Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
OK for a $100.00 camera, March 15, 2006
I was a little disappointed with this camera. Being 5 mp I was expecting sharper pictures and better color resolution.The black & white pics were pretty darn good though. I found the battery compartment which also stores the memory card a bit troublesome. They should have placed the slot for the memory card somewhere other than in the same compartment that houses the batteries. The door is flimsy and if your not careful upon opening and closing to either replace the batteries or remove the storage card, this door will break quite easily.The video mode was fairly decent as it also records sound. The menu is very easy to master and the buttons on the camera are easy to access. All in all for a $100.00 camera it will do the job, unless....you want more professional looking photos.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Good Little Camera, June 23, 2006
This is a good low-priced digital camera. It takes great pictures, is easy to use, and is very compatible with my computer. Its small size makes it easy to take anywhere, and the color and sharpness of the shots are very good. I'm pleased and recommend it as a low-end digital. I doubt I'll even upgrade for some time as it serves my amateur photographer needs just fine.
***I have to agree with the July 2006 reviewer about one thing that is a real drawback. The 'shutter-speed' between taking the photo and when the image is digitally captured is delayed, and so if you are taking a photo of something like a person blowing out candles on a cake, you will end up with a picture of a cake with the candles blown out and will have totally missed the moment.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent introductory digital camera, November 15, 2006
I purchased this camera earlier this year and fell in love with it immediately! At 5.1 Mega-pixels resolution, it produces excellent photographs that can be printed clearly at up to 8"x10" in size. I use a 512MB Kingston SD card (Available for around $20 on Amazon.com), which provides me with plenty of storage space for photos and video clips. I've only filled the card completely once, and I had over 120 images and around 100 video clips of varying length. A 512MB card at full-resolution will probably store at least 350-400 images. In addition to high-quality, high-resolution pictures, the Vivicam 5100 can record video clips and has a decent built-in microphone (The sound quality is great unless there's a breeze blowing into the microphone, which causes some distortion in the sound).
The best feature of the Vivitar 5100 is the use of AA batteries, instead of bulky camera batteries. I use rechargeable batteries, so I just keep 6-8 fully-charged batteries in the case (sold separately) with the camera, and I never have to worry about running out of juice. If I ever do, I know I can easily buy a new set of batteries anywhere I go, so I don't have to wait until I can put the camera or battery on the charger for a few hours to continue shooting.
There's one thing to remember about this camera: It's a basic point-and-shoot model, and is not suitable for the advanced photographer. It has a relatively slow shutter speed, which means it simply won't capture fast-action shots, so you may end up with some blurry pictures. Fortunately, you don't have to waste time or money getting the pictures developed to find out whether or not they are blurry - just erase them right on the camera! Several other reviewers have mentioned that there is a slight delay between pushing the button and capturing the picture, which is true but not a major problem for most instances. Also, this camera has no optical zoom capability, so you can't get the same high-res pictures if the subject is too far away. It has a digital zoom, but all that does is crop the image, meaning you can't print it at full size to get the same high-quality image. This hasn't cause me any problems, but is good to know about. Again, this is a perfect entry-level digital camera.
I was able to use the camera immediately when I opened the box, but found out later that the camera was factory-set with a date-stamp on all the images, which couldn't be removed. All of my first-day pictures had the date printed over the image. That wasn't too bad, but I wish I had known ahead of time so I could have taken that off before shooting all those pics!
This is my first digital camera, and I couldn't be happier with it. I'm sure I'll upgrade to a higher-end camera eventually, but this one serves my needs very well for now, and was certainly worth the $70 I paid for it - worth a lot more, in fact. If you're new to digital cameras or just want something basic to capture memories, this is the camera for you!
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