A must have! (Digital Dream 2800)

Member Name: macutmore

Product:	Digital Dream 2800
Date:	26/11/00 (415 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Compact, light, convenient., Take it everywhere!, A webcam as well!

Disadvantages: Who needs memory sticks?, only 640 x 480 resolution, Battery life only fair

I stumbled across this piece of kit at a local Tesco superstore. I was very sceptical of its quality capabilities prior to purchase, having been an avid photo enthusiast of film for many moons!

It turned out that I was surprised most of all by this camera’s quality results as it only has a resolution of 640x480 pixels; I was concerned that this would not be up to my 'quality' of photography. How wrong I was!

From the very first picture I took, I was amazed at the clarity of image obtained, particularly on a sunny bright day or at close range with flash.

The best way to initially view your pictures taken with this little beast, (it's surprisingly lightweight and compact), is to plug the thing into your T.V (all required leads are supplied). You can then view instantly what is in the camera's memory, without even booting up or starting your PC!

This is in fact true VGA and ideal for Internet and computer use. My guess is that all these 'Mega pixel' cameras (more than four times the price of this) require a lot of processing power and printer patience? - Forget them for the moment- get straight into digital photography NOW! I found that I could produce perfectly acceptable prints from this camera (up to 6x4'' for printing) and as for film? I now carry this little wonder wherever I go!

The digital dream came with a free VHS video tape as well, since you can actually view your pictures through the composite video input socket of your television or video, you can actually record each image in turn and store hundreds of pictures in slide show style on an ordinary tape! Each image is 'scrolled' out of the camera and as compressed in jpeg format it is uncompressed as it appears on the screen, slowly appearing more detailed as it appears. Image quality on a TV is superb, so it's not a bad way to initially view the pictures before you transfer them to your pc.

MGI photosuit
e software is included in the box, which isn't a bad image-editing program as it happens. I have so many photo programs though and since you can use any one as a default (most work with the twain capture software supplied), I have decided to use my favourite U-Lead photo explorer 6, which is free to download from imira.com. This enables unlimited storage of pictures to be stored on a server, freeing off any valuable pc disc space.

I really can't emphasise the advantages and convenience digital photography offers. Battery life of the camera isn’t brilliant. Two AA size cells (ultra high power ones) are capable of lasting about 62 shots if half of them are with flash use with the digital dream, So don’t forget your spare batteries!

I don't think there is much advantage to having removable storage media either (the digital dream doesn't have any). Once you have shot your load (a maximum of 32 pictures), you have to erase, retake or transfer them to pc for storage / viewing. Removable media is just too expensive anyway, and as yet I haven't found the need to take more than 32 pictures in one go. (The laptop is always handy here).

Since this camera doubles as a webcam it is just too versatile to be overlooked!

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