Customer Reviews

SiPix SC3300 3.3 MP Digital Camera

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I purchased this camera for my husband for father's day. I'd read the warnings about the battery consumption, but decided to try it anyway since most digital cameras have this problem in varying degrees. I'm glad I did. Yes, it does go through batteries like water, but the picture quality is incredible. We bought 8 quality rechargable batteries and the charger. Instead of packing loads of 35mm film, we pack batteries. We turn off the LCD when we are taking lots of pictures and only use it to view. This is a fun, useful, quality camera for the money. A great first digital camera!

Its a nice camera. But you have to buy an adaptor for it. I talked to tech support. You have to go to [the store] and buy a 3v 2 amp (2000ma),yes it has to be a 2 the 1000ma will not work the camera, adaptor for it. I was dissapointed when tech support told me that it only supported 128 meg compact flash, cauuse I already purchased a 256 compact flash. I tried the 256 for kicks anyway, and to my suprise it did work. No problems. I was also told by Sipix that they do not make the power adaptor, so like I said you will be spending about [money at the store] for the adaptor and the right connect, the best thing to do is to take your camera with you so they can get the right connector for it.

I liked mostly everything about this camera except the fact that it ate through batteries like crazy! I changed the batteries 3 times during a 2 day trip. I wasn't even using the camera that much or leaving it on for very long periods of time (it automatically shuts off after a few minutes of not being used anyway). I also found that I couldn't see the LCD screen at all outdoors when it was sunny. I was also a little irritated that I had to print the manual out myself. I'm returning it in hopes of finding a camera that won't go through batteries so fast.
But, I have to admit, I found the camera itself and the software it comes with very easy to use.

This is a great camera for the price... 3.3 mega pixels for 170 dollars? Great! Be prepared, however, for the quick way it sucks through regular aa batteries. Rechargeable NiMh batteries work better (and are recommended.) Still can not find an ac adapter or a battery pack that will work with this camera, and no one has ever heard of SiPix. Regular 3v doesn't work, like it says it is supposed to, and no one has ever heard of a 3.3v adapter. I have emailed the tech support of the company, and hope to find one soon.

Takes nice pictures and is a great starter camera. :)

I won't rehash what's already been said about this camera but add what I've just learned. I used it for a while with regular AA batteries which it ate with gusto! I purchased the ... Digital Camera Power Pack (4 1500 mA NiMH AA batteries and charger) from Radio Shack and gave it a new test. First I shot with the flash and LCD both OFF and filled the camera's 16 MB and the 128 MB CF card with no trouble. I then turned on the flash AND LCD and again was able to fill the camera and card to capacity using the same batteries without a recharge (80 pictures each time on full resolution). The batteries finally gave out after another 12 pictures with flash and LCD ON.
I can't recommend this camera highly enough as a first step into the digital realm as long as you use the rechargable NiMH batteries.

...

GREAT camera if you're jumping into digital. New or used, you can't get a better feel for what 3.2MP resolution with many of the features many high-end cameras carry for the price (white balance, exposure compensation, movie mode, B&W and sepia, rapid shots, and photo editing software).

The high points are the 3.3 MP, large LCD, auto-focus, rapid shot mode (4 pics in a row), movie mode, ArcSoft PhotoImpression. The low points are no optical zoom and heavy battery consumption. I don't use zoom since camera shake always ruins my pics. Also, since I have a 3.2MP image, I can crop using PhotoImpression and still get a great 4x6 or 5x7. I found that using the flash when the light is behind the subject does an excellent job as fill flash. And rechargables are a necessity with ANY electonics!

I compared it to a Fuji finepix 2.0 MP camera and found the images to be comparable. Fuji did have better color and light compensation when you look at the original jpeg but the Sipix SW made up for the correction (modify contract & lightness, increase saturation). Beside, I never met a digital image I didn't want to manipulate!

BTW, I'm using a 256MB flash card which works with this camera!

Note:
1 - set to macro mode if you're less than 3 ft away
2 - time/date resets when you replace batteries
3 - there is no sound recorded with movie mode although you CAN record 45 minutes on 128MB CF
4 - low compression = 1.6MB (9 pics w/ 16MB), high compress = 600 KB (24 pics w/ 16MB);

I just got this camera for my graduation back in May, and let me tell you something -- It's a beauty. Seeing is believing. Yes -- it eats batteries, but guess what? Almost all Digital Cameras do (esp. the ones that have as much processing power as this one does). Buy rechargeable batteries!!! Also -- another neat thing about this camera - you can attach it to a tripod. I had an 2.1 Megapixel HP camera before this one and you could NOT attach my older camera to a tripod. We recently took a chip full of pictures down to our local Walgreens and had prints made -- They were clearer, sharper & more colorful than our 35mm film camera.

Simply put, this camera is ... I should have known better than to purchase a no-name camera. I have been using digital cameras for about five years for work, so I know how one should work. The battery life on this camera is about 24 hours of taking shots (I only got 12). I can get almost two weeks from our Olympus at work. This is not, repeat not, with the generic included batteries but rather name brand digital designed batteries that I purchased beforehand. Two batteries is simply not enough for a digital camera. The included "award winning software" was probably only awarded by SiPix. Cumbersome on screen review of pictures by changing the buttons is archaic. You are better off buying lower pixel but name brand camera. Very disappointed. Don't waste your time and money.

Just got my camera, had to purchase rechargeable batteries (no big deal) and I couldn't believe it - took 100 high resolution shots WITH flash!!! All I got to do now is to recharge batteries and take another 100 pics. Video is amazing, with my 128Mb card, I get to take over 11 minutes of video - no other camera of this type on the market can do that much. The purpose of the digital camera is to take pictures, brand name means squat. So, forget the $500 2 megapixel brand name 1cameras and get this one for [item price] with 3.3 megapixels - there are no regrets.

First off, here's why I bought this camera: my old camera developed a short circuit, CompUSA put this one on a 6-hour sale, and it was the perfect way to hold off on buying a fancy camera for a few more years. For the price I paid for it, I'd be an idiot to complain about its features. This camera's good for pics that'll be shown on monitors, maybe not so much for printed ones. The one slight grumble I might have is the lack of optical zoom - but with a 3.3MP resolution, you can take a full-res picture, cut it to size in your software of choice, and still have more resolution than your average user's monitor. Unless you're doing print work, you don't need more resolution.

And, to the complainers - most of your problems only exist when ignoring the three "USEes" of digital cameras.

1. USE NiMH batteries. No digital camera works well on regular batteries. NiMH batteries last several times longer, and when they run out, you just recharge them. Be good to the environment - use NiMH and keep more batteries out of landfills.
2. USE the optical viewfinder. Leave the LCD viewfinder off whenever you can - that's where most battery life problems come into play. If you ignored #1, then your battery life on any camera is measured in minutes with the LCD viewfinder on.
3. USE a card reader, don't bother hooking the camera up directly to a PC. You won't have to fight with AC adapters, USB cables, etc. This also means you don't ever have to use Sipix's software if you don't want to.

One last Linux user note: the AVI files this camera outputs aren't loadable in Xine or Kino, although I haven't tried very hard either. I have a hunch they may actually be MJPEG streams, as opposed to AVIs.