Reviews
Concord
5345
Can Samsung be cool in digital cameras as well?
Concord
is a bit like one of those Taiwanese PDA OEMs whose devices are
mostly sold under other names. But unlike some of those industrial
giants that are usually involved in a variety of fields, the Concord
Camera Corporation has just one goal, and that is to make and
sell inexpensive cameras, digital and others. They are the world
leader in single use cameras and sell dozens of millions of cameras
every year, both under their own name and for others, including
some big name brands like Polaroid.
Concord
offers over a dozen different cameras ranging from the very basic
Eye-Q Mini VGA camera all the way up to the 5-megapixel 5345z
featured in this article. It's been around for a while and generally
goes for under $300. That was a great price when the 5345z was
introduced. What exactly do you get with the Concord, and should
you buy it over a more prestigious ãname brandä camera?
With
a classy aluminum body that looks and feels as if it was crafted
from a solid block of titanium, the 5345z looks anything but cheap.
Design and build are much better than what you'd expect from a
low cost camera manufacturer. Every line and detail is just right,
and the matte silver powder finish is just perfect. The camera
is also smaller than it looks in pictures÷just 3.5 x 2.4 x 1.25
inches÷and it weighs under six ounces.
Take
a closer look and you see some well thought-out details. USB and
power ports are protected by small rubber flaps attached to the
camera so you can't lose them. The few clearly marked controls
do everything you need in a point & shoot. Two buttons switch
between taking and viewing pictures. A five-way navigation disc
that also controls macro and flash is flanked by a menu and a
display button. The zoom uses the ring around the shutter instead
of a rocker operated by your thumb. This means that your index
finger can either press the shutter or operate the zoom, but not
both. Not ideal.
The
Concord springs to life almost instantly when you push a small
recessed button on top of the camera, with its zoom lens barrel
shooting out as if it were spring loaded. Sadly, this is the only
display of speed. There is l-o-n-g wait between shots and we couldn't
find the burst mode listed in the manual.
The
1.6-inch 85k pixels LCD display is crisp and sharp. Pushing the
ãdispä button cycles through LCD on and off, LCD on with info,
and LCD on with info and a histogram graph that tells you whether
you end up with a dark, bright or well balanced image. Very handy.
However, the LCD washes out outdoors so you have to use the optical
viewfinder.
The
Concord's on-screen menus are as simple and elegant as the camera
itself. Three tabbed folders hold options for recording, memory,
and setup. All menus are transparent overlays, and all options
are in plain English and have walking menus where needed. Little
live windows preview white balance, filter, or exposure compensation
settings. There are 19 scene modes, each accompanied by a cute
color image and a description of the mode, and sometimes even
recommendations.
The
Concord's menus give you a lot of control over auto focus, metering,
white balance, sharpening, saturation, filters, image size and
quality, contrast, flash intensity and more. This is a point &
shooter that also lets you fiddle with settings to your heart's
content. However, don't look for shutter or aperture priority
and such÷that's not this camera's game.
For
storage, the Concord comes with 9.7 megabyte of internal memory
and you can also use a SD card (not included). The card is located
next to the batteries, which have no retainer to keep them in
place, so make sure they don't fall out. On the plus side, the
Concord comes with a charger for any rechargeable AA batteries.
Those
who like video clips are in for disappointment. All you can do
is take up to 60 seconds' worth of 320 x 240 clips, and since
there is no speaker, sound only plays back once the clip is on
a PC.
Picture
quality is quite good and 5 megapixel resolution means you can
run 8 x 10 prints or even larger. A macro setting lets you get
as close as four inches, the flash is strong, and there is a 4X
digital zoom on top of the very quick 3X optical zoom. For software,
PC users get MGI PhotoSuite and MGI VideoWave. Nothing for Mac
folks.
Ultimately,
the Concord's classy looks promise more than they deliver. We
like the design, picture quality, scene modes, ease of operation
and nice menus, but the very slow recycle time and limited movie
option means the camera will be mostly judged on its low price,
and that doesn't seem that low anymore.
öKirk
Linsky
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