Foscam Blue Iris Professional - Supports Many IP Camera Brands Including Foscam and Agasio, Zone Mo

I have a total of 16 camera's, a couple of Panasonic BL**, Linksys, Foscam FI8910w and Askak Mole IP cam for indoors along with a SWAN DVR system for outdoors that i just figured out how to add onto the software. I absolutely love it, and it's been working great over wifi, and the customization is awesome. I mainly bought it for home security and to monitor my newborn. I can setup to record motion for all the camera's and motion + email/sms alerts on specific ones that I would want to know about like front door, drive way and side gate access. I like using the text feature because it's almost instant. I get notifications on my iphone within 6-10 seconds of a trigger. It's awesome, example my text will read "Alert Motion detected on Side gate" ...I log in with my iphone Blue Iris app ($10) to see that the PGE guy is in my backyard reading my meter and throwing in lunch away in my trash can. If i miss it, the the iphone app has the ability to watch the DVR'd recording (with audio if your cam supports it). This feature alone is why i bought it. It is invaluable. Since most break in's happen in the day time, and thief's usually ring the door bell to see if anyone is home then go to the backyard where no can see to break in, this alerting system is critical along with the ability to review the alert to determine if it's legitimate or not. With the iphone app along with the PC version, I have reduced my remote viewing iPhone apps from 3 to just 1. Its so cool, i show it off to all my friends and co workers. Since I figured out all the settings, i helped them get it setup up to at their homes. They all love it. I use it all the time, even when I miss place something, it's awesome to have to abiliy to replay past events to find what you lost.

The web browser functions works pretty good as well, I have noticed sometimes the image will get frozen and I need to refresh the browser to start up again using Firefox. This could be due to my companies firewall and proxy settings. The fix for this is to download the free add-in Auto Refresh v.1.02. I like this one the best because it has the option for hard refresh or the just a "soft" refresh of the view you are on. this is helpful if you have groups setup. I have Outdoor cams, Indoor Cams / and Kids room cams groups. Doing a hard refresh goes back to the default view which is view All camera's. I do not select this and only do a normal refresh every 1min (adjustable). This way when I only want to watch my kids rooms to make sure they are doing their homework or chores, when the page refreshes it remains on my 3 large camera's views of my kids rooms instead of going to the main "All camera's" view like with a "hard refresh" which makes them all very small b/c it's showing all 16 cams.

I have and monitored ADT security system as well but the Blue Iris application is like my front line of defense in case thief's try to cut the power or disconnect the phone line. Additonally it has the best user interface and endless features that are not available on any of the other security applications. I have the BI software running on a desktop PC for now recording to an external HD hidden behind some books on my bookshelf with a 15FT usb cable. A laptop would be better since you can hide it more and it has a battery for power outages. Just keep your router and a few camera's on a UPS and you should be fully protected.

Another cool feature is the ability to not only send alerts but it can play audio or turn on lights if alerts trigger. I have a profile setup for when I'm on vacation to play a 30min audio track of some action movie with explosions and dialog to simulate someone watching TV. The audio plays on my computer BOSE PC speakers that are turned up pretty loud. I also split the speakers out to they play on the opposite side of the house so that thieves could hear it from whatever entry point they are thinking about going in.

I did run into an issue with my Astak mole cam is very flaky on the BI software. I can get to it fine using its own webserver and on the Free IP cam app I have on my iphone, but with the BI software, it's hit or miss, sometimes it working and sometimes its not. This could be the camera though so I'm not going to knock off a star until I do some more research. I submitted a case with the BI support and got a response a few hours later from support. Ken offered some suggestions and also offered to help work on it if I put it online for him to take a look. Working in IT support myself, I was impressed with the support I received from the BI software developer.

Other features that would put this over the top would be the 2 way talk feature for both the remote web view and smart phone app. Some of my cameras (foscam/Astak) have the ability to speak into your phone or computer and with the built in speaker on the camera, it will output your voice on it. This is a neat feature to communicate to someone in the house when they are not picking up the phone. I purchased the foscam iphone app just for this feature alone, however it is lacking big time in comparison to the BI iphone app.

All in all I'm very impressed with both the Blue Iris PC app and the iPhone app. With the rising crime rate across the country because the cities have no money to fund police and investigators, burglar's know this and are taking advantage. As a homeowner, I understand that this will not prevent a break in, but at least it may catch one, or better yet deter one. I would highly recommend this to anyone wanting the flexibility of remote viewing and alerting for their security camera's.

UPDATE 6-21-2013:

Stability: I have had this thing running no stop for almost 4 months. There have been a few updates for BI since then and they have been all very nice enhancements and or fixes. The BI web server is bullet proof; I have not had the webserver crash at all since it's been up. I do restart my computer ever now and then for Windows critical updates but I have it setup so that when my computer reboots, it auto starts the BI software but minimized and password protected.

BI Mobile App: I have asked for it and now it is hear. The ability for two way communication with the foscam camera¡¦s. I can now hear and talk through the foscams via the BI mobile app. It works pretty good, but I do have to admit the quality and responsiveness is not as good as the native Foscam iphone app perhaps because it is going through the BI desktop webserver first then to your phone, whereas the Foscam app goes directly to your camera. But it is a good feature and probably needs to be optimized a bit to be on par with the Foscam mobile app. But I wouldn¡¦t buy the foscam iphone app to make up for it, I just happened to have both already so I¡¦ll continue to use the foscam for now.

Wireless Speeds: Since I have 16 Camera's, 6 of them are foscams and 2 other ones that are wireless, I notice that my wifi speeds for the home have decreased dramatically. My wired speeds are great getting 21mbps down and 3-4mpbs up. But when I run speed tests for my wifi, i'm getting 128-256 kbps transfer speeds on my N wireless network. Turning off the BI software gets me back to almost my wired speeds using the speedtest.net 6000-7000 KB/sec. Looking at the BI logs, I see that my wifi cams at 5 fps (frames per second) are sending about 64-128kbs per sec for each wireless cam (8x) so it¡¦s not that bad, and my wired cams are sending about 400-500kbs per sec at 15 FPS. There is a constant flow of data across my wireless network. I have an Linksys N router and a Cisco repeater/access point (G). My speed tests are done while connected to the N Linksys router.

Now this does not happen all the time which is frustrating, meaning sometimes when BI is on and running, I get normal fast wifi speeds, and sometimes I don't when it's running so I¡¦m thinking there is something else saturating my wifi network like the camera¡¦s internal web server. I need to do more investigation, but it seems like BI has a hand in it since when I do disable it my speeds come back instantly. I have since moved a lot of the camera's on Ethernet since the picture quality and frame rate is way better anyway, this has helped with intermittent wifi. I run a lot off wifi, TV Netflix, Apple Air Play, iPads, laptop, etc so this was of great concern. I now have only 4 cams on wifi and it seems to be working fine now. Just food for thought if you were running more than 8 wireless camera¡¦s you may see saturation on your wifi network.

Storage: I bought BI because I wanted to keep an eye on things due to the increased crime rate in our neighborhood, but also because I have a new born and 4 year old in the house and it¡¦s nice to capture those cute diaper changes and funny things kids do that made you wish it you had a camera recording while it happened. I have found myself going through these recordings and not wanting to delete anything º!!!! Storage is cheap these days, and I picked up a Seagate 3TB backup plus drive for about $130. At the rate I¡¦m capturing videos, I have managed to fill up 400GB over the last 4 months. About 100GB per month, so I figured a 3 TB (275Gb usable) will last me for 2 years of cuteness before I buy another 3-4 TB drive. I¡¦m sure by that time they will be absurdly cheap. The other nice feature of this is that this drive doubles as a SATA drive docking station so I will just need to buy a HD only with no fancy case and slap it on.

Final thoughts is that I Still love this App and one of the best purchases I have made all year. I use it everyday not just for security, it has become the number on of my top apps I use on my phone and the live view and alerting feature has been invaluable. With the web security feature, I have allowed my parents to view my baby's room camera's during a specific time period so that they can just pop in and see the new baby sleeping and playing without having to face time me every few hours :-)

At first my wife and friends thought I was a little weird to have so much visibility/security camera's at my house, but after I show them the value of what it does for a home owner, parents of kids and dogs, I find them calling me a few weeks later asking how to set a system like that for them. If you have something to hide from your spouse then I would avoid putting camera's inside your home, but for us, we enjoy the sense of security and priceless moments it has allowed us to replay. Next up are some HD Cams :-)

Blue Iris ("BI") is a significant improvement over painfully basic OEM supplied control/display software. BI is reasonably intuitive and compatible with most-all IP cameras, and if a camera is not listed specifically in set-up, generally a set-up file for a similar camera will work fine. There are lots of IP camera forums on the Internet that discuss using BI if you run into challenges.

Note that the BI software license is for ONE HOST COMPUTER. If you monitor/control your cameras from more than one computer you will need a separate license for each additional host. So be sure to install your software on your primary host.

For the price, this is an excellent buy. Full-up professional IP camera control packages typically cost 4X the asking BI price.

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I know you can run BootCamp/Parallels/Fusion to make this work on a MAC, but it would be nice to have a native MAC version. I did purchase this via the download from the Blue Iris website and did setup Bootcamp to run it and it works very well. It has all sorts of cameras and covers the many different cameras I use from Foscam, to Q-See to Swann and others.

The Blue Iris App works well, but you need to have it connect to the machine running the software. Once that is done, it's a no brainer

For the price, you cannot go wrong if you are running Windows. It works very well and is really easy to setup. The help files are well written and tell you everything you need to know for any setting. Just click the question mark on the page where you are and the help opens up to show you every option on that page and what you can do. You can also open the help from the home page and do all the normal things you can do with a Windows help search

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This software is can be quite complicated. It is NOT plug & play. There are many, many configuration options. The software requires extensive knowledge of settings and the language that go with knowing HTTP, FTP Servers, WEB Servers, IP configurations. I have written & currently support multiple web sites & maintain a Windows 2008 R2 network for a company of 35, so Im somewhat familiar with what it takes. If you want to record activity from installed cameras, logic says you need to move or copy those recordings "off premises" to be reviewed later, which this software does provide. Why? Because if your property is being stolen or destroyed, so are the recordings if they are only being stored locally, on premises. Its like any good backup. So an FTP off-site or cloud is necessary to protect your files. Read and take your time or you will find yourself being overwhelmed by technology. Update to backing up your files off-site. I discovered that the popular cloud-type backup companies do not support backing up video file types, ie: MOV, AVI or MP4. What you can do is to purchase an ISP account which generally gives you about 10GB to start. Then you need an FTP enabled synchronization type software to copy the jpg & video files to that off-site location. I have it set to copy from the directory every 10 min. These are just things you can never know up front.

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This is great remote viewing and recording software for the Foscam IP cameras. It does everything I want it to do. Email alert functionality works fine for me, and the motion sensing algorithm is easy to adjust and seems to work remarkably well. The pan, tilt interface for the Foscams works very well also better than the software that comes with the cameras. There are a plethora of feature controls, triggers, alert settings, and record options more than I will probably ever use. The navigation is well laid-out and things are easy to find.

My only criticisms are that it does not seem to provide a control for the IR lamps on the cameras, and the user interface is a bit "clunky" looking. But the latter issue doesn't affect functionality or usability, so who really cares? Overall, I'm quite pleased.

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Sony DCR-DVD650 DVD Camcorder

Purchased this camera for my wife last month, and have since taken a vacation, and recorded several family gatherings. The video quality this camera gives is wonderful, and creates a steady image, even with my shaky hands. The zoom range is impressive as well. Still images were great during the day, and the camera is FAST. It captures the image almost immediately, better than our stand alone digital camera. The focus isn't always dead on when you move the camera around quickly, but it recovers well enough. The reason for the 4-star rating is that this camera didn't offer a lot in the area of night time picture taking and video capture. The video leaves less to be desired, as the lenses capture enough light to make sense of what is going on, but the camera is not usable at night. Now that may have more to do with the fact that I haven't figured out better settings, or am just completely missing a flash feature I haven't seen, but in either case, I still need to carry around my digital camera for night shots. As a video camera, this product blows everything out of the water that I have ever used in the video quality department. All in all, I am happy with my purchase, and will maybe find that the one shortfall with the product is in fact a problem with the user (me) and not the product.

I've had this item for approximately 6 months and am just now getting into doing reviews. Below are my thoughts on the Sony DCR-DVD650 Handycam Camcorder:

Pros:

Nice design

easy to use

great viewfinder

able to take still pictures in addition to the video

option to use DVD or Memory Stick for recording/photos

Cons:

DVD's on standard quality will only record for 30 minutes-this is not ideal for those wanting to record their childs play, or a graduation or anything that may last longer than 30 minutes. For this you would need a large memory stick to accomodate then you can use your home PC to put the recording from the memory stick to a standard sized DVD.

As expected the digital zoom gets "grainy" in appearance when you zoom in close to the maximum allowed. This is tolerable, but just realize you aren't going to get as good a picture of something you are zooming in on as you would get if the image was actually closer.

All-in-all I am extremely happy with the purchase and think that it is possibly the best buy in its price range. I would purchase it again in a heartbeat. With that said, the day I win the lottery or have a lot of money to spend I'm sure I'd purchase a more expensive model with slightly better zoom and built in memory in addition to the DVD recording capabilities.

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I just bought this camera to replace my old Hitachi camcorder and this camera is awesome. The video quality is great the sound is excellent and it is Mac compatible for those who may be wondering it will work on imovie. But this camera is lightweight and the discs do not need to be finalized before you put them in a dvd player or import them to a computer, you just hook up the usb cord and import the video quick and easy. It does come with it's own software that is only compatible with windows which I dont have so I dont know if its any good.

But so far I am very pleased with this camera perfect for anyone who loves to film themselves and edit the footage. Really good buy for a great price.

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If you have been confused by conflicting claims about whether or not Sony camcorders are compatible with the Mac OS, this is what our experience shows. We are MAC users and bought this, in part, based on reviews that while the included software by SONY does not support the MAC OS (nor does SONY claim that it does), that I-movie would recognize the camcorder and file format used by this recording device. Alas, when we first connected the camcorder to our MAC, it did recognize the camcorder but did not recognize the file format (MPG) as a movie format, hence we could not open our recordings and edit them. After some further research, we discovered that Leopard software works with this format while Tiger cannot. Moreover, freeware video conversion programs like Handbrake, are no longer being supported for Tiger OS.

I did not try, but suspect, that upgrading to Quicktime Pro or its MPEG add on may resolve the issue.

As for the camera, it is compact, the touchscreen is convenient and relatively user friendly but the menus are not completely intuitive. As I received the camera shortly before having to use it, I ran it on the easy mode automatic settings. Standard Play (SP) seemed to produce better quality than High Quality (HQ) settings, oddly enough, but that may have had to do with ambient lighting. The battery lasted a good two hours with the LCD screen active. A 4 GB memory stick holds a little over an hour of recording, as advertised. The quality of the image and sound seems very good for this price point.

Our first camcorder, also a Sony, did very well for us and still works, but it is over ten years old and we wanted something that would allow easy conversion to digital format for sharing on line or on DVD. I look forward to learning more about this camcorder.

That said, I now find myself being forced to upgrade to Leopard OS if I want to use this camcorder as I intended. This essentially adds . to the cost.

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This camcorder was a present for my husband. It was a second try--I had ordered another make camcorder for him previously. He is not the most technologically-savvy guy--and it was not the product for him. The Sony Handycam was a lifesaver! It's easy to understand and easy to use. He loves it and that's the most important thing to me.

FUJIFILM FinePix JX310 14.1 MP Digital Camera (Black)

This is a wonderful camera! I've used it for a few months now and it's great for the "Point & Shoot" type. I only have one complaint...the slide and lock cover on the camera used to protect the SD card and Battery is way too loose. The cover pops open every...single...time I try to take a picture or pull it out of my pocket. I find that a piece of electrical tape keeps it secure during use.

I am very pleased with the camera and the speedy service I got in recieving it. The camera works very well and have taken several pictures with it.

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Nikon COOLPIX S3300 16 MP Digital Camera with 6x Zoom NIKKOR Glass Lens and 2.7-inch LCD (Purple)

Birthday Present from my mom~ My very first personal camera (I usually use my aunt's canon) and I love it! I'm not a professional photographer but this camera takes really crisp pictures! Zoom is pretty good and the face tracking is really accurate~ Pixels are not all mashed up when you zoom in it warns you when you zoom in too much and you notice the increasing blurriness of the photo. Pictures in low light look really good also as though there was a light source present. I have yet to experiment much with the videos but it from the little videos i've shot, the video is pretty clear.The fact that I don't have to go mad looking for AA or AAA batteries is a SUPER PLUS! Miss perfect picture moments because of batteries and nobody loves that~ You do have to buy a memory card because the camera doesn't come with one.

Terrific camera! I don't know how much she paid for the camera so I cannot comment on the price.

I picked up the S3300 at a Sam's Club because my S8000 started acting up while on vacation. I thought by staying in the Nikon family, all would be well. Big mistake!!! The extra $100 to get you into the next class of cameras is well worth it if you are more than the occasional photographer.

CONS

It's S-L-O-W. Painfully slow....so slow, that I returned it and got my money back.

It's slow (and difficult) to get all 9 focus boxes to appear for a crisp clear picture.

It's slow to save the picture to the SD Card (class 10)

It's slow to transfer the pictures out of the camera to your computer (at least this can be fixed by taking out the SD Card and connecting it directly to your computer)

30% of my pictures were blurry. Most likely because it takes forever to focus. I shot about 1000 pictures on my vacation. 30% (300) blurry photos, that's a lot.

PRO's

As crappy as the camera is to take a STILL picture, it takes great pictures while you're moving (go figure). It has a "sports" setting allowing you to take pictures of something that's moving, or from a moving car...and they look great!

Being able to see the screen in bright daylight is also a big plus with Nikon cameras.

Buy Nikon COOLPIX S3300 16 MP Digital Camera with 6x Zoom NIKKOR Glass Lens and 2.7-inch LCD (Purple) Now

I just got this camera yesterday and have been taking pictures in all different kinds of lighting.

This camera has done great in even a dark room.I am very pleased with how quiet it is which

will be great when shooting video's.Haven't been able to get a great super close up yet but

I think that is due to my lack of understanding on just how to use all the functions of the camera

just yet.I'm not a professional photographer but as a capture every moment mom of two I have

taken thousands upon thousands of pictures.I've been through many camera's (Samsung,Kodak,Fuigi)

to name a few none have come close to the quality of picture of this Nikon.I am very happy

with this camera so far.I love how compact it is and the fun colors it comes in.

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I have been a faithful Nikon Coolpix customer I have followed the product line all the way from the beginning, It is an excellent camera in the compact line. I love all the new features presented with this model. This item lives up to its description. I give Nikon an A plus for innovation and design. Thanks for introducing the rechargable battery.

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My mother bought this camera on Amazon for my 10-year old daughter for Christmas. It seemed perfect for her very slim and easy to operate. My daughter loved it immediately. Unfortunately she left it outside on our swingset ... for almost a week ... and it rained/snowed every day. They only reason we found it is that it had sleeted/snowed one night, and the kids were out playing the next morning. I heard my daughter WAILING as she discovered the camera. It was frozen to the swingset, encased in ice.

We brought it inside and packed it in uncooked rice (an old tech trick to dry out electronics) for the 1% chance it might still work. I assumed that was the end of the story, and that we would call this an expensive lesson in taking care of your possessions.

After several days, I pulled the camera out of the rice, popped the battery back in it, and TURNED IT ON!!! It came on just as if it had been sitting in a drawer for a week, instead of outside in winter precipitation! I proceeded to take several pictures and played with some settings and it worked fine. There wasn't even any moisture inside the lens. My daughter was absolutely thrilled and has been snapping photos ever since.

So I have to give it to Nikon they made one heck of a camera here. It's good to know that something that is meant to be taken out into the world and used is sturdy and well made.

Pentax Optio Z10 8MP Digital Camera with 7x Optical Zoom

I am about to travel around the world and want an alternative to my Pentax K10D, particularly when wishing to be unobtrusive in third-world countries. First, I spent some time with the Panasonic LX2 -same camera as the Leica at less than half the price -which has some unique features and seems to be a terrific camera. BUT it won't go into a shirt pocket because the marvelous Leica lens protrudes. At a hefty (!) 7.8 oz, it weighs 56% more than the Optio Z10's 5 oz. The Optio is so small that there is nothing to hold onto. The Panasonic is better in that respect, but significantly bulkier.

I had just about decided to send both cameras back when I realized that I hadn't even looked at the few pix I had taken with the Optio. So I duly transferred them to my Mac and was absolutely astonished by the results. For reasons I don't understand, the Optio seems to handle subtle shades in the sky and clouds better than the K10.

The bottom line: The Optio produces razor-sharp pictures, even when using the 7x zoom hand-held at a slow shutter speed. Given some of the negative comments in these pages, I really didn't expect that. The design of the camera is superb. I only wish there were some semblance of a grip to hold onto.

This is a great camera. You can use the Auto but I prefer to use the Green mode where you can set the settings as in my SRT 101 35MM camera. I took a outdoor shot of a veined flower, about 8 inches away. It came out extremely detailed, and trust me I'm pickey. I then used the stitch mode where you can create a 'Digital wide angle' it also worked great. The feature of the lens that uses a refraction mirror to go from wide angle to close is great as you never get the lens protruding from the camera. The features in this camera are plentiful and you can use them to get really fantastic pictures. Read up on this camera and compare for yourself, you'll love it.

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I bought this camera because of its huge optical zoom, 8 MP, new mirror optics and because it is Pentax. And this camera is absolutely great! The pictures are very juicy in color and clear! Nothing moves when you zoom only mirrors inside the camera! It's true that the camera marks easily, but it can be easily cleaned! The Menu is very easy to read, with helping tips about each mode of shooting a great plus for me since I don't like to read the manual. However there was one thing that frightened me and I did read the manual if you press several times Ok-button histogram will appear and if you want to shoot something that has spots which are very dark and very light they will appear as yellow and red spots on the LCD display! In the beginning that made me think the LCD or camera itself is damaged. But it's actually the way it's supposed to work!!! And now I think this is very useful tool! O! btw, to turn the camera on you should move the plastic piece that covers lenses on front tricky to understand but easy to do!

So I'm completely satisfied with this purchase. That's why I give this camera 5 stars. A great camera in style!!!

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This camera has speed settings from ISO 64 to 3200. Of these, only 64 and 100 are acceptable. In bright scenes you will get a picture with good detail and color and a small amount of noise. Even at these low settings, a slightly magnified image will show noise as a speckling in the image. I made a mistake buying this camera somehow misunderstanding its characteristics before I bought it. If you do not believe me, then read the professional reviews, such as at

The good It's compact, has a 7x optical zoom, has a nice screen, easy to use controls, and takes adequate movies.

The bad It takes low quality noisy pictures, it has no image stabilization. Pentax claims it has image stabilization, but what they really do is increase the ISO level, reduce the exposure time, and greatly increase the noise level. You will get this effect whenever you take zoom pictures, except in the brightest of sunlight.

My recommendation: Do not buy this camera! If you want a small high zoom camera that takes good movies, but has better noise characteristics, look at the very similar looking Casio with real image stabilization. Pentax certainly could do better.

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I have several Pentax cameras (digital and 35mm) and I find that they are truly built to last and are as user friendly as they possibly can be. This camera is my quickie pocket camera and has proven itself worthy of the Pentax name. The buttons are simple, intuitive and easy to read for any digital camera this size. The zoom is awesome, but I usually don't go past the 7x optical because the digital zoom is like most digital zooms, grainy. It isn't the fastest between shots, but it's usually fast enough even for sports, kids and pet action. It shoots nice little videos with decent sounds quality too. I have dropped this camera several times on hard surfaces, used it in rain and snow, and even dropped it in some water once and it still works great. The LCD viewer is like all LCDs in the sun, a little hard to see, but I find that the photos always turn out better back home than they looked on the LCD. Bottom line, for $200, this is a great, great camera. I wouldn't have been upset paying $300 for it.

Samsung CL80 14.2 Megapixel Wi-Fi Digital Camera

Really love this camera. I bought if for my wife so she could email and send pictures to Facebook without having to transfer pics to our computer first. Easy to set up and use. Just got back from two weeks of vacation and we didn't use our digital SLR at all because this camera takes such great pictures. Also, the video in HD quality is outstanding.

Some of the "smart" modes had problems, but I've found this true with all digital cameras. The regular point and shoot mode works best. The options for scenes are very good. I took some of the best sunsets shots I've ever taken with this camera.

Here's a good video review of the camera:

I was a bit concerned when I first saw this camera reviewed. I love the idea of a network connected camera if for no reason that being able to delete shots and clips off the memory card directly to places like flicker and youtube. Once they are in the cloud, they are reasonably secure until I can download them later and burn to my NAS drive. But if the quality of the photos suck, what's the point?

What was really cool, was that I was able to transfer pictures to my Android phone via Blue Tooth too. I have uploaded files many times without any issues.

Up until this camera I have been a die hard Olympus fan going all the way back to the UZ-2100. Even though it suffers from good pixel saturation, that camera had EXCELLENT optics for it's time. With almost 7 times more resolution and a much faster processor... this camera rocks! Last year I put down my SLR because it was too cumbersome to drag along with me on a daily basis and on vacation. I picked up this camera JAN2011 and I have been using nothing else since. I even use it for some HDR bracketing processed photography. It's kicks ass over my 12 mp SLR and it's just as fast. The image file size is of no concern to me. I can still get plenty of HQ photos and videos on a single 8GB Micro SD chip.

I did notice that the street price (not on Amazon) has dropped since I bough this camera. I think the new version will be out soon.

My only complaint is that it doesn't shoot in RAW format. But, with 14+ MP, who cares?

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Very happy with our Samsung CL80. The pictures are everything Samsung says and the ability to close-ups is amazing. I have shot snow crystals on leaves and many other things, pushing the camera and it comes through. I am using it to capture the items my wife and I cut in glass prior to putting them into the kiln and the CL80 does a great job. We are very happy with the camera, with Samsung and with Amazon.

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I bought open box item from best buy payed $150.00.

Dame the picture is great, touch screen respond great. HD video recording great.

But wifi seems not working well. Anyway, I don't use wifi stuff anyway. for the price I payed and quality of pictures... I think this camera is last one for me, no more another digital camera!!!

Although, I need to learn more about this camera. It seems like have more powerful functions, if you don't want to use auto mode....

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I am very pleased with this camera. I must admit it has more bells and whistles than I can use but for a back-up camera on hikes and bike rides it's perfect. The pictures are very resolute; the ease of loading onto my computer was a whiz; the auto settings are perfect for quick shots of wildlife; the battery seems to last forever. I would totally recommend this camera to anyone. However, the technical aspects of this camera are a little daunting to me because I am not much of a "techie" but for others it may be a snap. The auto settings are every thing I need.

Nikon Coolpix P80 10.1MP Digital Camera with 18x Wide Angle Optical Vibration Reduction Zoom (Black)

If you don't care to know about the art of photography and you don't like to read manuals, don't buy this camera and you can stop reading right here. Otherwise, read on.

I can take any camera and take bad shots with it. But if I use most modern cameras to their full potential, I tend to end up with great shots. By that I mean using correct focus, exposure compensation when necessary, and selecting the proper ISO, shutter speed, and aperture for the situation. Those are just the basics. There are also other adjustments and tweaks like Face Detection, D-Lighting (Nikon's term for bringing out more detail from dark areas of the photo), white balance, etc..

Essentially, if you know how to use all those things (and your camera lets you adjust them yourself), you can end up with some pretty great shots from any camera. You can get creative in ways that auto-only cameras will not allow. Some people end up with blurry shots because they don't know how to take sharper shots. Better shooters can take sharp shots or they can make them blurry on purpose for an artistic effect. I personally can't stand blurry shots except for the occasional shots where only the subjects are a bit blurry (to accentuate motion).

This camera has 6 settings that affect the sharpness of the photo and that doesn't include aperture. One of them is the macro focus setting. Although normally used for close-ups, you can keep it in "macro focus" in most of the different shooting modes (Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Program, etc.). The other setting is the Sharpness setting. By default, the camera is in the middle of the scale. Some might consider the middle of the scale to be too soft. Simply click it up to the "sharp" level, or one more for the sharpest level. There are also two clicks down to increase softness. 1 macro + 5 sharpness levels = 6.

Why would someone want a soft (not so sharp) photo? One example is portraits. In general, people don't like portraits of themselves that show every pore and hair on their skin. Softening particular subjects can also convey a delicate beauty say a ballerina resting on a chair.

So for those who complain about this camera not taking sharp pictures out of the box, all you have to do is turn it up. For extra measure, use a small aperture and a good tripod. You will see the difference.

Not all sub-SLRs offer as many options as the P80. In particular, I like the high-powered zoom, the camera's ability to correct wide angle distortion, the overall compactness (considering the zoom), and the logical way things are laid out. The image tweaking controls that are most useful are also the easiest to access via the circular multi-control on the back. I also like that the flash doesn't pop up unless I want it to (it has a manual switch to pop it up).

The P80 is easy to carry around and covers all the bases (video, wide angle, super zoom, full manual control, etc.). If you know the features of this camera and know how and when to apply them, you'll end up with spectacular shots. It's that simple.

This camera has nice features that you may not always use, but for those special occasions, they are nice to have. One of these features is the ability to move the focus point around. With your trusty tripod set up, you want to get a surfer off to one side, gazing out over the sea. But you don't want the ocean to be in sharp focus because you want to immediately draw your viewer's eyes to the surfer. By clicking the circular button, you move the focus point over the surfer and set the camera to also meter on the focus point (so that the surfer is perfectly exposed). Add a little flash fill if you like, and Voila! Instant art.

Night shots really benefit from an adjustable focus point. Say you want a shot of a lonely lighthouse on a cliff at night. It's off to one side of your shot to give it a more dramatic frame. With the focus point in manual and the camera set to meter on the focus point, move the focus point closer to the lighthouse until what you see in the LCD looks properly exposed. If you have to keep the exact focus point a little bit away from the lighthouse to get the right exposure, no problem, just set the focus to lock on infinity (I'm assuming you aren't standing right next the lighthouse). The same concept will work for public Christmas tree displays at night. To get the right exposure and focus, move the focus point onto or near the tree that most interests you.

Want to take pictures of your friends, and maybe get in the shot yourself? Switch on face detection, hit the self-timer and take your place next to your friends.

The sports mode will have your friends lining up to get their golf swings and tennis serves photographed. The camera shoots 13 frames per second in the default mode, sacrificing everything for speed (aperture, ISO, etc.). So while your shots from this mode won't make the cover of SI, everyone will get a kick out of seeing themselves in a stop motion sequence (up to 30 frames).

The camera has two modes which help you get the best shot in unusual circumstances. In Best Shot Selection mode, it shoots up to ten shots as long as you hold down the shutter release button. Then it automatically selects and saves the sharpest picture in the bunch, discarding the rest. In Exposure Bracketing mode, it applies three different levels of exposure to the same shot. One of them is likely to be just what you wanted. Exposure bracketing can even be fine tuned to your liking (read the manual to learn how).

With a single press of the shutter release, this camera can automatically take and assemble 16 shots, 1.1 seconds apart, into a single picture. You get a picture made of 16 consecutive "scenes". This is good for things like a cat playing with a ball, or you and your buddy making funny faces.

Do you wonder who or what knocks over your garbage cans when you're not home? The P80 can shoot time lapse sequences, firing once every 30 seconds to once every hour. It turns off between shots to conserve power, or you can buy an external power supply.

Hate crooked pictures? Push the DISP button to lay down a grid which you can align with horizontal or vertical objects. The grid also helps you position subjects according to the "Rule of Thirds", which even amateur photographers should know.

The digital zoom is cool! It doesn't just enlarge and crop it interpolates to fill in detail that might otherwise be lost. If you go full optical and full digital zoom, you can see the craters and "seas" on the moon! Use a tripod, lock the focus on infinity, turn off VR, and use a 2 or 10 second delay to allow the tripod vibration to settle.

I'm quite pleased with my purchase. If you're the creative type and a camera nut (you actually read the manual and experiment), you'll probably be very pleased; producing countless pictures suitable for framing. If you just like to point and shoot, this camera is probably not for you.

But don't just take my word for it. Go to Flickr and do a search on "Nikon P80" to see what this camera can do.

I tried this camera this week, and found myself returning it within a couple days. In all honesty, I had read good things and I had hoped perhaps this would serve me as a bridge camera between my Canon G9 and my dSLR camera.

First, it is nicely made, and feels good in the hand. It works smoothly, and is relatively quiet during operation. The lens is high quality, and it has the standard Nikon layout on the selection dial. Curiously, it maintains the separate setting on the dial for SETTINGS which should be standard for all creative zone options. This is similar to all other recent Nikon cameras.

In use, the camera feels more like a point and shoot than a true tool of the trade -and therein my average review. If you are working your way up from a point and shoot and not quite ready for a dSLR, this might be the camera for you.

But based on my observations: the camera had a difficult time focusing in low-light conditions, and then defaults to grainy high ISO defaults -sure you can set that, or use Manual mode, but it won't work right out of the box in auto or Programmed Auto or Aperture or Shutter mode.

The image quality is fair -many photos needed saturation boosts -they just seemed bland out of the box. Again, this is programmable, for those who venture into the menu, or those who like playing with photoshop.

In general, all photos looked soft, and they all need sharpening in photoshop. This is something I would clearly not want to waste my time on with every photo taken that I might want to use for print purposes. The image quality just us NOT what you would expect with a camera of this price. That being said -the image quality is consistent from closeup to faraway landscape. There is no noticeable loss of IQ with longer focal distance shots, which is better than most superzoom compact cameras I have seen. Closeup macro shots appear the sharpest: if you like taking photos of bees on flower blossoms, this is your baby.

While the photos do not lose IQ at the far range of the considerable 18x optical zoom -they suffer from severe purple fringing at that end -worse than many other superzoom ultraportables I have seen.

The VR works as promised -provided you are moving and your subject is not moving. I couldn't get clear images of moving objects without significant futzing with the settings.

The shutter lag is considerable, nowhere near the rapid response of a dSLR -and compared to my Canon G9, significantly slower than that as well.

This compares favorably to the Canon S5 and might in fact be better than that camera -but the image quality is not better than the Canon G9, which remains the absolutely best Image Quality camera out there at this price point (without the zoom lens, of course).

I'm not going to rant and rave and say this is a terrible camera -it just seems incredibly average at this price range -take a look at the Canon G9 for faster shutter speed, better image quality, and similar manual control.

I will say one thing -for those who like to isolate their subject from the background (i.e. blur your background, with good depth of field) the Nikon P80 excels at that -I haven't quite seen as nice aperture priority images in a point-and-shoot as I have with this camera.

But overall, it's a highly priced point and shoot, which won't satisfy advanced camera users.

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This is what practitioners of Kyudo, the Japanese martial archery, seek: "correct hitting is in correct shooting". And this is how this camera makes you feel after mastering and getting used to its controls and abilities.

After months of research I decided and bought this ultrazoom. SLRs take better pictures but I refuse to carry all the extra equipment when on vacation. NIKON P5100 was the choice on the other end but it lacked both the x18 tele and the wide end zoom.

The (close) second contender was OLYMPUS SP-570UZ but here is why I found the NIKON a better choice and did not regret it: although the OLYMPUS comes with a larger zoom (x20) it is controlled solely by an awkward (motorized) ring that requires both hands and has an uneven feeling. Moreover, both cameras sport 10MP but, contrary to the OLYMPUS which just had more mega-pixels crammed onto the old (550 & 560) sensor, the NIKON comes with a newly developed sensor. On top of that, I avoided the slow and limited XD-cards OLYMPUS seems stuck on. On the other hand, I missed on 2mm of wideness and x2 on tele zoom.

I have been using the camera with undiminished enthusiasm for over a week and I have only good things to tell you about it. It took me a while to familiarize myself with the settings full auto will not get the best results under any conditions. Once that harmonious point is reached though, this is the camera you would want to be using in most situations.

Where it looses the 5th star: the flash does not pop up automatically when needed. Forget to do so and a high (and noisy) ISO creeps in. So yes, this piece of equipment is not without its caprices...

Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle (and Zen masters) warn about the observer altering the event being observed. With NIKON P80 one can obtain the shot visualized either from very close or from afar. And it does so with simplicity and style.

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I've been using this camera in a variety of situations and subject matter and I just love it. As a professional in the field, I wanted a camera that would have the zoom capability and the image quality of more costly (and heavier, bulkier 'pro' equipment) combined with the spontaneity and efficiency of a point a shoot, one-hand camera. This camera DELIVERS all that for me in a great little package that is easy to use, light to carry, superbly intuitive to navigate and still yields excellent high quality images. At $400 out the door at a retail store, I couldn't be happier with my purchase. I compared it with everything else in that price range and it just blew the others away. If you have $800-$1000 sure, go ahead and get one of the next level dSLRs like the D40 or D60. But if you don't want to be messing with lens changes and like to 'shoot-on-the-go', then you simply can't do better than this camera. It's a versatile, easy to use product at a reasonable price.

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I'm a Nikon fan, and saw this as a economical way of getting DSLR-like features. In particular the "super-zoom" functionality and sports shot setting -seemingly perfect for the games my children play -motivated me to pull the trigger on this purchase.

I'll leave the in-depth analysis of the camera to others who are more knowledgeable but what has me disappointed are the streaks of light that showed up on several hundred photographs I took, using the high speed continuous setting in the sports mode, late in the afternoon (between 4:15PM-6:00PM) on Saturday, May 10th.

After consulting the manual I found the following on page 47: "If bright objects such as the sun or electric lights are captured during high-speed continuous shooting, vertical streaks of light may appear in the recorded images. We recommend that you avoid capturing bright objects during high-speed continuous shooting."

Precisely my problem.

There are multiple settings in the sports mode (as well as the manual setting) to try, so I will be doing that before delivering the box to UPS for return, however it is troubling to discover that the fastest programmable shutter speed (1/4000) is best suited for . . . shooting in the dark?

If I fall in love with this camera (and end up keeping it) I'll be sure to update this review.

UPDATE: Went out recently and tried other settings/features -images are crisp without any hint of the problem encountered in the sports setting. As a result I'm bumping my rating up to three stars (though it doesn't appear that Amazon will allow for such a revision?).

Will continue to update as developments warrant :)

FINAL UPDATE: I emailed Nikon support about the light streaks that appear in photographs when using the sports mode (what they called "bands of overexposure"). They were very honest in their assessment -there's no way to eliminate the problem entirely. Their recommendation was to utilize the exposure compensation setting (-0.3 or -.07) to ameliorate the effect. Though disappointed, the quality of the images overall (especially macro) is so good that I have decided to keep the camera. The overall rating of Amazon reviewers (3.5 as I write this) seems absolutely correct!

FINAL, FINAL UPDATE: Purchased a filter adapter from NEXTPhoto.net and a circular polarizing lens. This has all but eliminated the bands of overexposure that showed up in the high speed continuous, sports shooting mode. I have also discovered that, with an infrared filter (R72) the P80 is capable of some nice infrared photography (as long as I keep the ISO setting at a maximum of 200 -400 and above is very noisy)!

FINAL, FINAL, FINAL UPDATE: As my meager skills as a "photographer" improved the limitations of this *class* of camera (i.e. "superzooms") left too much to be desired, especially in low light, fast action situations (i.e. image resolution was very poor, and very noisy). Ultimately, I sold the P80 and am looking at entry level DSLRs (e.g. Canon Rebel Xsi).

Olympus E-20 5MP Digital Camera w/ 4x Optical Zoom

What an amazing machine this is. After suffering through the flimsy plastic trinket cameras with little or no real optical quality, I finally own a truly versatile digital camera. The E-20 (as with the E10) offers extraordinary flexibility in digital photography. Prior to my recent purchase I spent at least a year and a half researching and waiting for this last pixel jump. The E-20 offers all of the flexibility of a high-level SLR which is missing on most other digital cameras.

Good Points:

The feel... It has enough weight for good stability, and it fits your hand very nicely.

Excellent lens with the ability to add extenders, filters, what-have-you.

Super Image Quality

Good bundled software (Adobe PhotoShop Elements and Camedia)

Image control

SmartMedia, CompactFlash, AND Microdrive compliant with the ability to use more than one card type at a time (you can switch between the cards).

True SLR (some competitors offer interchangeable optics, but still have you look through a viewfinder. What's with that? I want to see what I'm taking.).

Great accessories! (I can't wait to get the lithium polymer attachment)

Drawbacks

I'll have to get a better strap

Flexibility & control vs. ease of use trade-off... there are roughly 30 buttons to learn (but most of us will want that kind of control).

It doesn't come with a case... even a cheapie

I need to buy stock in a battery company

Remembering to turn it off whenever I open the media bay or change power source

This is probably not the camera you would buy for your instamatic dependent Aunt Sally or Uncle Jimmy-Bob, but if push came to shove you could always tell them to just put the big knob on "P" (Program) and snap away.

When you pick your camera, don't go by statistics alone (or reviews alone for that matter). You've got to get out there and see how the camera feels in your hands. If you've a history with good quality 35mm SLR's you are going to love the E-20.

I am now using the E-20N for our newspaper and have found it to be excellent for sports and news photography. The only drawback is the write time from buffer to card can be long and ties up the camera when the buffer is full. It is a little slow powering up, about 5 seconds. However, I am learning to overcome it and work around it. It takes excellent quality photos and does night football on the high school level very nicely with the FL-40 Flash. The flash is a necessary accessory. It is a wonder to handle, good focus, fast auto focus and love the manual flexibility it has. I definitely recommend it. I did not know if it would take night football, but it has done very well. I am still learning it and trying to master the many features it has. Very, Very good digital camera, it has all but eliminated our wet darkroom. we also use Nikon Coolpix 950s and 995, both very good digital cameras.

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The Olympus E20N replaced their E10 and now can capture 5 meg images. This is a key upgrade to what was already a very fine digital camera. The construction and materials of this camera put it into the upper echelon of consumer digital cameras and some would argue that this is a strictly professional tool. What I like about it is the balance of features, quality and design. Once Olympus manages to speed up the image storage process, the E20N will be worthy of 5 stars.

Many digital camera designers are scrambling to improve optical performance of the camera lens. The need for a zoom lens that covers a wide range is hamstrung by the small size of even a 5 megapixel CCD. This in part explains the poor image performance of many inexpensive digital cameras, but even in the lower price regime, Olympus has been an industry leader for years. But a designer of a more expensive camera like the E-20N ... has more latitude in designing optics and herein lies a key strength of this camera. The lens of the E-20N has a zoom range equivalent to a 35-140mm lens on a 35mm camera, with an aperture of f 2 to 2.4. One can sight through an optical TTL viewfinder or via a swivelable LCD screen. Excellent optics!

The control features of the E20N are also excellent, yet not perfect. Many adjustments are set by holding down a dedicated button while rotating the camera's control wheel, which can be difficult to do one-handed. The built-in flash has fairly decent range, but since the camera has a hot-shoe, an external flash can be added if necessary.

I like the ergonomic feel of the E-20N and I also like that it has four available operating modes: automatic, manual, aperture priority and shutter priority. By using the new progressive scan mode, one can take images with a shutter speed of 1/18000th of a second, but the image resolution is reduced by a factor of two. This might make you think this is an ideal camera for sports photography, but I'd disagree. The camera is just too slow at storing image data. It often takes over 8 seconds to store a high resolution image with the E-20N and this is the camera's most serious fault.

The bottom line for most folks is image quality and in this department, the E-20N does not disappoint. If you ever make the move up to a large-format printer, you'll want a camera of this quality. You can achieve excellent prints at 11x17" with the E-20N. For pictures requiring a slow shutter speed, the noise-reduction filter is very useful.

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The Pros: EXCELLENT IMAGE QUALITY and control. Very solid grip and feel actually feels like a real camera. The lens is bright and sharp, image quality is probably the best I've seen. The focal length of the camera is great. Best thing compared to most digicams I've used: there is no shutter lag the time it takes between you pressing the button (click) and the actual picture being taken. I hate that on some Sony cameras I've used in the past by the time the camera actually takes the picture a person's expression or light conditions can change... :-(

All in all, a great camera for this price and probably the cheapest in its class of SLRs (compared to Nikon D1X).

The Cons: SLOW WRITE TIMES, but you can get used to that and learn to live with it. FIXED LENS you cannot change lens with is good and bad. Good because the CCD elements are protected at all times and don't get dirt.. a problem with some digital SLRs. You can also get attachments that go on top of the lens for macro or wide angle, etc. The LCD screen is HORRIBLE don't use that for composing shots too often.

I am waiting for the new models to come out at PMA end of Feb. 2002. At that time E20 should get cheaper hopefully.

You probably must've read a lot of reviews by now. ....

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If you're looking for a great snapshot camera, look somewhere else. This isn't it. This Olympus is a workhorse of a camera good enough to replace your film cameras. After years of shooting 35mm, this is the camera I picked to test the digital frontier. My main concern about going digital was photo quality but I have been impressed. Shoot at (near) top quality, run through Photoshop Elements, download to a CD-R, CompactFlash or SmartMedia and run it through your local photo lab at Ritz or even Wal-Mart. The quality is admirable. I took this camera on vacation to Canada and was not disappointed. Could you do better? If you already have Nikon or Canon lenses, spend the extra cash and buy their latest models. But for the money, you'd be challenged to find a better overall camera that will let you explore your own photographic passions.

The best features:

* True photo-quality at 8x10-plus (gives you room to crop)

* Feels like a real camera

* Bright lens with decent telephoto range

* Variety of settings to let you go totally automatic or manual

The worst features:

* It is somewhat heavy (although the weight does give you a sense of comfort)

* Slow write times to memory

* Small cache that fills up with about 5 high-quality tiffs

* Lens range (without extensions) is a bit limiting, especially outdoors.

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