Reviews Written by Bob Cannard

Not quite perfect

Pros: Small, sturdy, fast, responsive, versatile

Cons: Bad factory settings, camera shake, needs accessories

It's a lovely, well-made little thing (how can anyone complain about its weight? That's just a sign of how solid and robust it is - important for a camera that's going to live in my pocket) and it's remarkably versatile. A very appealing point is that there's no waiting for the zoom lens to extend when the camera is turned on - the zoom mechanism is internal. But out of the box, it takes mediocre pictures. Lots of test pics showed that to take good quality pictures, it was necessary to change a few things: (a) switch to Program mode; (b) set the Exposure setting to "-0.3EV" so the pictures aren't washed out; (c) set the Sharpness (nothing to do with focus! "Sharpness" is an electronic con-trick that only does bad things) to "-" to make the pictures less grainy; (d) set the Speed to ISO 400 to reduce risk of camera shake - this may degrade picture quality but so far I haven't found that to be a problem; (e) when taking flash photos, adjust the flash power setting to avoid washed-out highlights. I also found it useful to change to spot exposure and focusing, though I'm still experimenting with this. Thankfully, the camera remembers all these settings between uses, including which menu was last used. The supplied 32MB card wasn't anything like big enough; an upgrade to a 256MB card gave 177 photos at 5Mpixel resolution and Standard quality. The docking station is really clunky and inconvient when on the move; buying a PCMCIA adapter made it possible to plug the memory card straight into the computer without having to carry around any accessories. The lack of a tripod bush is annoying in low light (which the camera is otherwise well equipped to handle), but it might be possible to build something that plugs into the multi-purpose jack on the bottom... Ultimately, if you want a nifty, versatile, fast-starting, responsive little camera that'll go everywhere with you, and you don't mind experimenting and making a few initial adjustments, this thing is pretty good. But if you need something that's going to be perfect out of the box, this isn't your camera. ...