Customer Reviews:
Style and substance.......2002-04-19
This camera manages to combine great styling with a performance that matches its stunning looks. It has all the features that make the Camedia series a winner for the digital enthusiast and snapshotter alike, ease of use and high quality pics. However, one or two points niggle at this price. The smartmedia cover is poorly placed and fiddly and the memory card has to be pulled out manually, rather than of the 'pop-up' type. The direct viewfinder is tiny and dim. That is compensated for by a clear, bright LCD display that does not fade out in bright light. Not many extras in the box, the usual basic software, USB and TV cabes and a huge number of leaflets. A case would have been a nice addition, alas you have to buy this and the AC adapter separately. The files are massive and even a 1GB computer takes a few seconds to upload them. As ever, you can always set it to produce smaller files, perfectly acceptable for e-mailing and screen viewing. The supplied 16MB smartmedia card is reasonable for testing the kit out, but you'll need a 64 or 128MB card and some rechargeables, as the supplied battery is a joke. Olympus have extended their free 128MB card offer until end April 2002... mine arrived this morning. Thanks, Olympus, even if it's not of the panoramic own-brand type!
Smart and compact - a great camera !!.......2001-12-24
This is my second digital camera - I upgraded from a 2.1 MegaPixel Casio and was looking for something with a greater resolution in a smaller package and with the capacity to shoot pictures on the fly.
And I think that's what the C-40Z gives me. I say "think" because I only have the camera a week and it's so packed full of features and operations that it will take a little more time to understand it's true depths.
But don't despair !!! The "auto" mode with factory settings means you're ready to shoot within 10 minutes of getting this out of the box. First impression relates to the size - this really is a snug compact and is as pocket-sized as the smaller APS cameras on the market. But it feels substantial - the aluminium casing not only looks good, but it feels very secure.
Pictures are great - the 4 MegaPixel resolution has to be seen to be believed - but you will be impressed. However - these are big files and you will need to move to 64Mb SmartMedia as soon as you can. 2.8 Optical zoom plus 4x Digital zoom allows you to scrutinise your subject as closely as you need to. Inclusive software package is pretty good - it allows you to do a lot of the standard editing the average home user gets up to.
Downsides - the Lithium batteries are very hard to find and I think at this price the camera really should have a rechargeable docking station . Also - you don't get a carry case as standard. A little thing - but it would have added to the package.
This is the reason for four rather than 5 stars. Other than that: one week in and I think that this is a very, very good camera with a quality of output to match the style of the exterior. I listed three things I wanted in the first line of the review - resolution, size and ease of use for quickie pictures - I am very satisfied that I got all three (and plenty more) with this camera.
Mighty mini.......2001-12-23
Good points
Quality of images, small size AND good handling, amazing program and manual control as well as excellently setup automatic modes, neutral colour rendition particularly with flash, images need very little retouching, JPEG compression at best setting prints well without noticeable artifacts, uses Quicktime for movies.
Bad points
Optical viewfinder not accurate, supplied battery not rechargeable, ludicrously expensive Olympus power supply (won?t work with cheaper makes), ludicrously expensive Olympus memory cards (needed for panorama feature), full manual PDF-only.
Review
I took a long time deciding to go digital, and have been surprised and delighted with the ease of use and image quality from the C40. It is usually possible to obtain photo-quality prints with minimum retouching. Don?t be fooled by the size of the camera. The lens quality is good with little flare and the feature list is as long as your arm. Despite the length of the feature list, the camera is still easy to use, particularly if you have previously used an SLR. All the usual SLR modes are there and plenty more besides. To begin with, I used it in fully automatic mode, but quickly became proficient in its many other modes. Almost any setting, including aperture, shutter speed, notional film speed, white balance, sharpness &c can be overridden. Any particular setting can be memorised in a favourite setting mode. This is a deep camera with many menus to negotiate using the monitor. The menus are well thought out, well displayed and well described in the manual. They are easy to come to grips with, once the initial felling of being overwhelmed by their broad scope subsides with familiarity.
The supplied manual is more than just a quick-start guide and should keep a beginner happy for a long time. The main manual is excellent and about 200 pages long. It is in PDF format which, for manuals, is my pet hate. You can?t easily browse the manual and need to switch on the ?puter if you need to view it - aaarrrggghhh!
Compared to my favourite SLR, it is much handier and is easy to carry around all the time. Images are not as good as those obtained from a slide or negative at 4000dpi and 16bit per channel, but are almost instantly usable and take a awful lot less effort to obtain. Scanned slides in particular can take a lot of time to obtain and correct.
The main drawback with the camera is the delay between pressing the shutter button and the the shutter operating. You get used to the delay while still wishing that it was smaller.
If you have MacOS 8.6 or later, just plug in the camera to the USB port and copy the images to your hard disc. The supplied Camedia Master software would probably suffice if you had nothing else, but appears to be a PC port and is clunky, very slow and limited compared to Photoshop or Canvas, or even the lesser consumer Photoshop editions. If you want to catalogue your images try iView - again faster and much easier to use than the Camedia software. Even worse, one of the two CDs contains PC-only software and the Camedia Master software has more features in its PC guise.
You can save files to the card as well as reading them, but beware. The camera uses a well thought out system of naming files (archaic DOS 8:3 system unfortunately) and gets very confused if you try to name the files with more immediately understandable names. You could still use a card and the camera for transferring large non-C40 files between computers via USB as long as you only used the camera to monitor transmission.
If you are thinking of getting a card reader to improve speed of transmission of images to your computer, don?t bother. The C40 is as fast as my reader. However, having a USB powered card reader always attached to one of the the USB ports of the ?puter is handier than having the camera?s batteries run out during or soon after transmitting images.
The supplied 16Meg Smartmedia card is inadequate - storing one TIFF or four high quality JPEGs. 128Meg cards are now reasonably priced and store 11 TIFFs, about 45 High quality JPEGs and over 1300 low quality JPEGs!
The supplied battery is not rechargeable. I bought the camera as a bundle with a case, rechargeable batteries and a charger. I would recommend the 1500mAh batteries that were bundled. As with all digital cameras, the C40 is a battery hog. I keep the supplied battery as a backup and use the rechargeables all the time if I can. In cold weather (0 to -5C), the rechargeables struggle to produce enough current to power the monitor and zoom at the same time, but I presume this is more a feature of such batteries than the camera. Above 7C, you can use all the camera features.
Under more temperate conditions, you should be able to fill up a 128Meg card on two sets of two rechargeable batteries as long as you use the viewfinder for taking images and don?t use the flash all the time. This leads to the second main drawback of the camera. It records an image larger than the view in the viewer and offset upwards a fraction even when not close enough for parallax problems. You don?t miss anything in the viewfinder, you just waste resolution cropping images afterwards. Again, you begin to get used to this in time and compensate. Using the monitor, as with all digital cameras, will drain the batteries much more quickly.
The camera can take and play back Quicktime movies (using only digital zoom with sound on) - handy for Mac users. They are fairly low quality at 15 frames per second at 320x240. Having said that, I used the camera to record a movie of the moment Newport County came onto the pitch versus Blackpool (English football - FA cup first round replay). It captured the mayhem and excitement well, giving excellent exposure in the cover of the stands and on the floodlit pitch. Sound and image quality are basic as is to be expected from a still camera, yet I am happy that the camera allowed me to make a memento of the occasion.
The power supply for the camera is expensive, but is very probably needed if you want to use the camera intensively, say for showing a ?slide show? or Quicktime movie on the TV via the supplied video lead. You will also need a cheap SCART to video-and-audio adaptor to do so. The power supply would also be handy if you intend to use the camera to transmit images to the ?puter rather than a card reader.
This review only scratches the surface of what is possible with this camera. The software is poor, but most people have a more suitable alternative anyway.
All in all, I am delighted the tiny but handy size, the handling, the amazing image quality and the depth of features which more than make up for any drawbacks.
Product Description
NWZA818B HARD DISK WALKMAN 8GB 2.0 ATRAC MP3 JPEG BLACK
Customer Reviews:
Get an iPHONE for £5!.......2008-01-18
Here is your chance to get an iPhone for no more than £5. I'm not joking either, the (B).(B).(C). and the Times
newspaper have verified this in various articles and exposes. Don't delay and get an iPhone for yourself.
Here is the easy guide:
1. Go to this site
Applefreebiejeebies(.)tk
remove the brackets and paste to the address bar
Simply then register for (G)ala (b)ingo or (c)oral (b)etting which is just £5
As you see these companies are reputable, and its well worth a go to see if you can get yourself something this
good for next to nothing. Don't miss out!
EXCELLENT.......2008-01-15
This is my third MP3 player, having gone from a very basic 1GB model a few years ago, to a Sandisk Sansa which I had to send back to Amazon twice. They refunded my money with no problems and so I ordered one of these. It arrived within 2 weeks and I have been using it for around ten days now and here are some good and bad points:
THE GOOD:
- Excellent design and build quality
- Sound quality is amazing, some of the songs I have listened to on other players sound COMPLETELY different on this
- Battery life seems very good, though have not really used it enough to comment
- Simple user interface
- Lightning quick transfer of media using WMP
- Extremely light and thin, hardly notice you are carrying it
THE BAD:
- Amazon postage - bearing in mind it costs £100 it was just left on my doorstep all day
- No case/sleeve supplied
Overall then, I highly recommend this MP3 player. The video playback seems fine though I don't really have much use for it, and once you experience the sound quality you will have no regrets. Oh, and it's a Sony !!!
Joseph Fraser.......2008-01-15
I have been playing around with Mp3 Players for a good couple of years, i started off getting the cheaper ones, with only one gb of memory. When i relised that i was needing a huge increase of memory i started looking at the more expensive ones, all my mates at school were saying the Ipod is the best and the thing to get. I decided not to be a sheep unlike just about 80% of the mp3 using world. So when i was surfing i came across this bad boy and i love it there head phones are great no probleme getting music on it, drag and drop, but if you want album art to work you have to use media player and sync it on. I cant find anything wrong with this. Get the walkman dont be a sheep stay away from the ipods with there rubbish itunes!!!!!!
Rest in peace, iPod........2008-01-15
I have the 8Gb model which I received recently from Amazon (NB: if you're ordering from Amazon, their quote of 3-5 weeks delivery time is a little pessimistic - mine arrived within a couple of weeks).
To business. This is a superb mp3 player that puts the Sony walkman brand right back in there, arguably ahead of the rest. It's slim, small, super light, and oozes build quality.
Better still, no more reliance on iTunes as you simply drag-and-drop files from either WMP11 or Explorer. It's child's play to sync and update your device. The sound quality through the high quality in-ear phones they supply is simply excellent. Perhaps I'm a little biased as I've always preferred Sony's earphones over the iPod "50-pence" white variety, mainly because Sony 'phones always have more natural bass depth and clarity. But these supplied ones are better still. You'll need to listen to them before you buy to appreciate how good they are (NB: anything that can drown out the 105dB of the dismal Central Line is good).
Can't comment on video capabilities as I have no intention of ever using them. I like my gadgets as much as anyone, but still can't fathom why devotees try to watch movies or podcasts (dislike that word) on tiny devices. Each to their own though.
It's hard to find anything negative to say, in fact, so I'll dwell briefly on only two items that need to be said. First, slight shame Sony had to design a proprietary USB connector (it's another item to clutter the desk, and what's wrong with a standard mini-B ?). Secondly, buy a leather case to protect the player and avoid scratches and scrapes.
Why have an Apple when you can have a Peach from Sony ...... (?)
Walkman NWZ-A818.......2008-01-14
Just to add to other helpful reviews.....
I spent ages trying to get some DVDs copied onto it before realizing that I had to upgrade my computer to Windows Media Player 11, supplied on the disc, before I could drage and drop any of my converted DVDs.
After trying out loads of programs, I decided the easiest one to use to convert DVDs is one called PQDVD which I downloaded from pqdvd.com. The version of the program for the Ipod works best. It's quite expensive at around 20 UKPounds, but very easy to use so it might be worth the cost if you want an easy to use program. Some widescreen DVDs have to be stretched vertically a bit to make the most of the screen, but the display looks brilliant and the sound quality is nearly perfect.
Also, flicking through photos and all of the menus is lightning fast.
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