For the casual user and webpage maker
Written: Sep 11 '00 (Updated Dec 19 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Price, Photo quality, weight
Cons: USB connection to my Mac doesn't work most of the time, Usability design
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| herjazz's Full Review: Agfa ePhoto CL30 Digital Camera |
A megapixel digial camera for under $200, with decent colors and LCD screen. For the price, I can't complain too much. If you're a professional photographer or planning on using your images to print out or use in a professional setting, I say please spend at least $700 for a decent camera (e.g. Nikon CoolPix). For the casual home user and those of us who want a digital camera for taking pictures to put on our website (or eBay auctions), this is a good value for your money.
IMAGE: 7/10
The images are actually fairly decent for this price range. I've seen far worse. That being said, it's not the best, clearest pictures you'll get. In low-light conditions (indoors) without using the flash, you have to hold the camera still while taking a picture or you'll get a blurry image (since the lens needs to be open for longer to compensate for the lack of light). I recommend using a tripod if you're taking non-flash photos indoors. I usually take pictures in the "medium" or "low" (resolution) setting so I can fit a decent amount of photos on the small CompactFlash card that comes with the camera (32 shots in "low", 16 in "medium"). But it does have a "High" and "PhotoGenie" mode that yields clearer pictures but will eat up your storage space fast.
Outdoor photos with details (tree leaves on distant trees) are slightly blurry, but they are generally pretty good. In light conditions, the photos are nice and appropriate for web/emailing use. The "macro" mode lets you take photos up close and I got some good detailed close-ups with that mode.
CONTROLS/USABILITY: 5/10
This camera needs a lot of work in the design and usability department. First, the lens is off on the left side, so your fingers tend to cover up the lens if you hold it like most people do: both hands on the camera. You have to get into the habit of putting your left hand UNDER the camera while holding the camera and pressing the shutter with your right hand.
The scroll menu selector is actually nice: push it to "click" on menu items, and scroll to go through menu selections. However, the menu items can use some work in usability. For example, when you want to delete a photo while "playing back", you click on the scroll button and you have to choose delete, and then an extra step to say "current photo". Little things like this doesn't make this the most user-friendly camera.
Also, all the controls except the shutter button is relegated to the menu/scroll button. This is not a smart idea. They should at least put things like flash controls (force on, off, auto) as a separate button, and they should have put the self-timer function as a separate functions, not as a menu item!
The LCD is nice and big and bright. But I'd leave it off if you're using batteries as it'll drain your batteries quickly! The camera is fairly lightweight and easy to hold.
INTERFACE TO COMPUTER / SOFTWARE: 5/10
One of the main reasons I got this was because it was the only camera around $200 with a USB connection to your computer. I have a Mac with a USB connection, as well as a PC laptop with a serial (slow!) connection and I needed both kinds of conenctions. This camera had it. The USB download speed is amazingly fast. Less than a minute and half for downloading all my 32 photos to my Mac. The included software (AGFA PhotoWise) is decent but with limited editing capabilities. I just use Photoshop/ImageReady for editing/optimizing anyways, so I don't care.
The most frustrating part about this camera (was) is making a connection to my Mac. I finally figured this out after about two months of unpredictability and frustration of trying to get it to work (1 out of 20 times). So here's the tip (not indicated on their manuals or their website)-- You MUST do it in the order indicated or it will not work:
1. Select the sliders on the right of the LCD and put the camera in "Play" mode, with "View" selected to "PC".
2. Plug the squre end of the USB cable to the camera
3. Plug the flat end of the USB cable into your computer (or USB hub, if you use one)
4. Start up AGFA PhotoWise
5. Download the photos or view the images in the camera
What happened to me before was that I had the USB cable attached to my hub first at all times and I'd plug the other end of it to the camera when I was about to download to my computer. You'll notice that I had the order wrong (step #2 and #3 were reversed), which is exactly why I couldn't get it to work for the longest time. Even if USB is "hot-pluggable" technology (no need to restart your computer when you plug new things in), you need to actually "hot plug" a cable to your USB chain in order for your device to be recognized. The technical reason for this is that the USB cable was plugged in all the time, so when the Operating System goes out and polls the ports to see if any new devices were added, it wouldn't know that I just attached my digital camera to the chain (since no new cable was plugged in to the hub/computer). A bit quirky, right?
The serial connection to my PC laptop only works when I have the camera plugged in BEFORE I start up my computer. But I expect that, since serial connections are not hot-pluggable like USB. Transfer is painfully slow over serial connection, but everything works fine here.
The CL30 also has a third type of connection: There is a cable that enables you to plug the camera into your TV and view the images in the camera through your TV screen. One possible use for this would be to do a "poor man's presentation" or slide show of images that you took on the camera. Another possibility is of course to be able to show a large audience gathered around a TV the images on your camera right away without having to start up your computer or carry a laptop and plug it to the TV/projector.
BATTERY USE: 7/10
Digital cameras are infamous for eating up batteries like an SUV eats up gasoline. Most cameras go through fresh regular (not those designed for digital cameras) batteries when you finish taking all your pictures to fill up your storage disk. Same with this CL30. 4 regular Panasonic alkalines are eaten when I'm done with 32 photos. So it has average battery life. I got myself a rechargeable digital camera battery, and wow they last a long time. I can go through about 3 "films" before a recharge. Even then, I'm careful about battery consumption conservation (don't use LCD, turn off camera when not taking a picture, etc.).
Updated: 12/19/2000
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
herjazz
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Member: Mike Choi
Location: Long Island, NY
Reviews written: 70
Trusted by: 56 members
About Me:
Web/Graphic Design, Art, Computers (Macintosh), Activism, Cars, Music (drums, bass, guitar, CubaseVST)
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