Customer Reviews

D-Link DSC-350F Dual-Mode PC Camera

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is one of the best digital cameras you can get new for the money.

Its VGA (640 x 480 pels) format is good for taking pictures that you will view on your computer and share over the internet. But photos printed at sizes larger than wallet size (1.5 x 2.5) will be grainy. This is a good camera for the kids. I've had the camera for a week and the kids have already taken several hundred pictures (including pictures of fireworks on the 4th of July). Considering film processing costs, the camera has already paid for itself.

The camera features a fairly bright f2.8 fixed focus lens (to 35"), a macro switch that allows focusing as close as 9" (but no flash in macro mode), four auto exposure modes (outdoors/cloudy, outdoors/sunny, indoors/bright, indoors/dark), one auto flash mode (on/off -- no red eye reduction), auto white balance, a 10 second self-timer, two resolutions (VGA & CIF), 8M internal memory (which can't be increased) that can hold about 70 VGA pictures and 160 CIF pictures, a movie-mode that takes one CIF picture every .75 seconds as long as you hold down the shutter button, a fast USB interface (cable included), and it can be used as a Web Cam if you have the right software (not included).

With only four buttons, the camera is simple to use. Press the Power button to turn it on (with a loud beep). Pressing the button again will NOT turn the cameral off. The camera will turn itself off (with two load beeps) after 60 seconds of inactivity.

It has a small black and white LCD that shows mode settings. To change a setting, press the Mode button repeatedly (with a loud beep for each press) until the desired setting flashes in the LDC. Then press and hold the Select button until it beeps twice to activate the setting. There are twelve settings: VGA, CIF, outdoor/cloudy, outdoor/sunny, indoor/bright, indoor/dark, flash on, flash off, movie mode on, delete all pictures, delete last picture, and self-timer on. To change another setting, you must cycle through all the settings again, starting from the beginng.

WHICH BRINGS US TO THE CAMERA'S BIGGEST DRAWBACK. The engineer who programmed the camera had a fanatical obsession with resetting your settings. When the camera powers itself off (after only 60 seconds of inactivity), all the settings are reset to their defaults (VGA, outdoor/cloudy, flash off), so you have to go through the whole setup routine when you turn it on again. I would have rated this camera a 5 if it were not for this ANNOYING behavior. FORTUNATELY, YOU CAN PREVENT THE CAMERA FROM POWERING OFF BY PRESSING EITHER THE "MODE" BUTTON OR THE "SELECT" BUTTON BEFORE THE 60 SECONDS EXPIRES. In addition, Self-timer mode is turned off after the shutter fires, and Movie mode is turned off after you release the shutter button.

The camera takes decent pictures. The auto exposure modes and auto white balance work well in normal "snapshot" situations. The flash is only good for 4 or 5 feet, but actually, this can be used to highlight the subjects of the picture while deemphasizing backgrounds. I don't have the necessary equipment to evaluate color accuracy, but the color looks fine to me in most situations, although I have noticed a pinkish cast in low light situations.

The camera comes with ArcSoft's Photo Impression software and a no-name program that will download a sequence of images from the camera and create an avi movie file. The AVI maker is extremely limited, but ArcSoft's Photo Impression is powerful and easy to learn and use (which is good since there isn't much help or documentation.) It is faster and more powerfull than Microsofts' Image Express and easier to use than the other Image sofware packages that came with my printer and scanner. It has about a dozen image enhancing tools (red eye reduction, brightness, contrast, tint correction, etc.) including an almost magical one-button photo enhancement feature that corrects almost everything. It supports multi-layer image processing, adding text to pictures, and twenty or so image manipulation tools (morphs, solorizations, melts, etc.) My favorite is a tool that turns your photograph into a pen & ink drawing. My kids love coloring drawings of themselves and their friends. It comes with built in projects that allow you to instantly turn any photograph into a greeting card or a calendar, and much more. It also has a very powerful, flexible and easy-to-use printing "wizzard" that allows you to get the most from your expensive photo paper.

We've gotten 69 VGA exposures in normal conditions (and 156 VGA exposures of fireworks where the background was all black). After hundreds of pictures, the two AA batteries are still going strong. It fits in a shirt pocket, and when I put it in my pants pocket, I forget that it is there.

Except for the stupid settings program, I am very pleased with this camera.

This camera is a pretty decent camera for any beginner.

It has a USB connection which makes fast downloading, it has a flash unlike most cams that have poor lighting, and the VGA quality is nice and smooth.

If you want a camera and you are new at it, get this item.

I looked at the reviews for this and was scared. Was pratically ready to ship it back when I first saw it. Then i took some pics they were great. Hooked it up to the computer. EASY!! Been having fun ever since. :)

The only thing that I don't like is that the default settings are the settings that are put in place everytime the camera is turn on. You cannot save your settings. :(

Save your money!!

I bought this because I wanted a digital camera, but I didn't want to spend the big bucks. I thought it would be fine for what I wanted. The first group of pictures I took came out fuzzy when I downloaded them. I thought it was just my not knowing how to use the camera.... not the case, the next times I used the camera and downloaded them I got the same thing.

Another Feature(?) is the auto shut off. I was on vacation and tried using it for pictures of action. I didn't want the continuous pictures so I used the regular point and shoot mode. When it got to a part that I was wanting to photograph the camera had shut off, causing me to have to go through the whole cycle of setting up the flash, pixels, and the amount of light etc.

I will probably end up giving my 9 year old this camera and will buy myself a "real" digital camera.

I got this little camera for Christmas and I really like it. My flash isn't working, however, and technical support has been extremely difficult to reach. I'm sure I will get straight eventually though. In the mean time I guess I'll just have to limit my photo taking to the daylite hours.......

I just received it yesterday. Took a few pictures and tested out the settings. My conclusion is that it's a good beginner digital camera for the price. I didn't want a big financial commitment into digital photography but hated the hassle of developing and waiting for pictures. I'll try to point out things not found in the spec sheets.

The 640x480 resolution is good assuming two criterias are met. 1) There is enough light and 2) the camera is steady. To address the 1st one, the flash works ok, however it has a very limited range, about 1 meter - 1.5 meters. Any farther and the light tapers off, any closer and the picture is blurry and too bright. To address the 2nd issue, it helps to be in a bright environment, then the automatic shutter speed will be faster so that any movement by your hand won't blurr the pictures. Or you could practice pressing the shutter button VERY steadily.

The thing that annoys me most about this camera is the settings. You have to scroll through all the modes everytime you want to change a setting, such as whether to auto-flash (off by default), or a different environment setting (default is cloudy outside). You can avoid this if you're taking pictures one after another within 60 seconds. Otherwise it turns off automatically after 60 seconds with NO EXCEPTIONS. I looked in the instruction manual and there's no way to turn this feature off. This added with the tedious mode selection is a huge gripe of mine. Since everytime it turns off, the settings reset to default and you have to scroll through them again to set them up. Also the beeps are annoying, every time you press a button (such as scrolling through the modes, it has a fairly loud beep). If only they allowed the settings to be saved after turning off the camera, the camera would have come to near perfect for the price.

This camera is nice. Software is very easy to use. Camera is compact and very easy to use. It saves battery power by powering off in 60 seconds of inactivity. Pictures come out nice and clear. Also has a flash!

This is a truly extraordinary piece of junk.

The first problem with the camera is that it doesn't even clearly tells you which way to insert batteries.

Then the pictures I took with this camera are the result of: over exposed, under exposed, never correctly exposed, out of focus, blur, pale to almost black and white, you name it.

The manual does not even tell you the simple thing like how to make a selection from the menu (with trial and error, I figured out you have to press "select" for 2 seconds, how obvious!!!).

I haven't tried tech support, but from what I read on other reviews, I don't need to try, and I likely won't reach them.

I had better experience with [an inexpensive] disposable camera.

I have been dealing with DLINK for a very long time and one thing that's consistant with their products.. customer support is non-existant!

If you fall into the hold my hand computer user look elsewhere because you're not going to get it here. Frankly, you shouldn't anyway, this is a $50 camera. What would you expect?!?!?

Now for the camera. I have bought 3 of these, 2 for clients, 1 for myself.

My usage is very light. I wanted a camera that lets me take quick pics, mostly for internet use, that doesn't require huge processing time. The pictures I have taken have all been expected from a camera in this price range. Colors and clarity could be better but its about what my old 104 used to take for the same price.

People who want a camera for vacations, close ups, ETC are not going to be happy with this. Shell out some money for a real digital camera.

People who can look at price and value will like what they get with this camera.

I give it 4 stars because of DLINKS normal forget customer service policy, but scores well enough in the ease of use catagory to make this a marginal winner.

Not bad for someone who wants to take candid shots and display or share them on the web. Keep in mind that you get what you pay for. Of course, the worse aspect of the camera is the auto shut off and resetting of the settings.