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Vivitar Vivicam 3715
by davidbuttery
== Introduction ==
This is another of the cameras that came in my job lot of mixed models. After having had poor experiences with Vivitar in the past I can't say I'd have been all that likely to have bought this camera by itself, but having used it for a while I had to admit - albeit rather grudgingly - that it is not quite ... the disaster area I feared it might be. Expected it would be, if truth be told. It's nowhere near state of the art, and by no means one of the best cameras available even for its (2003) vintage, but it's certainly much better than the truly atrocious V5018 I reviewed a while back.
"Basic" is what you'd expect to be the keyword to be where the 3715 is concerned, and though that's not entirely appropriate, it's not too unfair either. This is a three-megapixel camera, a fair resolution for the day although obviously far behind what you'd expect from a new model these days. Actually it's 3.3mp, but the difference is not really obvious. On the plus side, it does at least have a CCD sensor. Although the alternative CMOS type is much better nowadays, and is used very widely in DSLRs, back in 2003 you could generally bet that a CMOS *compact* would be a cheap and nasty job - so a point goes to Vivitar here for being prepared to go down the CCD route.
The camera is fairly basic when it comes to its feature set, too. The thing that most people are likely to notice straight away is the absence of an optical (or "proper") zoom. This is a substantial minus point for most photographers, and the sop of a 2x digital (or "pointless") zoom is no real compensation. The lens itself is a fixed-focus job which has a focal length of 5.9 mm printed on it, but the manual claims 7.9 mm; I don't quite know what's going on there. At any rate, the upshot seems to be that you'll experience around the usual 35 mm equivalent mark - so you'll find that what you see is *fairly* wide-angle, but not *very* wide-angle. Speed is an average f/3.5. In other words, it's very similar to all manner of other cheap compacts.
== Looks and ergonomics ==
By Vivitar's distinctly uneven standards, I think that this is quite an attractive camera, certainly when compared with some of its contemporaries. I like the sliding lens cover, which is similar in style to some Olympus cameras of the period. The lens itself is rather small and ugly, but the casing is actually quite well designed. Very plasticky of course, but I think that can be excused in a camera very much aimed at the budget market, and although it doesn't feel like a top-of-the-range model it's no child's toy either. It's quite light (the manual says 120 grams without batteries or memory card) but not so much so that you can't hold it steady.
I'm somewhat less impressed by the design around the back, though the optical viewfinder is half-decent. The 1.5-inch LCD screen is standard fare, but do we really need a message underneath it saying "TFT LCD MONITOR"? What else would it be - a mystic portal to the Evergreen Forest? There's also a very odd four-way pad, which has a strange transparent effect to it and is shaped more like a cookie-cutter than anything else. Up in the top right is a mode dial, which has a vast four positions to choose from (setup, movie, review and shoot) and there are also separate buttons for activating the display and the menu system. I'm not keen on having the power button right next to the menu one; I haven't knocked it accidentally, but I can't be sure that I won't.
The menu system itself is pretty darn basic; in fact it reminds me a lot of the menu setups on no-name Chinese cameras - with which Vivitar does sometimes seem to have a rather closer similarity than chance alone would suggest... anyway, let's be honest here: they're not very attractive. Once you've learned how to navigate them, though, they do work reasonably well. The one thing that might catch you out at first is that if you don't remember to press the "OK" button before backing out of the menu, your new settings will not be saved. This can be highly frustrating until you work out what you're doing wrong!
== Features and controls ==
As there's no real zoom here, there is also no zoom lever or button - in the unlikely event that you actually *want* to use the digital zoom, you can, as the user guide helpfully informs you, "take shots with the digital zoom by activating the digital zoom function". Well thanks heaps, Vivitar; I'd never have worked that one out without your help... I've already touched on the buttons themselves, and despite the oddly-shaped four-way pad they do work fairly well. Again, you won't find them amazingly comfortable or refined in use, but despite a bit of looseness they do the job. The self-timer is slightly fiddlier than the others (which may just be my own camera) but not dreadfully so.
For such a basic digicam, the 3715 has quite a decent range of features. Despite the lack of autofocus, some degree of flexibility is achieved by having three separate focus settings: landscape for everything above 1.9 metres distance, portrait from there down to 90 cm, and macro from *there* down to 55 cm. Clearly the macro capability is feeble - since when has nearly two feet been macro? - but the existence of a medium setting is one that not many fixed-focus cameras offer and one that is actually quite useful. You also get ISO control (hurrah!) from 100 to 400, the standard range of white balance settings and exposure compensation. Nothing remarkable, but I like to know they're there.
There's a date/time setting. You may be wondering why I've bothered to mention this, seeing as even in 2003 it was absolutely standard. Well, unfortunately it's because I feel the need to whinge about it. You see, most cameras have a backup battery of some sort so that when you change the main power source the date and time stay where you set them. The Vivitar doesn't, and that means that *every blasted time* you change the batteries (2xAA) or the memory card (SD) you have to go through the rigmarole of resetting. That's a very poor piece of design, and one that should never have got as far as production. It's particularly irritating as the battery life is not particularly good; you'll certainly need a spare pair on a long day out.
== Results ==
I'll first deal with the movie mode, as that won't take long. As was usual for this class of camera (and indeed some considerably posher ones) at the time, the maximum resolution of video clips is 320 x 240 pixels. A rather larger drawback is that you can't record any sound - although it is a bonus (and one which I did not really expect) that there is no limit to the length of your movies other than the available space on the memory card. Considering how many contemporary cameras limited you to 30 seconds or even less, this ability is worth a modest amount of praise.
Much more important to the majority of users will be the results obtained when taking still photos. It would be wrong of me to claim that they're stunningly beautiful, because they're not - but they're in another league when compared to the theoretically more advanced V5018 from the same manufacturer! Certainly, this camera is considerably happier outdoors in good daylight than anywhere else - a feeling only underlined by its appallingly slow flash recharge time. As a Canon PowerShot owner I thought that camera's eight-second delay was bad, but the 3715 can make you wait considerably longer even than that!
However, if you're into landscapes or outdoor portraits, this little digicam is actually reasonably capable. It does have a bit of a tendency to make reds, pinks and oranges somewhat too saturated, but in the case of portraits of people with white skin, that can actually give a "glowing with health" look that sometimes looks rather attractive. Resolution is not brilliant even for a 3mp camera, but it's not so bad that you're likely to give up in total disgust. As long as you leave it on the highest quality setting (which is admittedly rather expensive on memory, at over 2 MB per photo on average) you should get at least satisfactory pictures most of the time if you're not too fussy.
== Conclusion ==
The 3715 is quite a basic little thing, and I don't want to give anybody the idea that it would be a suitable substitute for a modern model as an utterly versatile, go-anywhere camera. It wouldn't. It has plenty of minus points, not least its lack of a proper zoom and its sometimes dodgy ergonomics. I also admit to perhaps being a little more influenced than I should have been by my utter relief that it wasn't the steaming pile of garbage that the V5018 was. That thing was an all-round disgrace; this one is simply mediocre, and there is a large difference.
In truth I can't see why anyone other than an enthusiast would buy a 3715, since even for the few quid it's likely to cost you on eBay there are better choices around - the (also zoom-deficient) Canon A300, perhaps. However, if you do end up with one you shouldn't find yourself unable to take acceptable pictures even in good conditions, and were it not for that incredibly annoying date/time problem I might have thought about giving this Vivitar three stars. As it is, I can't really justify awarding it more than two - but the one-point gap between this and the V5018 disguises a veritable gulf. The 3715 is simple and fairly limited - but it's not actually awful.
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Easypix S512
by davidx1
With product lines, especially at the budget, point and shoot, end of the digital camera market, disappearing and being replaced with ever better specified modles, at ever more modest prices, chances are by the time you read this the Easypix S512 will be no more. Will it be mourned, this humble camera that only warrants a serial number ... rather than a name?
Well there are a few things that can be said it its favor. Firstly on price it is pretty competitive – for less than a hundred pounds you should be able to pick one up with a 1GB SD card and reader thrown in. In fact I wouldn’t bother with the card reader as the camera comes equipped with a cable and software (PC only) that will enable you to plug it straight into the USB port of your computer without complaint (for Mac users iPhoto has no difficulty recognizing it and making friends either).
Although it boasts a 12megapixel resolution, that’s “interpolated” - which means that the true resolution is 5megapixels, still pretty impressive for a camera in this class but annoying in that these days most manufacturers seem, wisely, to have stopped “interpolating” their claims. The camera will also record video in two resolutions (AVI) and audio (WAV) functions which, I have to admit, I have yet to explore
For ease of use its hard to imagine anything much simpler, the menu system is easy to navigate, it weighs virtually nothing and is smaller than a packet of cigarettes. For those seduced by design, it has a sleek and sexy James Bond spy camera kind of look and is not overburdened with fiddly little buttons. So far so good, a veritable miracle of modern technology, packed with fantastic features at an affordable price - there is, however, a down side.
Now it has to be said that the S512 is a budget digital camera which is aimed at taking snaps, a function that it performs perfectly well but try using it in anything other than bright sunlight and it sulks and turns suddenly useless. It is virtually impossible to take a decent picture with it in lower light conditions, camera shake is guaranteed and the automated exposure values and white balance are all over the place. The flash has a very modest throw (if you are not close enough to blind someone it probably won’t work) but best of all is the……………………………………….latency, which is enough to guarantee that whatever it was you were pointing your camera at (especially when in the dark) will have long since vanished by the time the shutter makes it’s digitally simulated click and the flash, eventually, fires.
Overall then, despite the extraordinarily sharp quality of the images this camera can produce in strong sunlight, the limitations of the S512 make it hard to recommend unless you only intend to photograph relatively slow moving and brightly lit subjects.
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Cool i-cam
by nuttynaomi
I won my Cool-ICam from a freebies website, but i do know that it cost about £50 at the time. which for this little thing, is a rip off.
A good little camera, however, although the picture quality is not the best but that is to be expected for the size of the camera.
For the price, its poor quality.
It works as ... a digital camera, video recorder and webcam.
it can be connect to your pc via the cable that is provided along with the cd which has its own program for the dinky chap!
the software is slightly memory hungry and doesn't always agree with the computer..so beware!
It also comes with its own little stand that spins, turns, tips, rotates in all direction which can be used for taking pictures if you want a really steady hand. or for the webcam (which is what it came for)
There is a belt clip attached to the camera for when you are out to save you dropping it! although i wouldn't waste my time on holiday taking pictures with it.
it hold 20 high resolution pictures and 80 low resolution picture but only 20 high or 80 low at once.
Ive used it many times for selling items on ebay, and they have sold very well indeed.
if all you want is a picture or webcam and dont care to much about the quality, then this is a great although expensive option.
but if you want a good and clear picture quality for maybe seeing your friends on the net or in fact taking pictures, then this is not for you.
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