Now I am by no means an expert on Digital Cameras my friends. In fact it took quite a bit of prodding on my wife's part for me to become a part of the so-called "digital age" of photography. I had used an old style for camera for years, and my wife would complain about how long it took to develop, how you can't preview the pics, etc. With all this nagging, I went out and purchased this model, which was reasonably priced, and seemed to me to be a bargain. Was it? Let's take a look.
The camera itself has some nice features to it. When I took it out and started to read about it, myself being a novice to these cameras, I thought I had a super deal. The camera is compact and lightweight, not weighing more than 5 oz. It had 8-mega-pixel resolution, which I thought was more than enough for my needs. It had 4x digital zoom, as well as 14 different types of shooting programs. Sunset, Anti-Shake, and Portrait were but a few of these. It came with 20 MB integrated memory for picture storage, though I purchased a memory card that allowed me to store far more than this. My goodness, it even had a great zoom lens and a self-timer. Wow, I thought to myself I had hit the jackpot. Now the time had come to take it out to the ballgame and give it a whirl.
I took it to an Orioles game, and arrived early so I could get some good shots. I took pictures of players, the big scoreboard, and various other things at Camden Yards. I took a couple of action shots and was amazed at the image stabilization feature the camera had. I actually had shots that were not blurry at all, even for me. I snapped about 15 pics in the span of 1/2 an hour. The opening pitch was coming. I focused my camera and.
The camera froze. I looked in disbelief trying to figure out what had happened. Shortly there after it became apparent that the batteries (two AA) had run out. I stroked it up to bad luck, and the fact that maybe the batteries shipped with the camera were old.
I replaced the batteries with brand new ones, and next took the camera on a camping trip. I took many nice shots and was having the time of my life again. Suddenly I heard my son yell. He had caught his first fish! I quickly grabbed the camera, aimed and.....nothing. The camera batteries had run out again.
This is when I started to research the camera. It turns out that this camera has what I thought was a great feature with this beautiful LCD screen on the back that lets you see what your looking at or shooting in crisp color. Ah, but what they do not tell you is that it sucks the life out of the batteries in about 15 pictures. This is because you cannot have the camera on and turn off the review screen. Bummer.
There was one other feature that bugged me too. I would experiment with settings on the camera so that I would get it set to just the way I liked it. You know, right flash mode, right shooting program, and the works. I would use it, take some nice photos, then turn the camera off, knowing to try and preserve the batteries. Well surprise, surprise every time the camera was turned off, the settings would not be saved. Egad! This was more frustration than I could take.
I purchased a rechargeable set of batteries for the camera, put it in a box, and gave it to my niece who was starting to learn photography. I figured for my money, I could find something less frustrating.
Don't get me wrong, the camera is very nice and takes a quality picture. To someone like me though, I need a camera I can rely on to remember my settings when I program it and be ready to shoot when I need it. I just felt like this was not the one for me.
Evaluate this review
How helpful would this review be to someone making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Add to list 
Recommend it 
Receive review alert 
Write a review 
Publish video review 
Make a comment 
Print it 
