Casio QV10A
Written: Aug 31 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Exceptionally easy to use.
Cons: Low resolution; Casio is non-responsive.
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| Q2you's Full Review: Casio QV-10A Digital Camera |
I asked Santa for a digital camera for Christmas. Santa is not particularly savvy about digital cameras. But I received the CasioQV10A and was happy to have *any* kind of digital camera.
So now I have had several months of using the camera and comparing notes with other folks using other digitals and this is what I think:
Disadvantages of the Casio-QV10:
Santa forgot to include the cable that one uses to download images to the computer...it took from December to July to order and receive the *correct* cable from Casio because the camera's manufacture has been discontinued; they only accept credit cards for payment; and items listed on their website are *not* always available. Also, the cable was not available locally.
I still have not been able to find a power supply for the camera, locally.
The power supply is non-standard -- Radio Shack and Wolf camera do not carry it in the San Francisco Bay area.
Casio has been less than helpful with my requests for support on these issues. A company that doesn't back its technical products, to me, is worse than useless. All of their responses have been "canned" and utterly irrelevant to my questions--with no follow-up despite my requests for follow-up.
Some people would say that not having removable disks is a disadvantage.
However, I prefer the download system. But that's a personal preference based on my own experience.
The LCD screen is really quite difficult to see in full sunlight.
I've mostly resolved this problem by wearing a baseball cap when I'm taking pictures outdoors and using the brim to shade the LCD screen.
The baseball cap didn't go over big at a recent wedding--but once I explained,people were okay with it.
Advantages to the Casio:
When my brother-in-law, George takes an image, indoors, on his fancy
digital camera, he needs lights, a power cord, and he is limited to 32 images. Oh, sure, he can play them back immediately on a big screen TV,
but (to me) that's not as big a deal as being able to take images in low light (even when they look bad they almost always are editable back to a decent quality photo) with people-acting-like-people instead of
people-having-their-picture taken. The image quality is not fabulous, so one has to develop a bit of knowledge about photo editing...but for family photos, website images, readable close-ups of tombstones (one of my hobbies)and e-mail exchanges this is a decent camera.
The camera mounts on a standard or "qwik stick" tri-pod -- a tremendous advantage at family parties, especially those where people are drinking.
It "bounces". This is probably not an issue for some people, but for people with kids who might use the camera, and for me, its a big one since I tend to have a lot of kids around me most of the time. The camera has been forcefully dropped three times and survived. However
on the third bounce the battery door latch sprung. We repaired it
with paper medical-tape and the camera still functions....but now I
have to brave the Casio website to find out where to get the
battery door repaired. ACK!
When the batteries go dead, the camera holds the images. Also, you can mark each image that you don't want to accidentally delete. I edit my photos on-the-fly, erasing those 'turkeys' that no one wants to see and this camera is great for that purpose. Also, preparing for a recent trip, I uploaded a set of images to the camera and took a 96 picture
photo album with me in my coat pocket on my flight to the east coast.
Instant entertainment for the kids. Fun when we arrived. And deleted in less than a minute before the photo opportunities there began.
I should also add that under fairly good room lighting conditions I took some fabulous photos for a bed and breakfast website. And plan to use it to inventory my house and to document some construction upgrades for tax purposes. It also saved about and hour of tedious discussion at the appliance parts store when I took a shot of a defective stove part and showed the image to the customer service clerk.
So, my overall recommendation would be that this camera is NOT for the professional image-maker. It is an adequate and convenient family
digital camera....and a terrific choice for the high school or college student to exchange e-mail photos with family members at home.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID: Q2you
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Member: Ann Patterson Ligon
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 2 members
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