dlstewart's Full Review: Concord Camera Eye-Q 4060AF Digital Camera
I just returned from vacation in Vermont and enjoyed a fantastic time on Lake Champlain. Beautiful country! Since this was a family reunion, I had the opportunity to go on photographic explorations with my family, including my 11-year-old niece who has a new Concord Eye-Q 4060-AF 4.0 Megapixel Digital Camera.
Description
This Concord Eye-Q camera is small, lightweight and easily fits in a child’s hand. It measures 4" wide x 2 1/2" high x 1 1/2" deep. The camera is an attractive silver color and comes with a strap attached to the side. The strap has a large 7" opening, too, so it easily can wrap around the hand or wrist.
Top of Camera
On/Off switch and Shutter Button
Front of Camera
Flash, viewfinder, flash sensor, red-eye reduction, LED self-timer and macro mode switch
Back of Camera
Flash-ready LED, viewfinder, auto-focus LED, LCD window, mode switch, reset button, zoom and flash buttons, menu button, OK button
Side of Camera
Mini-USB port, TV out port
Bottom of Camera
Tripod socket, battery and memory card compartment
The battery compartment on the bottom of the camera holds 2 AA batteries and the optional SD (Secure Digital) card. The SD card is wafer thin and measures 1" wide x 1 1/2" high.
Using the Camera
My niece intuitively knew how to use the camera. She immediately started snapping photos, and without being told how to do it (never having read the manual), she started taking movie clips. My brother keeps reminding her to make sure she is taking photos in the Fine mode so that when she prints them they will print quality photographs.
When my niece and I were sitting at the kitchen table, I asked her questions about the camera. She toggled through the menus as we spoke, showing me all the options available and discovering a few things she didn’t know as she experimented with the settings. Generously, she even handed me the camera so that I could experience its ease of use for myself.
My niece likes the small pouch that comes with the camera. What I don’t like about the fabric case is that it offers little protection for the camera. It’s not padded and is designed as a close fit with hardly any extra room.
By the time we finished our discussion, my niece was already talking about printing her photos and e-mailing them to me. She is very enthusiastic about this camera!
Features
I won’t list all the features of this camera as it would take too much room, and you would be reading for a long time! However, you can view the entire specification list for this camera at Concord Camera’s website: www.concord-camera.com
* 4 megapixels, up to 2272 x 1704 resolution
* 48mm lens
* CCD sensor, 30 bit color depth output
* 16mb built-in memory
* SD card slot
* 6x digital zoom
* self-timer with 10 second delay
* auto-focus
* auto white balance
* macro mode
* singe shot / continuous shot / review
* 5 preset scene modes
* video clips, 320 x 240 without sound
* 1.5" color TFT LCD with LED backlight
* standard size tripod socket (1/4")
This camera is compatible with Windows 98 / 98SE / ME / XP / 2000 and Mac OS 9.0 and higher.
Operation
The camera has an On/Off slide switch with a symbol (circle with a vertical line) that indicates the camera “on” position.
Easy to use, the camera has a brief set of operating instructions written on it:
“Two-step shutter button:
1. Press half-way to focus until green AF light is steady.
2. Press all the way down to take picture.”
The auto-flash has 5 modes: auto, fill-in, off, red-eye reduction and night mode. The camera is simple to operate ... point and shoot.
Settings
A multitude of settings are available. It’s an inconvenience, though, that the camera does not retain memory of the picture quality setting. So every time the camera is turned off and then on again, if one wants to take photos in Fine mode (high quality), the setting has to be reset every time the camera is turned on. For some reason, the camera retains memory of the other settings except for the picture quality setting.
The camera also offers a variety of languages to choose from: English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch. Simplified Chinese and Japanese are available on request.
Pictures on the camera can be viewed singly or in thumbnail mode, with 9 photos showing at a time on the LCD screen. As you can imagine with a screen this small, the thumbnails are tiny.
Other settings include: auto-exposure, auto white balance or manually adjust white balance, preset scene modes (which include: fireworks, night landscape, party/indoor, beach/snow, sunset). There is also a date and time feature.
This camera can also take continuous pictures. By selecting the continuous picture mode, it is possible to take up to seven consecutive photos in two seconds.
Digital Zoom
For everyone in my family, a zoom feature is important on a camera. This camera has a 6x digital zoom. For best results, the manufacturer recommends standing 3.3 feet away from the subject using the infinity (distance) mode; and when using the macro mode, standing 8 inches from the subject. These suggested settings worked well when my niece took photographs.
One drawback to this camera is that the zoom is a digital zoom and not an optical zoom. For instance, an optical zoom magnifies an image using the lens so that all the pixels in a photo are used, which creates a quality photograph. A digital zoom does not use all the pixels to take a photograph, and while an image taken with a digital zoom might look good, the image is not truly a “zoom” photo. Using computer software to enlarge a photograph creates the same result as taking a photo using a digital zoom.
Video Clips
My niece was delighted to learn that her camera can take movies. However, the video clips have no sound. I still can’t believe it (why have a movie option if there is no sound?), and my niece is disappointed. If you have a yen to take silent movies, this is a great feature.
The videos can be as long as you wish them to be, depending upon how much available space is on the SD card. If using the camera’s internal memory, you are limited to the 16mb built-in memory. The focus and digital zoom cannot be changed during recording.
Movie clips are filmed using AVI format at QVGA resolution (320 x 240) with 30 frames per second. When recording a video clip, the amount of recording time is visible in the top right corner of the LCD display. The camera will stop recording when the time limit is reached.
Also, the movies do not show their true color or brightness when viewing them on the camera’s LCD screen.
LCD Screen
The LCD screen measures 1 1/8" wide x 3/4" high. This is large enough to frame pictures using the view mode and for playback. The image quality is good. Though, as with many LCD screens, one has to tip the camera at the proper angle to view the image. The pictures are not viewable from every angle.
The LCD display offers several icons that depict: resolution, camera mode, flash setting, white balance, battery level, image quality, frame counter, macro/zoom, self-timer, memory and date/time.
My nice found that when snapping photos using the view mode, the camera will take between 50-60 photos before the batteries drain. She prefers using the LCD screen to frame her shots and, therefore, quickly goes through batteries. As a comparison, when using the viewfinder (and not the LCD display) one can take about 100 photos before the batteries die.
Photo Quality & Storage Capacity
This camera takes excellent photographs. Before our vacation, my niece e-mailed me two photos taken with the camera. Fabulous! I could not believe the clarity, color and detail captured in the shots. I could actually see the droplets and water ripples in her photo of a swimming pool.
There are three types of resolution for photos: Fine, Normal and Economy. As you can imagine, the highest quality photo (Fine) will use more file space than an Economy photo. For example: at a resolution of 2272 x 1704 the Fine mode will take 20 images, Normal mode 52 images, and Economy mode 77 images. Another example: at a resolution of 1600 x 1200 the Fine mode will take 35 images, Normal mode 92 images, and Economy mode 132 images.
Downloading Photos
There are two ways to transfer photos from the camera to the computer. My niece uses the SD card to hold her snapshots. She removes the SD card from the camera by pushing in on the SD card. This ejects the SD card so that it can easily be removed. Then she inserts the SD card into a card reader (purchased separately) that is plugged into the computer via a USB cable. The card reader treats the SD card just as it would a floppy disk, allowing one to move the files from the card to the computer hard drive or another disk or CD.
The other option is to transfer the photos from the camera to the computer via a USB cable connection (directly from the camera to the computer). Those who use Windows 98 / 98SE must first install the camera drivers. Windows 2000 users must install DirectX in order to view the video clips on the computer. Once the camera is connected to the computer, Windows users can click on “My Computer” and then access the camera’s drive. Mac users would double-click on the untitled folder to access the photos. Then it is easy to move the photos from the camera to either the computer hard drive or another disk or CD.
The manufacturer stresses not to remove the SD card when the camera is connected to the computer.
What the Camera Comes With
* fabric camera pouch
* Mini-USB cable for computer hook-up
* AV cable that connects to TV
* 2 AA alkaline batteries
* Software CD
* 2 User Manuals
The soft fabric camera case is black and close fitting. The camera fits inside the case with no room to spare. A small net pocket inside the case can either hold two extra batteries or SD cards.
A CD is included and contains software for Windows system computers. Included on the CD is: ArcSoft PhotoImpression 2000, camera drivers, Microsoft DirectX 9.0 and Adobe Acrobat 5.1.
Batteries
The camera comes with two AA alkaline batteries that are not rechargeable. However, the camera does take rechargeable NiMH batteries. Since the camera only takes two batteries, it is lightweight. However, by only using two batteries, this limits the longevity of battery life, which means the batteries often need replacing. During vacation, my niece was going through one set of batteries a day.
The batteries load into the bottom of the camera. A panel slides to one side and then opens on a hinge. The SD card slot is also located in this compartment.
Manuals
Two manuals come with the camera: 1) Quick Start Guide, and 2) User’s Guide.
The Quick Start Guide is 42 pages and is written in English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian and Netherlands (Netherlands is the manufacturer’s word – not mine). This guide gives a capsule overview of the camera features with illustrations. Each language offers 7 pages of instruction.
The User’s Guide is 228 pages and is written in English, French, Dutch and Spanish. Each language offers 57 pages of instruction. This manual goes into greater detail regarding the camera features.
Both manuals are printed on quality paper. The only drawback is that the manuals are much too large to fit in the tiny camera case.
Purchasing
My sister-in-law obtained a coupon through work that gave her a discount on this camera if purchased at OfficeMax. The camera normally sells for $199.98. OfficeMax offered an $80 instant discount plus a mail-in rebate for $10. In addition with my sister-in-law’s work discount, she saved another $30. After all the rebates and discounts, the camera only cost $80.00.
SD cards can be purchased separately. Price varies depending upon the storage size of the card as well as the brand name. For example OfficeMax sells Lexar SD cards: 32mb for $29.98 and 128mb for $49.98.
Summary
My niece loves her little Concord Eye-Q 4060-AF 4.0 Megapixel Digital Camera. She is disappointed that the movie clips do not have sound, and the batteries run out quickly since she prefers using the LCD screen to view and frame her shots before taking a photo. My brother (a man who loves his electronic and computer gadgets) is not pleased with the digital zoom, as an optical zoom offers higher quality images. However, he agrees that this camera is fine for an 11-year-old or someone who wants a simple point-and-shoot camera. My sister-in-law bought this camera for a terrific price ... and for only $80, my niece has a fun digital camera that she loves.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
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