|
Reviewed by
datasegment
, Casual
Price Paid
$110.00
at www.dabs.com
Summary
We've been without a camera for a while (since I 'misplaced' our Fujifilm FinePix a while back) and I decided to check out some of the new multi-purpose devices. I chose the Aiptek DV3 (the DV2's successor) as my first 'weapon of choice' and must say I have mixed feelings about the beast.
The package is quite impressive with an overall 'James Bond' feel to the quick and easy activation and use of the device, with very few controls to get to grips with. You're limited to the following main controls:
* Snapshot button.
* Video button.
* zoom/menu wheel+button.
* LCD on/off
* Card eject.
The model I received was gold in colour and I was surprised at how plastic the device feels. There's a real feel of fragility about the device that makes one wary of exposing the device to anything more than gentle pressure. This is probably a good thing as the shots I've taken so far rely on a great deal of hand stability to deliver anything even slightly viewable.
The options are simple. You have three resolutions, two quality settings, two video output format selections and a manual standard/macro setting for the tiny lense. Since pictures are stored in compressed JPG format on the internal device, these options improve the quality of the images taken and therefore the memory they require on the storage device. As a test I set the camera up to the highest quality, highest resolution (2048x1536) and shot a still that when stored took 1.19MB. After resetting the camera to the lowest quality, lowest resolution, the file only took 268KB, 1 fifth of the space. The results at both settings were satisfactory with the test scene I chose (fairly busy with ihgh contrasts to really test the compression) with very little between the two quality-wise so careful selection of resolution can substantially increase the number of shots you can store on one memory card.
Pictures are stored on Compact Flash media and you can get (on average) 40 photos on the supplied 32Mb card at the highest settings. The benefit of using compact flash is the relative cheapness of this medium at the moment with a 128Mb card setting you back in the region of £20~25uk. This is half the price of some of the other media types.
The extras are also impressive. Video, audio etc but I've run out of space so see specs for details.
Strengths
Quick to set up, easy to learn the controls and comfortable to use. The ability to immediately connect to any TV with a composite and audio input (or scart with converter) in any NTSC or PAL region is a great addition. Video capture is available (at limited res) with the inbuilt microphone providing the audio for the stored AVI.
Use as a web camera and audio device is satisfactory, meeting all the current standards and allowing a good deal of filtering to be applied including flicker reduction for the two main TV standards should you wish to capture for conversion to VCD/SVCD/DVD format later.
Weaknesses
Picture quality is most dependant upon the lighting in the scene you wish to photograph. Outdoor or full daylight scenes are wonderful, indoor or shady scenes are extremely pixellated and of low contrast. This would have been aided by the one missing item... A built in flash!
Video is limited to 10FPS at 320x240 which is a shame, although the quality is good enough for web content creation and to capture those spontaneous moments that occur during family gettogethers/outings etc.
Similar Products Used
None so far, although I imagine most devices in this vein will work in a similar manner. I would dearly love to see a version of this camera with a flash facility (for still pictures) or some kind of
Customer Service
Haven't spoken to them yet as the only problems I have had with the device are down to the limitations listed above. I will contact Aiptek about the possibility of including a flash device or other solution to the sensitivity (or lack of) the camera in lowlight scenarios and possibly post back any information i receive.
|
4 of 5
4 of 5