Argus DC3500 2MP Digital Camera

by Argus

Product Details

Product Manual [5.23mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 1.2 x 4 x 2.5 inches ; 5.3 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B0000683A0
• Batteries: 2 AA batteries required.
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,852 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 5, 2002

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The Argus DC3500 feature a 2.1-megapixel CCD sensor that ensures bright and vivid digital photos. You can effortlessly set up your shots using the 1.5-inch color LCD display. The built-in sensor flash fires automatically whenever there is not enough light, so you don't have to worry about photos coming out too dark.

The 10-second self-timer comes in handy when you're taking group photos or a self-portrait. It comes with a built-in 8 MB flash memory as well as a CompactFlash card slot for additional memory storage. You can directly download the pictures onto your computer using the included USB cable and software. Argus offers a one-year warranty.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not even worth the CHEAP price...difficult!, March 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Argus DC3500 2MP Digital Camera (Electronics)

I am the type of person that can bargain hunt and get by on great deals, even if they are missing lots of features that most people think are "necessary"....I thought I could overcome the problems people stated in the reviews. I was wrong.

This camera makes lovely pictures. Evidently, the lens and the Sony ccd chip are quality. I have no complaints about image quality. However, the time, effort and frustration that it took to make the photographs caused me to return this camera after a week.

Most bothersome is that this camera has a terrible parallax problem, meaning what you see in the viewfinder is not accurate. I had a little bit of this problem with my Kodak dc-3200, but this problem with the Argus made the camera unusable. Heads, feet, tops of buildings...all cut off. I would say the viewfinder is only 60% accurate. Unacceptable amount of error in my opinion.

I have 4 digital cameras. I usually don't pay attention when people complain about battery life, b/c all digitals eat batteries. This camera, however, is the worst yet. I drained 4 Nimh rechargeables after 10 pictures, no flash. Terrible. When the batteries begin to drain, the camera powers off. (without warning.) It is often difficult to tell if the camera is off or on. I read that in other reviews and thought the authors were just techno-illiterate. No way..they are right on. You never know if the stupid thing is off or on. And the buttons on the back? Tiny, and impossible to tell if you have actually pushed them and the command was read. You can push and push, and finally, the button will do what it is supposed to do.

Final problem...it takes over 30 seconds to write each image to memory after shooting it. Extremely slow....makes your subjects insane, trying to stand still...and all the while, you don't know if you have framed the shot correctly, if the button is really pushed, or if the darned thing is even on.

Really, buy yourself the Kodak dc-3200 if you need a cheap digital. While the resolution is lower, it is a nice, reliable, user friendly camera. I could never recommend the Argus.

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Design a bad Camera-Then Sell it, March 18, 2003

By 

"eloyomar" (Brooklyn, New York United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Argus DC3500 2MP Digital Camera (Electronics)

This camera has the potential to be a keeper. Other reviews will talk about the features, The only one that falsely appears as positive is its price. almost all the reviews describe its major drawbacks (BAD DESIGN, BATTERY LIFE, COMPACT FLASH INCOMPATIBILITY, LACK OF AC ADAPTER, USELESS VIEWFINDER< FAULTY OPWER ON BUTTON)

THEY ARE ALL TRUE!

I Believe Argus designed a loser, and dump it on the market at a discount to get rid of them. Stupid mistakes like mispelled words in the display "MOMERY FULL" instead of MEMORY, or "RAGE" instead of "RANGE", are symptomatic of a total lack of attention to detail in its design and manufacture, followed by totally non existant testing of their product.

Instead of recalling it, accepting their mistakes, and God forbid, fixing them, they turn to dumping it on the market.

This, to me, demonstrates a company with arrogance and contempt for their customers.

The Designers and Engineers at ARGUS probably can't show their faces in public for designing a device destined to be rated as crap.

ONLY THE EXTREME DISCOUNT SAVES THIS CAMERA FROM THE TRASH HEAP. IT OBVIOUSLY COULD NOT BE SOLD AT THE PRICE OF OTHER 2 MEGAPIXELS.

BATERRY HOG? An understatement. I went through 8 AAA Alkaline bateries in 20 minutes just setting the camera up.

RECHARGABLE BATTERIES HELP? Yes but not much, What kind of a bargain is this camera really, if you spend the money you're supposed to save, on expensive batteries, and a recharger. You'll need 12-16 rechartgable AAA to have any fun with this camera.

IS IT REALLY THAT SLOW? YES! You will spend 1/3 of your battery life waiting for the camera to turn itself on. Counterintuitively, you might think "set auto shutoff to lowest setting." NO! This just frutrates you in how much battery power you lose turning it back on.

DOES IT TAKE GOOD PICTURES? Yes, just proving that careless design can not destry everything.

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU NEED ANOTHER BATTERY CHANGE? It drops dead.

IS THE COMPACT FLASH INCOMPATIBLE? YES! don't spent money on a memory unit without trying it in the camera first. You'll just be throwing even more money away.

HOW DO YO KNOE IF THE PICTURE IS CENTERED? Don't look in the viewfinder. Hell If I know how to get the picture centered.

You will probably spend $20-30 more than a comparably featured camera to compesate for all the drawbacks.

That my friend is no bargain.

PRICE ISN'T EVERYTHING. Value your sanity.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for the price, December 26, 2002

By 

"pantrybear" (Kewaskum, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Argus DC3500 2MP Digital Camera (Electronics)

This camera is the best digital camera you're going to find for the price. Yes, there are some draw backs to it but compared to the other sub one hundred dollar cameras, this one is awesome.

After reading the other reviews, I bought a charger and 8 AAA NiMH batteries. I'm glad I did. They weren't kidding, this thing ate up the alkaline batteries in less than 10 pictures. But, the NiMH batteries are great. I've taken over 30 pictures on my first set and it's still going. I was going to find an AC adapter but now I think that two sets of NiMH batteries make this a very useable camera (it just isn't useable with alkaline).

Another draw back is that both the optical view finder and the lcd screen don't reflect the true picture framing. I can understand the optical view finder being off but why would the lcd display be off? It's best to use the lcd since it errs on the small side and while the optical view finder makes you think you're getting everything in the picture when you're not.

Also, the small size and light weight of the camera make it a little hard to hold steady while shooting causing some blurred images. This is not too big of a deal, I'm already learning to make special effort to hold it steady.

The buttons on the back of the camera are really hard to push. Sometimes you can push them, feel the click, but it hasn't actually been pushed. This is kind of annoying but, once again, you get used to it.

Finally, an optical zoom would be nice but for the price you can't expect everything.

That's the bad side. The good side is that you get a 2 megapixel camera for half the price of any other one on the market. The pictures come out very well. There are a lot of nice adjustments like +/-EV and several different white balance settings. It also comes with a soft case which is a nice bonus.

Other things you'll need with this camera:
-8 AAA NiMH batteries and a charger
-digital imaging software - it comes with PhotoSuiteIIISE which is too stripped down to do anything but give you a taste of what a full blown program can do
-A compact flash card - the price of these is plummeting so grab 128Mb

Once again, for the price, you absolutely can't go wrong.