Great little camera for the digital beginner, I beleave you can now buy this cam for as little as £85 (Uk Sterling). I find you can get a pretty good quality picture, when outside for a 800k cam. Flash can cause problems in an indoor enviroment, but this can be overcome by setting up some natural light yourself (lamp).
Strengths:
Small, light, cheap. Comes with carry case. Removeable memory. Light on Batteries.
Weaknesses:
Only weakeness I have found with the camera is the flash can be overpowering, if takin at close range. (Within a 1500mm)
A small, ligthweigth camera that fits in your pocket and is easy to use. Ideal for vacations especially if you upgrade the memorycard to 16 MB. Holds about 100 pics whitch should be more than enough for a normal vacation. This camera is at its best outdors because the flash is too strong indors on close range. A ok , cheap, point-and-shoot camera for family use.
The power connector is NOT 2.1mm as I indicated - on the set of connectors (a surplus AC adapter lead set) it was second from smallest - that may be 1.4 or 1.7 mm.
The 2x D size alkaline pocket pack works a treat - a good thing too, as the wretched thing WIPED THE MEMORY when the battery went low during transfer. In fact, the capacity markers seemed full, but there were 0 pictures - had to ERASE ALL to get sanity back.
For AA size Alkalines, choose "high drain" types (Ultra/Extra etc.) as standard Alkalines are not as good as you'd expect in this application.
Never dismiss a dark picture as unusable - it's amazing how much you can bring out of apparent total shadow, using any decent photo-edit software, even the one that comes with it!
This site may be worth a look for some extra software - the LE/SE versions are FREE
http://www.arcsoft.com/downloadsfree.html
As this is stated to be the same as the Minton S-Cam F1
The 2.2 TWAIN driver for that, WITH THUMBNAILs may be useful - I have NOT tried it yet.
http://www.minton.com.tw/download/html/download2.htm
Can't find the thumbnail reference on the D/L page - I'm sure it was there!
For MACRO, I find a halogen desk lamp gives good results, without the colour temperature apparently auto-balanced back to normal. The distance measurement using the strap is a useful feature, but even with the alternate markings in the viewfinder, sighting accuracy is poor.
The 51" minimum focus is also a frequent annoyance, for subjects too large for macro and too small for normal use without an impractical level of cropping and magnification.
The flash has also been commented on elsewhere - at minimum distance, it WILL be overpowering, with a bias to overexposure - optimum range is about 50-100% longer than the 51" minimum focus range.
The first picture I took, indoor with flash, was pretty good.
I'm now at 20 shots on one set of batteries, and still working - some with flash.
The slow setup is annoying - with the LED blinking for quite some time before it shows ready.
Incredibly difficult to line up squarely - taking a photo of a framed picture usually has a tilt, the fact I wear glasses probably does not help my sighting accuracy through the viewfinder.
Surprisingly, it DOES have a standard tripod mount - unexpected on a lightweight point and shoot camera.
The macro facility is useful, but the fixed focus limits the usefulness to objects of a particular size.
The tendency to over-compress makes any further enlargement unrewarding - pictures are ok at 1:1, but really do not stand even 2:1 enlargement, although the large 1024x768 image (for this class of camera) does allow a useful degree of cropping)
In macro mode, lighting must be provided - the flash is not useful (white-out).
In non-digital terms, this camera is equivalent to a 110 or disc camera - and taken as such, it performs well.
At £85 UK at a show, it was certainly good value.
I am also building a 2xD cell "pocket pack" to extend battery life - External power is 3v, co-axial DC (barrel) power connector - possibly 2.1mm size, with centre positive. Current consumption is 1.12 Amps (in one figure) - 3v, 1.2A/1.5A PSU required.
I tried to run it on NICAD batteries - NOT successful, but I cannot be certain of their quality, or how long they were stored after charging. it IS reported to run on NiMH cells, or RAM (Recharchable Alkaline Manganese) cells, but the cycle life of RAM cells is rather low.
Strengths:
Light weight
Serial connection useful for non-USB systems.
Tripod mount.
Weaknesses:
Poor manual
Serial connection limits download speed - especially as you have to download ALL.
Similar Products Used:
I also have a scanner, and for more advanced use, I shall have to scan photos from a good quality 35mm SLR.
Customer Service:
A suitable after-market mains adapter was suggested by the helpline.
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