Konica Revio KD-310Z-- A Great First Digital Camera.
Written: Dec 08 '03
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Pros: Great pixel and zoom in a small package!
Cons: Full motion video capture runs the battery down too fast.
The Bottom Line: The Konica Revio is an excellent camera. Although it's not as well known as it's Canon or Kodak brethren, it's a great choice for your first digital camera.
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| bhweb22's Full Review: Konica Minolta Revio KD-310Z Digital Camera |
When my wife and I found out we were expecting our first child, one of my first thoughts was (amid the great joy and feeling completely unprepared), "We need a digital camera!".
With the onslaught of first time grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends, I wanted to be sure that I documented our little one's first days in the world well. And I also knew that all the pictures I took would need to be viewed next day, at the latest... so that meant a digital camera was the way to go.
Since I knew that I wanted both a 3.0 mega pixel for picture quality and at least a 3x zoom function, my list was more manageable than trying to tackle the entire digital camera world at once. I pity you if you're at that point :). I quickly pared down the list to the Canon Digital Elph and the Kodak Easy Share models that met the above 3.0 and 3x or greater specs. Both models that I looked at had price tags above $400.00.
I had settled on the Elph as we had a non digital Elph model that we like a lot. But things were about to change, in the form of an HTML email.
At about this time, I received an email from Overstock.com -- the popular warehouse site. I clicked on the link and followed it back to the site where I browsed around a bit. Soon enough, I found myself at the Digital Camera area. The site had the Konica KD-310z listed and I checked out the spec sheet.
Size -- It is the smallest digital camera in its class at only 3.7 x 2.2 x1.2 and weighing only 7.2 oz.
Pixels -- 3.34 megapixel CCD, offering image excellence suitable from high-resolution photo quality printing to emailing.
Zoom -- 3x optical Hexanon zoom lens (39-117mm) and a 2x digital zoom you can achieve 6x zoom power.
All of these were as good or better than the two cameras I had already priced. And with Overstock's bargain pricing, I had my decision already made.
I stole this camera for about $250 plus tax and shipping. All told, it was around $289.
Prices mean little if quality is lacking, however.
I'm happy to say that this isn't the case with the Konica. As the specs above say, it's a small camera. It would fit easily into a shirt front pocket. It also has a rugged body of aluminum, so with the lens closed you can put it in your pants pocket and not worry about it too much.
The flash is serviceable, and it takes a good picture in the dark or in fading light.
As with other online cameras, it doesn't do a real good job of taking many pictures in succession quickly. I'd estimate that it takes about .5 seconds from pushing the button down to the flash and picture.
It ships with an 8MG memory card, which I replaced with a 128MG card. With this configuration, I can take over 300 pictures at 600X400 resolution.
I've tried the video capture feature and this works well -- you can take up to 15 seconds of full motion and sound footage. However when you watch it with the camera, you run the battery down very quickly.
My take? The camera was an excellent purchase at the price we got it for, but I'd put it against the others in it's class and probably still pick it nine times out of ten. Give it a look... and keep checking overstock to see if they got anymore in!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 289
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
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bhweb22
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Member: Brian H
Location: Northeast
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