Digital-Camera Reviews

This product has a very specific role. It makes the perfect gift for someone who is not very computer saavy. If the person has easy email and internet access, it makes more sense (and is much cheaper) to send pictures to them through other means.

My husband and I purchased this frame for his mom. We had previously tried to give her a computer but it collected dust. Since she loves pictures of the grandkids and we live several hours away, we thought this would be a good gift.

The first step--plugging it in--was simple. The frame needs to have a location with easy access to both phone and electricity, or you'll have cords all over the place. Once attached, it starts displaying the Ceiva company information, including the customer service phone number.

Getting the frame to properly connect and load pictures was more involved. First, it needs to be registered at the Ceiva site (that had to happen "off-site" since my mother-in-law doesn't have a computer). The website is where you load the pictures and set the guidelines for the frame (what times to turn it on and off and what number for the frame to call to load new pictures, etc) Then you need to purchase a subscription which costs almost as much as the frame on a yearly basis. Once that's done, it's supposed to be as easy as someone pushing a button (the big one on the base of the frame) and the pictures would load.

Unfortunately, it didn't work at first. Our frame took a few calls to customer service (luckily a circulating pre-loaded picture on the frame) and emails from us to correct the problem. Telephone customer service was courteous and gracious to my mother-in-law. Email customer service was slow and sometimes didn't respond directly, though they did take care of a separate problem eventually.

From my mother-in-law's perspective, the solution was just pushing that big button multiple times, intermittently over the course of the day, until it finally connected. I'm not sure it was the same solution from Ceiva's point of view.

Once that was resolved, EVERYTHING has worked like a dream. The frame revolves 30 different pictures. On the website, I keep everything in an album so I know which ones she's seen. My brother-in-law several states away can upload pictures onto her frame as well. We can also send captions with the pictures or special greetings on Mother's Day etc. She is absolutely thrilled, and I will probably be buying one for my grandmother (who is in a board and care home) this year.

PROS: Fabulous gift for the computer-less, can be accessed (on invitation/with password) by other loved ones to load their photos, easy to plug in, seamless operation once working

CONS: Expensive cost of subscription (factor it into your gift giving), took some time and customer service input to get it connected, unable to edit/crop photos on website (do it before), cost of ordering prints of photographs for the receiver (we use a different company)

I purchased a Ceiva about a year ago, and it works very very well. However! And this is a WARNING: After the mandatory three-month "subscription," which one has to buy in order to purchase the product, they kept charging the monthly fee to my credit-card account -- even though I signed up for three months only (the minimum), and also told them to cancel, and also had my credit card company "charge back" the improper charges. Despite all that history -- they have attempted to sneak through ANOTHER unauthorized charge ... perhaps they hope that folks simply won't notice. (...). It is shame, because the product does work well.

Over the last four months, we've purchased five Ceiva receivers as birthday and Christmas gifts for family. Initially, we were nervous about purchasing even one after having read mixed reviews such as those posted here, but our personal experience with the product and company has been wholly positive.

Eight days before Christmas, we received our last receiver, only to find that several pixels on the frame face were orange. An email to the customer service brought a reply within 24 hours and within four days, I had a new receiver...even before the one I was returning had arrived back to Ceiva.

The set up and uploading of pictures is not difficult if you have some comfort working with computers, which is precisely why we did it all ahead of time (and so that when the gifts were opened, they could be plugged in automatically with photos ready, rather than having to wait for the daily dial in).

Now a few days past Christmas, all the receivers are out and our family loves them. No one has had any difficulty with the at home set up (plug in two cords, press a button) and they all agree that continued subscriptions to the site will make great Father's Day/Mother's Day/Birthday gifts in the future.

I have enjoyed this camera more than any other "high tech" thing I have ever bought! The 340 MB MicroDrive is wonderful!! The battery life is very good if you conserve power by using it like a regular camera with the display turned off. Also, I don't review shots on the display either because you have so much room on the 340 MB MicroDrive, I just take a lot of pictures and edit after the fact on my computer. The most shots I have taken with one set of batteries, using the conservation mode described above, is 83. I get very clear crisp pictures even in less than optimum light conditions, such as my grandson's after-dark football games. I have never had one technical problem with it since I bought it exactly one year ago this month. The only negative thing I can say is that I still get double shots some times, but with the 340 MB MicroDrive that has never been a problem, just confounding. I love pictures; I take a LOT of pictures; and I have been more than satisfied with the Casio QV300EX camera. I would highly recommend it to anyone; and I do not understand why it is not on the best seller list! You definitely get a lot for your money.

When I started research 3.x gigapixel digital cameras, the short list came down to this: Casio QV 3000 EX, Sony DSC-S70 and MVC-FD95, Nikon 990, Kodak CD4800 and Canon Powershot S20 and G1.

After tallying all the features and costs of each, the Casio emerged as the the clear winner. I'm sure you've read all the specs from other reviews, so I'll just comment on a few things.

- The 340mb IBM microdrive is a must-have in a digital camera. Go on a long vacation, take 240 or so 2048x1536 pics in FINE resolution and don't think twice about running out of space or having to buy more memory.

- The USB connection downloads these pics very quickly, plus, you can set it up so your computer sees it as another HD, viewable via Netscape or IE.

- Casio packed this camera with a lot of features that I'm not sure it needs, like B/W and Sepia modes, for example. These effects can be done in software on your PC.

-Memory buffer. I was pleased to find out that this camera has enough for a short "burst mode". Some of the cameras above don't.

- Biggest complaint: No A/C adapter in the unit I bought, though I knew this before I bought it. I wound up paying around $52 on Casio's website for one to be delivered UPS 2nd day. But, I also got a $100 rebate on the camera, and the more recent EX Plus version includes the adapter, so, just make a note.

- No jack for an external trigger. This is kind of amazing. What you can do with this camera is limited only by your imagination. And, yes, many functions and features are dependent upon a half-press of the shutter button. BUT, I don't see any reason why Casio couldn't come up with an external shutter button that works the same way as the one on the camera. The reason for the external shutter trigger is that you don't touch the camera when you take the shot. IE, you don't move it by accident when using very slow shutter speeds or night shots, etc. I did not know this before I bought it.

-You must have at least two sets of four NiMH rechargable batteries for a day of shooting. Three is even better. And get a charger that charges them in under 5 hours. They're cheap and plentiful. Regular alkaline Duracells, for example, will last, well, I've never seen batteries go so dead so fast in my life. The NiMH batteries, on the other hand, last a very long time. Longer than any other rechargable battery available.

Overall, this is an outstanding camera. I feel that I would have spent more money on any of the others I mentioned in memory cards, for starters. IBM has also released a 1 gigabyet version of its Microdrive. And the camera will accept memory cards of the CompactFlash type I and II as well. This is both the ultimate vacation camera, as well as an excellent tool for the serious photographer, minus my comments above. I've only touched on a very few of the many, many features the QV 3000 EX comes with. I've been through the manual, used the camera, and it exceeded my expectations.

This camera easy to use, has great quality pictures with 3.34 MP. Long battery live.

My previous digital camera was a Sony FD series w/floppy. I purchased it several years ago when the technology was just being introduced. Its lack of quality resolution,speed and capacity soured me on digital technology and I decided to wait a few years before revisting this arena.Well time has passed and after reading numerous reviews and checking out several cameras at retail locations, I decided to purchase the Casio QV2000. To be honest my main reason for selecting this camera was the Compact Flash slot due to my recent purchase of the Casio Cassiopeia PocketPC.Much to my surprise it is this camera which I have fallen in love with. Obviously the technology has improved and all the shortcomings of my previous camera have been addressed. I was just absolutely staggered by the ease of use, editing capability and picture resolution. There are two things which I dislike, 1) The lens cover slide mechanism feels like a disaster witing to happen, particularly when the camera is used by a newbie

2) Why don't they ship rechargeable batteries and make it so that you can rechargethem in the camera overnight with the AC adapter that should be shipping with this camera.

Item 2 refers to all digital camera manufacturers

I just returned from 24 days in Europe. Before leaving (and after an enormous amount of online research) I purchased the Casio QV2000 w/Micro Drive from Amazon.com. I also purchased a rechargable battery unit that included a car adaptor. Since this camera loves batteries-it was great to be able to put in freshly recharged batteries everyday (the battery unit was plugged into the cigarette lighter of my rental car). The camera (with micro drive) has the capacity for 400 high resolution pictures. I took 375 photos in 24 days! Now I am editing & captioning them using the software that Casio provides. This camera was perfect for a long trip. It's easy to use & the micro drive means you will never have to worry about running out of memory. In addition, I used several of its features with wonderful results: Panorama-the Schonbruen Palace and Lake Geneva; Night-Charles Bridge in Prague, Street performers in Florence; Landscape-Swiss Alps; etc. Highly recommended.

I just received my Casio QV2000. It's truly a great digital camera. Very easy to use and lots of bells and whistles. The Software that accompanies the camera is difficult, necessitating three calls to Casio Techsupport. I might add that they were excellent. User documentation is scarse, so call Customer Service and they will send the manuals. Call Casio for an AC Adapter. The recommended Olympus adapter does not fit. Otherwise, pictures are clear and well detailed. If you have Windows 98 Upgrade the USB cable connection to the computer will not work and you have to use the serial cable, which is slow and needs the AC Adapter.

I've had the camera for 1 year.

Pros: Quality pictures, good value for the money, USB is fast, good optical zoom.

Cons: Cheap case (my lens cover is now broken), takes a long time to extend & retract the lens, can't get USB to work on Windows 2000.

I believe a durable case is critical which is why I rated the camera low.

I am not an expert photographer but I am pretty good for a novice. I do a fair amount of close up photography (wildflowers, insects, and kittens I care for--I run an adoption agency for orphaned kitties)....so a macro function was high on my list of must-haves for a camera, which was one of the reasons I purchased the Casio QV2000UX. This camera makes it possible to get beautifully detailed, crisp images from just a few inches away.

At the same time, the zoom is a nice feature as well--3x optical (forget digital zoom--it means nothing!--just lowers the resolution, like cropping a picture--so why bother?)

The menu is user friendly, the LCD is bright and easy to see under all but the brightest outdoor conditions. I like the compact flash storage option, since I have a pocket PC which uses the same media and already have a compact flash reader on my PC.

The photos I have captured on this camera have been nothing short of outstanding--so I can't even see the point in going over 2 megapixels unless you're into printing poster-size photos.
You can also shoot up to 30 seconds of video in the AVI format, but it's really more of a neat little gimmick than anything I've had a lot of use for. It was fun getting a video of my cat chasing a laser pointer around and around in circles and posting it on my website in a continuous loop though!

The IBM microdrive is an option I know is available for this camera but I have been satisfied with using the compact flash cards....and I have heard the mini drive is a real drain on the batteries. One accessory I think is the best investment I could have ever made is a rechargable portable battery pack--great if those AA's give out on the road!

The only complaint I have is about the lens cover/shutter switch. I cannot say if it was my particular camera or an inherent flaw in the design, but it felt kind of rickety from the start and eventually fell off. At first I couldn't find anyone local who could even fix it! I persevered and luckily I was able to have it repaired for under 150 dollars. I guess this is the point where I realized I really love this camera--I didn't feel like "upgrading" and anything with the same features would have cost several hundred dollars, so I knew I had a good deal with the Casio. If subsequent models have a more sturdy lens cover design, I would recommend this camera hands-down over similarly priced competition.

I just received mine this christmas, today in fact. It's a very nice camera and takes wonderful pictures, even at the lower of the resolutions (800x600). With the low resolution, at fine quality you get 22 pictures on the 8 meg card that comes with it. The one thing that is kind of disturbing about it is that the LCD takes up most of the power in the batteries. The batteries that were supplied with it died within 2 hours of use (Taking 11 pictures with the LCD on, and then having it on the whole time trying to get USB to work with windows 2000). That brings up another small problem. Casio does not provide much information for using the camera with windows 2000 and usb. As of right now the usb does not work for me, and I am using a serial connection. it's a little slower than I would like but hey, as long as it works it is fine by me. Beside those two things though, everything about it is wonderful. it even has a nice panorama feature, and comes with wonderful software for keeping libraries of your pictures.

Like so many other people I researched digital cameras before I bought this one. I played with it for a week and was disappointed in the picture quality I got. Any pictures taken later in the day produced red-eye, even with the red eye reduction feature on. You also have to hold absolutely still. If you don't you get fuzzy pics. If your subject moves, same thing. The camera was great, and easy to use. I was just expecting more. I have played with my family and friends cameras and they get much better pictures with less hassle. I did load my pics onto my computer to fix them, but the software that comes with it is useless. In order to get rid of the red-eye, I had to use other software that I already had on my computer. I decided that if I didn't have the extra software to fix my pics, I would be very unhappy with this product. That's why I returned it. I do understand that I will not get perfect pics all the time with other cameras, but I was getting more pics to "delete" than I was to "save".

I bought this dig camera when there was no customers reviews, so i basically risked it. Well, my consequence is that I have to send it back to the Casio Company for repair. I bought it in March, 2004 and now tons of lines appeared on the screen for i don't know what reasons. They said maybe I drop it, it went through some scanning problem, or just there are some problems with it! v.v ... Other THAn that.. this dig cam is pretty good .. but I don't know what the say.. not only half a year yet~ The pictures are pretty nice, great functions, it would be better if this 5 mp dig has sound for the video mode. Hopefully the problems will be fixed or else I guess risking is baD.

I like the camera a lot but the red eye thing is really hard to get away from since the flash is so close to the lens axis. The camera is small, easy to use and with a 512 KB card can really take a lot of photos. The video feature is useless, but so what, that's why I have a video camera. I like the battery charger's small size and the ability to use commonly available batteries while the rechargeable ones are in the charger. All in all an easy to use and carry camera that does a decent job of taking pictures and with careful placement of people and using the red eye elimination feature can do good close up work. Oh by the way my wife reminded me that one of the more important reasons that we got this camera is the larger view screen.