A great little camera (Hitachi HDC-571ES)

Member Name: jenny967

Product:	Hitachi HDC-571ES
Date:	18/06/09 (491 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use and takes great photos

Disadvantages: none

I have an important family event coming up, so I was out shopping for new clothes for myself husband and three kids, finally I had everything I needed for us all, (or so I thought) so I went home after a tiring day of shopping only to find that my camera didn't work, so of course this meant that another trip into town was required to purchase a camera, I wasn't after anything to expensive as the camera is only for family use. I went to Argos and had a look at their selection of digital cameras, most of them were quite expensive, however I noticed that they had one on sale (Hitachi HDC-571ES)

The camera came in the usual cardboard box packaging, inside the box was the camera, the instruction booklet, a case for the camera, the software CD-ROM, a USB cable, a strap for the camera and a pack of two batteries, upon opening the packaging I was slightly shocked to see such a small camera, however it is quite cute and dainty and for all the size of it, it is quite heavy. (There fore it wouldn't be easy to loose) The camera is available in two colors which are blue or silver, I chose the silver one.

According to the user guide the camera is equipped with 5.0 megapixel sensors and it is capable of taking photos with a resolution of up to 2560 x 1920 pixels. You can also purchase an SD card for the camera, however I bought the camera and don't know a lot about SD cards extra so I didn't bother to purchase one, luckily hubby had one from an old mobile phone and this done the job, The card is also available to purchase at Argos.
As I said the camera is silver in color with the word Hitachi wrote in black lettering across the front of the camera and to my surprise it has very few buttons,

This pleased me as I am a bit silly when it comes to all this technology stuff lol, I just leave it to hubby, he's like a big kid with a new toy when it comes to anything like this anyway at the top of the camera there is the power button and the shutter button, running down the right hand side is where you can find the focus switch which is for normal or macro mode, below this switch there is the USB connecter. There are a few other buttons on the back of the camera for viewing pictures that you have already taken and zoom in etc.

The software is quick and easy to install, the process only takes a few minutes, once the installation has been completed you are ready to take photos and upload your photos onto your PC, you can also use the camera as a PC camera, however your PC will need a microphone, a sound card, speakers or headphones, network or internet connection, the software for using the camera for a PC camera is included on the CD-ROM but it is not suitable for Mac Platforms (according to the user guide) The camera can also be used to take some video clips and will do all the usual stuff that you would expect from a digital camera.
When you are transferring files such as the photos or video clips onto your computer there are certain requirements,

they are as follows:
Pentium 166 MHz or higher
Windows 2000/XP/Vista
128MB hard disk space
128MB RAM
CD-ROM drive
Available USB port
Power PC G3/G4/G5
OS.9.0 OR later
(I apologize if this list is not useful but as I said I am not good with technology so I thought that it might be useful to add this.)
Some of the Specifications include:
Recording media: 16MB internal memory (13.5MB for image storage)
Supports SD/SDHC memory card up to 4GB
File format Image format: JPEG video format: motion JPEG
Self timer 10 sec delay
Weight approximately 82g
Other specs can be found at the back of the user manual.

The camera is simple to use and the photos are off good quality, they can be easily deleted if you don't like them. The instruction manual provides step by step easy to follow instructions; all in all I am pleased with this purchase and would highly recommend it.

Thanks for reading
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Summary: A great little camera for taking family photos.

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