Excellent for the price (Technika Pro SH-C350)

Member Name: magenta23

Product:	Technika Pro SH-C350
Date:	06/02/09 (221 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Price and features

Disadvantages: Weight and look

I recently bought this camera from Tesco. The truth is I didn't really need to upgrade camera as our Sony 7mp camera (see separate review) was still going. However, I wanted one of my own as my partner and I shared the Sony. Being budget concious at the moment I didn't want one that would break the bank but has a good spec for the price. Brand it's really important to me. With that in mind I plumped for the Technika SH-C350.


PRICE AND FEATURES

The price was very cheap, just under £60 for a 12 mega pixel camera. Other features are as follows-
* 3x Optical Zoom
* 6x Digital Zoom
* Self timer
* Black and White and Sepia Effects
* 15 Shooting Modes
* 2.5" Screen
* Lithium Ion Rechargeable battery
* 32mb Internal Memory

In addition to the camera and battery, the camera also comes with a camera case and wrist strap, USb cable, AV cable, separate battery charger, software and power adaptor.



EASE OF USE

I found this camera difficult at first. Auto mode is fine, just point and shoot, however there were so many extra modes. I felt I wasn't getting the best pictures out of the camera and many hours were spent reading the manual and fiddling around with the controls to find my way around this camera.

I still use auto more often than not, the zoom and anti shake button are always invaluable too and it's very easy to turn the flash on and off. These features are all simply at the touch of a button on the back of the camera.

When you get to using the 'scene' mode, it gets a little more complicated as you have to navigate the on screen menus to find the most suitable shooting mode. The shooting modes are as follows - Sport, Portrait, Night Portrait, Night, Candlelight, Landscape, Natural Green, Sunrise, Sunset, Text, Black and White, Sepia, Splash Water, and Pets. I use the sport mode a lot, it's good for taking pictures of moving objects as it compensates for some of the movement. The pets function seems pointless, I found that taking pictures of animals was more successful on auto than on this mode. I was a little disappointed that the camera did not have a snow mode, when I went out to take some pictures of the recent weather, however I got some gorgeous snow pictures in Black and White. Overall, The different shooting modes are useful to have and they aren't too difficult to use once you get the hang of it, but a few of them are pointless and don't aid the pictures at all.

In addition to the different shooting modes and the auto functions, there are a number of other functions to help with your photography...
Program - Allows you to manually set the shutter speed and aperture value
Tv- Allows you to set the shutter speed while the camera sets the corresponding aperture value
AV- Allows you to set the aperture value while the camera sets the corresponding shutter speed
M- Allows you to manually control over exposure, aperture and other settings.
User Setting- Allows you to manually sets your favourite parameters and settings will be memorised.

These settings are probably very useful to someone with a good knowledge of photography, but for the average person who just want snaps these functions are probably surplus to requirements.
Three other functions which are a real plus and very easy to use are -

Movie mode - This is easy to use and records well, with sound. You can't zoom in whilst recording, however you can zoom in first and then record whilst in zoom, which I think is good.
Hi ISO - This is great for taking pictures in not so good light. It's a high sensitivity mode.
Panorama - This mode allows you to take a series of pictures and stitch them together to create a huge panoramic scene.

Playback is easy enough of this camera too. A simple switch on the top of the screen changes from camera to playback mode. You can flick through images individually, have slide show, or flck through thumbnails. You can resize the pictures on the camera in playback mode and zoom in. Video playback can be paused and fastforwarded and rewound. It also plays back video with sound.


QUALITY OF PICTURES

I found that whilst I have got some beautiful shots using this camera, I've also got some which are really out of focus, particularly when using the zoom. For landscapes and portraits this camera is fantastic. For close ups it's not so good. I've found for detail, taking a shot of the subject further away and zooming in afterwards gives a better result than using the zoom itself. I think also a little more experimenting with the more complicated functions would give better results, but on auto it's not to bad at all. For everyday snaps it can produce some really good quality pictures.


CONCLUSION

Overall, I'm very pleased with this camera. For the price I don't think you can complain. The camera also comes with a year guarantee, which I hadn't perviously mentioned. The battery life is very good. Will last all day on a heavy use day out. The weight I have to say is my real issue with it. For a compact camera it's fairly weighty. Also it's a silver box, if you want a pretty little camera this isn't it. Built for function only. Which suits me fine!

Summary: A very good value camera

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