A good camera at last (Casio QV-5500SX)

Member Name: andycharger

Product:	Casio QV-5500SX
Date:	09/01/02 (90 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great camera

Disadvantages: Limited image storage

The days of dark rooms, red lights and wash solution seem to be fading fast from the realms of the Amateur Photographer.
This is because the digital age has finally caught up with the Photograghy brigade and given it a wake up call.
Soon, Negatives will be as old fashioned as wax cylinders was to Vinyl or audio Cassettes were to CDs.
The Modern Camera will be relying on Megabytes for storage as opposed to 35mm film cases.

Of course we already have the facility to use digital cameras today but they lack the comparable prices of our traditional types. A decent 35mm film camera can cost you £200-£300 as opposed to your digital equivalent at 4 times that.

Well I have stumbled across a digital camera that offers superior picture quality for only £450. Not much more than a decent 35mm camera.

Casio have often be remembered as the company that made digital watches cool and more appropriately, affordable. They later branched their technology into those annoying 80's School Keyboards with the repetitive drumbeats and annoying demo tunes.
Well they have now gone back to what they know best, digital technology, and mixed it in with one of the best cameras around today.

The QV 5500 is just one of a larger range of cameras but this is one of the best.

It is typical of cameras of the higher price bracket with digital technology included.
The resolution of its imagery is so sharp. With a specification of up to 4 Megapixels.
This equates to giving you a maximum range of 2,240 by 1,680 pixels.
Talking in quality terms, it is the equivalent to a traditional print of some 18cm x 12cm.
What I like best about it is its realism for amateur photographers.
You have complete control over aperture and shutter speeds as any conventional camera would offer but with the option to set it to "best Shot" picture. This will do all of the hard work for you and ensure your pictures will be as
optimal as possible.
There are several handy effects built into this camera too. Gone are the need for expensive lenses or cellotape on a sheet of glass to give you soft edged pictures. Now you can have the camera do the work for you with its preset specialised condition selector.
Size wise, the Camera is bigger than normal digital numbers but it is still smaller than a traditional 35mm and comes in a dark Grey/Black robust plastic/graphite casing. Weight is negligiible as with all digitals.
Picture storage is its one big let down. If you boost the image quality to the maximum, you will only be able to store 6 or 7 images on its 16Megabyte storage card. This is quite poor for a camera of this quality. You can increase the storage space to over 500 by hooking it up to a 1 Gig microdrive. This is not included and will cost you a couple of hundred pounds more.
You cannot take moving images with this camera but it does provide a suitable alternative to a conventional film camera.

£450 is expensive but not compared to its peers in the digital market.

Summary: