Simple. Technology at its best (Konica Digital Revio KD-310Z)

Member Name: AmandaJP

Product:	Konica Digital Revio KD-310Z
Date:	06/04/04 (166 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: easy to use, reasonably price, sturdy

Disadvantages: macro is fiddly, but not used very often anyway

My husband and I upgraded our digital camera last year after spotting this beauty in the sales. We previously had a Sony P50 we didn't get on with (see opinion) and wanted a change. The Konica is definitely a change for the better. It really is simple to use, a real point and shoot.

THE SPECS (the teckie bit!):

*Battery Type - 1 x Lithium Ion
*USB Connector
*Memory type - Memory Stick ? Multi-Media Card (MMC) ? SD (Secure Digital)
*Feature Flash
*LCD Monitor
*JPEG Image Format
*Megapixels 3.3
*Movie Recording
* 3.0 Optical Zoom

The camera comes with the following;
* Lithium-ion battery.
* Battery Charger+ Power Supply cord.
* USB cable.
* CD-ROM.
* Strap.
* Quick Guide.
* SD Memory Card.
* CD with full operational instructions.

Operating buttons;
* Play Button
Use this button for playing back images, or setting up the play menu.

* Display Button
For turning LCD monitor on and off, and switching the picture information display on and off. When the power is ON, the LCD monitor lights up, so to preserve battery power it should be turned off when you are shooting through the viewfinder.

* Delete Button
For deleting unwanted photos. 3 options appear when this button is pressed; THIS, CANCEL and ALL.

* Zoom Buttons
For operating the optical and digital zoom functions.
* 4-way Button Use the different buttons, up, down, left & right (looks like a cursor pad) to select menu items, images, etc. This button is used for the following:
? Selecting shooting mode
? Selecting menus
? Selecting pictures
? Scrolling a picture in an enlarged display

* Menu/Set Button
For displaying the menu screen, selecting the contents and confirming choices.

The battery lasts well (approx 90 mins/or 100 photos continuous use) and only takes 2 1/2 to fully recharge it.

You can shoot p
ictures of 3 sizes, 2048x1536, 1600x1200, and 640x480. I tend to use 640 x 480 when taking photos to upload into emails or to use on internet sites, and 2048x1536 when taking fine photos to print off. The images produced are excellent.
I use 2048x1536 if I think I will be printing the photos off, or if I am simply uploading the photos (especially onto eBay where photo size has to be quite small) I use 640x480.

THE LOOK;
The camera is very sleek looking and very compact. It is apparently the smallest and lightest digital camera in its class.
The stainless steel casing looks very good and makes the camera feel very solid and it looks very expensive.
The slim caseing means that it is very easy to slip into your handbag, and it is not at all cumbersome. (I have a small handbag and I still manage to get my purse, camera, mobile and other bits of girly things in it without much problem)
The camera also has a built in lens protector that also acts as an 'on & off switch', very handy, its virtually impossible to take the sometimes inevitable shots of the floor with this camera!

MEMORY;
It has 'dual slots' for Sony Memory sticks and SD memory cards. I find this a very useful idea. If you are on holiday or out for the day you can fill one card up and still have another card to go at before thinking about editing your photos away. My previous digital camera just happened to be a Sony too so I had a spare memory card. Memory card insertion and removal is excellent, they fit next to the battery via a spring mechanism that locks them into position. To remove them you just press and they slide up, very neat!


FLASH;
The flash is quite powerful to say how small it is. Personally I don't use it that much, especially indoors. There are not very many options as far as the flash goes; auto, off and night time. There is also a red-eye reduction function but that is about it. The flash range is between 0.5 m
and 3.5 m


CONCLUSION;
It is overall a very good little camera, I paid £299 for it in January but I believe it is now available for £230.
I would most definitely give this camera a 10/10. I don?t have any problems with it at all. I think the styling is smart and the on/off mechanism is flawless. The only bug bares that I have is the cost of the memory sticks, they are not the cheapest around. A 64meg Sony memory stick costs around £35 and the Smart media cards cost around £30 for the same size. I simply upload mine at regular intervals then burn my photos onto a disk. It would have also been nice if Konica could have included a case in the price. Overall though these small points don?t take away the fact that this is an excellent little camera, and I would recommend it to anyone.

Thanks for reading

Summary: