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Casio QV-R40 4 Megapixel Compact Camera - Silver
Strengths: metal body, good photos, variety of modes, excellent close-ups, "best shot modes", white balance settings, etc
Weakness: only 10mb internal memory, no sound on video, no manual, awful software, etc
I like it because it is small and I can carry it in my pocket. This is the first digital camera I have been able to do this with. I carry it everywhere. It has a mostly metal body, which I prefer to plastic. It takes great photos and allows for many different modes or settings.
It doesn't allow for manual aperture and shutter speeds, which for most digital cameras doesn't really matter. Digital cameras have very small sensors which means the lenses have to be very small, making it difficult to have very small apertures (large f-stops). This results in a very small range of exposure settings. With this small range manual settings wouldn't really matter. Depth of field won't vary very much.
I like the movie mode except the image is too small and the number of frames per second is half of what it should be. There is no sound.
The software is useless. It doesn't allow for the photo names to be changed, nor for keywords of any kind. I don't know why Casio even provided this "crudware". I will use it just for placing it on disk and then use ACDSee software to manage it.
The manual is on disk. This is a useless format. The first thing a person should do, in order to get the most out of the camera, is to print the manual out. This shouldn't be necessary. It should include a printed manual.
I don't like the automatic, power lens extension when the camera is powered on. Because I like to carry it in my pocket, I am afraid the camera will power on and the lens will extend and become damaged. This could also happen in any enclosed space.
The flash is weak. I tried to take photos at my grand-daughter's gymnastics birthday party and failed. The flash simply wouldn't go the distance. I had a problem with shutter lag but found that by pressing the shutter halfway, I could decrease the time lag.
I enjoy taking close up photos and find this is the best camera for this to date. I have taken hundreds of close flower photos and have created photos of great beauty. The macro mode is also great for close ups of object for either eBay, insurance photos (household inventory) or for other purposes. The flash has three modes. Strong, normal and weak. This does help some with long and short distance. Still for close macro photos, the flash is too strong. I find that natural light is preferable for this. It has a variety of "white balance" modes which allows the objects to have the right color casts. This works great!
I owned one other Casio a long time ago (1998) and hated it. Everything had a red cast and red halos around it. I finally took it back to the seller and got my money back. I purchased a Kodak DC-200 which took great photos. This camera, being newer and more deluxe, is much more enjoyable to use. Still, a simple camera has less to break. Even so, I find that having a zoom lens is just about a necessity for the kind of photos I take, as is the macro mode.
There are several minor concerns:
My hands are large and the camera is small. The control on the back is too close to the edge and my clumsy hands accidentally press it. This control (it is round and has four arrows around the edge (3,6 9 and 12 o'clock positions)) is very solid feeling, unlike the similar one on the Toshiba PDR-4300. The zoom control has a protrusion on the front which catches on things. It doesn't have a TV out, but it doesn't matter to me as I have never used it on the cameras I have had which had it. The USB connection is small (good) and located on what to me is the correct side. The rubber cover is handy to cover the port up.
The camera allows for custom "best shots" or modes. It can be set up for macro, infinity, sharp focus, etc. etc. anyway (almost) you want it. I have one set up for tungsten light (light bulbs) and macro for indoor close ups.
The eye piece view port is small and my eye (glasses) has trouble finding it. I have gotten used to it.
The record (picture taking) startup allows for an image to be shown for 2 seconds every time the camera is turned on. I recorded a photo of my name, address and phone number for in case the camera gets lost or stolen.
It has very small internal memory. This is useless for my purpose. I use it to store other things. This is hidden unless the SD card is removed. The camera can be used as a hard drive. Possible downsides?
I bought a 256mb SD card. I have found this to be adequate. It will store 123 photos of the finest quality with the lowest compression. With the finest quality and the highest compression, it will record 218 photos. With the naked eye, I have found no noticeable difference between the 3 compression ratios. Some people might disagree, however. It has the following image sizes: 2304x1712, 2240x1680, 1600x1200, 1280x960 and 640x480. Other sizes than the largest may very well be find for most purposes. This will allow for many more images on the memory card. My 256mb SD card with the lowest quality compression and smallest size will store 2,463 photos. I think that sizes and compressions somewhere between 123 images and 2,463 images might be fine for most use. Cards smaller than 256mb might be fine for many people. I wouldn't consider using a card smaller than 64mb, unless I had several.
I guess this all I have to say, for now. I really love this little camera. I took it to Home Depot and took pictures of the orchids and they were beautiful.
As with all digital cameras, always carry a spare set!
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