operating system that allowed custom scripts which people could download off a website, but I never heard anything else about it.
Can be tough, mine survived dunking in a canoe a week after I got it, and still lasted 4 years before the LCD went bad. Weaknesses: The zoom is still motorized, but you twist the lens body to make it go, and this is tolerably better than push buttons.
2.24 megapixel, that is low today.
Pictures tend to be on the soft side.
Maximum ISO of 400, if you think old-school film you can live with it.
Fixed lens, would have been much more appealing with a mount for Nikon or Canon lenses.
Every once in a while I get nostalgic and think of getting one for fiddling around with, but these are rare as a hen's tooth today. They've literally disappeared and I've seen maybe 3 come up on Ebay in 4 years, all way overpriced. Similar Products Used: HP 945 Customer Service: Didn't use
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