| Product: |
Agfa ePhoto CL18 |
| Date: |
15/05/01 (274 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: quality pics
Disadvantages: no memory upgrade
This little camera will take 640 x 480 images and is ready for video conferencing. List price is $149 and can be found as low as $89 if you shop around.
The resolution is fixed at 640 x 480 pixels, there are two different compression settings to choose from high and standard image quality. You can take 32 pictures on the standard quality or 16 images using the high quality setting with the built-in 2Mb of memory in JPEG compression. The 640 x 480 images are taken at ISO 200 in 24 bit color, which gives you variable light conditions.
The camera is made of a durable plastic that is small enough to fit inside of your hand. It has a Built-in flash with four modes, Auto, Fill-in, Red-Eye Reduction and to Disable it. There is also a 10-second self-timer so you can let it take a picture by itself. The viewfinder is easy to see through to capture that perfect picture.
The back of the camera has four buttons, Quality, (high and standard image quality) On/Off, (To Turn it On or Off) Flash/Timer (To select the flash or the 10 second timer) and Rec/Play. (Recording or playing for video conferencing.) Then there is a monochrome LCD data display that shows which of the setting you have it on.
On one side you can open up a door for the USB port connection. There is another connection for the video out, which supports NTSC or PAL.
For video conferencing it comes with a tripod and ArcSoft VideoImpression software for video editing, plus Microsoft NetMeeting for Web conferencing. (Your basic Internet video-conferencing.) ArcSoft VideoImpression is easy to use for your video editing and making your own video E-mails, it has a very attractive user-friendly screen.
For your pictures they include some nice software that is easy to use. Corel Print House 5 great for items like photo greeting cards, invitations and more. Corel Photo House 5 with AGFA PhotoGenie QuickFix for color correction and image enhancement.
AG
FA provides their own program with a Twain Driver. It shows your pictures in thumbnails, this makes it easy to pick which picture you want and if you want to keep them or delete them.
It comes with a leather carrying case and 2 AA Alkaline batteries. The camera will shut off if not used and you will have to press the on button to use it again. Since this camera doesn't have a color LCD display, your batteries will last a long time. You can use NiMH, NiCd and Lithium batteries.
Requirements
You need a PC with a USB port, a Pentium processor or equivalent and Windows 98.
(Not for the Macintosh users.)
You need 32 MB RAM, 64 MB is better if you are multitasking.
A CD-ROM Drive or DVD-ROM Drive for installation of the software and 100 MB of Hard Disk free for the software.
Overall
This camera doesn't have all those fancy extras but, considering the price it is a bargain that takes good quality pictures. I was very pleased with the picture quality.
Now for video conferencing it only runs at 15 frames per second, this is rather slow and the results will show that the video conferencing is not as good as the still pictures. Though if your buying this camera for still pictures then the video conferencing is a small bonus.
Remember this camera misses a lot of features people are looking for like, a zoom, being able to add more memory and no color LCD display to view the picture you just took.
It does take good-looking 640 x 480 images, though it takes 6 to 8 seconds to process the picture. I also recommend holding the camera as still as possible to keep the picture from streaking.
Overall for a low budget digital camera and a point and shoot camera, I recommend it.
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