If you liked your Kodak Brownie....
Written: Jan 05 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: simplicity
Cons: poor image quality, flash that thinks it's "intelligent," awkward to handle.
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| flash1's Full Review: Agfa ePhoto 1280 Digital Camera |
Fortunately, I was able to borrow this camera from a friend before I made a decision about purchasing it. I didn't want this model after using it.
On the positive side, the camera is fairly simple to operate. In fact, if you are at all familiar with high end digital products, it should not take you more than 2 minutes to be ready to capture your first image. It plugs right in to the serial port on the back of your computer (make sure you have one available!) and once the plug is in, there is no need for a lot of moving your CPU around. I just left the cord attached and plugged it into to camera for download.
Also on the plus side, the screen gives you a fairly good image to work from--but don't expect your pictures to look like the image on your screen. The biggest drawback to this camera is that some little "pixie" seems to be interfering with the quality of the image between the time you press the shutter and the time the image is actually downloaded into your computer. I can think of no other explanation for the poor image quality I sometimes found.
The biggest drawback (outside of the deterioration of image quality) is the flash. You have absolutely no control over when the flash goes off. As a photographer who has worked with 35mm and large format cameras for years, I hate having some little piece of equipment act like it knows better than me whether or not additional light is needed. This camera "attitude" would be fine if it were right, but I found myself spending way too much time retouching and correcting image quality on the computer, since the camera image quality and lighting were so poor. Some images were so bad as to be uncorrectable.
I also found the camera to be ergonomically awkward, even though the lens is moveable. I just couldn't get comfortable with it.
If you remember the little Kodak Brownie with the built in flash with fondness, this camera may be for you. Otherwise I would suggest you keep looking.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
flash1
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Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 1 member
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