Konica Revio KD-400

The Konica KD-400 lasted just over 1 year before it stopped working. To repair the camera from 'shock' damage costs almost as much as purchasing the camera new (note that the camera was never dropped...it just stopped working on its own accord). Treat this camera as disposable because that is what the shelf life is like!.

We've had one of these Konica Revio KD-400 digital cameras for 8 months and in that time it's broken, been sent back to Konica for repairs under warranty and is currently broken again. By broken, I mean that when turning the camera on the camera beeps and the screen shows 'System Error', no photos can be taken, no previously taken photos can be reviewed or edited - it's basically unusable. What's more, the cards in the camera at the time are unable to be read or have images recovered from them (other than by the repair department at Konica!) It's a great camera when it's working. But for us, not camera buffs, just people wanting a good camera to catch our holidays, this camera is virtually useless - we've lost all confidence in it and we're going to buy a different camera, probably not a Konica. Here's hoping if you have one or buy one that you have more luck!

For what it sets out to be, a 4 megapixel point and shoot, this camera is perfect. It's only real bugbear is limited battery life (no more than 150 photos on one charge). The KD500 is a far better camera and the new KD510, a quantum leap away in a similarly packaged body.

If you take this Konica Revio KD-400 digital camera for what it is - aimed at 'point and shoot' merchants - it is really excellent. It starts up MUCH faster than its competitors and is ready to shoot straight away. There is no discernible shutter lag as on other cameras and it feels just right in its handling (for my hands, anyway). It takes memory sticks as well as SD cards (important for me as I have loads of these from other devices such as Sony camcorders) and is very elegant and well made with a steel body giving it that 'chunky' feel - although remaining small. It does not have any manual overrides of any significance and is therefore not really suited for more creative photography (but as I say, stick to decent 35mm SLRs for that, or opt for a much more expensive digicam). It does have some basic manual features such as flash overrides, red-eye reduction, slow shutter speed and macro settings. I have not used the video mode as I have a camcorder for this and I personally think this limited feature is daft on digi-cameras (as is the trend to provide horrible compressed MP3 sound facilities). Instead, Konica have put the money into making a high quality, pocketable auto camera with good lens and resolving power, costing 30% less than similar quality cams. It doesn't store TIFF files either, but again, I wouldn't use this - the high quality JPEGs on maximum setting suffice for me and produce really sharp quality prints up to 10x8" on a bog-standard Epson inkjet printer. I have noticed a very slight 'warm (brownish/pinkish)hue' on some of the shots but this is VERY minor and hard to spot unless you really look for it. In any case, I tend to crop most my pics in a graphics package anyway and this is easily corrected. The battery life seems quite good (I have used the cam for 2 days shooting 50-60 shots so far, mostly with flash, using LCD screen (which is sharp)and the battery still has some juice left. Additional batteries cost around £25 in the UK and the saving on the camera allows you to buy another and still save money. The cam came without manual (supplied on CD), case or image software here in the UK (very disappointing since the printed sheet supplied is next to useless, and I'd at least like a pouch for the cam to protect the body from scratches). BASIC SUMMARY: Excellent pocketable camera ideal for quick point and shoot with 4MP results. Not for photographers wanting manual overrides (it ain't got many!).

The Konica Revio KD-400 is a lovely little gem - perfectly sized and clad all-round in steel armour (except battery cover and curiously -tripod bush). Despite having very few buttons, the camera is reasonably ergonomic in most point and shoot modes and is pleasing to use - with all functions having a quality feel too them.

Most pictures are extremely sharp and detailed on 'normal compression' although the camera often slips up by slipping into slow speeds with inevitable blurry results on action and candid shots. Images, when in focus are well balanced and detailed with little noise. Macro goes as close as about 4 inches with a minor curvature. Useful spot metering and exposure compensation options (although the latter is embedded deep in the menu system). Difficult to set date printing on photos.

Excellent post picture digital zoom and review feature and shots can be edited without turning main camera functions on. Very little difference between normal and fine modes - yielding 148 4mp shots on 128 mb. card. The camera has the ability to transfer images from card to card - although setting card priority lies inconveniently deep in the menu structure.

Sometimes difficult to switch camera off since the lens cover is only a few millimetres from the lens. Battery life is better than previous models - approximately 60-80 shots with screen on and zoom etc. Battery recharges in about 2 hours.

Konica supply an optional case which is rather natty and has a pocket for accessories. The only other accessory is a ower supply - but one would probably be better off using a card-reader.

The price of this little powerhouse is comfortably below equivalent models making it good value for an object so conspicuously desirably and effective. It's small enough to carry everywhere but really needs a case only because of the exposed screen.

Highly recommended.

I've had this camera for about a month and and happy with it apart from the PIM issue I've already stated. I have found the images captured are very sharp and only use the standard setting and not fine because of the large file size. The finished printed article I find on occasion seems not very colour accurate, but I have noticed this on several other camera brands I have tried. I haven't had photos proffessionally processed yet, but I bought a digital camera so that I could print my own. I think that on balance this is an exellent point and shoot camera.

Konica Revio KD-400 digital camera:

RESOLUTION/IMAGE QUALITY: 4 Mpixels is not bad for the low price when you are rewarded with such a good image standard. I tried the camera in both compression modes (normal and fine), and found that normal is almost as good as fine but give only half the file size, and in 300% size on screen still any difference is almost invisible - impressive!!!

NUMBER OF PHOTOS VERSUS MEMORY CARD SIZE:

With 2 MB Internal Memory, 16 MB SD Card, and 128 MB Memory Stick I could save 166 photos using 2304x1704 pixels and in normal compression mode.

POWER CAPACITY:

In one test I shot 398 photos (91 photos in 2304x1704-FINE w/o flash + 166 photos in 2304x1704-NORMAL w/o flash + 141 photos in 2304x1704-NORMAL with flash) all on one battery charge. N.B. the lens was not zoomed more than a few times in this test. The same goes for opening/closing the cover. During the power capacity test, the LCD Display was on.

FINALLY:

The tests were done not to brag about the new Konica, but to really try and see the capacity of it. In my judgement, the camera lives up to all my requirements.

Purchased the Konica Revio KD 400Z digital camera today after looking around for the last two days. Only owned for 4 hours and not yet tested fully but i am really pleased so far.

I was looking for a general purpose digital camera to replace my SLR.

Originally interested in the Fuji 2800 finepix because of it's massive 6x zoom, but it has some bad points so i decided on the Konica.