A deal that will make you shutter
I can't justify spending hundreds of dollars on a digital camera when I can get my pictures from a $5 throw away camera put on disc for $6.
I just don't take that many pictures.
But an amazing deal on a digital camera has me singing a different tune.
I had never heard of the Bell & Howell mini digital camera until I stumbled upon it on overstock.com.
What intrigrued me was the price: $24.97. But is it junk?
The reviews seemed to indicate otherwise. The average reviewer gave it four stars out of five (11 reviewers as of this morning).
Still skeptical - one reviewer admits "I haven't seen the pictures yet" - I checked out how it fared on Amazon.com.
No customer reviews there yet, but the price was the same.
Amazon's description caught my eye: "Takes up to 80 high-quality digital images; records up to 10 seconds of digital video; can be used as a live Web cam; 100 pixels for sharp, clear photos; 16 MB memory; built-in viewfinder..."
But then it gets better. I googled the thing and came across a Web site called Discount Jungle that's selling it for $16.90.
I'm buying one. I'll write up a review and include some samples.
Update: You know the old saying if it's too good to be true it probably is?
Discount Jungle suddenly doesn't become a good deal when you include shipping costs. When you factor that in, $16.90 becomes $31.48.
You get the picture.
So I went to plan B and ordered it through Overstock.com.
Overstock charges $2.95 for shipping, so it came to $27.90.
Update:
A New York Times article (free, but registration required) offers some tips on using a digital camera and addresses questions about megapixels (is more better?), and digital and optical zoom (which one should you ignore?).
Comments (2)
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I got what I thought was a pretty good deal on a digital camera when Office Max closed up shop locally. I bought a Digitrex camera for about $80.00. It's a three megapixel camera, which I thought would take pretty decent shots.
And it does, for what I spent. I just wish I'd spent a little more to buy the Canon or Fuji or Nikon or HP or Sony or whatever. Supposedly it holds quite a few photos in memory. Until you use the zoom functionality. Then the memory shrinks dramatically. I could always buy a memory card, but those are a little pricey and suddenly my bargain isn't quite the bargain.
I also wish the camera used motion stabilization functionality. Some of the higher end cameras use it. I end up with blurry photos if I shake even the slightest bit, especially when using the digital zoom.
The camera also doesn't capture light very well. The flash overexposes the photos or makes them darker and if you take a photo without the flash, it's too dark. It's great for taking outdoor photos, however.
I have a few friends that use nicer cameras and the picture quality really isn't comparable. My next camera purchase is going to be high-end. It's worth the extra cost, I think.
Posted on June 7, 2005 1:39 PM
Thanks for sharing some good advice.
Curious whether you did any research on the particular Digitrex camera you bought? Do places including CNET.com and Amazon.com provide customer reviews? What were they? Did they draw attention to the problems you encountered?
I'm interested to know how you and others feel about the reliability of online customer product reviews because some (or most?) can simply be bogus.
Posted on June 8, 2005 8:05 AM