DT&G Magazine Photography Department
The Design Center, DT&G Photography Department: digital photography, digital cameras, etc.  

Low end 4 Megapixel digital camera with 3x optical zoom, and 30 Frames per second for movies comes in under $200

Concord 4363 - 4mpx $179

Big pictures in a small package...

concordThe new Concord Eye-Q 4363 has arrived and we think you'll like its new 4 Megapixel, 3x optical zoom features. This point & shoot digital camera is coming in at around $179, delivering exceptional price/performance. There's also a 5-megapixel model in the works, but for 99% of the users' needs, this one will do the trick.

The thing we liked best about this little camera is the small size. It's easily a third smaller than most other cameras in the clamshell design. You'll note in our photo at right, I've included a quarter to give a visual comparison of the size of the Eye-Q. It weighs in at only 150g (excluding batteries and memory card), and measures just 100 x 61 x 31.5 mm. The thing we liked least was the use of two batteries only. While this reduces the requirement to buy batteries, it also seriously reduces the amount of time available to use the camera between recharges. While they don't require lithium batteries, we recommend them. Two rechargeable NiMH AA batteries are included.

Imaging

backThe Eye-Q provides image Resolution at 2272 x 1704 (4.0MP), yet is adjustable down to 2048 x 1536 (3.1MP), 1600 x 1200 (2.0MP), 1280 x 960 (1.2MP), 640 x 480 (VGA). This makes for flexibility in matching storage with quality requirements. There are 3.87 million total effective working pixels for a photo detector of 4.06 million. In addition to resolution settleability the software offers a wide latitude of exposure compensation from 0.3 to 2.0 -- the equivalency of two whole f-stops. Metering is handled through both Matrix or Spot and is user configurable.

In analyzing photos, the Eye-Q's all glass 35-105mm lens captured photos with detail and color equal to other brands costing $100 to $200 more. We didn't see any problems with edge sharpness or light fall-off we've experienced in other low-cost cameras. When capturing AVI video at 30 frames per second, the Concord Eye-Q runs at 30 frames per second, as opposed to most other 15 fps models. Of course if you want to take much video, you'll need a hefty SD card, since the unit only sports 16 megs of memory. SD cards are available up to 512 megs.

Software Included with the Eye-Q is Acrosoft PhotoImpression 2000 for Windows. No Mac software is included nor required. The Mac automatically senses the camera and acts accordingly.

All in all we were pleased with the Eye-Q's compact body, and digital performance. In addition to the features mentioned above, the Eye-Q includes a macro focus range of 10cm, auto & user selectable white balance and preset exposure modes for fireworks, night, party, beach/snow, sunset, and night portrait and five flash modes including auto, fill-in, red-eye reduction, flash off and night to insure great photos for every occasion.

The Concord Eye-Q 4360z

For more information, see www.concord-camera.com, download this PDF spec sheet, or your local camera retailer.

Photoshop 911 Call Reports

Here comes this month's batch of reports from the Photoshop 911 call line. The most interesting is how one user solves the problem of removing the background from multiple shots of a rotating product for a 3D video... there are seven others, and you'll want to read them all:
In the Photoshop 911 FAQ department

Also...

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