premier ds 3080s review

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Picture courtesy of alvinc5.

Average Ratings

Value for Money	5.8/10
Reviewer Rating	4.8/10
Overall Rating	4.9/10

54% Recommended7 out of 13 Reviews

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By alvinc5 on 15th Dec 2004

alvinc5's Ratings

Time Digital Camera Owned	1 - 6 Months
Image Quality	10/10
Battery Life	5/10
Features	8/10
Ease of Use	10/10
Value for money	10/10
Overall value	9/10
alvinc5's recommendation

Good Points

This camera offers high picture resolutions for its price. You can capture true silent videos as well as images. Has flash. Many available settings. Has an excellent image/video playback and management mode. Compact. Expandable.

Bad Points

Requires high capacity rechargeable Ni-MH batteries to last longer than 10 minutes with flash- but when you got'em, it will run for days!

General Comments

Firstly, I'll start by testifying, I do not intend to offend or criticise other people's reviews...but what the hey! This camera is excellent- NOT RUBBISH !!! I've always wanted a nifty digital camera like this one, and now I have one, it will be my lifetime companion along with my phone! For effect, I'll highlight the negatives, and move on to conclude with the very re-assuring positives! If you don't get any of the wierd jargon (sorry, I get carried away!) simply check the dictionary at the end of this review.

Now, I do agree with you review writing peeps on some level (and I need to cry...no fair! You brought the camera for nearly half price at Woolworths! I got mine for £80 before the offer!). The camera lasts only about 10 minutes when powered by normal alkaline batteries, and that's when taking a few images, with flash! It will go a bit further when using, say Energizer Ultimate (or e2 Titanium) high capacity alkaline batteries, but will still only last for an appalling average of 2 hours- when used continuously with the flash. Another problem is that because the battery power depletes so rapidly, on ALKALINE batteries (get the hint yet?), the battery meter drops rapidly too...so quick that when the meter drops by one bar, you've know you've got to replace the batteries in record time (don't get too put off though, keep reading!). Another negative would be the poor image quality when taking pictures in places with just the slightest darkness- although this is without the flash on.

HOWEVER, now with all the few negatives in the open, I can try and sway you with these pleasing positives. I'll get the small features across first. There's a nifty loop-hole on the camera, plus a smooth case and strap for you to keep the camera safe. The dimensions aren't worth mensioning- small, sleek and stylish to add. There's a fun protective sliding cover to shield the flash and lense when not in use, perfect if you happen to be juggling knifes.

Next, the image quality is excellent, with five selectable resolutions: 640x480, 1280x960, 1600x1200, 2032x1520 plus when interpolated: 2912x2184 (pleasing aint it?). The camera has a true 3 Megapixel CMOS sensor, offering the default image size of 2032x1520, and it can interpolate to 6.3 Megapixels, or in other words a resolution of 2912x2184 (but I doubt you'll need an image of that size!!!). For £50 at Woolworths, this camera is truly a bargain for the high resolutions it offers. The camera offers 16MB internal memory, only enough for 19 images at the default 3.1 Megapixel resolution (or 2032x1520), and enough for 47 at 1280x960. But that's what the SD memory card slot is for. Use as many cars as you like, up to 512MB in size. For a rough sketch, a 256MB SD memory card will enable you to snap about 316 at 3.1 Megapixels (2032x1520), and 795 images at 1280x960. However, the amount is dependant on memory card capacity, and battery capacity- not the camera's manufacturing (which I'll include later). The flash is perfect, offering adequate lighting at a fair distance.

Apart from capturing images, you can capture true silent MPEG videos, for as long as your memory card's capacity can hold. The flash is not operable in this mode, but is understandable. You can also review captured images and videos in playback mode, where you can slideshow images, delete images, playback videos, view a thumbnail gallery plus some other features. The setup is simple too, allowing you to set the date, time and format so you timestamp your images. Also not forgetting (until I move onto the whole battery draining business) the image settings you can alter. Focusing is fixed, but fine for distant images. There is a 'macro' mode, which allows you to take images close up, but without the flash (as it would be too exposed to the flash anyway). The flash itself can be manually disabled, or set it so the camera flashes when needed. You can digitally zoom up to 4x, allowing a close up of distant details- adjusting image settings are encouraged for a clear zoomed quality image. There are three seperate quality settings, Normal, Fine and Super Fine. The rough quantity of snappable images I described earlier were stated on Super Fine quality!- you'll get A LOT more with the quality or resolution lower. You can also manually adjust the Exposure, depending on the ambient light, and White Balance, with the options: Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten or Flourescent. If you adjust all these settings correctly for your chosen subject, you'll get an excellent, literally professional image.

And now, to explain the battery consumption issue. Like I've explained, yes...this digital camera does drain your ALKALINE batteries very rapidly, especially with flash. And this is even with the high capacity ALKALINE batteries like Energizer Titanium/Ultimate. But most digital cameras do, bar several ones with internal Lithium rechargeable batteries. HOWEVER, this camera supports Ni-MH (Nickel Metal Hydride) rechargeable batteries, so using them won't damage your camera. For this camera to work for at least several days- continuos use with flash, it is a definite that you require high capacity Ni-MH rechargeable batteries. I suggest 800mAH or 900mAH in capacity- the higher the milli-Amp Hours the longer the use. But then you can argue: "Hold on...normal Energizer Alkaline batteries have a capacity of about 1250mAH, and the high capacity Energizer Titanium/Ultimate batteries are 1375mAH in capacity". I'm currently using 2xAAA Ni-MH 900mAH rechargeable batteries in my camera, and to be honest, I thought that the lower capacity meant I would have to recharge and swap batteries more than Alkaline batteries! But I found I was wrong, Ni-MH batteries are 1.2 volts, more consistent and dissipate more slowly, while Alkaline batteries are 1.5 volts and dissipate fast. You will obviously need to by a Ni-MH charger, suitable for the high capacity Ni-MH batteries YOU WILL be getting for the camera (:-p), which unfortunately means setting you back around £20 to £30. But in the long run, it saves you a lot of money, plus you can recharge about 1000 times. If you look at the right places (eBay perhaps) it will set you down to around £10 to £15, not bad.

So to conclude, if you can recall this entire essay- a superbly, fantastically, astronomically excellent camera when you use Ni-MH batteries, probably only excellent when you use normal Alkaline batteries, a must buy!

[] Gadgetshop: £80 (damn them!)
[] Woolworths: £50 (well worth it!)

*If you want the full official specs of this camera, I can email it to you upon request :-).

Jargon:

- Megapixels: Millions of pixels. One pixel has three subpixels, red, green and blue. One pixel represents one tiny 'dot' of colour.

- Resolution: The same as Megapixels, but used to describe the image size. Therefore the more pixels, or megapixels, the larger and finer the image.

- Ni-MH: Nickel Metal Hydride. A type of compound used in a type of rechargeable battery. Enviromentally friendly and energy yielding.

- mAH: Milli-Amp Hour. Determines the capacity of a cell.

- SD Memory Card: Secure Digital Memory Card. A type of high capacity miniature memory card with operates using static. No internal power source required.

Total Respect: +5