Low price, Low quality (Mustek GSmart 350)

Member Name: the_cat-dog

Product:	Mustek GSmart 350
Date:	30/05/03 (117 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, Many picture memory

Disadvantages: Bad picture quality, Bad build quality, Slow LCD frame rate

I was pretty pleased when I bought this camera, but now I have found that it is far from good. First thing to notice is its price. I got it for around £110, but it now goes for around £50 or so.
It has a maximum resolution of 640x480- 1 Megapixels. Which gives a rather poor image quality. It has a 2x digital zoom option, but to use you must be in a 320x240 resolution, which is frankly appalling.
It had what seemed to be a good approach to having a price conscious LCD display. A mini display where the usual eye viewer goes was placed, which worked? just. If I were to advise them again I would say either have at least a 1 inch big screen or none at all, like a traditional camera, that way they could concentrate on the picture quality.
The refresh rate of the camera is the biggest blow to it, to take a picture; you have to hold it dead still for about 3 seconds, so action shots are out of the question.
This shows up rather nastily in the movie mode- although it takes movies, they are in a 320x240 resolution and therefore bad quality, and at around 1 frame per second it?s far from smooth.
The menu system on the cameras tiny screen isn?t great, you can view pictures, just! As its so small, you really have to squint, it does the job but isn?t very quick and is lacking in features and style, it is very drab!
On the good side, as the picture quality is poor, it can hold an awful lot of pictures, I can take a few hundred along with movies and still have memory spare on a 16mb card. That?s the main problem with new cameras, they hold less because they are in better quality. However, although you will get away with 1 memory card, its not the same case with batteries, it takes 3, not 2 or 4 but 3! And it eats away at these like anything. If you go on holiday for a week take at least 12 or 6 with a recharger, as you will get through them at a blink of an eye.
Its looks are either to some people good, or others bad. When I got it I loved the way it

looked, now on the other hand I really don?t, it looks tacky and plastic. Saying that, I dropped it on concrete 3 times, once running at speed, and it still works fine, though I did break some of the ever-present plastic! It isn?t too heavy, but fairly chunky, it is pretty visible if you have it in your pocket.

The camera comes with a case, which does the job, just, and all cables you need, you connect it to the PC to get your pictures off, and that?s easy enough, and the software is pretty user friendly and is great if it works, as sometimes the camera just wont, and can freeze the program. The camera can be used as a webcam, the software there isn?t great but it does the job, it takes power from the USB cable, and wont waste batteries, you can also take pictures with the USB power but you cant use the flash for some reason.

Although I am giving this camera a low rating, it does the job, and for a good price, its not the worst I?ve ever seen and I have taken over 700 photos?s with it. Most of which are still with me today.

In this case you get what you pay for. If on a tight budget however I?d go for a camera that try?s to be a little less fancy, simple one without a display would do. Or ideally you need to spend £130 or more for something reasonable. I recommend the Fuji Finepix A202, far superior and not an awful lot more. I hadn?t actually heard of Mustek before getting this camera but I?ve figured that they aren?t the best of makes, concentrating on cheapness rather than quality.

Summary: