~~~THE CONCORD CAMERA EYE-Q DUO 2000 DIGITAL CAMERA~~~THE CRAPPIEST CAMERA I'VE EVER OWNED!
Written: Jun 14 '06
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Pros: Menu somewhat user friendly; battery life good.
Cons: LCD screen useless in outdoor lighting; shutter lag time way too long.
The Bottom Line: I wish it would die already as this Concord Camera Eye-Q Duo 2000 Digital Camera is one I'd recommend to no one at all.
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| melissasrn's Full Review: Concord Camera Eye-Q Duo 2000 Digital Camera |
A few years ago, I made the very vague mistake of telling my husband that I wanted a new digital camera for Christmas. I didn't specify any particular brand name or megapixel requirement and thus ended up with this Concord Camera Eye-Q Duo 2000 Digital Camera. It was rather small and compact verses big and bulky in size and looked good enough at first, but sometimes looks can be quite deceiving. Over the years, I've reluctantly used this camera for average, every day picture taking but learned rather quickly not to rely on it solely for capturing the most important family events for a variety of reasons I'll go into below. For I've truly been extremely disappointed since day one and am finally saving to buy a new digital camera in the near future (any recommendations??). Read on to find out more about the crappiest digital camera I've ever had the displeasure of owning!
~~~The Digital Camera~~~
Requiring two standard "AA" sized battery for power, this Concord Camera Eye-Q Duo 2000 Digital Camera features a 4X digital zoom yet offers a somewhat pathetic 2 megapixels of resolution. It's gray in color and has both a small view finder as well as an LCD display window to use when focusing in on the subject of your photo. There's a handy cord for carrying and a soft black outer case for storing and protection. The flash mode can be turned to automatic, manual, or turned off depending on what you want when browsing through the menu. There's a self timer feature and pictures can be viewed instantly after taking them to see if they are keepers or not. Video recording is possible, but the quality is a joke. Pictures must be taken on the highest resolution (1600 X 1200) for the best print quality when sending them off to be made into paper photos. They can always be resized later after being downloaded into your computer. Just use the included Arc Soft Camera Suite photo editing software that came with this digital camera for sending smaller sized pictures to family and friends via email. This of course means only a few photos can be stored in this camera's internal memory, so a separately purchased memory card is almost required if you like taking lots and lots of photos like I do. To find out more specific details regarding this Concord Camera Eye-Q Duo 2000 Digital Camera, copy and paste the following URL into your computer's web browser:
http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/camera/specification/871/show.html
~~~Price & Availability~~~
Since this Concord Camera Eye-Q Duo 2000 Digital Camera is now a few years old and is currently discontinued by the manufacturer, there's no doubt better quality newer models out there now to choose from for around the same price we paid for ours (around $120). There's a similar looking camera that may still be on the market called the Duo LCD, yet it features only 1.3 megapixels of resolution. I would certainly recommend neither, even for beginners, especially when taking photos outdoors. For it's virtually impossible to see the subject in the LCD screen display and the view finder does not take the exact picture shown and will in fact cut off part of what you are taking a picture of. So choose a much newer model when switching over the digital photography as this one is basically junk. The shutter lag time is several seconds, so your subject as well as your hands have to hold very still until the photo if finally taken. But at least the battery life is decent as I don't feel like I'm constantly changing them every time I want to shoot photos of something. I'm no professional photographer by a long shot, but I do enjoy taking lots of family photos, so the lack of any manual zoom is a major con for me as well. There's no auto focus feature, either, so forget about taking a photo of any moving subject and it not be blurry. So it comes as no surprise that this Concord Camera Eye-Q Duo 2000 Digital Camera has been discontinued as is no longer widely available in new condition for consumers to purchase. Newer technology has to be better, so I'm looking forward to trashing this inferior camera really soon.
~~~User Experience~~~
As long as you are taking photos with this Concord Camera Eye-Q Duo 2000 Digital Camera inside with indoor light, the LCD screen is quite useful and for the most part accurate as long as your subject stays relatively still. Otherwise, you can't see a thing through it outside in the sunlight. I've attempted to improvise by squinting and using the view finder, but it's not accurate by a long shot and part of the subject frequently gets cut off. Now I'm usually a better than average picture taker so it can't be user error every single time. The first year I got this camera, I was extremely disappointed as we took it on vacation with us yet were unable to take lots of beach shots like we normally do simply because we couldn't see what we were trying to shoot. Indoor use is somewhat better, but using the flash is almost required as the photos come out too dark otherwise. The pictures can then be viewed one by one on the LCD screen or downloaded onto your computer for editing and/or sending off for prints to be made. Low resolution shots are best for using as email attachments while high resolution shots are best when having prints made, especially enlargements. After using photo editing software to "auto enhance" photos taken with this Concord Camera Eye-Q Duo 2000 Digital Camera, the prints usually come out decent but are far from high quality photos. If you get lucky, you'll get a clear, crisp shot every now and then but don't think it's going to happen every time. For it takes a lot of work and preparation just to get average results from quickly outdated technology, that's for sure. This is far from a user friendly "point and shoot" camera as you've got to learn all the quirks first or otherwise risk losing some potentially important photo opportunities along the way.
~~~A Few Product Specs~~~
***2 megapixels of resolution
***maximum resolution 1600 X 1200
***minimum resolution 640 X 480
***built in flash
***maximum video resolution 320 X 240
***LCD size 1.6 inches
***Self timer
***File Format: JPEP
***Weight: 156g
***Size (mm): 110x62x36
~~~Overall Recommendation~~~
While I've learned to live with this Concord Camera Eye-Q Duo 2000 Digital Camera over the years, don't just settle for mediocre quality as I did. Although the camera itself is quite durable as it's been dropped countless times (darn it! The piece of junk just won't die!), it's good only for still photography with indoor lighting and that's being generous. Try to photograph a moving subject and all you'll get is a blur. Or if you don't hold perfectly still for several seconds after shooting a picture, you'll get something totally different than what was expected. Same goes for your subject as what you see in the LCD screen is suddenly alot different than what you actually get with the several second shutter lag time. Battery life is decent, however, and shots taken on the highest resolution can be made into acceptable prints when a little bit of photo editing has been done first. In conclusion, it should come as no surprise that I'm not recommending this Concord Camera Eye-Q Duo 2000 Digital Camera at all basically because it is so hard to take good pictures with. Two stars only because I can make it do in a pinch if I run out of film on my other camera. Staying away should be quite easy now that this model is discontinued. Still, I'm not so sure I'd ever even look at a Concord again! Good luck and happy online digital camera shopping :-)
***For more information on other Concord camera models, please check out their website online at:
http://www.concord-camera.com/
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): approx 120
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
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