Trust 632av

1 post

Does anyone have any opinions for or against the Trust 632av digital video camera, particularly on picture quality?



It sounds like excellent value for money given the feature set, but at £111(UK) for a 3.3Mpix (2Mpix hardware resolution) still camera with colour LCD that records video at 10 frames/sec with audio and works as a 30fr/sec web cam there has to be a catch.

From Netherlands, 1 post

I've recently got one as a present. It is my first digital camera. It is a nice toy. It comes with a 32MB compact flash and has 8MB internal memory, which is used when the CF is removed.

It houses a digital photo camera, a memo-recorder, a video camera and a web cam. It has a 3.5cm color LCD and runs on 2 AA bateries (I haven't tried rechargables yet). Connects to the PC via USB and also has an AV connector that supports NTSC and PAL. And also a small mirror under the lens for self-portrets.

This sounds impressive, if Trust also took quality into acount. I must say that for a novice user as I it all seems nice from the start, but using it for a day now, made me notice some drawbacks as well.





I toyed around with the web-cam functionality and on the PC it seems to have a good quality (and yes it can go up to 30fps).





When using it as a stand-alone camera the limitations are more noticable. The photo resolutions are oke. It supports 640x480 (VGA), 1280x1024(1.3M pixels) and 1600x1200(2M pixels). Also the quality (compresion) can be set to high or low quality.



What I find a pain in the ass is that every time you switch it on, it defaults to 1.3M pixels and high quality. Only a 2M pixel image can by 'enhanced' to 3.3M pixes.

I can accept that is does not have a zoom functionality, but what I really miss is a flash. Taking pictures in poor lighting, results in dark pictures with a lot of noice.

The number of pictures that can be taken with the 32MB CF is 36 (2M pixels), 75 (1.3M pixels) and 352 (VGA). When the CF is full it can be removed and the 8MB of internal memory can be used. It gives additional space for resp. 11, 24 or 88 pictures. The number of pictures can be doubled when the quality is set to low.

The quality of the normal resolution seems fine when taken with sufficient ambient light. When loading an image into the supplied Ulead photo express it says that it is 1280x1024 (75dpi) and is 45.15cm x 36.12cm in size (sorry digital photography is new for me so I don't know if this is good or bad, I thought its worth mentioning).





The lens has a macro-position for objects up close, but there is no lens protection-cap.

The camera fits nicely in your hand and it is light and small, but the exposure button is not placed under your fingertip. Trust placed it oddly enough on the right side of the top, but you can only hold it in your right hand, so you would expect it to be on the left top side.







Oke how about video. Well using it as a stand-alone camera, I must say the quality sucks. Sure it is viewable and fun to show of with, but with only 10fps, fast movements are tough. The most noticable is the poor sound quality. A quick look at the properties of a sample movie shows the following:

320x240pixels, audio:32kbps with only 4bits per sample, the video is 10fps and has a datarate of 64kbps.

With the 32MB CF according to the specs it can store app 6 minutes of movie.





I didn't really used it as a memo-recorder yet. The manual says it records at speech quality and that it can record 2 hours with the 32MB CF.





The LCD is small but viewable. Even the thumb-nails of the taken pictures, movies and other icons are distingisable. The LCD intensity can be set low to safe the battery.

I must say that I found the menu of the camera a bit clumsy. When scrolling past the image resolution it starts modifying even though you only want to reach the menu option below.





The supplied SW is user friendly. The camera can be operate in two modes when connected to the PC, DV File and Live. The first lets you browse the recorded media, copy delete etc. Under XP you can use the supplied SW for this or use the extra mapped drive via the Windows Explorer.

In the live mode, it can be used as a web-cam and for taking snap-shots as well.

Switching between the modes is not possible while connected (at least as for as I know).





All in all a nice toy. Since I got it as a present I'm happy I got it, but I don't think I would have bought one myself, but this depends on what you plan to do with it. All I needed was a digital photo camera, and for that I think there are better players out there.

I'm still impressed of what Trust can fit in such a small package, but I think it is missing some key elements to supply a high quality integrated solution.





Hope it helps.

1 post

I'ts well worth the cash - slight drawbacks, the batteries don't last long although u can extend their life considerably by turning the TFT screen off, plus its no good in dark room situations as there's no light balance stuff... on the plus side 'still photo's' are totally spot on clear as!!!

From Italy, 1 post

Yestarday i bought trust 632av. I notice that the video is very very dark when i use it in a video chat and also when i use it with TV. It depends on what kind of battery im using? I hope, because my first webcam was a philips vestapro, chipper then this lastone but i thing much better.