XIAS DCS-860 8.0 Megapixel Digital Camera

by XIAS

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 3.9 x 0.9 x 2.3 inches ; 1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000ZKPJSI
• Item model number: DCS-860
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,736 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: November 20, 2007

Product Description

The Norcent DCS-860 8.0 megapixel digital camera has a stylish XIAS design, exceptional image quality and packed with performance features. The 8.0 megapixels provide crisp, high resolution images up to 3072x2304 with a large 2.5 inch LCD scratch resistant acrylic panel display. It’s other features include 3x optical zoom and 4x digital zoom, Face Tracking that identifies faces within the frame and automatically adjusts for ideal focus and exposure, Anti-Shake compensates for camera movement, movie mode that captures video clips, built in flash with auto, red-eye reduction, always on, slow sync, forced on and forced off modes. You can select manual, daylight, cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent and custom white balance settings. The camera also has fifteen picture taking modes: Program, movie, voice REC, portrait, landscape, sunset, night scene, text, back light, kids, snow, food, fireworks, building, quickmode.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Love this camera... and hate this camera, March 18, 2008

By 

mtn otaku - See all my reviews

This review is from: XIAS DCS-860 8.0 Megapixel Digital Camera (Electronics)

This is a camera you want to love. The styling is fantastic and the price is right. I've had this camera for about a day now, and can honestly say that if you simply use the Program (standard) mode for taking outdoor shots, this camera is for you! Pictures are sharp, saturated, and well balanced.

However, once you deviate from the point-and-shoot mode to use its other features (macro mode, Aperture and Shutter Priority, face tracking, etc.), you're going to be disappointed. The camera's firmware in these areas feels like "beta".

Pros:
- Beautiful styling and graphite finish
- Cheap..., er, inexpensive!
- Pentax lens (e.g. it is a brand-named lens!)
- Big 2.5" LCD
- Excellent saturated photos in "point and shoot" mode
- Settings and modes easy to understand and set up (for the most part)
- Mounts as an external hard disk while plugged into your computer (with the provided USB cable)

Cons:
- Quirky (buggy?) exposure in Aperture- and Shutter-priority modes
- "Face tracking" feature only worked sporadically -- don't bother
- Inconsistent results with the image stabilization as well -- don't bother
- Mysterious back panel LED -- it's red, it's green, it's flashing, and no where in the User's Manual are the states of this LED described
- Poor Macro functionality -- sometimes works, but many instances where the camera says it's locked the focus, the resulting photos were blurry. Moral: don't get too close to your subject, even if the camera thinks it has the subject in focus.
- Inconsistent flash coverage
- Back panel buttons hard to press -- found myself using my fingernail a lot

Bottom line: if you're looking for a good 8MP camera for under $100 for simple outdoor point-and-shoot photographs, this is a great camera to consider. But if you want to unleash your creative genius and experiment with manual exposure settings, macro photography, and the like, spend more money and buy yourself a Canon.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Camera, March 28, 2008

By 

S. Morgan "The Duffer" (Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: XIAS DCS-860 8.0 Megapixel Digital Camera (Electronics)

This camera is inexpensive and small. I wanted a point-and-shoot to keep in my computer bag. I bought this to take quick and easy pictures, and I have not been disappointed. I took it on Spring Break and it took great pictures and movies of my family. It is easy to use in the auto mode. I have large hands and the buttons to navigate the menus and controls are very small. I own several Canon cameras, and it is no Canon. That said, if you don't buy this expecting too much, you will be fine. So far it is a good camera.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Really Like This Camera, November 30, 2008

By 

Moose - See all my reviews

This review is from: XIAS DCS-860 8.0 Megapixel Digital Camera (Electronics)

This is a great camera. It fits very easily in my pocket - more easily than my wallet, actually.

In low light, it does work well. I've read some reviews where people complained about this camera's performance in low light situations. For those people, I have some advice: use the flash. I'm serious.

However, I do have to caution you when using the flash; just make sure you don't have the camera too close to the object you're shooting. Also, be wary of reflective objects that the flash might come in contact with, especially mirrors.

The quality is very good, even indoors. I'll admit that I'm a rookie when it comes to white balance (and basically all the other settings). It might help if I didn't have to press a bunch of buttons to scroll through the menu and change some settings, but I guess that's the trade-off with such a small camera.

I like the fact that, with a half-push of the shutter, the camera uses a sensor to figure out what shutter speed to use (so long as ISO is set to Auto).

Outdoors, the pictures are amazing. The quality seems comparable to higher-end cameras.

What do I dislike about the camera? I don't like that the microphone is on the bottom of the camera. If you have it sitting on a tabletop, or another flat surface the audio will be muffled. So if you'd like to record something without having to hold onto the camera, I would suggest buying a tripod for it (it does have a tripod mount), or just being okay with the audio being somewhat distorted.

I don't like that the buttons are a bit small. But I do have big fingers, so I can't blame the camera for that. Even so, the camera is still easy to use. Once in a while, I will hit the wrong button, which is easily reversible.

If you were like me, you're probably wondering what kind of memory the camera takes. It uses SD cards. And no, it doesn't take SDHC. The highest capacity SD card is 2GB. The ones higher than that are SDHC.

So far, I haven't had a problem with the battery. There's a cover on the bottom of the camera that slides forward and opens, while staying attached to the camera. Inside you'll find where the battery goes, as well as the SD card slot. The battery is 820 mAh. I'm not sure if or where you can get a better one that is compatible with this camera. You charge the battery with a charger that plugs into the wall. I actually like that kind of charging process. Maybe I would prefer a camera that used rechargeable AA's, if I'm ever away from an outlet for a long period of time, but so far, this battery has worked fine.

The modes are interesting. "Food" works very well. I've yet to try modes other than Program, Movie, Voice Memo, and Food, though.

Overall, I'm digging this camera. I didn't buy it from Amazon.com, though. Snagged a better deal elsewhere. So I suggest you shop around.