5 comments about Samsung Digimax i5 5MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Silver).

1. This is a wonderful little camera, the first one I own that it's easy to operate. I congratulate myself for this purchase!



2. I am very happy with my camera. Is so beautiful and tiny. Also takes very nice pictures even though is so tiny.



3. I had it repaired within 1st month bought it. The image was distorted, and there are many dark horizontal lines through. The service center was prompted though, they told me something wrong with the lens barrel, and had it fixed on the same day. But then 1 month after the repair, similar problem came back. There are many dark horizontal lines, and image is over-exposed. I'm gonna send in for another repair soon. Although the features are good, I don't think the quality is good, especially there are a lot of image noise when taking pictures in the dark. Also, it's quite noisy when you zoom in and out. The image is quite blur at night.



4. I bought this camera in January 2006. Used it for about 2 weeks and the shutter started sticking, opening occasionally, then not at all. Exchanged it hoping it was just that camera. Now I'm taking the second camera back 4 months later, it started in with shutter problems, not opening again. I thought maybe it was related to battery life...so today I went on an event, the camera was on the charger all night, battery shows full, took one photo and when I turn the camera off, it doesn't close or sticks half closed. Now I'm back to the store where I purchased it, don't know if I can get another brand camera or if I'll be on #3. I love the camera other than that aspect of it. Don't know if I'd recommend it to anyone else, I am VERY disappointed with it.



5. I did not see any info for i5 camera and would never know about its existence - do USA magazines censor this camera? I needed a camera to take quick shots of small objects at work. After extensive search, I found i5 sold only in 2 places. Strange? This is free market? Anyway, as i5 is mentioned and praised in US "news" like much worse cameras are mentioned and praised, I feared i5 might be something bad, not worth attention, "lemon" product. Well, I purchased i5 as badly needed for work. Once I started doing pictures, I realized it is perfect camera for me and my co-workers and friends. I regularly share i5 with people around me. i5 takes very good pictures and has amazing macro capability - you can take pictures from as close as 1cm. I took a picturte of menu in restaurant and was shocked to see such fine detail like dots on menu that make specific colors. YES, I can see each dot individually, its shape and color - on printed menu in restaurant! i5 takes pictures without showing big barrel lens that tells everybody you are making zoom in. This camera is ALWAYS very thin. I use pro camera otherwise, that is very heavy and big - and takes near perfect pictures. Still, I love i5 and am very happy with it and take it almost everywhere I go. Peter

2 comments about Sony Cybershot DSCS40 4MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom & DPP-FP30 Printer (Includes Carrying Case & Print Pack).

1. Great Camera, Check The Batteries
   
   I love this little camera-- especially the video capability (640x480, mpeg1, 30fps)-- great pics and high quality video files in a really small package.
   
   Problem: I tried a couple of these and the lens motors stopped working. Finally, after returning twice and purchasing a different model (S60-- same problem), I traced the problem to the batteries. The included Sony batteries seem to come without much power left. In trouble-shooting, I had used the new generic non-alkaline batteries that I had on hand. As this didn't work, I thought the cameras were defective. Finally in the third camera, after the same problem appeared, I bought brand-name alkaline batteries. The camera started working again like a champ.
   
   Conclusion: If the lens stops working, but the camera will still turn on in playback mode, it's probably not defective-- this seems to be the behavior when the batteries are too weak to power the lens. Replace the included Sony's with branded alkaline or high-quality rechargeables.
   
   Sorry Amazon, the couple of cameras I returned are probably perfectly fine. Thanks for the great service in replacing and accepting returns.



2. I bought this camera about 1 1/2 years ago, and I'm having to send it to the shop for the second time with the same problem. It freezes, and replacing the battery doesn't unfreeze it, so off to repair it goes. The first time, the shop suggested that it was because I didn't use Sony nickel-hydride rechargeable batteries. Happened the second time using those batteries, so it's is apparently a bigger problem than that. My old Kodak and my friends' other brands of digital camera haven't been in the shop once. I would not buy this product again.

No comments about Olympus Stylus 1030SW (226350) 10.1MP Green Digital Camera 1GB xD Memory Card Stylus 1030 BigVALUEInc Accessory Saver Bundle.

5 comments about Panasonic DMC-FX07R 7.2MP Digital Camera with 3.6x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Red).

1. I am very happy with this camera, it's way better than any of my friends cameras (besides my brother who has a $1000 dig slr!)...I used this camera to take photos for album art for a band and it looks very professional. I got it because it takes such great close ups. Sometimes I'm annoyed at the "glowing eyes" my dog gets when taking a picture of her...but otherwise it's great.



2. I know that almost every critical review on this camera talks about the noise. I don't have a FX07 myself, but my boss has one that I used for office work after my Canon A85's CCD crapped out after 3 years of rigorous service.
   
   There is normal noise and then there is FX07 noise. Normal noise (at low ISO anyway) is manageable - throw image into Noise Ninja noise reduction program, Auto-Profile, set Chrominance filtering to Max, fiddle around with Luminance filtering, process, save. Rinse and repeat.
   
   At low ISOs, the FX07's noise is coarse and non-uniform. Which blows the Auto-Profiling - the Luma and Chroma noise level readings come out low - the noise is too coarse to be recognized. Even with maximum filtering in Chroma and Luma, you see lots of huge individual noise specks. So you run up the "Smoothness" to squelch them (like the program recommends) and lose half the detail in an photo. That's at ISO 100.
   
   At higher ISOs, say oh 200 or 400, the noise is even coarser and more uniform. Luma and Chroma estimates remains low (for the ISOs), but the noise covers up the image in huge coarse grains. Any attempt to recover detail from said grains is futile. The image details don't just turn "plasticy", they are obliterated.
   
   Results at ISO800 or 1250 are unusable, but since that's true of even a Powershot G9 I guess I shouldn't complain about that - it's the poor low-ISO results that are the killer.
   
   After some painful lessons, I came to the conclusion that this is at best a 5MP camera (even at low ISO), not a 7MP. By admitting this fact and setting your camera to 5MP, the noise grains become small enough that Noise Ninja actually recognizes them as noise (the measured noise levels actually rise) and you can squelch them without destroying the image. If the image was taken in 7MP, the only real chance for usability is to scale it to 50% - that is turning it into a ~1.8MP image before putting it into Noise Ninja (Noise Ninja NR is theoretically done before downsizing but theory obviously did not factor in the Lumix FX07).
   
   On the positive, it is a OK 2-5MP camera. It is small, colors are good, optical stabilizer works - just read the 4/5 star reviews. But do you want to pay the listed price for a 5MP (at best) camera? As for me, after 4 months of the above torture I went to buy a Canon G9 camera for use at work and home.



3. Panasonic DMC-FX07R 7.2MP Digital Camera with 3.6x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Red)
   I have own this fabulous little camera for over a year now and I just love how well all of my pictures have turned out. I read in some other reviews how it doesn't seem to do well when it comes to places with limited light. I beg to differ...in Feb. 2008, I went to the rodeo to enjoy the show and and concert. For those of you who have gone before to a concert at the rodeo, you know just how much light is displayed and usually if you try to pictures and/ or record it, the quality is very poor. However, with this little camera, not only were my pictures clear and well-lit, the two video clips I did at the concert came out awesome! I just couldn't believe how clear the bnd looked from where I was sitting and later when I uploaded it to my computer, you could clearly hear all the words of the song being sung. This had been my first time using this option and I just wish I had started using it sooner.
   
   So for those of you who are interested in purchasing this camera, you will not regret it. For being such a tiny camera, the outcomes of pictures and video will leave you pleased.



4. I must say this camera has been a huge disappointment. The noise is terrible as has already been mentioned. Ease of use is very simple though. I'm going to have to save this for just video. Does a decent job of that. I bought it because the wide angle is a very nice a feature & when I was looking at point & shoots a year a so ago there wasn't a whole lot out there. That has changed a bit.
   
   If picture quality doesn't matter to you, than go ahead & buy this camera.



5. When I got this I took a series of pictures inside with flash/no flash and compared to my old sony cybershot P150.
   
   When I looked at images on camera screens I was suprised. The sony's looked better when I zoomed it in. Sharper, less noise.
   
   However when I uploaded them to PC I found sony's may have less noise and were slightly better with flash. But without flash the Fx07 was the best. All shots in focus and sony's were blurry. Image stabilisation is great for when you can't use a flash inside.
   
   Also, after experimenting with a few settings (switch slow shutter speed to 1/4 or 1/2 (not 1/8) and images were no longer dark in low light. Better still is intelligent ISO which does all this for you. Most of the time it will pick something sensible that results in a reasonably quick shutter speed to prevent shake and acceptable ISO so not too much noise. Hint avoid ISO 800/1250 if possible. Photo's are very noisy at these settings. 400 is OK, 200 better, 100 brilliant but only really can be used outside.
   
   Seems good so far, gonna have to take it somewhere nice and try it outside.

No comments about GE-A835 8MP Digital Camera with 3X Optical Zoom (Silver).

No comments about Casio EXZ600 6MP Exilim Digital Camera.

5 comments about Konica Minolta Dimage A200 8MP Digital Camera with Anti-Shake 7x Optical Zoom.

1. Pros
   Wide Angle Lens is best in class. Natural colors. Manual zoom. Threaded lens barrel.
   
   Cons
   A bit slow, but do often you need fast shot to shot speeds?
   
   The Bottom Line
   Consider this trade off for a wider than usual wide angle, but less than usual zoom. You'll get more use out the wide end of the lens.
   
   Full Review
   KonicaMinolta was bought by Sony, who discontinued making Minoltas, but says they will honor the warranties. This means this camera is falling quickly in price. You can get it for almost half its original price.
   
   It has been knocked by reviewers for two reasons...poor autofocus and noise problems. The noise doesn't seem to be an issue, unless you need ISO 400 . Unless its almost dark, or the subject is moving quickly in low light, the anti-shake system means you can take almost any shot with ISO200 or even lower. You do get some noise with ISO400, but its still good for 4x6 prints. ISO800 is really noisy, but lets you photograph in near darkness without a flash, and the pictures look brightly lit. In short, I don't find the noise to be any more of problem than other digicams, and if you compare professional reviews, neither do most reviewers.
   
   As for the focus issue, the camera's default mode is the wide area focus. For some reason, the camera will often focus on the closest object in the scene, which may not be what you want. This is especially common indoors. I don't know what the advantage of this wide area focus is, but it certainly causes problems with low light focusing. You need to get into the camera's menu and change it to Spot Auto Focus mode. This mode will let you select one of eleven spots for it to focus on. Select the spot in the middle. The camera will now behave like any other autofocus camera, and will not have any focus problems.
   
   Once the focus problem is solved, there is plenty to make this camera my favorite. The best feature is the 28mm equivalent wide end of the 7x zoom. Most digicams have a 35mm wide end. The difference is noticable in landscape shots, and in indoor shots. You will really appreciate this wide lens. Sure, other zoom cameras have 10x/12x zooms, but much of your photography will be done with the wide end of the zoom. My old camera had a 10x zoom, and I found I hardly ever used the high end, but often wished for a wider wide angle. With 8 MPs, you can zoom and crop on the PC if you need better telephoto.
   
   The anti-shake feature really works. This camera replaced an Olympus C2100UZ with image stablization, which for its time was top of the line in big zoom digicams. I can say I'll never buy a camera without an image stablizer/anti-shake feature. It lets you take handheld pics in low light with low ISO. It also lets you take pics from a moving platform, like a car or boat. Its not perfect, but it works most of the time.
   
   The custom white balance works just a bit better than the camera's auto white balance does, and you can save two custom settings and easily switch between them. This is good if you are moving around between different types of lighting. Speaking of saving settings, you can save all your resolution/white balance/exposure/color settings into one of 5 memory spaces. This lets you set the camera up for five different situations, which are quickly accessed. This is much easier than changing many settings settings as you move indoors/outdoors and through different lighting situations.
   
   The controls are arranged nicely, and there's even a nice rubber thumb pad that helps you grip the camera. The manual zoom ring works better than an electric zoom lever found on most cameras. The manual focus ring is useless, because the monitors are not high enough resolution to judge focus. Luckily, if you make the above change in the autofucus, you won't need the manual focus, except in extremely low light. The manual focus can then be used to set the focus for the approximate distant to the subject.
   
   The A200 has a threaded lens barrel, which lets you leave a UV or polarized filter on it, without the cumbersome adapter tubes that most cameras use. The lens cap is high quality, and won't fall off, unlike many cameras. It also has a flash hot shoe.
   
   The picture quality is very good, especially after you learn to use the menu settings for exposure and white balance. Color is natural, instead of overblown. Canon is the biggest offender at overblown colors. Notice how much red is in a Canon photo. The A200 pictures will have accurate color, especially if you use the right white balance setting. Of course, if you like the overblown color look, there's a menu setting to turn it on. The camera's auto white balance is ok in a pinch, but if you have time, the colors look a little better with the custom white balance. If you like to play with Photoshop, the A200 can shoot in Raw, which lets you adjust white balance and other settings on your PC.
   
   There simply isn't a better combination of resolution, lens, automatic settings and manual controls out there, unless you go to a digital SLR. An SLR with enough lens to duplicate the A200's would cost much more than the A200. For most folks, the A200 will be more than enough camera, yet it's still simple enough for a novice to use. A novice could start taking pics right away with this thing, and then develop his craft by experimentation with all the manual settings available.



2. To start I with I have to say that I couldn't agree more with the Jan 3rd 2007 review. I purchased this camera a year ago now (Wow, has the price dropped!).I had thought about a DSLR at the time. However, I still do mostly shoot film, especially black & white prints and color slides. I decided that a DSLR was going to be way more money then I wanted to spend on a camera that I wasn't going to use constantly. I did some research and came upon the A200. Now bearing in mind that the A200 is my first digital camera, I do have to say that I was, and still am very happy with it. The auto focus is dreadfully slow on the default setting in low light situations. However, I took the advice of the Jan 3rd 2007 review, and have eliminated that problem. The pics are noisy ISO 400, however I think I've used that setting 2 times in the year that I've owned it, not a problem for me. One more pro and one more con. First, this camera has a EVF or electrical view finder. This is opposed to a optical view finder that DSLRS have, or better yet, like all of the film cameras have / had. This can make composing pictures with movement a bit difficult. You're not viewing the scene in real time, so there is a bit of a lag in time between any movement in the scene and what you see through the view finder. Not anyhting that would make me not use the camera, just a little tricky in certain situations. Another pro about this camera is the fact that is has a ISO setting of 50. Most camers do not include a ISO this "slow," the slowest end ISO's on most cameras range somewhere bewtween ISO 100 and ISO 150. This isn't a feature I use constantly, however I do use it, and I like knowing that the option is there when I do want to use it. I have taken some really nice pics with this camera, now, they don't (and digital pics never will) compare to a beautiful color slide or contrasty B&W print. Still, this camera delivers,I have had some excellent prints result from using it. You really just have to read the owner manual and learn how to fine tune it. To this day (like the auto focus fix as an example) I am still learning how to improve on using it. It might not techinically be considered a "Professional camera," but you can definitely get "Professional" quality results from it.



3. This is a great camera for the money.. a well designed camera with a superior owners manual.



4. An excellent replacement for an ex-advanced amateur who wanted to depart from add-on lenses and still retain some of the attachable features.



5. I had one of these cameras (3 years old) and dropped it on vacation this spring and destroyed it. After reviewing the other available cameras decided to just get the same one again. I would have had to more than double my cost plus get a different memory card to have a better piece of equipment.
   
   Thanks

No comments about Wireless Color Sony Alarm Clock Hidden Camera.

No comments about Nikon D70s Digital SLR Camera Body Only (Lens not included).

5 comments about Samsung Digimax S700 Digital Camera with 7.2 MP 3X Zoom.

1. [im not a kid i just didnt wanna go through all the stuff to review]
   ok well i love my camera it takes exalent picture great quality and durable.. it does have some cons..
   
   cons:
   
   1.eats batteries like woah..might wanna try reachareable ones
   2.sometime after using it for a while (on) when you go to take a picture it will shut and freeze on you..i think it is because the batteries are starting to get low and when i change the batteries it works fine..
   
   pros:
   
   1.picture quality is great(as long as you dont move much)[depending on setting]
   2.cool setting to have fun with
   3.can be in black and white,red,green,blue,sepia,and negative.
   4.durable.. i dropped it a cople time and nothing happened.
   5>GREAT VIDEO QUALITY..I WAS AMAZED AT HOW GREAT THE VIDEO IS.
   6. audio playback
   7. easy to use...
   
   so i give this camera 2 thumbs up!!



2. What a disappointment.
   
   First, I'll note that the 8 megapixel version of this camera is selling for $129 on amazon as I write this.. and I wouldn't buy that one either, though it looks like the same camera with an upgraded chip... then again, it could be worse since their Megapixel ratings are misleading at best.
   
   I felt samsung was probably a decent brand based on some of their other kinds of products, but no. I've had a lot of experience with photography over the years, am no amateur, but was looking for a competent, inexpensive snapshot camera which used SD cards and AA batteries, and in a pinch would take video at a decent resolution.
   
   This ain't it, but I'm stuck with it.
   
   The worst thing is that even though rated at 7.2 megapixels, its images are MUCH worse than the 3.2mp olympus I had previously. Even at the highest quality image settings you can see the grainy color pixelation artifacts even on the 2.4" screen of the camera!
   
   The audio drops out unpredictably during the shooting of video, and the video itself is choppy, poor quality, and eats memory since it's MPEG2. Useless, and looks much worse than MPEG4 somehow.
   
   And it wouldn't format the SD card I initially bought. A call to Samsung tech support gave me the news that they only guarantee it to work AT ALL with sandisk brand memory cards, so I had to eat the price of the card I had and order an expensive sandisk card.
   
   The screen is viewable, and based on that I'd say the camera is worth about $30, but to a kid, not to anyone who wants to seriously save their pictures.
   
   This was obviously designed from the ground up as a camera meant to sell for a tiny fraction of its fictitious "retail price", and I assume that's the case with the 800 model too. Beware.



3. Pros:
   
   The images from this camera are great.
   It is small and lightweight and easily fits in a pocket.
   Many editing features
   Full movie mode with audio
   Well priced
   Many custom scene modes
   
   
   Cons:
   Definitely use nimh batteries with this - they will last a long time if you do - do not use alkaline with them.
   No image stabilization but for this price it is still a great deal.



4. I use Duracell's Rechargeable 2650 mAh batteries with this camera and it works GREAT! It lasts about 500 pictures or so. I recommend the Powerex MH-C204W Worldwide 1-hr Conditioning Travel Charger for high mAh batteries b/c you can condition and rejuvenate the batteries after a number of charges. It also subjects aged batteries to a conditioning algorithm that first fully drains the batteries and then recharges them so that it'll perform as if new.
   
   Anyhow, this camera is wonderful: 7.2 mp is plenty enough for me - I don't take pictures worth selling so the resolution is perfect for everyday memories. I love the macro feature for close-up photos and the auto focus feature (lightly tapping the snap button once before pressing it again to take the photo) is really helpful. I also use this for my real estate agent's listing pictures and it does very well indoors or a cloudy day. I think Samsung could do better with the video capturing however. The sound was choppy and it skipped a bit. But oh well, I think a camcorder should be its separate entity anyway. It's fairly light - the batteries make up most of it's weight. Transfering photos onto my computer is simple, fast and easy. I have a perfect pre-cut screen protector on it so no worries there. It didn't come with a case but I got a cheap, perfect-fit Case Logic case at Target for $3.99 w/a hidden slot for extra batteries and it fits in my coat pocket.



5. This is a very solid camera for the price. I have taken some pretty excellent pictures, including some that I have blown up to 16 X 20. This camera gives more manual freedom than nearly any other in its class, it takes good pictures in the auto mode as well.
   
   For the money, this is an excellent camera.