Pandigital 7-Inch Digital Photo Frame with 2 Interchangeable Frames

This is the first digital frame I bought. I know the resolution won't be anywhere close to a computer LCD monitor, but I was still very disappointed when I turned on the frame. The LCD screen is strangely long and narrow (resolution 1440x234), so a normal photo only occupies a small part of the screen, making this product effectively a 4" frame with a lot of black space on both sides. The resolution of the photos is very bad, and photos look a little distorted as well.

Pros:

1) Plug and Play, easy to set up.

2) Exchangeable frames included.

Cons:

1) Very poor resolution.

2) Strange LCD shape. Advertised as a 7", but effectively a 4-5" frame with a lot of unused LCD pixels.

I returned this product and bought a Westinghouse DPF0561 5.6" Frame instead. I like the Westinghouse a lot more. It is even easier to set up, photos look good and actually larger than on the Pandigital 7" frame, and viewing angle is great.

Having recently built a digital picture frame from scratch, I was excited when someone gave us this frame for xmas, to see what a commercial frame would be like. After using it for a few weeks, I have to say that if it wasn't a present I would return it and get one that was built by people who had some sense of innovation.

The Good:

* Screen is bright, images look great

* Resolution is only 640x480 but it will play images up to 10 megapixel and they look pretty good to me. Doesn't seem like you need much higher resolution than that on such a small screen.

* Computer connection worked great I plugged it into my xp box, all drivers installed automatically without the need for a cd and then 4 new removable drives showed up. It would be nice if only the drives with a card in them showed up but this is a minor issue.

The bad:

My main complaint about this picture frame is that the people who made it obviously had no interest in making the sort of product that you enjoy using because it is clear that the inventor appreciated why such a product would be fun to have or what makes it an improvement over what was there before. If I bought this frame in 1999 or if it cost $50, I could have forgiven it for the poor design, but in 2007, for $180, it is completely unacceptable. We live in the future here people, get with the program!

I have not used other frames on the market, but given that you can buy an old tablet pc with a 12" screen on ebay for $70, strap it into a cheap frame and make your own, pc-based screen that works 100 times better than this frame, just by running a screen saver for under $150, I'd say this frame is not worth the money at all. This screen just doesn't deliver the goods for the price.

Some details:

* Menu system is insanely poorly designed for instance, you have to be in a specific menu to adjust the system settings pushing the "setup" button at any other time does nothing despite the fact the the setting are global

* Remote control only works when you are standing about a foot from the computer and pointing it directly at the tiny IR hole in the front of the screen.

* Screen only works as a horizontal frame there is no way set it up as a vertical frame (i.e. as a 480x640 frame) because the frame automatically rotates vertical images and there is no way to turn this "feature" off.

* The slowest slideshow speed setting is 1 minute between images. Your only other option is to have it just be on 1 image that doesn't change.

* No way to connect remotely to the computer or to easily

get images onto the frame without having to take the frame to where your computer is or go through a tedious process with a memory card an the crappy menu system.

* Good viewings angles are limited but this is a general problem with lcd screens

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We loaded up some photos and they looked blocky and bad. Immediately returned them. These were photos taken on a Digital Rebel and look great on the computer and in print.

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Just bought this photo frame over the weekend. I sat down and downloaded a bunch of photos off my computer onto this frame. It works great. I haven't tried the MP3 music part of it or hooking it up to the TV, but as a digital photo frame...it is worth the money. The cheapest price I have seen it was on sale at Kohls for $99.99 on Power Hour sale.

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I bought this as a gift for my mother and it proved not only to be of fairly poor quality but also very frustrating to use. The issues are as follows:

The screen is low resolution (480 x 234) and a wider aspect ratio than standard digital cameras. The frame crops pictures to fit, which means peoples heads are often cut off.

The instructions are very poorly written.

Copying files from a memory card to the internal memory is a very painful process in which the file must be selected using the remote control, then you must go through a long menu of items to get to 'copy file', after this an 'are you sure?' dialog comes up before the file is actually copied. One reviewer says there is a 'copy all' option while another reviewer says there is no such option. I was not able to find this option in the instructions or using the system. If the option exists it is obscure and not documented at least on the model we got.

We tried to option of copying files to the internal memory from 2 different computers. On an Intel based Macintosh computer we never got it to appear at all. Using a Dell running Windows after a few tries and rebooting we could get it to appear as an external drive but were never able to successfully copy any files.

The whole thing appears to be constructed of the very cheapest plastic available

Canon PowerShot SD980IS 12MP Digital Camera with 5x Ultra Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom

The SD980 camera is pretty small, and will fit in almost any pocket. Because it doesn't have any significant protrusions, it is easy to take it out of the pocket without accidentally pulling out other things as well. It feels good in the hand, and I personally don't have a problem with the lack of a hand grip or viewfinder. The body is almost all metal, and has a nice feel.

Without boring you any further, let's see the cons and pros of this camera:

The pros:

1. 24 mm wide angle. This is very impressive, and very few compact cameras have it. What 24mm means is that you can take pictures in tighter spaces, take pictures of large groups without moving back too much, and nice landscape shots.

2. The corner sharpness is great. Almost all of the other cameras that I viewed picture samples of have very soft corners at wide angles. Soft corners means that the details in the 4 corners of the picture are poor, and if you view the image at 100%, or if you need large prints, this will show.

3. At ISO 80, the picture is pretty clean. Now you have to understand that most if not all the cameras that use a 12MP 1/2.3" sensor use the same sensor, probably made by Sony. So everything else being equal, the noise is the same for all of them. What is different is how the camera tries to remove the noise (noise reduction). Even at the base ISO (80), there is some noise reduction, which gets rid of most of the noise, but with it some of the detail is lost as well. Canon generally does a pretty good job keeping most of the detail and remove most of the noise (again, at ISO 80). Each camera manufacturer does it differently, and I like the Canon way best. At higher ISOs, even at 200, the detail start disappearing, and more noise is visible. I would not use an ISO over 80, unless if I really, really have to. I'd rather have a low shutter speed and rely on the IS feature, which works pretty well, and take multiple shots hoping that at least one is good.

4. Even though there are no manual controls, you still have AE (auto exposure) and AF (auto focus) locks, both in the still picture and movie mode. You will need to read the manual for how to use them, they are hard to find. AE is enabled in a different way in the still and movie mode. So with AE lock you can sort of simulate a manual shutter speed, by pointing the camera to an area that fits your needs (such as the sky or ground) and engage the AE lock.

5. HD movie, which looks pretty good. It is not using MJPEG, which means that you can get a smaller file size, so more movie can be recorded on an SD card. However, the movie might not play on older (slower) computers. I didn't try to play it on a netbook, but I would not expect it to work well on netbooks.

The cons:

1. There is no hardcover manual. You can get it online, or from the CD that comes with the camera, but it is nice to be able to take a quick reference guide with you in the field, at least until you get used to the camera controls. They wasted a paper with stupid warnings about copyright violations and a useless "getting started" manual, but the hard to find things are in the PDF file. The really useful things, such as AE LOCK, AE Lock during the movie, and AF lock are very hard, if not impossible to find without the PDF file. First I thought those options are not even available in the movie mode, until I read the manual.

2. The macro mode is not very useful, because the minimum focus distance is 5 CM (2"), at 24mm. At such a wide angle, the captured area is pretty big, so you can't get very close.

3. No manual controls, no RAW support. Sure, most people don't need those features, but they don't cost anything, and Canon already has them, they just decided to leave them out. The maximum shutter speed is only 15 seconds, even though it could be as high as 30 minutes. Sure, the image would be noisy, and the amp-glow would get in the way, but why not let people make their own decision whether they accept those trade-offs or not?

4. You can't zoom in the movie mode. That's because the zoom motor is too loud, and it would get recorded in the movie. However, there are situations where you are not interested in the sound, so it would be nice for Canon to give more freedom to the customers.

Some other things to consider:

1. Even though many people think that a 5X zoom camera goes pretty far in magnifying distant objects, what the 5X means is the ration between the focal range in mm. In this case, it is 120mm/24mm. 120mm is a magnification level of just 2.4 times, compared to the human eye (which has a focal distance equivalent of ~50mm). This means that if you are interested in taking pictures of birds or wildlife, this camera might not be good for you.

2. As with any other 12MP camera on a 1/2.3" sensor, anything above the base ISO will be noisy. ISO 1600 is almost unusable, ISO 3200 is even more unusable and the image size is 1600x1200 pixels.

3. The lens is pretty slow at the tele end.

4. There is some low to moderate purple fringing, but better than some other cameras. I am pretty picky about purple fringing and I still like this camera.

To sum it up, this is a very good camera for almost everyone, unless if you need good macro, wildlife, or low light capabilities. I really wish Amazon allowed a 10 stars system, because this camera deserves 9 out of 10. However, I am going to give it 5 stars, partially because I think that despite some of it's flaws, it is a very good camera, and partially because some previous reviewers gave it unfair ratings.

[edited on October 11]

Now that I ported CHDK to some extent so that I can get RAW files, it seems that the camera does some cheating.

At the wide angle, the picture is cropped and some distortion correction is done, then the image is UPSAMPLED (interpolation) to 12MP. That's not very good. However, there is a good side to this, if you use the RAW image (which is pretty distorted, but can be fixed on the PC) then you get an even wider angle, about 22mm or so.

Ok so after reading so many negative reviews about this product, I decided to get my hand on one to find out. Lucky for me a close friend of mine bought it and I got a chance to run through it for a while. After playing with it for hours, I figured out that most of the negative reviews on this product are simply ridiculous and make no sense at all. So here is what I manage to work out with this spectacular camera.

Starting with the EXTERIOR:

The body of the SD980 is sleek, stylish, narrow and thin just like that of the SD960. It feels quite firm and durable for its size. Nothing less than SD800 or SD880 since some people mistaken this body as plastic but it is NOT plastic. The front cover and back is metallic and only the rims around camera has a rubbery feel to it. The buttons got cut short to only 2 buttons for playback and menu along with a dial like all recent SD series. So pretty much after a few minutes I got use to this camera like I was on any of the SD800 or SD880 and SD960. For those with larger hand, holding this camera with 1 hand is definitely will be somewhat of a challenge. There is a slight wavy grid near the playback button that suppose to serve as a grip but it only works for those with smaller hands. My hands are not too big or too small so I could actually use this camera with one hand without any problem.

The MENU & FEATURES:

Canon has replaced their menu with something new. Quite simple, pretty clear where everything suppose to be. All the shooting mode are together, ISO is easy set. Also has custom white balance nearby for those who know how to use it. Everything is push to the left side of the screen and all you have to do is scroll up and down and enter the sub menu to adjust the setting. I really like this layout since it somewhat give the camera a more stylish look on the menu instead of filling up your whole screen with menu and words. Also, Ive seen some of the previous reviews complaining about taking 2-4 steps to delete a picture. FOR GOODNESS SAKE PEOPLE READ THE ON SCREEN TIPS!!! It only take 1 easy step to delete the photo! On your playback screen, if you want to delete a photo all you have to do is press on the screen, drag your finger downward and to the left (backward L shape) and it will delete the image!!! Why would you go into the menu and go down to delete and then enter the sub-menu to delete? Ok so they DO have that option too but using the screen its not that hard! Canon made this camera so versatile that a monkey can work it. So you can scroll through the images in 3 different ways, how can ANYONE complain about that? In playback mode you can simply use the DIAL to press back and forth and navigate through the pictures the traditional way. Then you have the touch screen to slide the photo left right, tap to zoom in and double tap to zoom out. Also you got the motion sensing function, shake the camera up or down to change the image. 1 hand user can do this easily! Same for the Delete functions, there are 2 to 3 ways to can delete an image. So take your time and play with it a bit more to find out all of the functions.

The TOUCHSCREEN:

Canon decided to throw in a bonus touchscreen for this particular model and I must say its something new for the SD series. At first, you might have some awkward feeling since its not as sensitive as iPhone, however this is one of the more recent style of touchscreen where it require a bit more pressure so that you wont ACCIDENTALLY change any setting. Most of the phones now are this type of touchscreen not the iphone touchscreen. The recent Nokia N97 and other new phones like samsung touchscreen ones also used this kind of LCD that require a bit more pressure. After using it for a while I was already use to the touchscreen and flipping photos back and forth quite comfortably. The only problem Ive seen with the touch screen so far is the touch focus, sometime when your focus point is so small the camera dont know what you are trying to focus on but after 2 or 3 tries it does focus. Im getting the hang of it though. Again, as I was mentioning before, the touchscreen is a bonus to the dial pad, it allows you to do what a dial pad can also do but FASTER. So you can delete image, scroll through images, set flash, focus point, anything else with ease by using the touchscreen. I love this camera for this particular feature too.

IMAGE QUALITY:

The main portion of this review, image quality. So some of previous reviews mentioned about fuzzy photos. I dont know what you did wrong but I have my SD880, my sister's SD800 and this D980 side by side shooting the same thing. When I open them up the images is about the same!!! Sharpness is pretty much the same I would say in some cases the SD980 is sharper! and the color is more vibrant than the other 2. Noise isnt so bad at 400 as few has mentioned. You must understand this is a 12mp, so more flaws will be seen at larger size, but to downsize to the same resolution, the images from the SD980 is probably better than the SD800 at most of the time. I have some amazing shots came out during my test play with this thing. The only "Fuzziness" I can see is from the hand shake at slow shutter or no flash mode. But even then i rarely get those, I do have very steady hand from shooting DSLR so I can hand hold this camera at 1 sec. I just love how I can use touch focus on anything anytime and it works well for me. This thing has so much manual functions that Im starting to like it more than SD880 or SD800. So there were a few comments about not having MANUAL. So I checked the SD880 and SD800 manual functions, and this camera can do pretty much everything the same in P mode! It can set Flash, ISO, Long Shutter, EXP Compensation, Slow Sync, Shooting mode, metering, WB, Macro with touch focus is NICE, you can even set how long the long shutter can be, how many shots to take when its on timer mode! Try doing that with the SD800! With such flexible settings I can get some really good images from playing around with these features. If you've only shot AUTO and wrote a review on this camera, I think you should give the camera another look, seriously. The Video is out of the question, crisp and wicked nice! Someone said you cant zoom during video and you hear the motor of the zoom. That is WRONG! YOU CAN ZOOM, for 5x optical, you only hear the motor zooming when you kick in the Digital zoom! I always avoid digital zoom anyways. So The HD video is a plus on this thing. 24mm wide allow me to get some really nice shot, I love the wide angle shot and very useful for me in some cases. Playing with ISO 400-800 I noticed the SD800 and SD880 also have really bad noise as well. To be fair, I also tried resize all of them to the same size of 8mp and sd980 is showing some very impressing image quality at that size. They are point and shoot, obviously they aren't going to deliver amazing photos like 5DmarkII at 3200 ISO. So I think we should cut it some slack and move on with it. It's doing fine and I think this one deliver what canon promised.

FINAL THOUGHT:

So Ive only used this camera from my friend in approximately 2-3 hours and I manage to work out everything he was complaining about (multiple steps to delete, lack of manual, reviewing images, so forth..). Now that he learned more about his new camera he no longer complain about it. He started to use the touchscreen more often as well. I like it so much I just ordered one for myself prior to writing this review. I just think people need to give their gadgets a bit more time as they explore the thing. Just because its a point and shoot doesnt mean you can think you've figure it all out in that first 10 minutes of using it. This camera pack a lot of punch. A lot of features are there but Ive not mentioned them like how you can sort out images, favorite them, tag them, sort it out into categories and folders, and locking images so on. It's an amazing camera. As a person who shoot with a DSLR I must admit this thing is doing great. After I read so many negative reviews here I went on other professional photographers websites who own this particular camera to research more about it and there even was someone who said the image quality is so good he ignore everything else bad about the camera. So again, give it another look before you write the review. The camera was made so that you can have lots of options to work one function. I really dig the touchcreen + buttons combination, excellent thinking from Canon. Overall I give this camera a 5 because it's excellent in image quality and ease of use, battery life isnt too bad either. I also gave it a 5 since I think people who gave it a 1 is not being fair to the camera. This camera can easily take the top standing in its class.

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First of all let me just say that I really wanted to love this camera. The design looks great, it feels solid in your hands, the wide-screen touch screen is fun to use, and the ultra wide angle lens opens up tons of creative possibilities. Sadly I fell out of love very quickly after taking some test shots with this camera.

I compared my test shots to my previous pocket cam, a 6MP Casio which produces satisfactory photos in good light and poor photos in low light conditions.

I love the twilight photos I was able to take with this camera while walking around Union Square in San Francisco. The colors were great, photos had good detail, the street lights sparkled and most of the photos came out relatively sharp thanks to the stabilized lens. I was thrilled that the photos were much better than what I was able to produce with the Casio.

Indoors in the evening the camera work just as well for such a small camera, I took very few flash photos, but all the available light photos I took in a dimly lit living room turned out very well for such a small camera. Sure there was plenty of noise if you looked at the low light photos up close, but over all the immages were ery pleasing to the eye when viewed on a 1080P, 52" HDTV.

Then I took the camera outside on a sunny day. Colors were decent, but the photos were very soft as if the lens were dirty. This was especially noticeable when taking photos of trees, flowers, grass.... anything detailed looked blurred, buildings and people looked fine. Daytime photos also lacked contrast, giving them a very flat quality. I tired different settings, I activated the enhanced contrast setting, it helped a little. I activated the foliage setting and it improved the detail as well, but my old Casio still produced better photos in auto mode when compared side by side on my HDTV. I left the camera on auto ISO mode and most of the daytime photos were taken at 80 to 120 ISO.

Canon made a good camera when they designed the SD980, I just think they stuffed too many pixels into such a little camera and as a result the photos are very noisy, lack detail, and exhibit poor dynamic range.

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Do NOT make conclusions on this camera based on your first impressions! After initially using this camera, I prepared a review that was going to blast it into the ground, and I was ready to return it. I decided to hold off and play with it some more, and I'm glad I did.

Background:

I'm no avid photographer, nor am I a digital camera expert. I owned a Canon SD800 for a 2+ years and loved it. All of my friends have Canons and they were all impressive (SD550, SD790, SD1100, etc), but the SD800 was the perfect camera to me. Perfect size, weight, comfort, speed, functionality, and durability. It was extremely practical yet very efficient, all the while managing to look stylish and produce great results. I've come to expect these characteristics from all Canons, so I had pretty high expectations when I bought the latest and supposed-to-be greatest in the Elph series.

Picture quality: Out of the box, you might be disappointed. The Auto mode is underwhelming at best, and at worst, just bad in indoor/low light situations. You might as well not even use Auto mode. Thanks to some very helpful tips from another reviewer ("Radu Privantu"), with the right settings, this Digital Elph can take spectacular photos. Turn down the Sharpness and Contrast, and play around with the exposure. Also, like Radu P pointed out in his review, your best bet is to remain in the lower ISO settings (I have great results with ISO 80). These settings have consistently produced the best results.

Long Shutter mode makes shooting good low-light photos a reality, provided you have a steady hand and a steady subject.

Design: From most angles, this camera is as sleek and stylish as any other Canon. From the back, the overall design and specifically the button area looks very plain and almost toy-ish. It has a nice size and weight to it (though it is slightly longer and more narrow than other cameras). A few things though make me feel like I have to handle the camera with extreme caution. For one, there are no distinct grooves or anything to rest against your fingers. Also, the texture of the camera itself has very little friction or grip, so it feels like it can slip out of your hands. At least on the SD800 I could use the mode dial as a grip point for my right thumb, but this camera has no such luxury. There is the D-pad, but it'd be hard to use that as the grip point because I'd accidentally press a button. I don't see myself taking too many one-handed snapshots with this one because of this.

Menu system: They swapped their old tried and true menu system (cross-style, red and black) for something that is little more aesthetically pleasing but slightly less practical. Some things you're used to finding in one area will be found in another. Not a problem for the most part but it may require a few extra menu sequences. For instance, the delete function (using the D-Pad) requires a 4 button sequence (SET-->SET-->RIGHT-->SET) versus the previous 2 button sequence (DOWN-->SET, or was it DOWN-->RIGHT-->SET?). Not a huge deal, but after using Canons for so long it might be difficult to adjust.

Also worth noting, navigating through the menus or scrolling through photos is not as snappy as previous Elphs.

Touchscreen: I'm not crazy about touchscreen gadgets myself because of how impractical they are versus a set of keys or buttons. That said, I found it functional and efficient for the most part. I opted for the SD980 because it offered both the D-Pad and the touchscreen controls (kudos to Canon for that), but I do prefer using the D-Pad. I didn't have any problem bouncing back and forth between the two like some online reviews said they did.

I originally wanted to call the touchscreen what it is, a blatant gimmick... But it's much more than that. The touch focus feature is a godsend! Great for shots that you can't count on the autofocus to render. The touchscreen also allows for some on-the-fly adjustments, such as exposure, though I wish they would've utilized more of the screen real estate (along the black side bars) to add more on-the-fly adjustments. Would've liked more flexibility with the four Street Fighter-esque playback gestures. They're customizable, but they don't offer a large array of options you can set it to.

The LCD quality is average. At 3" you expect to be blown away with a bright, crisp picture, but output can be fuzzy. This is to be expected though, and it is how most touchscreen gadgets are.

The screen itself is a smudge magnet. And it doesn't sink in very far from the surface of the camera, leaving it more vulnerable to scratches. Not sure how scratch-resistant it is but I'm not going to use mine to test it ;). I bought a 3" screen protector but it ended up being way too small, so be wary of purchasing one.

There is also some light bleeding out of the edges of the screen. Not really noticeable unless the onscreen picture is dark.

Active Display: Useless piece of technology. I'd rather Canon not waste their time and effort to give us the ability to flick our camera around like a Wii remote just to scroll to the next image. It takes impractical to a whole new level. Yeah, it will ooh and ahh your friends, but I could never imagine using it when I just want to scroll through pictures. Especially taking into account that the camera has little grip (and it's not like you're always going to have the wriststrap on at all times). Someone just might end up tossing this thing into a wall. This feature doesn't directly take anything away from the product, and you can even turn it off, but I'd rather Canon put their efforts towards something a bit more useful.

Battery life: Decent, but haven't taken it through a real world test of all-day use. So far, I'd say it's what you'd expect in battery life when dealing with a large touchscreen and HD video. Something else to note is that the battery and in turn the camera get HOT. Not burning hot, but I don't remember older Canons getting this hot.

Video: Pretty HD. It does what it needs to do. Contrary to popular belief, (1) you CAN zoom, and (2) you can record longer than 10 minutes, depending on the size of your memory card of course. Also something to note, the sound that is recorded while operating the zoom dial isn't a dealbreaker, but know that it is there and it is noticeable.

Final thoughts:

The Canon SD980 does have some shortcomings, but it also does a ton of things right. Any product should perform at its best right out of the box, but don't let that take away too much from what this product's best could be with the right tweaks, because it stands up admirably against other upper tier point-n-shoots. The touchscreen turned out to be more than just a gimmick, with 'touch focus' being the best feature any of the Digital Elphs have to offer, IMO.

I recommend this camera to anyone WILLING to give it a chance and not write it off after the first 10 minutes of use. You won't regret it.

Other thoughts:

I think many of the bad reviews out there are a bit unfair. Does it really deserve 1 out of 5 stars just because it doesn't meet YOUR expectations? Only an off-brand Walmart-exclusive camera that takes no better pictures than my cell phone should warrant a 1 star rating. Taking into consideration what this camera offers compared to other PnS cameras with similar specs, no legitimate review should be under 3 stars. I know everyone has their own opinion, but look at it realistically. If you feel this camera deserves 1 star or even 2, what would you rate the aforementioned off-brand Walmart camera? Please use perspective when reviewing. I officially rate this camera a 4/5, but I'm going to give it a 5 to balance out the ridiculous 1-star ratings.

***EDIT 9/17/09 Uploaded some sample pictures to Amazon's gallery. I was just messing around with some of the different modes.

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I am a commercial photographer for 10+ years and I buy these pocket cameras because I want a camera with me at all times. They are Wonderful up until this one. I've had the 500, 600, 630, 800, 870 and now the 980. LOVE them ALL except the 980.

I bought this to replace my 870 which has been the best (IMHO) of the Canon line so far.

I liked the HD video idea, loved the wider lens however.... I got one and sent it back realizing the IS really doesn't work. the 870 was amazing hand held at 1". The 980 is not working, so I returned it Amazon's return is wonderful. The new one same thing, so it is either me or they are both broke or Canon went backwards on their Image Stabilization.

Picture quality I assumed would be better with the Digic 4 chip not near as vivid as the 870 chip. The images I find are "gray" in color not contrast.

Overall I can't wait for another Canon wide angle to come out so I can replace this. I would wait to buy or buy another model. The 980 is a disappointment and Canon should kill it and update it. My experience and 2 cents.

Larger 2.8" LCD Door Peephole Viewer Camera and Monitor

I got this unit from my brother for Christmas and I just love it'

My Mom and my kids can now see who is at the door before they open the door to strangers

It has a very clear picture and look like it belongs on my door . Very good looking inside the door and from the outside you cant tell its a camera. Looks like a regular peephole.

I installed it myself in less then 10 min.

I was curious and checked out other similar units on amazon like this and found none of them looked as good as the one I got. I dont know how well other door viewers work but I can say this unit looks and works great.

I would recomend it.

I put Duracell batteries when I got. It's been almost 2 months now and it works great. I haven't replaced the batteris yet.

Visitors are well visible in the screen. The unit is installed indoors.

Something that is not mentioned in the product description is that the shaft of the viewer lens that connects to the device is adjustable and will accomodate thick doors (it's a screwable part). They even provide 2 adjustable shafts 2 thumbs up!

My 2 negative notes are:

The instruction sheet is all pictograms and does not give certain key details such as the drill bit size to use for drilling the whole in the door.

The battery compartment cover looksflimsy. You can actually see it bend because of the underlying batteries pushing against it. If this cover breaks I don't think it will be possible to operate the device.

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I live in a condo in a busy area. I installed this LCD digital camera peephole replacing a regular peephole. The picture on the 2.8 inch screen is much clearer and easier to view than the tiny fisheye view that it replaces. I have an outside lighted entry way to my condo door. The screen adapts from bright daylight to dim nighttime light. The picture is clear both day and night. The camera is actually inside the peephole. Other products available has the camera mounted inside the door, facing into the peephole, rather than inside the peephole. The cover for the batteries is located on top side of the indoor device so that the batteries can be changed without removing the device from the door. According to directions, the device will give an onscreen warning when the batteries need replacement.

My original 1/2 inch hole had to be made a little larger to fit the new peephole. I used a uni-bit to shave the hole a fraction larger. I mounted the outside camera peephole part first, and adjusted the peephole camera until the picture was level with horizon. I then completed mounting the inside monitor to the door. The entire project took me about 1/2 hour because I knew ahead of time that I needed to shave the hole a little larger. I was prepared with the drill and uni-bit.

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Just moved into a new house and the peephole was so blurry you couldn't see anything, I took it apart and it's just the crappiest little plastic bits so I tossed it in the trash and ordered this. Very happy with it. Easy to install and you can actually see detail, not just some big shadow at the door.

One note on the install, if you are replacing an existing part like I did you will probably need to drill out the hole to a bigger size. Not a problem except the size needed is slightly larger than 1/2 inch (0.55) and most drill sets and stores don't have bigger than 1/2 bits. I ended up buying a unibit which worked fine as the door was hollow and I just needed to drill the wood on both sides.

I like the fact the batteries can be changed without removing the unit from the door. Also the silver "V" metal part in the box a tool for tighting the nut that screws onto the lense. Instructions are ok but it still took me awhile to figure out what it was for since there isn't a picture of it anywhere.

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Installs easily and viewing screen shows wider angle. The problem I have is on a covered (enclosed) porch, the face is not as clearly shown due to the back lighting effect. I'm going to install a motion sensor light above the door to see if this solves the problem. I don't know if the motion sensor will work on the covered porch in daylight even though it is darker than the outside background.

UPDATE: I ordered a Mr. Beams Model MB371 motion sensor LED light. It comes with a remote control for operating the light manually. I mounted it above the door so it shines down on anyone standing in front of the door and at night it illuminates the face for easy recognition. The instructions say it only works in complete darkness, but I found a FAQ on their website that says they will either modify when you order to remove the ambient light sensor or they will email the instruction on how to do it yourself. It is very easy to do, and solved my problem. The additional remote control allows you to turn the light on in case you don't make it to the door in the 30 seconds before the light turns off automatically and there has been no movement to keep it on.

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Motorola Additional Camera for Motorola MBP36 Baby Monitor, Brown with White

First thing I want to say is that this camera also works with the MBP33 baby monitor as well. We bought the MBP33 baby monitor for our 3 month old and we bought an additional camera to keep in our toddler's room. We are pretty happy with it so far. I love the two way communication function and the room temperature feature. My only complaint is that we keep the camera across the room on his dresser, and the night vision light is not very strong so we can not see clearly all the way to his bed. It is about 7 ft from the dresser to the bed. If we adjust the light contrast on the parent unit we can see, but it is pretty dark and grainy. We previously has a Summer Infant video monitor and did not have this problem at all, but then again, the night vision feature broke after 2 years on that monitor. We keep the other camera above the crib in our baby's room and haven't had any problems at all. Overall, we are happy with the monitor and the additional camera.

This camera was purchased for my Motorola MBP36 Baby Monitor which only comes with one camera. I needed a second camera for a new baby. Previous to purchasing the Motorola MBP36, I had used baby monitors from Levana, Lorex, MobiCam, Samsung, and Summer Infant (my search for the perfect one was a little excessive). This Motorola is one of the better ones I've used.

The setup was super-easy, and it worked flawlessly. It's the exact same camera that comes with the MBP36 set, so it swivels all around tilts, pans and zooms nicely as advertised. It can be placed on a nightstand, and it can be mounted to the wall. I have both cameras mounted to the wall, about 7-8 feet away from the crib. The night vision is excellent. If you have the MBP36 unit with camera, you know exactly what you are getting. I was pretty happy with the purchase.

About a month into using the unit it started to slowly lose the night vision feature. At first it was barely noticeable so I dismissed it; but another month in, it became pretty obvious that night vision was failing. Night vision was still working on the original camera (after months of use), but not on this additional camera (only about a month use). I swapped the two cameras between the rooms and tested them to confirm, and verified that night vision was gone on the second camera only. I probably got a defective unit.

As night vision is one of the key features I needed, this camera became very inconvenient...it basically functioned only as an audio monitor for the second room at night.

Thankfully, because I ordered from Amazon and this camera falls under the baby products 365-day return policy, Amazon replaced it at no charge. Order from Amazon if you want the peace of mind of a 365-day return guarantee. If you want 20% off the retail price, buy with a coupon from BBB, if there is one near you. I believe BBB has a good return policy as well.

I gave it 4-stars because the replacement is working well. I assume that the first camera I received was defective. If this replacement camera fails also, I will write an update to this review and revise the rating.

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Beware, you can't see or hear from two cameras linked two the same parent unit simultaneously. Hence, this really doesn't work as two monitors. Also, switching between two cameras involves pushing several buttons to select menus.

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My wife loves this camera. We had 2 different Lorex monitors in the past. Unfortunately, the power input connection on the Lorex is cheaply made and both broke within a year. Otherwise we liked them. However, This one is a whole nother level.

The PTZ feature is great. This camera will work with the 2.5 inch screen model, and the MBP33 additional camera will work with the 3.5in screen model. However the MBP33 camera does not have the Pan/tilt feature, so if you buy that one for the 3.5in screen, you will just get a stationary camera.

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Purchased this extra camera for our second child, and paired it as Cam 2 to the MBP36 which I had just purchased. Initially the picture and sound would come up on the monitor, I would be able to switch to Cam 1 and the picture and sound would also work, but going back to Cam 2 the signal would be lost and it would not show picture or sound, and I would have to pair it all over again. I spoke to the Motorola help line in the UK and they do not recommend pairing an extra camera to the monitor. So I ended up returning it and having to buy an new set of camera an monitor. Problem in that is if the 2 monitors are close to each other one would lose the signal!

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Canon DC22 2.2MP DVD Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom

While I have some reservations about this camcorder, I believe that it is the best mini-DVD recorder for most people.

Briefly: this camcorder is easy to use, can take decent pictures and excellent video at a reasonable price.

Number one on my list was that it needed to be easy enough for my technophobic wife. Operation is as simple as 1,2,3,4: Turn it on, put in a blank DVD, press record/stop, finalize the disc.

There are a plethora of manual controls if you want to go beyond auto mode. You can choose from two manual modes: scn & P. Scn is for an intermediate user who knows what the outside conditions are but isn't ready to control every aspect of shutter speed, white balance & so forth. There are 8 scn settings, including sports, snow, fireworks and night. The expert user can select P mode and can control even the most obscure settings. I prefer to use auto mode most of the time and when appropriate switch to scn.

Now, inspite of my 5-star rating, the DC22 isn't perfect. I'm very concerned that one of my kids will get ahold of it and it will be sionara. It is delicate. There is a lot of technology crammed into this small camera. Another gripe is that the joystick is difficult to use. You use the joystick frequently because it is the primary way to navigate the menu screens and change your settings in the function screens. I frequently have to repeatedly press down on the joystick before it will take. While these are major issues, I made my rating based on the competition.

Sony gets the ratings in most magazines. I disagree. Sony camcorder use propietary technology such as the Sony memory stick which you don't find at every Walmart & Target. Also, the reviews will tell you that the Sony's that offer still photography aren't much better than a cell phone. When it comes to the lense & the chip technology, Canon holds its own. And, personally the Canon feels better in my hand. But, you can be the judge of that.

Briefly, about the still quality: It is as good as you can find on a camcorder. However, the colors often appear more vibrant than they really are and the still detail is not as good as even a 3.2 megapixal Canon camera. I prefer the prints over a disposable, but I would rather have a Canon Powershot model for this duty.

Here are some other nice features. It uses mini-SD cards. You should have no trouble finding 1-2 gig cards that will handle 1,000-2,000 stills at one time. It includes a standard usb cable for transferring stills. It includes a cable that does have a proprietary camera end but the other end has standard AV attachments for plugging into a tv or other video device. With this cable you can transfer video data either way. It also has a rechargeable battery that lasts 1 1/2 hours and a power cable that can be used for recharging and for general operation of the camcorder.

As far as the media type, DVD-R, it is the standard. Why would anyone get a mini DVD camera that uses other formats? DVD-R is what will play on your home DVD player. If you recorded on DVD+R or even DVD+/-R DL (this recorder can use DVD-R DL) you would be limited to playing your DVD's on this DVD player or loading them onto your pc and editing them. If that's your gig, the editing software is easy to use and can create professional looking event DVD's.

I recommend this camcorder for most people. If you prefer to edit your videos and create a final product with the highest quality video possible, it is still no match for mini DV players. But lets face it, my wife wants to point and shoot and play it for friends without having to do a lot of work. And the last thing I want to do is sit at a pc for hours going over raw video footage in order to create semi-professional movies. Also, don't waste an extra $200 getting the DC40. The stills suffer from the same coloration issues so even though it offers 4.3 megapixals, it won't replace your still camera.

****Revised 1/30/07****

Per request, here is my take on DVD type. I prefer to use DVD-R at the 20 or 30 minute quality. There's very little difference in quality. However, if you attempt to record at the 60 minute/per disk quality, you will notice a difference. It's easy enough to change DVD's during filming. Just open it and stick a new one in. It takes 10-15 seconds before you can begin recording again, so you probably won't miss much. The reasons for choosing DVD-R over DVD-RW and DVD-R/RW DL are cost, durability and universality. DVD-R disks will play in any DVD player... not so with the DL disks. You will need a Dual Layer compatible player. DVD-RW degrades more particularly if you erase and re-record. The surface is softer because it is made to be burned to, erased and re-burned. Therefore there is a greater risk of data loss. Now you might wonder about erasing useless video and/or editing. If I want an edited video (which I usually don't), I would copy the raw footage to a pc and then edit and burn a new (preferably full-size) DVD-R.

Received this item as a gift, was so thrilled to have it for the kids first day of school. Luckily I was playing around with it the day before and found out what a piece of crap this camera is. I recorded and then tried to finalize and found that the amera could not read the disc amazing since it s the canon one that they even provided with the camera!! Then I lost everything I recorded. So, I tried 3 other dvd-r discs -which are not cheap and the frikin camera could not read those either. What a piece of crap -lost everything. I read the manual and even called the Canon people -all they were able to tell me is geesh, that is not supposed to happen. I can only hope 6th ave. will accept the return tomorrow. Please stear clear of this item, unless you like to record things and only see them once and them loose them.

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This is my second DC 22. I bought my first one 5 or 6 years ago, and only had to by another one because my first one quit reading discs recently. I like the dvd format and the ease of use. Great Camcorder!

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I am just learning to use this camera. I loaded the supplied Roxio MyDVD for Canon software on my computer and plugged in the USB cable. When you go to the video capture screen it says that this version of the software, MyDVD LE, does not support image capture. After a few phone calls back and forth with the Canon service center (in Virgina, not India which is nice), we found that you should NOT go to video capture. Duh, you have to click on DVD_Video and then on top, "Open Disc". This will read the disc in the camera via the USB cable. Oh, and you should finalize the disc before doing this as it might not work otherwise. It is probably faster to put the mini-disc in your computer's DVD drive if it has one. But don't forget to Finalize the disc in the camera before doing this.

The camera itself has been working well. Tonight I'm going to try out the Fireworks mode to see how that works.

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We received this camera as a gift. We loved the features and the nice crisp image... until we tried to watch it on anything other than the camera's own tiny screen. My husband is pretty computer-savvy, but we couldn't get the camera to connect via USB without crashing the computer. Every time. The roxio "my DVD" software, in a word, sucks. You must register to use it, and it makes us re-register every time we boot up. Plus, it won't access the DVD. Finally, you can supposedly "finalize" the DVD to watch it directly on a DVD player or computer, but "finalizing" only ruins the DVD, so your memories are kaput.

My in-laws got us a Canon because optics were supposed to be the most important thing about a camera. But we found out the hard way that being able to watch the videos may be even more important than image quality. Who knew that for close to $400, that was even in question? Canon should offer a product recall to everyone who bought this piece of junk.

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Panasonic PVGS12 Digital Palmcorder MultiCam Camcorder w/20x Optical Zoom

I bought this camera after having numerous problems with my Sony. Although it is only 4 years old my Sony has been repaired 3 times and broke once again. I paid alot of money for my Sony and was very unhappy with it. So I decided against Sony for this purchase. I may have just had bad luck with them because I know they usually make good products... but to be on the safe side we decided to go with another brand. I did alot of research on the internet for different camcorders. I also went and did alot of store research. I felt all the store employees out for what they felt to be good and how many of the various brands get returned for different reasons. Although the Panasonic was not the most recommended camcorder, it did not get bad reviews either.

After shopping around for sometime and playing with the different camcorders on the market, I went with my "gut feeling" and chose the Panasonic.

After using it a few times, I have to say I LOVE IT! I am so happy with my purchase and am so glad I chose Panasonic.

I have to say I am not real Technical when it comes to all the features it has and will probrably never use 1/2 the features it does have. But the recording quality so far has been excellant! I have no complaints with it being grainy or anything. It is simple to use and weighs less than 1lb. And when you have 2 kids who require a whole suitcase to go anywhere that is a major plus!

All kidding aside though, I give it a 10 on the scale of 1-10. Again it is very simple to use and the quality of the recording is great if not excellant.

This is a great camcorder for anyone who does not want something real technical. The 20X zoom lens it awsome!

People have to remember that this is a very affordable ENTRY level cam. It does the job very well. Nice viewfinder, excellent zoom (one of the deepest at 800x) and simple features. This is a beautiful cam at a great price!!! I have not found any drawbacks on transferring or downloading either. Fun also to add zoom lenses and/or wide lenses affordably. Overall a great buy!!!!!! If you believe you are a director, you may need to look into advanced models at much higher prices. Enjoy!!!!!!!!

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I've been happy with every aspect of this camera except for one: The night shot mode isn't an infared type deal like some other cameras where the pictures gets that greenish tint but you dont loose frame rates. The night-shot on this camera (MagicPix) turns the shutter speed WAY down so the video becomes very choppy, even with a tripod. The build in LED light works in gain mode, but only for short distances.

Otherwise this camera is great. It hooked right up to my firewire card and Adobe Premiere already had drivers built in for it. the Video and sound quality are excellent, the size of the camera is great, and the features are very straightforward. Plus, if tweaking settings to your liking is your thing, the instruction booklet is very easy to follow. So, if you are going to be doing a lot of VERY low light recording, like I figured that I would, you might want to look at how other brands' night modes perform. Otherwise, this is a great camera for you

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This camcorder is absolutely wonderful. Though I don't think I'd pay top dollar for it. While it works great recording and playing back, there is minimum software availible ( Id didnt recieve any) and figuring out how to download it to the computer to burn to a DVD took a while. Though I only paid $195 for this camera that also came with a brand new camcorder bag and additional battery. I kinda wish I would have spent the extra money to invest in a DVD camcorder. But, if you are willing to take the time to learn how to burn to DVD, then this is a great camera!

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I was impressed when I received the cam and I saw the size! Very little, compared to my old JVC from 10 years ago.

The quick start works great! And it uses the cheaper cassets for videocams.

People shouls know that the USB connection is only for transfering the photos stored in the card (use the PC mode). Also USB is for webcam purposes (use the tape recording mode), or if you want to transfer the video only (not audio) to the computer (use the Tape playback mode).

For photos, with a 128MB card u r fine. The resolution is less than 1 MPix (600X800).

If you want to use the full video/audio transfer to ur computer, be sure u have a firmware connection (IEEE 1394 or I.Link) And about the software, u can use windows default or buy Pinacle or any other related, not necesary to wait a lot for the Panasonic one (if u request that appart).

This cam records great with good quality during the day, but needs a little light improvement for evenings and nights.

Panasonic should think better for next cams when placing the connection ports, those are kind of inacessible.

I like this one, I searched and compared a lot before purshasing this one, other ones have not the same conectivity or are expensive. This one works great (with good ilumination), fast and with good quality.

Casio Exilim EX-G1 12.1 MP Slim-line Endurance Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Black)

I'm very impressed with the EX-G1. I've been a long time user of Casio camera products, until an unfortunate camera meets water incident in the Caribbean forced me to buy a Nikon S3 which as performed well for several years, until it died. I bought a Pentax Optio WS-80 and was not impressed, neither with the cheap plastic feel, nor the quality of the photos. Blue sky almost always looked like cloudy sky. So, with Casio's new introduction of the EX-G1, I was intrigued to find out if the almost twice the cost as compared to the WS-80 was worth it. Jumping to the conclusion... yes, it's worth every penny. Here are things I like, and don't like. Slim design. Precision operation of controls. Interval shooting can be set to 10sec, 30 sec, 1min, 3min, and can record photos for 3, 10, 20, 30 minutes. The display can remain on during interval shooting, or you can configure it to be off (presumably to save battery power). The WS-80 didn't have a display on/off option, and the interval settings may be slightly more flexible, but it's insignificant. I also like the video record button, which with one press, starts filming. Casio's Best Shot mode is also accessed with a single button press. The WS-80 has the battery, memory, and USB port under a single cover, which was quite flimsy such that I believe a bad drop would render the camera less than waterproof. The EX-G1 has two compartments. The battery compartment has a substantial and solid stainless steel door that takes quite a bit of effort to get open; a butter knife might come in handy. Perhaps in time it will operate more easily. The memory and USB compartment is accessed via a thumb knob that pops open the compartment cover. I like the precision operation of this compartment, but am a little concerned about an accidental opening while snorkeling, as the thumb knob need only be moved about 15 degrees (1/8 inch) to open the compartment below. A better design would have been more of a screw operation requiring a full revolution. Then again, the real probability of me inadvertently turning the thumb know is probably unlikely. I do have some concern about the tripod mount being off center. I also like the gazillion programmable options to setup and customize the camera to my liking. For example, photo's can be shot in low, normal, or high detail, regardless of the size photo selected. Whereas the Optio WS-80 only took high detail photos in the 10MH mode. Small high quality photos are mostly acceptable for the photos I take. The USB interface is not "standard" such as what I use for my blackberry, or Motorola headset. It's just slightly different... would have been nice if it were the same as the other couple USB cables I have competing for USB ports on my PC, but that's not a big deal. For years I harped on a contact I have at Casio technical support to produce a camera with interval shooting... I'm happy it's here, and that it comes in a waterproof, shockproof design. Even the packaging (the box it comes in) for the camera is cool; it looks sort of like a rock. I do wish they included a printed manual (the included CD contains the manual). The Pentax Optio WS-80 is being returned, but for buyers on a limited budget, it may suffice; however, the EX-G1 is well worth the extra money.

Update one year later December 2010: During the past year I've experienced the following. The flash and shutter release got out of sync, so all flash photos were nearly black. I sent the camera in for for repair, and they needed to replace the main circuit board, which was out of stock. I was leaving for a trip, so Casio jumped in and sent me a refurbished unit, which was a blessing since the original was quite scratched. Very good customer service! I've used it underwater in the Caribbean. Underwater shots look good. One problem, however, is that it appears in high humidity environments, and when left in the sun, condensation builds up inside the lens, thus all photos are foggy until the camera cools. An extended dip in the ocean, or cooling the camera in the shade seems to fix that problem. I've had no problems with leaks in the camera, but would caution that sudden contact with water, or swimming, may well put excessive pressure on the seals and force a leak. So, in my opinion, it is good to walk into water with, but don't dive into the water with it. Daylight photo quality is good. Night time photo quality is disappointing. I had a Nikon S3 which had a night mode where the flash would fire several times to illuminate the background, and always got excellent results, but the Casio doesn't have this feature, so the subject is illuminated, but the background is dark, even using the night portrait scene mode. I really like the compact slim design that is the best of any on the market. I like the actual buttons rather than touch screen technology used in some cameras. I look forward to the next generation of the EX-G1, whenever that might be.

Update January 2011: I'm back from my two week Caribbean vacation and want to report the "new" (actually replacement camera) performed flawlessly and some of the fogging problems I had with the first one must have been related to water leaking, because I had no issues with this one, in or out of the water. In summary, I suppose the original one must have had just enough water leak into the camera to allow it to vaporize and fog the lense and sensor??? Anyway, I continue to be very happy. However, night photos just aren't as good as I've experienced with other cameras, as they tend to be rather grainy, even with the night landscape or night portrait setting. Day photos are superb. I shot all at the highest / largest setting 12 megapixels.

The Casio Exilim EX-G1 comes out of the box as a rugged and ready to go camera. Its build is sturdy, and although a little bit heavier than my previous camera (Nikon Coolpix S55), its slim profile more than makes up for it. Aesthetically, the red color version is beautiful and the aluminum casing makes it feel indestructible despite its small size.

I had no troubles opening the battery or memory card compartments. The instructions are clear and simple enough on the quick start guide that the full manual isn't necessary unless you need more detailed info (FYI, the full manual does come with the camera, it's just loaded on the CD, as opposed to a hard copy). The battery took roughly an hour and a half to fully charge. The user interface is friendly, and the navigation buttons are intuitive and well designed.

The Best Shot options, the alternative to Nikon's "Scenes," are plenty and quite nifty including ones I've never seen before, like the Ebay and Dynamic modes. The EX-G1 also allows for adjustment of flash intensity, which makes it a plus when a standard intensity level simply doesn't cut it for the different environments the camera is so well suited for. The picture quality, in both color and filtered modes, is comparable to my Nikon, which I thought was great for its price. The movie recording mode works quite well with good contrast and a relatively high resolution. There're quite a few features that I haven't yet figured out how to work, but so far, the EX-G1 hasn't disappoint!

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This camera is not waterproof as advertised. It has 2 compartments. One is for the battery, the other for the memory card. The door to the battery compartment requires 2 hands to open. The door to the memory card compartment opens seemingly on its own. It is a knob with little cogs located in very close proximity to most of the other controls for the camera that evidently turns easily without the user being aware. Unfortunately it opened the second time we had the camera in the water. This occurred while we were on our honeymoon and as a result we lost the pictures we had taken thus far and were left without the camera we had purchased expressly for the trip.

Casio refused to do anything for us stating that it was due to operator error. We were told that we "must have opened the compartment door." Why we would have intentionally opened the compartment door prior to entering the water is beyond me. We are now out $300, a camera and many pictures that cannot be replaced. Up until the time this occured we were very excited about the camera and had been showing it off and talking it up to family and friends. Now we are left with a very poor opinion of Casio, their products and their customer service.

I see that others have had the same experience with this camera in th short time since its release. This indicates to me a design flaw in the location/mechanism for the compartment door. It is my belief that Casio should do the right thing, admit they have a problem and compensate those of us who purchased their camera in good faith expecting a quality product that would serve us for the purposes for which it was advertised.

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The design issue I have with this camera is the knob you see on the side of the camera, it turns to open the door panel to the USB/Memory card. This knob can be turned by accident and open without you knowing about it. This happened to me when I put the camera in my swimming shorts pocket and went into a pool. My moving around in the pool with my girlfriend caused the knob to turn, opening the door and destroying the camera.

I call this a design flaw, because the door panel that covers the battery requires a pry bar tool that you attach to your camera leash. It's a two hand effort to get that door panel open, yet the USB/Memory card panel can be open with just a brush to the knob. As I found out I can open it with no hands!

When I sent the camera to Casio's authorized repair center. They told me Casio has instructed them that any water that gets into this camera is caused by user error and the warranty does not apply. That is pretty presumptuous, the user is always the cause of the problem...

Moral of this story, beware of buying a newly released product as this is Casio's first entry into the tough and rugged camera line. I'm sure this will be fixed in time and then it's a nice camera to compete with Cannon and Olympus, but until then, I recommend staying away from this camera or you will be like me, out $300 and looking to buy another camera.

Spoke directly with Casio customer service today and they confirmed what the Casio repair had told me. If the camera fails because of a water leak, it is the fault of the owner and not Casio. One brand new Casio camera heading to the landfill...

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When you open the box and pick up this camera for the first time, you notice two things:

First: Its heavy. Not too heavy, but heavy.

Second: Its thin, much thinner than I expected it to be.

When you start it up, you are dazzled by the brightness and clarity of the LCD display.

I was used to smaller and not so bright displays.

I had to make changes to the saturation to get good pictures. The one picture of my sisters dog, Polly is after

I made changes to the settings.

I am pleased, amazed, at the video this camera takes, again much better than I had thought it would be.

I am a little disappointed at the quality of the pictures, not so much the color, but the whites. On my two GS Dogs

where the white blends into the black, the whites seem more like grayish and the blacks are blotted.

I will play with it more.

I also can't find the owners manual; I don't know if I lost it when I opened the box or if it did not come with the box.

Not that REAL MEN use owners manuals anyway. But it would be nice. Nothing on their website as of yet.

One more semi-negative thing:

Battery:

To charge it, you must remove the battery from the camera. On the Kodak, you just plug the mini-usb cable in and while you

are transferring pictures the camera charges. I had hoped, this would be the same, as it is very smart of anyone to allow this.

I guess not.

The good news is that you do not lose your time / date settings when you remove the battery.

Overall, for about three hours of use, I am pretty impressed with the camera. Its heavy and seems like it is put together

to last. I hope so for the money it costs.

C2G / Cables to Go 54203 DisplayPort 1.1 Cable with Latches (7 Meters/22.96 Feet)

It's a decent cable at a great price, but I was really hoping that it would improve the quality of a lot of YouTube videos that have been posted lately, write my code for me, regrow my hair, and enable Congress to be fiscally responsible. Perhaps I expected too much from it.

This cable work fine and is well made however the size of the head does not fit very well with the slots on both my PC or monitor. Both devices and brand new and their design leaves little extra space for connectors. I have a factory cable of the same kind with slim connectors but it was too short so I have to find a longer cable. All I could find was this type of cable. It just makes the connection due to the case of the PC and monitor being so tightly spaced but any bump can unseat it. The head is just too fat to let the connector latch into the slot very well. If you are planning to buy one of these cable makes sure you have about a full quarter inch all around this plug to accommodate this cables head.

Buy C2G / Cables to Go 54203 DisplayPort 1.1 Cable with Latches (7 Meters/22.96 Feet) Now

At first sight, this appears to be a high quality cable.

However this is NOT YOUR STANDARD DisplayPort cable.

This DisplayPort Cable has the #20 pin power connector enabled. Which means it feeds power back and forth from monitor to video card.

You don't need the #20 pin connected, as both your monitor and computer already have a power source. As far as my reading took me, having this #20 pin connected is not an industry standard.

I had a lot of problems with this and you can verify this with other posts on the internet.

My particular symptom was that if I turned my computer off, it would not boot again if the displayport cable was plugged in. I had to unplug the cable, and wait for windows to boot, then plug it back in, very annoying!

I am not aware of any situation where a DisplayPort cable with the #20 pin present wouldnt be useful, but maybe it is?

LEARN FROM MY LESSON, BUY A HIGH QUALITY BRAND NAME CABLE INSTEAD!!!

Read Best Reviews of C2G / Cables to Go 54203 DisplayPort 1.1 Cable with Latches (7 Meters/22.96 Feet) Here

Worked as expected and advertised. Having never used one of these cables before, I was surprised to find they're quite stiff and not easily made to comply. This may figure in to your purchase decision on length.

Want C2G / Cables to Go 54203 DisplayPort 1.1 Cable with Latches (7 Meters/22.96 Feet) Discount?

Not sure if my PC's port is under powered or if the cable is defective, but I could not get it working. Yes, it puts out the image to the display but it often flickers and the display was not steady. Had to revert to the 6 ft cable I previously was using. This one went to my junk box. I still need a longer cable butam reluctant to buy because I am not sure if it was this particular cable or if there is a length limitation to the display port cables.

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