 Cheaply Made Product |
| Review Date: May 6, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Sam Fisherman, Honolulu, HI |
I purchased this product thinking what a deal it was. It only reminded me of the old saying, "You get what you pay for." First of all, when you first open this product you smell cheap plastic. That should tell you something. Upon closer inspection and handling you will notice that it is made of a cheap light plastic. It is the same plastic used in cheap toys made in China. The camera lens itself is made of plastic! Good cameras use glass lens if you have any experience with them. And there is a reason for that. So I tell myself, "That's just the material." So I start using it and that's where it went downhill.
The video quality is the most important thing so I tried it in all kinds of light conditions. Outdoors the picture was really jerky. That's because the camera does not have an image stabilizer. I used a camera tripod to try to stabilize the picture but what is the point of having a small sized camera if you have to attach it to a tripod everytime you use it? With the tripod the jerkiness was not as bad. Just don't move it. "Well, the camera was small and cheap," I told myself. The picture quality reminds me of the video quality you get when you use a cell phone camera. Indoors it was terrible. The videos taken indoors were dark even though the rooms I took them in were well lighted. This is most definitely an outdoors camera. But even at that it is not very good. The still pictures reminded me of, again, cell phone camera pictures.
One of the biggest issues you will find with this camera is that it does not have an optical zoom. In order to get a closer view you have to move closer to what you are shooting. The result is a jittery video that does not quite focus on the subject whether you are moving forward or backward. There is really no autofocus on this device. No matter what you do it will not be sharply focused. If you want clear focused images whether it be for video or still images, you won't get it here. This will be a deal breaker for most. In this case you will find yourself better off spending the exta dollars for a good camera.
Then I ran it through the next test. I tried to load the images on a dvd. After all, that is one of the main reason I got this camera. The file version that this camera creates is not usable with even the software I use to convert the images into something playable on a dvd player. Yes, you can connect the camera to the tv and watch the videos but you can't load them on a dvd and then play them on a dvd player. That is a big minus to me. In this case one is better off with the Flip. At least with the Flip you can save the videos on a dvd.
Another issue you will find is that the onboard memory on this thing is so small that you can't really save anything on it. You need to purchase a memory card for this thing. It had some issues with the memory card but eventually I was able to get it to work. It did have problems with the memory card but if you are patient you deal with it. You just have to reseat the memory card whenever it gives you problems. For most this would be annoying when shooting a video. Just don't use it to shoot an important event such as a wedding because you might just miss the most important part when the memory card issue pops up.
I came across another problem with this camera when it would just simply shut off by itself when you are shooting. You have to open the battery compartment and re-install the battery and that would solve the problem. But that happened often enough that you will get annoyed by it. I put an object inside the compartment to make the battery more snug but that fix eventually became a problem as the battery eventually became even more loose and would overheat.
Finally, the audio on the videos taken are terrible. The camera seems to focus on the side opposite of the subject. It is hard to hear what the subject says. If you are recording around an area where there is background sound, even if not loud, the subject's voice will be hard to hear. Unfortunately, there is not input for a microphone so you are pretty much stuck with the onboard microphone. Now this is a very big deal breaker to me. When recording important events you will find that much of what is said will be hard to hear. If the audio is important to you, this will thoroughly disappoint you as there are really no fixes for this issue. You can expect to stick with environments that are very quiet with no wind or other people talking. Even at that it is not very good.
Customer service is another issue with this camera. When I finally got to them they could not help me with the problems with this camera. They finally simply did not respond to my request for assistance on the battery malfunctioning.
If you are particular about cosmetic appearance of the camera, you will find that because the camera was made with cheap plastic there will be a lot of wear that will render it unappealing. Cosmetic appearance does not matter to me but the durability does. The camera's body is so cheaply made that you get the feeling that you should handle this thing with extra care. The plastic moldings can easily be cracked if you bang it against something. I take good care of my equipment so I could not understand the appearance of wear on it. Again, the appearance does not really matter to me. It's the function and durability that does. In this case this product fails.
All in all I would not recommend this product to anyone. I would not even recommend it as a toy because of durability issues. I would instead recommend you saving a little bit more money and buying a better camera. Lesson learned: You get what you pay for. I will never buy an Aiptek product again. Yes, they are cheap. But, repeat after me, "You get what you pay for." |
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