Customer Reviews

ROLLEI FOTOTECHNIC DR5 Ultra Compact Digital Camera

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To set the scene: I'm pretty serious about photography, and I recently bought a Canon EOS 20D as my primary camera. It's a great camera, but it's not a camera I want to carry around everywhere. I always like to have a "small" camera I can carry with me when I might want to take a few snapshots. My most recent small camera has been a Pentax Optio 330GS, but I was looking to move to something a bit smaller and 5MP class. When I saw the DR5 announced it had one feature that really caught my attention--the 4.8x optical zoom going down to 28mm (35mm equivalent). I like to take wide angle shots, and wide angle capability is hard to find in digital cameras. (In part because digital sensors perform best when the incident light rays are normal to the array, and wide angle lenses are easier to make if the rays at the edges come in off-normal.)

My test shots over the weekend have convinced me it was a good purchase. The shutter response is good, without the annoying delays present in earlier generation digital cameras. (Macro focusing can be a bit slow if the subject isn't completely still.) Pictures are reasonably sharp with the "normal" sharpness setting. Some can be improved a bit with an unsharp mask, but in general the camera does a good job. (I haven't tried the "sharp" sharpness setting, but I suspect it would give some shots an oversharpened look. I prefer to have the camera err slightly on the soft side, and then sharpen those pictures that need it in Photoshop.) Exposure and color are fine. I wasn't able to see much difference between the "normal" and "fine" quality settings, but that's not surprising for the outside-around-the-neighborhood type of pictures I was taking. (I'm sure I could find pictures where it would make a difference, but there are a lot of scenes for which jpeg compression really works very well, and a modest difference in compression will not be noticeable.) It's not the easiest camera to set I've ever used, but it's not bad if you are willing to spend 15 min skimming the manual. It uses two AA batteries (get NiMH rechargeables), which avoids the proprietary battery hassle. It also has an optical viewfinder, which I still like better than staring at the LCD on the back.

Overall ...

This camera is small, but there are much smaller ones available.

It performs well, but is probably not the best in most areas.

If you are looking for a camera to turn heads, this isn't it.

If you are looking for a deal, there are very good cameras that are less expensive.

If, however, you want to break out of the 3x optical zoom limit of most pocket cameras, and especially if you want to have a 28mm (35mm equivalent) capability, then this camera is your choice (at least in the US), and a fine choice it is.

Small enough to carry in your pocket yet large enough to give you contol, 5 MP and most important the optical zoom (at 4.6x) is 50% stronger than the typical 3x in cameras this size and price. You can shoot by viewing the subject on the screen or thru the lense. Metal case with solid feel-you can feel the "German engineering" in your fingertips. Batteries last a long time. Sufficient features (like the close up mode that lets you get up to within inches of the subject) to keep the run of the mill camera user happy. Downloads to computer are very quick and easy. Use of lots of the functions can be figured out intuitively, without having to study the manual. Decent "movie" capacity. Negatives: software is not explained at all in the printed manual, and not very well in the CD manual, although once you figure it out, it works pretty well and has lots of flexibility. You will also want to buy a larger memory chip right off the bat, but JR has these cheap too. The view screen is kind of small, but otherwise works fine. All in all great performance for the price. I've used this camera for about 9 months and am pleased with the purchase. I previously used a cheap digital ($50), just to see if digital was for me, before that 35 mm film.