Page 1 of Casio QV-R40 Digital Camera £169-89 ..PC World

In todays paper, it says boxing day ONLY. 4 Mega Pix, 3X optical & a SMALL digital camera.

This item was edited on Wednesday, 24th December 2003, 12:00

Thanks for that Paul - I`m very tempted by this offer. I`ve watched the debate on the Fuji 405 / 204 / 205 with great interest and seen prices from £99-£150 on these. They are very well specified for the price, and I may still buy one, but......

This Casio QV-R40 is metal -bodied ;) . I`d be persuaded to spend a little more for a compact aluminium camera. I`d not normally buy a camera unless it had a lens made by the big 5, or Carl Zeiss, so Casio raises a concern here. I think of them as electronics - so someone else makes their lenses I assume?

The spec is fantastic though, and AA batteries, ISO to 320, fast start up and very little shutter delay really impresses me. You also get a charger included (in the USA anyway)

See full review here - http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_reviews/qvr40.html

But this bit is just a short extract..

The compact Casio QV-R40 is a 4.0 megapixel digital camera with a 1-second power up time and an industry leading 0.01-second release time lag (both values approximate), ensuring you can capture those special moments whenever they happen. The stylish and durable QV-R40 is housed in aluminum which makes it a great "go anywhere" camera for those that are just too busy to baby their hardware.
The QV-R40 is the next generation model for the QV Series and is loaded with features. The QV-R40 sets the pace for performance and speed, featuring a new high-speed telescoping optical 3X zoom lens and a high-speed startup control, making startup 1 second faster than the QV-R4. Playback is faster, too, with the new QV-R40 scrolling through images on the monitor screen at a rate of about 0.1 second per image. A pair of direct mode access buttons for REC and PLAY switch the camera to the mode you want quickly.


Casio QV-R40 Features:


Compact and durable aluminium body measures only 88 x 60.5 x 32.7 mm.
4-megapixel resolution for images up to 2304x1712 pixels
3x optical zoom 39-117mm equivalent in 35mm photography
1-second (approximate) startup time
0.01-second release time lag (from half-pressed shutter w/AF lock)
One-touch direct REC/PLAY mode access buttons
0.1-second (approximate) playback image scroll time
5-point Multi Auto Focus, Multi or Spot options
Best Shot Mode for instant setups, the light metering, exposure, saturation, and other settings are configured in an instant.
World Time (162 cities in 32 time zones) and alarm features
Album function displays using HTML files, view using your browser.
Multi, Center-weighted or Spot metering
320x240 full motion video for up to 30 secs.
Adjustable sharpness, saturation and contrast
Shutter speeds: 2 - 1/2000 seconds (automatic)
White balance: auto, 4 presets and manual
1.6-inch color LCD with 84,960 pixels
Two AA-size NiMH 2100mAh batteries and charger included
10MB memory builtin plus SD/MMC Memory Card Slot
USB auto connect
Exif 2.2 Print and Epson PIM II compatible
USB Direct-Print Support

I was concerned about lens quality, but these reviews seem to rate it as "excellent".

See here
http://hardwarecentral.dealtime.com/xPR-Casio_QV_R40
for users` comments.

The software that comes with it is supposed to be poor though (I`m hoping my existing Olympus Camedia package will accept the images if I buy one of these).

Can anyone else recommend any alternative metal-bodied models, with similar spec at this price.

Otherwise I might just go and spank the visa card on Friday!

Sorry for becoming a bit of an Anorak on this (but I bet here are plenty of those around here :D ),

but see here for more user reviews and comments on this camera;

http://www.stevesforums.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=14100

If you are going to lay out £170 "on a whim" in 2 days` time, you may as well read up as much as you can do.

I`ll go away now. Rumour has it that it`s Christmas soon.

Merry Christmas (oh, and do please bear in mind, that perhaps the biggest factor in producing pleasing, well-composed and good quailty images - is the person pressing the shutter - not the camera itself!)

Bill

I bought one today. PC World and Currys (same thing) both offering this at £169 on Boxing Day. Dixons ( :( ) offering same at £219 with 128MB card and case.

First impressions good - nice feel, VERY quick to start up, commands intuitive - set up region, time and date etc immediately without referral to manual.

A few words of warning however.......

I thought it came with a 16MB card. IT DOESN`T. It has 10MB internal memory only. I had to go back to shop later and buy memory.

While waiting for the supplied NiMh batteries to charge, I used some standard alkaline AAs to have a play. They were flat after just 48 shots.

Can`t comment on picture quality yet because I cannot get my PC to recognise the camera >:(

I hoped my existing Olypmus Camedia, or Photosuite software would let me download images, but no. I`d read that the software that comes with the camera was crap, so wasn`t going to install it at all. But after my existing programmes didn`t work, I installed all the software that came with the camera, but even then, my PC just fails to see that a camera is connected. I`m not totally stupid - I`ve been using digital cameras for two years now and generally know what I`m doing, so this is very frustrating at the moment.

I`ll report back if I get any further.

Why don`t you use a smart card (or whatever memory card your camera has) reader to get your images off your camera? You can also then use it to transfer data from one PC to another using your memory card as a mini hard drive.

Bill, What windows do you have?

Thanks for the suggestions, but I`ve solved it now. In depth reading of the "read me" files found the problem. I`m using Windows ME by the way.

I made the mistake of plugging in the USB cable before installing the software. (I wanted to use my existing software if I could) the PC then registers the camera as an unknown device - and won`t accept images from it later when you do have the right software on the machine.

I had to go into settings / system devices and remove "other devices", then re-install the Casio software and try again. Works OK now.

It`s early days, but I`m a little concerned about the quality of the photos. Yes, I used the camera straight from the box, and it was a grey miserable afternoon today - but the snaps seem poor. (I`m comparing them to ones taken on an older, bulkier Olympus C-3000 zoom, 3.1 Mega Pixel model)

There`s a lot of blur / subject movement / camera shake - not something I`m normally guilty of. The images are also grainy and not very sharp. I`ve looked at the properties of the photos taken, and in most cases (set totally on automatic), the camera has chosen to use an aperture of F2.8 all the time (hence relaltvely poor depth of field), AND also a slow shuuter speed of 1/50 or 1/80 virtually all the time. (explaining the blurred images of kids on swings, and sections out of focus) These are things one may expect on a dull day perhaps, but the ISO setting has remained at 80-100, when theoretically it can be extended to 320 - automatically. Why didn`t it use a higher ISO setting? This greater speed is one reason why I chose this camera (the older Olympus goes to ISO 400, but many of these tiny compact jobbies only have 100-200)

I`m fairly convinced the old Olympus performs better in conditions like this (ie "normal for UK").

There are lots of overides to explore yet, and I can no doubt programme it to use higher sensitivity settings, so there is hope yet. I just hoped for better performance straight out of the box.

I`ve read excellent reports of this camera elsewhere, so I just hope I`m doing something wrong, and it will all work out OK in the end. I have read every page of the manual by the way.

Very interesting, i am thinking about buying this camera as its a great price from PC World.
And on their web-site the offer is on till the 31/12.
But your remarks have made me think even more, one review i read its not very good for someone who wears glasses.
I am also looking at the Minolta XT which is not 4mega but 3mega and £40 dearer.
I want a camera for my trip to OZ, but want something small and just to point and shoot as i am no ace cameraman. Much more into the Camcorder which i will have in the other hand.
So want film and still`s, so need something small, light, fast, and around £200.

There are some more user reviews here - they are generally favourable. Also dcresources dcresource.com will have a review on the 31st; their reviews are usually pretty comprehensive.

As an alternative the Olympus Camedia C-350 £140 from Amazon here is highly rated by users and at 3.2 MP doesn`t lose too much in resolution to the Casio. Shame it uses xD cards (although it comes with 16Mb) and has a slower lens (F3.1 vs F2.8 )

This item was edited on Saturday, 27th December 2003, 02:45

I was interested to buy one of these cameras until Bill`s review. I have located this Canon IXUS 11 camera at Amazon...for just £179-99. It has 2X optical zoom but has a perfect movie function...30 FPS at 640 X 480 res. I know someone with this camera & I have used it, he left me with over 100 pictures on my computer taken by it & they are all excelent, the downside to me is the 2X zoom, anybody know if a 2X converter is available. This is the Amazon link... http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00009OOMX/ref=sr_aps_electronics_1_1/202-3711865-7478249?tag=myrev09-21

This item was edited on Saturday, 27th December 2003, 08:55