Goodmans GDC 1308

After using my Goodmans GDC 1308 a few times I had to change the batteries. The camera wouldn't turn on, or only stay on for a few seconds, even though the batteries were new, and the camera was making a clicking noise. I've tried several different batteries, but same thing keeps happening. Now it's stuck in the draw and is no use whatsoever.

I've had many problems with this Goodmans GDC1308 digital camera, the battery compartment has snapped off twice, The pictures always seem grey and are either too white or too dark, you have to take a picture at a certain distance. The wheel has become stiff and a lot of the time it doesn't take a picture it just beeps!

The Goodmans GDC1308 digital camera is very good but wish manual was easier to understand and obtain, we had to print ours off, to install the disc, which we thought was quite funny.

This is NOT a good digital camera, ok, so the screen might be a good size and work well indoors, but it produces bad photos, sometimes with bright green and pink stripes accross them. It is very temperamental and it eats batteries by the bucketload. When I connect it to the computer, I could never get the web cam to work, and I can assure you that's not because I am inexperienced with computers as I certainly am not. The "f:" drive that it uses does not always load. When transferring pictures on/off the camera it sometimes makes a "beep" which means you have to otally disconnect the camera and start again. There are definitely alternatives to this camera and I would strongly advise you to choose one of them.

Jonny

Auto install went fine except it states the drivers are NOT certified for Windows XP.

Camera works fine (our first toe in the digital camera water) - I can get pictures off the CF card onto my Packard Bell P4 Windows XP PC but CANT get it working as a Web Cam.

I have tried a Web search (and found this site) and phoned the Goodman help line (too busy so keeps going onto recorded message with no option to leave a question) - so still no drivers found.

ANYBODY HAVE A WEB LINK TO GDC 1308 TFT drivers for Windows XP?

Many thanks ... happy snapping

i was pleased with this Goodmans GDC1308 digital camera when i first got it but after spending large amounts of money on betteries i realised it is not very practical. the battery life is too short and the delay between pressing the button and actually taking a photo is up to ten seconds. this is a good entry level camera and would be ok for families wishing to take group photos.

The Goodmans GDC 1308 is a good digital camera with great features.. digital zoom, large lcd screen, tv conections, have all proved well worth the money, easy to connect to pc. Pcture quality has been a bit hit and miss, but once you realise its limitations there's no problem.

I too am a little disappointed with the picture quality of the Goodmans GDC 1308 digital camera. Prior to this I had the Goodmans 1388 which has less features but is by far superior on picture quality.

The spec of the Goodmans GDC1308 digital camera sounds very good for the price, but I have been quite disappointed with the overall quality of the pictures. I have found that it can be a bit of hit & miss either indoors or outdoors. Most of the photos that I take are very grainy, but occationally, you get a really good one. I have tried fiddling with the EV compensate controls & again had very mixed results. Unfortunately, you do not always have time to change settings when you are wanting to photograph something - you just want to point & shoot. I suppose it is quite a good camera to start off with. This is my first Digital camera, but I am now thinking of buying something a bit better.

On the plus side it is generally, very easy to use & is not a bad size.

I bought the Goodmans GDC 1308 digital camera and at first was slightly disappointed as some of my pictures (mostly close-ups) were not much of an improvement on my old Kodak 640x480 digicam. Then I read all these reviews on this site and was very close to just returning it. However, I took it out on a few walks and became more familiar with the controls (especially EV compensate), and the camera has definitely improved as I've learned what it can and can't take. For the price, I'm now confident in saying that this really is a great camera. I also had the Windows XP problem, I called Goodmans and they were quick to send out some instructions, but they were actually useless as I fixed the problem myself before they arrived. To simply get your pics off the compact flash card, all you need to do in XP is plug the camera in. The camera registers as a harddrive on which is your folder of images :) I have no intention of using the camera as a webcam, so no drivers required... (the only reason it took me too long to figure this out was that I didn't have the camera itself in PC mode - I am a non-instructions-reader lol).

Two accessories I've bought - one absolutely essential, one more of a luxury. You MUST buy a battery charger and high quality NiMH batteries for this camera, as it literally kills regular alkaline ones. I took one image with alkaline batteries, and the battery meter went down a notch. With NiMH, I got through a whole day without the meter moving. Secondly, I just ordered a 128MB compact flash card. The 16MB card provided is ideal for getting a number of test shots (or a low-quality 200 shot session) in, in addition to the fact that your alkaline batteries will last until the card is filled ;) but to get the most out of the camera, you want to be able to shoot freely at the high resolution, and I'd recommend allowing for £40-50 for an extra card (or, if you buy it at Argos as I did, consider buying it with the camera as you'll get it half-price... I wish I had). Once you've added those two things, your camera is costing £200-ish. Is it worth it, you ask? I'm certainly not displeased :) I've included a link to my personal site somewhere on this review (wherever it's going to say "recommended site"). In the next week or so the design will change and there will be a Photos section.. all of those pictures will be taken with the Goodmans GDC 1388 so you can see for yourself once I get round to uploading all that.