- Average user rating: 2.0 stars out of 5 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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0.5 stars
"Don't buy if you're interested in VIDEO function."
Pros: I've gotten some surprisingly good quality pictures, nice to be able to flip the screen to take self portraits.
Cons: electronic malfunction, video quality, awkward grip which impacts video quality, slow focus, zoom function can be heard in movies, zoom button isn't sensitive, no lens cover, picture re-frames when you press shutter button, etc. . .
Summary: 1. I had my camera just over 3 months (just outside of warranty) and it freaked out electronically. It won't record audio with the video, the picture on the screen flips itself randomly during filming or picture taking, which makes following a subject VERY difficult, and the screen goes dark randomly. They won't fix it for me, either. or even give me support to attempt to figure out the problem before mailing it someplace to be fixed.
2. This doesn't have to do with the actual product, but I think it's relevant because dealings with a company impact a decision to buy or not to buy. Customer service is nearly impossible to reach. the online form, which says will be answered within 24 hours, NEVER gets answered. At all. the phone number they give on the site is only for TV repair and it give a recording about a remote then hangs up on you. . . There's more, but you get the idea. Customer service is almost impossible to obtain.
3. awkward to hold. It's fine for pictures, but for video it lacks. It's hard to take a stable video this way and if you want to zoom while taking video, it ends up shaking the picture a lot because it's awkward to press the button and hold onto the camera.
4. you can only zoom at one speed, which isn't good for video! the button isn't sensitive, so you can't press it lightly to zoom slowly and hard to zoom fast. This is serious lacking for video.
5. taking pictures while filming function - not all it's cracked up to be. It seems great, except that when you watch the video where you took the picture will be paused for 5 seconds, making the video useless.
6. the focus function is very slow and manual focus may as well be nonexistent. You CAN manually focus if you want to, but you have to go into the menu to get to it, which isn't practical and takes too long.
7. hard to frame a picture how you want because when you press the button to take a picture, it actually pulls back a bit - Meaning you frame something how you want it, then it will end up with a wider frame than you chose. This is a strange thing for a camera to do while focusing. I've learned to zoom slightly more than I want to account for this change, but I shouldn't have to!
8. zoomed pictures have marked reduction in quality.
9. the video quality isn't all that good, especially indoors. Outside in BRIGHT sunlight you can get some good video, but otherwise it struggles.
10. there is NO LENS COVER! It comes with a soft case, but there is nothing covering the actual lens, which is insane. there should at least be something internally that flips down when you turn the camera off. the soft case does NOT protect the lens at all. big design flaw. BIG.
In short, the camera is only good if you plan to use it for still shots, and even there it has some downfalls. There are much better cameras that are waterproof and are marketed as plain old digital cameras (not video cameras) that still take better video and are cheaper. No brainer, don't buy it.
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