Customer Reviews

Pretec DC-530 0.3MP Digital Camera, PC Camera, MP3 Player, Voice Recorder

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I just recieved this gift for Christmas and was amazed by all of the features available with the Pretech DC-530. It can give you great quality with MP3's, digital pictures, voice recorder, web cam, and tv pictures. It's a little bit overwhelming at how all of these gadgets fit into a product that is about 2.5" x 4" x 1". My only critiques are that the pictures are in black & white, you have to have a computer or tv on hand to view the pictures, and you cannot choose the color of the DC-530 that is sent to you. Besides these minor faults, it's a great gadget to have and will save you lots of space and hundreds of dollars if you were to buy all of these items separately.

I bought the pretec 530 for my trip to Italy. After reviewing the features I've decided that I absolutely adore this camera. The pictures are 640x480 which is perfect for my online photo album, the color is excellent and the pictures are sharp.

One of my biggest reservations when buying the camera was wether or not I would be able to take good pictures in any conditions, indoor, outdoor, candid, etc. So far I have been able to capture very good pictures in both low light and direct sunlight. My only warning would be that the flash has a limited range (2 meters or so). If you are using the camera in low light, be sure to get friendly with your subjects or they may come out somewhat blurry.

The camera is smaller than I pictured it, which is a real plus. Also, it's perfect for travelling. I bought a 90Meg compact flash for it, which will hold over 1000 pictures (in high quality mode). This is really handy for a vacation, because all I need to carry are spare batteries. Also, the capacity makes it easy to sacrifice some room for music to listen to on the train.

As a final note, I really like the driver software. The other small usb camera I have (Creative WebCamGO es) has very elaborate software just to get pictures on and off of the camera. Pretec's software is less flashy but more stable and way more useful in my opinion. When you load the camera driver the contents of the camera open like a folder on your disk. From the folder you can load, store, or delete pictures, audio files, and mp3s just like any other file. This, in my opinion, relly beats having to go through some multistep process just to get the files onto a floppy or into your email.

Great Camera... buy ten!

/mike

I found this unit while looking for a combination webcam digital camera. I had also desired to purchase a compact flash MP3 player. Double bonus, and a audio recorder to boot, what a deal.. The pictures are suprisingly detailed and with accurate color reproduction, something I would expect in a higher echlon camera. It is not a multi-megapixel unit, but can hold its own in its class. Detail on images taken inches away lacks resolution, but anything taken with more than a foot has enough definition and will suprise you. The USB connection transfers images quickly and the TV display connection is nice. It does not have a LCD screen on the unit, but its price is enticing to say the least. The mp3 player works great. Another bonus that both pictures and mp3 songs exist on the same memory card. The camera creates a folder on the card for its images. Triple mega bonus, both the mp3 songs and jpeg pictures are immediately accessible on my Windows CE PDA!!!! Unbelievable... My friend just spent $300 for a Sony mp3 player and an absorbant amount on a Sony maciva digital camera and is disappointed that the memory sticks are not readable by both and his files are not transferable to his PDA.

If have the need for a digital camera, mp3 player and webcam look not further as this is the unit for your. It will work great in capturing moments and memories while providing countless hours of music entertainment.

If you are looking for a digital camera to produce high quality prints to display and frame, you will need a higher end mega pixel unit and some good digital imaging software.

It looks perfect at the first sight. And actually it works great when I use it brand new. Only the software is not so satisfying. It causes my computer to restart from time to time. But within a week, I find there are many problems with the camera itself. Almost 5 out of 10 times, I can not switch it on successfully. I have to disconnect it with the batteries first, only after that it's willing to work. Also, I can not transfer between the camera and my computer through the USB cable. There is always an error there. I contact their tech surpport but they are of little help. Anyway, I can still "use" it at long as I have a card reader. But recently (within 3 month of perchase) this thing refused to work completely. There is just no way to turn it on. Btw, I always take good care of it, never drop it or something like that. That's why I give it a single star. If it works as it says, not bad. But you have to take the risk that you get a "bad" one like mine.

This product is just not worth the money. Its from an unknown company. The pictures are really bad. You cant take an unblurred picture unless the flash is on. MP3 player on this thing is pretty cool until you have to turn it off to save battery. When you turn it back on the Mp3's dissapear! This product was an absolute waste of money. This is like a quicky cam. Do yourself a favor and buy from a KNOWN company like fuji, kodak, etc.

i bought the pretec dc-530 and i really like it. it has everything that you need to have fun. digital camera, voice recorder, pc cam, and mp3 player.

the digital camera part of it i really like. it takes really good pictures, and they are very easy to tranfer to your computer. it is a really good camera unless you are professional of something.

i really like the pc camera also. it is really easy to huck up, and it does not take long at all to start it up or anything.

the one thing that i don't like is the voice recorder. it has a very small mic so the sound [is bad]. when i tested it out, i was talking in a normal voice, from 5 feet away and i could not here a word i was saying.

i think that the mp3 player is the best thing in it. it is really easy to download them on to your camera, and it has great sound quallity. the only problem is that the head phones that they provide [are bad], so you have to have your own.

all togeather i think that this is a great buy for some one who is getting their 1st digital camera. becides getting a great camera, you get 3 extra features (1 of them that [is not too great] but thats ok).

this product sounds great and for the price i had to check it out..however it really failed to meet my expectations..the microphone quality for the voice recorder is horrible, not even worth using,and there is no external speaker so you have to hook up headphones to it.. there is no preview screen on the camera to view pictures, which was an important feature for me...i found the pictures to be stretched and of low quality when hooked up to my tv. after seeing this it wasnt even worth me hooking it up to my comp for the cam and mp3 player so i sent it back..this product may be cool for 20 bucks.

While this gadget does what it says it will do, it falls short on several levels. First of all, when I bought it, I needed to download the Windows ME driver (a fix not indicated anywhere in the literature) - then it worked fine.

I used it regularly as an MP3 player at the gym. Took it to Mexico with me on a vacation - it crashed. Came home - it worked! Go figure...

One of the advantages of digital photography is being able to see you pictures immediately after you take them. For this camera, you'd better have a computer close by as there is no viewer window.

One day when I took the camera out to use it, I discovered the tiny plastic hinge on the battery compartment door had broken (this is not the type of damage that some unknown person could have done - it was in a protective bag, just sitting on a shelf). I continued to use it holding the batteries in by hand when needed (ugh!).

Now for the real disappointment - I purchased a new computer system using Windows XP, downloaded the driver from Pretec's site - no go. Camera won't work. Tried to contact tech support via the web - filled out their web form and - imagine this, when I hit "send" I got "Page not found" (after a couple of tries too). So, refusing to give up, I called their headquarters. The recording said they were open 9-5 Pacific time (oh well, it WAS only 8:54 Pacific - no point in getting there early I guess) and asked if I'd like to leave a message for tech support - I pushed the appropriate number and...GUESS WHAT? It wouldn't take my message because THE TECH SUPPORT BOX WAS FULL! I wonder why....

This was a regrettable purchase.

You can't really hold this camera in your hand and take a picture because it will turn out too blurry. But if you place it on a tripod or flat surface it works allright. People don't realize that for everyday pictures 640x480 is pretty sharp. There's a 20 second timer which is also great and the video out is convenient enough (there's no way to preview window on the camera).

The MP3 player works well, and I have minimal complaints with the voice recording (what can you expect for [the price]). It's poor sound quality and the mic is a pinhead sized hole on the camera.

There were some problems using as an internet camera in NetMeeting where the picture started bleeding and there were artifacts in the display as if the update was too slow, but again in a pinch it's not terrible.

All told I'm glad I got it. I'll take a picture or two with it and play music on it while I commute or walk around. I can't really speak about battery drainage either. I'm trying to find an AC adapter for it.

I have never come across an electronic equipment so versatile and so inexpensive at the same time. When I received this camera in the mail, I used it many times and connected it to my 61" Big Screen TV and it comes out so clear. YOU HAVE TO BUY THIS