Once the plastic bubble package is breached, and the contents removed everything is there to start taking pictures. Along with the digital camera and a soft side case comes a USB cable, a battery, and a CD ROM with the computer software. The camera is small, it measures only 4”x 2.5”x 1”, but it’s a diamond. It can take and store 81 pictures at 640x480 pixels at high compression, 58 pictures at 640x480 pixels at medium compression, and 42 pictures at 1280x960 pixels at standard compression. Along with most under $100 digital cameras, it does not have a slot for a flash memory card. It uses one 3- Volt lithium battery (CR123A), which costs about five to six dollars to replace. (The batteries in my 35mm automatic-focus film camera runs about $15.00 to replace.) I have not had the digital camera long enough to tell how long the battery will last. The digital camera links to a computer via a standard USB cable. I did not use the included cable, but just unplugged my flatbed scanner, and plugged that cable into the camera. 

Something that impressed me was that like a film SLR camera, this digital camera uses one optical system. The viewfinder has a focus-adjusting ring so that people who wear eye-glasses (like me) can take photos without having to wear their glasses.  Also like a film SLR camera, when the shutter is pressed the viewfinder goes black. After a moment, the photo taken is displayed on a LED screen in the viewfinder. As a result, this digital camera is not a good camera to use for fast action such as sports. The camera has a three to one optical zoom. The two buttons on the top left of the body controls the zoom factor. These buttons are also use to move the selection on the LED screen during the review mode of the camera. On the top front of the body are three buttons used to set the pixel size, and the quality of the compression storage.  The top back is a button that sets the camera in the camera or review mode. The shutter button is on the right top, which is used like the left mouse button when the camera is in the review mode.  In the very center of the top is a LCD display. The display tells in what mode the camera is set, in what quality the photos will be stored, whether the flash is on or off, how much of the battery has been used, and how many photos still can be taken before the memory is full. The front has the flash and on the left side are the covers for the USB port and battery compartments.

The camera has two modes — the camera mode and the review mode.  The camera mode is used to take photos. It is the default mode when pressing the mode button, which turns on the camera. The other mode, preview, is entered by pressing the mode button again. Preview mode is used to delete photos in camera storage, and to download photos to the computer. Unlike other digital cameras I have used, any photo may be deleted without having to delete the pictures taken after that shot.

The major shortcoming of this package is the included software. The Quick Start Guide refers to an instruction manual for the camera on the CD ROM, which I have not been able to find.  The CD ROM comes with PhotoImpression, which is a program for cleaning-up photo problems, such as redeye and contrast. Paintshop v6 and Photosuite III both are much better programs for cleaning-up problems. The main goal of PhotoImpression is to get the user to go to Wal-Mart’s web page to get photo prints.  PhotoMontage also comes on the CD ROM. It is a program that will take a photo and make a montage out of it by using small pictures as pixels. PhotoMontage is fun to use if you need to kill time.

I found this digital camera a very good buy for the price. It has everything a person needs to get started with a digital camera. Except for the included software, there is not much that could be improved for the price.