Agfa E-frown...
Written: Dec 27 '99 (Updated Sep 15 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Inexpensive, sleek looking
Cons: Substandard image quality, confusing software
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| awoodin's Full Review: Agfa ePhoto Smile Digital Camera |
Agfa's new Ephoto Smile is meant to be a sleek and inexpensive digital camera for the masses. It isn't - it's a big waste of time and money. The maxim "you get what you pay for" is completely true for this product.
The Smile has poor resolution (Maximum 640X480), lousy color rendition, and has a CCD chip that works only a little better than Stevie Wonder's retinas.
I took some indoor test shots, because I wanted to start selling stuff on Ebay. I stood back in horror at the results: grainy imagery, sub-par color and atrocious lighting, even with the built-in flash.
And that's just the hardware. The software is huge (tens of megabytes), and is rather difficult to use. Agfa forces you to use a bizarre nested folder concept - I believe it was an "envelopes and albums" structure (you get back your developed pics from the photoshop and put them in albums - get it??), that only served to obscure the true location of each image. Knowing where your images is essential to efficiently filing, editing and e-mailing them, but Agfa's software fights you every step of the way.
The serial transfer rate is abysmal, but that has more to do with the inherent slowness of the serial interface. Why aren't more digital camera makers going USB?
This camera might be good as a present for an eight to twelve year old whose photography needs are minimal, and whose tendency to be rough on equipment would make a larger purchase questionable. I'd recommend the E-Frown (I mean, E-Smile)for learning the rudiments of digital photography, but it might be just as well to put that money toward a better camera.
Update: 9/15/2000 - this camera now sells for about $50.00, but even if it were a prize from a Crackerjack box, I'd still consider myself ripped off.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
awoodin
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Member: Aaron Woodin
Location: Westchester County, NY
Reviews written: 16
Trusted by: 5 members
About Me:
Journalism major turned computer tech. Always and forever addicted to movies and fine food.
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