Jenoptik JD C 2.1 LCD Review

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Jenoptik JD C 2.1 LCD
★★★★☆
4.3
From 2 reviews
100.0% of users recommend this
  • Image Quality

  • Features

  • Ease of Use

  • Value For Money

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Callan Cool.'s review of Jenoptik JD C 2.1 LCD

“This is a review of THe JDC 2.1, and compares this...”

★★★★☆

written by Callan Cool. on 10/06/2003

Good Points
excellent clear images, great price, good video mode, clear screen, easy to use after getting used to.

Bad Points
default menu language is german, manual is wrong on how to change to english (look for sprache- as in sprachen sie deutsch?)can give blurry images, appalling macro mode, no Video out

General Comments
This is a review of THe JDC 2.1, and compares this camera with the Konica Revio KD 100. Jenoptik is rather a much an underdog in the digital camera market, having a reputation of providing cheap digital cameras of 'bargain basement' quality. But is this reputation justified or not? Jenoptik's parentage is based in the camera heritage of Carl Zeiss, a highly respected company famed for its high quality 'Biotar' lenses which are highly sought after lensesfrom the 40's & 50's, being arguably the best lenses you could buy (before the Japenese got in on the act). It is described as the 'Legal successor' to the business of Zeiss, and The Jenoptik buisiness provides specialist industrial laser cameras for the top end of the industrial photographic and scientific markets and is well respected in that field,so it is surprising that it markets its cameras at the lower end of the spectrum, given such famous credentials. In fact the Jenoptik range is is not stocked by as many Uk retailers as it used to be, with only Time computers 'The computer World' chain and Dixons Group Jessops stocking the latest models. However, for a while now, Jenoptik has been importing cameras from China and re-badging them, leading to issues about quality. However, recent advances in Cmos sensor technology have brought about an influx of 2 megapixel cameras under the £100 price range. For example, the JD 1.3 bosts a tft screen and seels for about £70, whilst it's almtost identical twin the JD2.1 comes in at around £90-£100. It's the 2.1 which we'll be reviewing here, and as you can guess the 2.1 stands for the image sensor size, of 2.1 megapixels. However as a name this is a little misleading, as the camera will actually take pictures at 3.0 megapixels, although this setting is interpolated and as a result quality suffers.



So how does the camera rate. Well first impressions as you take it out of the wrap are of a lightweight plastic cased camera. However, insert the batteries and it feels quite solid, unlike some cheaper cameras. The box tells us it has a Cmos sensor which usually realates to poorer image quality than those with Ccd's. However Cmos's are lighter on battery load, and thankfully this camera seems to last well on the 4 supplied AAA alkalines. The buttons on the cam,era are as professionally made as those on any branded camera and the dial moves easily enough without feeling too loose ot too stiff. The screen is 1.5 inches and gives a clear picture, especially when being used as viewfinder, and is actually better in this respect than say the similary priced konica KD 100 which is only 1.3 Megapixels.

The lens states that it's a Biotar lens, though as this is a rebadged camera, wether or not its a genuine biotar lens manufactured by Jenoptik stuck onto the camera or wether they've just used the name as they own the rights is unclear. The manual is fairly well written, though it's obviously written by someone from China, as it contains a few translation errors that appear to be beloved of translators of cheap rebadged hardware from the far east. Pictures accompany every stage, although it must be said that often there is not much text to back them up, the transferring of images to the harddisk being a good example, telling you what the filename will be and showing a picture of explorer, but not telling you to drag and drop the files over. In that example the camera is shown as removeable drive f (must be a cd writer in the pc used for the screenshot) yet the text tells us the camera will appear as drive E.



So onto using the camera. Upon powering it up by holding the power button down for 3 seconds you are presented with a blue screen showing the mode the camera is in, be it manal photo, auto photo, playback, video, audio, or PC cam modes. These are accessed by the dial on top of the camera. Then the lcd shows the lense image. Though you can turn it off at any time, changing modes automatical switches itself on which is not a good idea, especially if you take shots without it to save battery power. The menu buttons are easy to use and aren't fiddly to use, but easy to operate, though using the circular set of buttons can be confusing at first untill you get used to it, after which it becomes a breeze. The icons by the buttons are clearly marked though deciphering what they srepresent needs the manual. Also, the setting flash mode is not accessed through the menu, but by cycling through using the bottom buttons. this is also used for selecting thumnail view in playback mode, though the icon used to represent it is identical to that used by some other manufacturers to represent image size, so don't be confused. Theres a macro switch on the side, but this turns the flash off yet fails to reverse this upon selecting normal mode again.

so how well does it take pictures? The image size, and quality are all accessed through the menu, as is white balance, date, beep, timer delay, language and power saving modes. Oddly the manual shows a 'video mode' setting which is not present so ignore this. Another, rather annoying, quirk is that the camera defaults to Germam for its menu language. Luckily the English manual tells us how many times to press each button before we arrive at 'change language, though thanks to the 'video system' item not being present you only have to go doewn 6 times and not seven. In case you're stuch the language option in german is 'sprache' as in 'Sprachen sie Deutsch?' Once thats been figured out its easy to start working your way round the menu.



The camera has an auto focus lens, that does a great job if it's allowed the time to focus and adjust itself to the light properly first. if the screens on this is cleary visible especially when settling the camera still after movement as it re adjusts. Avoiding the effects of this simply mean waiting a couple more seconds before taking your shot, otherwise you might end up with a blurred photo or a funny colour tint. However taking your time over this produces shots of excellent clarity, comparable if not better than a 3 year old 2 megapixel Kodak costing three times the price. It must me noted though that distant background objects don't focus completely sharp as theres no macro setting for distant objects. The seamless digital zoom is a pleasure to use, the level increasing by 0.2 each press of the button up to itsts maximum 4x, and this doesn't reduce the image size unlike some cameras do, though the end photographs are disappointing at anything over 1.6 mqagnification. Overall picture quality is superb if you get the autofocus right, though slightly overexposed and a little touching with the contrast improves photos, but in most cases you wouldn't need to as coulour is so vividly reproduced. If you get the focus wrong not, it's very disappointing. Having said that a half resolution 800x600 image from the jenoptik viewd at 1x magnification knocks spots of a 1280x1024 image from Konicas aforementioned KD100 at 1x magnification. Indoor shots in a well windowed room in daylight are great even without a flash, though using the flash at night with normal lightbulbs on gives a warm creamy effect to photos on auto white balance, though setting this to tungsten gives some improvement, but may result in an overexposed image. Outdoor shots in daylight give the best results, totally faultless for a cmos sensor, which is surprising, and they print out well to A4 size.



However the camera does have its niggles. It was giving 'not support' (bad Chinese translation) errors and freezing the camera trying to playback some images, so that only opening the battery cover would enable the camera to be switched off. Luckilly a replacement didn't appear to have this defect. The shutter button is a kind of two press affair. Holding it down halfway gives you a preview on screen, whilst a full press takes the picture. Initially it would not take a picture evey time it was fully pressed (and pressed hard too may it be said) though the replacement camera seems to have helped this. As for the number of stored images, the manual states nine at its highest setting, though in practice 12 was achieved. Also it states just over a minute of video with sound is possible, though almost a whopping 7 minutes was achieved though average length was around a minute.



The video itself is good quality but can be slightly blurred if the camera is not held steadily and moved slowly without jerking. Though its video output is normally very rich in colour, filming indoors with tungsten lighting produces a dark red image with no noticeable colour which may account for well account for 7 minutes of video from an 8 meg card. Indoor filming in daylight presented no problems whatsoever, apart from the slight bluriness which was eventually eliminated on later shoots by ensuring a steady hand was used at all times. Playing the video back at its native resolution of 320X200 pixels produces great images on a monitor, but doubling the screen size produces badly distorted inmages, unklike Konicas aforementioned KD100 which although produces opverexposed video does blow up well. Perhaps this is why there is no video out on the Jenoptik, as it proobably wouldn't look good on a tv screen unlike the Konica which is more than acceptable in this respect.



The camera itself has two image quality settings, fine and normal, with nt much to choose between the two. File sizes for for a 2 megapixel image are resonably sized between 300 and 650 kb dependant upon quality setting and number of colours detected. It must be noted that the number of pictures available in memory displayed as less than that quoted in the manual, though in filling the memory the manuals quoted figure was exceeded. Although it was never filled with all images at half size and normal quality, the manuals quoted figure for that setting was 159, though the camera on an empty memory at that setting was only displaying 51. With the camera producing 33% more photos at best setting than the manual quoted it appears reasonable to assume about 200 photos on its lowest setting would be average. However its macro mode is appalling and should be avoided unless nesseccary. One dreads to think what a macro shot taken with a full 4x digital zoom would produce.



So there you have it, the Jenoptik JD2.1. At £90 its not a bad little camera for the money, though in all fairness you do have to spend some time getting to know the camera to get the best from it, but once you're accustomed to its foibles you'll get super clear shots.

  • Features

  • Ease of Use

  • Value For Money

  • Image Quality

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106419_Callan Cool.'s Response to 106015_Callan Cool.'s Review

Written on: 11/06/2003

Further to my review of the Jenoptik 2.1, a web search eventually found a clone of this camera, the EZonics Echo (EZ as in easy) www.ezonics.com. Close inspection of the photo showed that whilst the front of the camera was slightly different to the Jenoptik everything else with the exception of the lens was the same. Every specification was identical. A quick currency conversion yeilded It appears that the lens has been seperately supplied by Jenoptik. There were test shots on the website, but these were not as clear as those the Jenoptik recorded, even though the sensor was the same, but the lense different. The macro shots seemed to come out better thasn the Jenoptik , hinting at a possible inconsistency with the 'Biotar' lense and the camera itself. However, the quality of photographs from the Jenoptik were much superior. Using a currency converter, the price range for the camera on us sites was between 103 and 111$, or 62 to 67 GBP at current exchange rates, which compares favourably with the uk street price of £90 for the Jenoptik, though it's currently on offer for £80 at P.C. world online, though the rest of Dixon's Stores Group is retailing it at £90. It's available at Dixons, Currys, PC world, and The Computer world, whilst Jessops and The Computer world stock its sibling the JD C 1.3 Lcd. (Jessops only stock the 1.3)Those thinking of buying the Ezonics should note that there will be shipping, and import duties as well as possible V.A.T. Anyone wishing to see sample photos from this camera can e-mail me at [email protected] and I'll send you some. If anyone has an unbranded make 2 + megapixel camera they bought in the uk of any make for under £100 i am doing a comparison article, and any comments would be most welcome, especially on the premier dc 2303 (£99 with OPTICAL Zoom) Eye q 2000, Polaroid PDC 2070, Goodmans or mustek (same cameras), Then let me know. All cameras must be true uninterpolated 2 megapixel with flash or LCD. Also if you bought a true 3mp camera for under £130 or an ynbranded 3mp with optical zoom for under £150 then let me know. The thrust of the article will be whether or not its possible to get rid of the big boys of digital photography or not. I am mainly interested in 3 things. 1) Build quality/reliabilty/faults experienced, 2)Image quality compared to a name brand, 3) whether or not it was an unbranded camera meant that you were less likely to complain about quality, I.E. if it had been a branded camera with theose faults/picture quality costing more, would you have been more inclined to return it?
<br>Cheeres & GBU, Callasn Cool,

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113980_Happycat.'s Response to 106015_Callan Cool.'s Review

Written on: 08/07/2003

couple of points. biotar is a carl zeiss DESIGN of lens, long, long out of patent and copied the world over. jenoptik may have the right to use the name of this design, so yes thats probably why they slapped it on there. they cant call it `carl zeiss` because kyocera own that brand along with contax, yashica etc.
<br>macro = small = close up. nothing to do with distant objects.

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