Vivitar ViviCam 5188 5MP CMOS, 8x Digital Zoom, 2" LCD Digital Camera (Black)

by Vivitar

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 3 x 6 x 8.2 inches ; 3.4 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000PIVNQM
• Item model number: 60528
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,578 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 24, 2004

Product Description

wet protect. Get soaked but keep your camera shielded. With its removable waterproof case, the ingeniously fl exible ViviCam 5188 is ideal for your next holiday or any day. Image Sensor 5.0 Megapixel CMOS LCD Monitor 2.0¿ Color TFT-LCD Zoom 8x Digital Lens Focus Free with Macro, 8.5 mm f 2.8 Focus Range: 11 cm ~ 18 cm (Macro), 50 cm ~ Infi nity (Normal) White Balance Auto, Day Light, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent Scene Modes Auto, Sport, Night, Portrait, Landscape, Backlight Image Resolution 12 MB and 8 MB (interpolated), 5 MB, 3 MB, 1.3 MB, VGA Video Quality VGA 640 x 480 (20 fps), QVGA 320 x 240 (30 fps) Storage Memory 16 MB Flash Memory, SD Memory Card (optional, up to 2 GB) File Format JPEG, EXIF 2.2, DCF 1.1, Motion JPEG (AVI), WAV Operating Environment Windows 98SE/2000/ME/XP, Mac OS 9 or later Software Photo Explorer, Photo Express Connectors USB Port, AV-OUT (NTSC/PAL) with Sound Power 2 x AAA Batteries (Alkaline) Waterproof 15 M (45 Ft) with Housing Weight Camera: Approx. 90 g (3.2 oz) without Batteries and SD Memory Card Housing: Approx. 142 g (5.0 oz) without Camera Dimensions Camera: Approx. 88 x 58 x 23 mm (3.5 x 2.3 x 0.91 in) Housing: 120 x 88 x 48 mm (4.7 x 3.5 x 1.9 in) Design and specifi cations are subject to change without notice.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Perfect thing for a kid. Not so good for adults., May 29, 2008

By 

C. Stoneham (Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vivitar ViviCam 5188 5MP CMOS, 8x Digital Zoom, 2" LCD Digital Camera (Black) (Electronics)

I bought this to test for an upcoming trip to Hawai'i (want an underwater digicam for snorkeling). I was initially impressed by the housing but the camera was awfully light. A quick inspection showed why. The SD port cover is a rubber "plug" (similar to the covers for USB ports, etc on most digital cameras). No big deal, but I could see it coming off with rough use. The menu was extremely basic and didn't even have an option to turn off the barely audible "beep" that followed each button press. You also couldn't change the length of playback which was barely a second. Switching "modes" resulted in the display disappearing while the change was made then reappearing (the first time I set flash to 'always on" the display didn't come back up for 5-6 seconds). "No big deal," I thought, since it was a $60 u/w digicam (I own a Nikon D200 so certainly wasn't expecting to use this on land). I took a few shots then pulled them up on the computer. Aye, there's the rub...

The shots are really quite poor. The lens may be fixed focus, but it's a relatively narrow cone in front of the camera. Approximately 60% of the image was out of focus. There's a noticeable circle in the middle that was reasonably focused with increasing fall-off towards the edges. Furthermore, the shutter speed was iffy at best. A shot of my refrigerator with flash "on" resulted in a very blurry picture. These shortcomings might be mitigated underwater, but I doubt it. Judging by my brief experience, I would strongly suggest avoiding this for any "meaningful" photography (above or below the water).

I give it 2 stars because it's probably ideal for a child as a first camera. The waterproof case was pretty tough and seemed to be up to the task of protecting the camera from rough handling. The poor picture quality would not be a huge issue for a child. The latch to open the case required enough dexterity that a curious child would not be able to open it on accident.

All-in-all, I could see a 4-6 year-old having hours and hours of fun with this at the beach or pool. Mom and Dad, on the other hand, are likely to be sorely disappointed.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice little camera for a nice price, October 28, 2008

By 

V. Garvin "Honest Mama" (Mountains of So. California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vivitar ViviCam 5188 5MP CMOS, 8x Digital Zoom, 2" LCD Digital Camera (Black) (Electronics)

While the quality of the camera is not state of the art, it is pretty decent for the price. My 12 year old daughter is thrilled with it.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Poor image quaility - trade-off for water protection for rafting, June 15, 2008

By 

Aurora Jim "Aurora Jim" (Rochester Hills, Michigan) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Vivitar ViviCam 5188 5MP CMOS, 8x Digital Zoom, 2" LCD Digital Camera (Black) (Electronics)

Even at the top level of fidelity, called FINE, the pictures have a lot of blurry areas because of image compression. End result is that the pictures with this 5M camera look worse that a similar picture with my 2M Canon. If they really have the 5M pixels on the sensor, they should improve the software to take use of this.

The only saving grace on the camera is the waterproof case. It is nice to take it rafting without having to worry about getting it wet. As soon as you hit dry land, however, dump this thing for a real camera!