Agfa ePhoto CL20

Review Date
December 30, 2002

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
0-1 years

Visitors rate this review
3.67 of 5, 3 votes

Reviewed by
Jon , Beginner

Price Paid
$80.00 at Dixons

Summary
This camera is unpredictable. I find I can take a picture of the same scene seconds apart and get wildly varying results. Now I make sure that I snap the same image twice or more if I really need the shot. On the whole I think it may just be worth £30 but no more. Fun to play with but don't rely on it.

Strengths
Webcam facility. Memory size is upgradeable. Cheapish. Would not be too sad if I lost it.

Weaknesses
Inconsistent exposure. Agfa's driver is flaky on XP

Customer Service
Never used it. No stable XP driver available on the site

Review Date
September 30, 2001

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
0-1 years

Visitors rate this review
2.60 of 5, 5 votes

Reviewed by
littlestuee , Casual , from wolverhampton

Price Paid
$100.00 at currys

Summary
a good camera- in theory...
it is clearly the best in its price range exept i bought 3 different camereas same model, and all 3 broke...they either loose pictures, or the flash dosent work ..

Strengths
-3 resoloutions
-cheap
-chepest 1.3 megapixle camera around

Weaknesses
-faulty product
-discontinued line

Similar Products Used
None

Customer Service
bad

Review Date
September 15, 2001

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
0-1 years

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 2 votes

Reviewed by
balage , Intermediate , from Gyor, Hungary

Price Paid
$220.00 at Szintézis Kft.

Summary
It' an affordable camera for this price. Easy to use, lightweight. You can mount it to a standrad camera tripod. Can take night shots. Best picture quality is in daylight. Don't let the sun go into the lens, because it could cause a red tint on the right side of the picture (sometimes).

Strengths
Lightweight, long battery life (not using the flash), easy to use, good picture quality, video recording (through USB), webcam feature

Weaknesses
The camero doesn't work well with those mainboards which has 4 USB ports. The flash only works correctly between 1,5-2,5 meters.

Similar Products Used
Agfa ePhoto 307, Agfa ePhoto 1280

Customer Service
Online, fast, but heaven''t solved my problem

Review Date
August 23, 2001

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
1 Month

Visitors rate this review
3.67 of 5, 3 votes

Reviewed by
Stefan , Beginner , from Gothenburg

Summary
The AGFA CL20 is a simple camera. Anyone can take pictures with it, and I am satisfied with the results (you can see some pictures from our vacation in the Netherlands on hem.passagen.se/mberge/privatbilder/Vacation.html).
Of all the more than 300 pictures I took during the vacation, only about 10-15 were under-exposed or otherwise "defect".
The picture quality can be set to 1280x960, 1024x768 or 640x480 pixels. In the two higher modes the pictures turn out just as good as on most compact cameras using ordinary film. Considering the price of the camera this is very good. (I had a G-Smart 350 before and it wasn´t even close to this one!)

From startup it is ready to take pictures in about 2 seconds. If you turn it off after saving the picture, which takes 2-7 seconds depending on size, the batteries (two LR6(AA) alkaline) will last for at least 150 pictures (without using the flash).
With a 32MB Compact Flash you get about
190/280/660 pictures depending on picture size.
A (300kB/s) USB connection makes downloading to the computer easy and fast.
The camera comes with a package of both nice and useful software, too.

Strengths
Simple to use. (Perfect first digital camera.) Small. Picture quality matches normal compact cameras using film. (See our homepage) Easy to set up. Fast downloading of pictures to computer. Good battery lifetime (if you remember to turn the camera off). Useful software.

Weaknesses
In too weak light (for example candle light or low dimmer setting) the pictures become grainy and sometimes even blurred. The flash has a short span: 1.5-2.5 meters.

Similar Products Used
G-Smart 350 (more like a toy compared to the Agfa) and ePhoto CL30 (eats batteries for breakfast and USB not functional on Windows ME)

Review Date
July 24, 2001

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
1 Month

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 1 votes

Reviewed by
sven , Intermediate , from edinburgh

Summary
first of all,thanx to this site for helping me immensly in finding the right digi camera,though some slightly more in depth reviewing could help.
i got the camera going right out of the box and found it as easy as one would expect from the price range..but..i tried to get IT to take video but i may have a faulty copy...no go...what you can do is take lo-res pix fairly quickly or very good hi-res pix,load into the computer, and play with the software which has become my main graphics editor.mind you,put aside a bit more for a lithium or nickel metal hydrate battery and recharger pack 'cause this baby sucks up juice when uploading onto computer,even though USB should have its own power....anyway..not all its pumped up to be but a great handy digicam and software package for the price.i won't be returning it but i would have gone for 2 or 3 times zoom if i had known instead of the video that i was hoping for.
also, the 1 minute auto-off is a good idea,but you have to press a function button regularly to keep it on while uploading or it will turn off during file transfer,sometimes crashing my comp..

Strengths
sturdy and easy design
good pix if you don't move
good software
3 res settings
flash

Weaknesses
video ability is not what it suggests
eats batteries on USB
no zoom

Similar Products Used
cool i-cam(useless!)