You get what you pay for
Written: Jan 28 '01 (Updated Jan 28 '01)
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Pros: Takes some decent pictures once you turn the flash off.
Cons: Downloading is frustrating, takes really bad pictures with the flash on.
The Bottom Line: If you are looking for a cheap digital camera to take very average pictures, this is the camera for you. If not, don't buy it.
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| LauraRN's Full Review: Largan Lmini 350 Digital Camera |
I purchased the Largan Lmini 350 because I wanted a cheap digital camera. And that’s exactly what I got. A cheap digital camera. I wanted a camera that I could use to photograph stuff for auctions. I can’t see spending hundreds of dollars on a good digital camera when I’m sure the prices will continue to come down…so I found the cheapest one I could find. I bought this camera on buy.com for $60.
Software
It came with a CD of Adobe Photo Deluxe. Unfortunately, the CD crashed my computer several times when I tried to install it. After experimenting with it, my husband and I decided there was a problem with the manufacturing of the CD. (He’s a programmer and he knows about that stuff.) So we couldn’t install the software, but we have plenty of photo software on our computer so it didn’t matter. I did need to go to www.largan.com to download the driver. I also downloaded a little program that you can supposedly use to transfer the pictures, but when I downloaded the pictures using that program they were all blank.
One nice thing is that it comes with a cord so you don't have to waste the battery taking pictures and transferring them. It limits your mobility, but it saves the battery.
Taking pictures
The camera has 2 mb of internal memory, there is no removable memory. It also does not have one of those cool little LCD screens on the back. (I told you it was a cheap camera.) The first pictures I took were very very bright. Some were so bright that you couldn’t see what it is I had taken a picture of. I have not tried this camera for outdoor shots yet, but I have figured out how to make the indoor ones better. Here’s my tips:
Turn the flash off completely. (There’s a button to push.)
If you are photographing an object, put it near something with a lot of contrast (Don’t put a blue shirt on a blue couch.)
Try to photograph in the daytime hours, but if you can’t do NOT photograph near a lamp that is turned on.
These tips should help. I actually did get some fairly decent pictures at 640 x 480 (the camera’s maximum).
ARRRGHH! (Or, Downloading the pictures)
Let me just say that the driver that this camera uses does not work very well. When you go to download the pictures, it sometimes takes a couple of attempts before the computer will connect to the camera. After it connects, it shows you thumbnails of all of your pictures. You would think that you could just click on ‘select all’ and download them all. But noooooooo. I frequently got an error that said ‘memory is not enough’ when transferring them. I have plenty of memory; it’s just a badly written driver. So I have to exit the little screen that shows me all the pictures and start all over. I took 64 pictures and had to download them all at least 6 times because I kept getting this error. That made it a little confusing to download.
The Largan driver also installs a little icon on your desktop called ‘my digital camera.’ Don’t use it. It doesn’t work. Obviously they forgot to test it before they released it.
Overall
This camera serves its purpose. It isn’t meant to take phenomenal pictures. If you want to take better pictures, spend more money. But if you are looking for a quick way to take some fairly decent pictures, this camera is for you.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 60
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Epinions.com ID:
LauraRN
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Location: Rochester, NY
Reviews written: 64
Trusted by: 22 members
About Me:
Nurse practitioner seeking employment.
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