Overall good camera, but for the beginner rather than for the professional. (Sipix SP-1300 Shoot & Share)

Member Name: Dr. Mengele

Product:	Sipix SP-1300 Shoot & Share
Date:	01/11/06 (46 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good picture sharpness in daytime, low power drain compared to other cameras, uses cheap memory card

Disadvantages: Not very sensitive, no support for large memory cards, no optical zoom, settings lost on shutdown

This is my first digital camera, and it served me quite well for about a year, give or take.
- As pointed out by the other user who wrote about this camera, the main coolness of this camera is the long battery life. It can even operate with regular zinc-carbon batteries and take over 10 photos. The flipside of this "medal" would be only the fact that it uses 4 batteries at a time or the fact that even if connected to the USB port of the PC, it will still drain power only from the batteries.
- As far as resolution and picture quality is concerned, i have to say, the main problem would be not overexposure but underexposure.
- The pictures taken in a room appear dark and brownish, and the ones taken outside on a sunny day may appear as if they were taken on a rainy day, depending on the shinyness of the objects in the frame.
- The colours are a bit cold i think, especially in low light conditions. Also in low light conditions you can notice a nasty noise on the picture taken.
- The clarity of the image itself is good, the SiPix 1300 being able to capture even some finer details if the "sharper" option is in use.
- It's often necessary to select the picture options manually in order to get the best picture (sharpness, ISO number, white balance).
- The ISO number is only 200, and that means a pretty low sensitivity to light. This is the main reason why 2 out of 3 photos have to be edited after transferring to pc.
- The zoom is of only 2X and it's digital. When the zoom is selected, the resolution of the picture is forced to 640x480 (*) , don't know why though. However the resulting picture is indeed smooth and it's not easy to tell it's been digitally zoomed.
- The red eye reducing function works perfectly every time. Good bye red eye :P
- The mini TFT display of 1.5inch gives a crystal clear preview, as well as menus display. Another smart feature is the possibility to turn off the TFT preview to lower the power drain. With the preview off, the consumption becomes only fractionally higher than that of a regular mp3 player;)
- The camera does not compress the jpg images enough and thus uses memory card space inefficiently if taking photos using the *** quality.
- It uses for storage a Compact Flash card, which is an advantage since these are rarely used these days and so they're always available in stock at low prices. The maximum size declared by the producer is 32MB but it works with up to 128MB. Anything larger will be detected as only 128MB.
Warning: Although the camera has no problem storing photos on large cards, the picture taken may appear garbled when you try to view it on the LCD. This is not an evidence of malfunction but something normal given the conditions. Never format a card larger than 32 using the camera's format option because it'll destroy the card. Also, you can't transfer the pictures through USB cable if using a too large card.
- It has a smart option for automatic shutdown after a period of inactivity. Very useful if you want to avoid accidental battery death.
- The date and time information is lost every time the batteries are removed or discharged. Instead other data that is not essential is retained. The settings for photos are lost when switched off and this can be annoying.
- This camera is large and because it uses 4 batteries, also heavy. This may be a plus for some, as it makes the camera feel like a classic, and not a digital.

Summary: Good camera for a beginner, especially since it looks and feels like a classic 35mm camera

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