Better than the Cannon 450D

Ive just started A level photography and decided to buy a good camera.
Stright away I thought of Cannon as they have a good reputation. I brought the Cannon 450D.

After about 5 days it was just not what I was looking for, the live view wasent amazing and the standard lens was not good enough for the price I paid.

I decided to go for the Sony a350. WOW what a differance, the live view was fantastic. The standard lens was great and the 14MP made alot of differance when zoomed in.
Im very satisfied with this product, friends and teacher think its great..

I advice people to buy this product due to the simplicity of it and how it works.

Hope this helped you choose between the two.

Fantastic Camera

If you want a great entry level SLR with tilting live view LCD screen and plenty of mega pixels then this is a GREAT camera.

If you wanted to nit pick you could point out that noise at high ISO settings is quite bad compared to the likes of a Nikon D3. But for the price it is definitely 5 stars!

Sam sings a new tune...

Samsung with Pentax have produced a DSLR which is quite different from the rest. Samsung provides the 14.6MP CMOS sensor and Pentax the body etc. The Samsung offering is not inferior to the Pentax one. The body is packed with features: usable weather proofing, lens focal plane adjust, pixel remapping, image stabiliser (so all lenses benefit), sensor vibrate clean, auto ISO range select, ISO seen as part of exposure and adjustable as such, configurable noise reduction, HDR, interval timer, etc. The firmware has so many functions and parameters to adjust to your taste (all accessible via a very good LCD interface. It uses Adobe's DNG (Digital NeGative) royalty free format for RAW and so that is pretty well universally acceptable.

IT uses SD/SDHC cards which are cheap and plentiful. The write speed is very fast and varies with the speed of your card. Using a Class 6 Transcend 8GB SDHC (£15) card is fast enough for me.

Crucially the sensor is a good one and Samsung's first... Canon must be worried. Many DSLRs have noise issues getting 10MP and 12MP onto an APS-C size sensor let alone 14.6. Samsung has managed it very well whilst keeping excellent detail. Shooting RAW mode the noise is comparable to my Canon 20D up to ISO 1600. The Samsung will go up to ISO 6400 but only use if you have to.

The body is excellent and water resistant - you can really shoot in the rain or dusty environments. In the rain/dust you must have a weatherproof lens for it to be effective. Don't be put off by the plastic on a rigid stainless steel frame. I have a Canon D60 which is made that way and that has done great service for over six years - but is not water resistant. Obviously there's plastic then there's Plastic. The body feels comfortable to hold and is not too heavy.

There's a reasonable array of lenses to suit most people by Samsung, Pentax, Sigma, Tamron and Tokina plus an array of older Pentax lenses that work too. The 18-55 kit lens is not bad and would do well until you could get something better - say a Pentax 16-45 f4 or Tamron 17-50 f2.8.

This is quite a leap for me from Canon. I got sick of Canon's incremental updates and wanted something new, faster and exciting. The Samsung is and with great a IQ too.

k20d a great bit of kit

The 14.6 MB and good lens resolution enables this camera to often capture detail that is simply not visible with the naked eye. The sensitivity setting at 3200 iso also has revealed interior detail (Italian church frescos) using only low levels of natural light better than I could actually see! - and the grain can be adjusted.
The large lcd screen and zoom by the rear dial enables quick review of images to check success or otherwise.
I upgraded to this camera from a Milota 6.5 MB digital (no longer produced) which performed well and had features in common. At first I wondered if I had done the right thing. I have now used the K20D for architectural photography and 2 weeks of snapping on holiday and I have no doubts - this camera is robust, intuitive in its menue layouts with button short cuts (you do need to learn these) and full of functionality (this makes it semi-professional - there is a lot you can do).
So far on enlargement of images I have seen no significant halo or interference along edges and colours appear natural.
The software and cable link to a laptop enables the camera to be drive remotely (useful for architectural photography).
A great bit of kit!
Niggles - not many -
It is rather heavy to carry around but I didn't want to be without it,
Sv on the function dial dosn't mean shutter priority but sensitivity (shutter priority is Tv I suppose this is best remembered as exposure time)
Live view nice idea but never use it.
It might be my camera but I have set exposure compensation to +0.5 or otherwise images are rather dark
The linked software for use on laptop dosn't enable zooming in on images to check focus etc.

reality check

I agree with all the other reviewers on the many positives that this model has in its favour. However some criticism is warranted. Firstly, in bright conditions it is virtually impossible to see anything on the monitor, and secondly, the bodywork scratches way too easily. Tightening and loosening my tripod has left some ugly scars on the bottom front of the camera.

magnificent surprise in a very small box

This wee camera produces images that have a beautiful filmic quality. The software it comes with processes RAW files from 3 colour layers, and magically restores bleached out skies and burnt white! The shadows open up and reveal extraordinary depth. As a seasoned pro photographer, I've never seen anything like it. The all-metal camera itself is a joy to hold and behold. Weighty, stark minimalism with very few features, just a wide angle lens and a big sensor. It demands respect and will reward you. I love it!

Great until the guarantee ran out

This is a nice, compact, easy to use camera that takes good pictures during the guarantee period. It worked very well until shortly after the guarantee ran out, then it developed a tendency for the lens not to fully extend when turning the camera on. It's difficult to be sure whether the lens has fully extended, with the result that half of my pictures are now out of focus.

Does what it says on the tin

I used to have a Canon Ixus and was forever forgetting how to use the different functions or to put the battery on charge. If this sounds like you, get the Kodak C310 and bundle it with a printer/dock. Fantastic - it's all in one place, charged up ready to go. Pictures are fast, superb quality cost about 29p each. Camera is a bit naff looking but really easy to use and the screen tells you in simple language what the different modes do. If you like cool, trick techy stuff forget it. If you like inexpensive functional stuff - get one.

A very nice little camera

Bought this for my partner, who wanted a small camera for taking snaps. She's very pleased with it. Pictures are very clear and sharp, with good, bright colours. I reckon it's every bit as good as my two year old Canon that cost four times as much. I wasn't aware of the absence of sound, but then I think the movie mode on these cameras is only a bit of fun.

Amazing

Great little camera, loads of features, I was especially impressed with the digital zoom available on the mini screen of the camera after you have taken the photo, it allows you to zoom in 3 or 4 times with amazing clarity. So if you think you caught a ghost on film you have a better chance of seeing it. It also comes with a great program for your PC, it allows you to change the appearance of the photos you’ve taken and even order prints online. I used it on holiday with my laptop, each day I filled up my memory with as many pics as humanly possible then uploaded them to my laptop, this way it pretty much gives you unlimited memory so you don’t have to be so careful at how many pics your taking. Then when you get home you can find the best pics to have printed. I also bought the memory card which allows you to save photos in order to print them at a special shop’s printing station.

Fantastic Camera, especially for Holidays

I have owned one of these cameras for over two years, and it has been faultless. I am really happy with it. In fact it is the best camera I have owned so far.

Great photo quality in any conditions, and a very compact design so it will fit in your pocket. It also has an advanced screen which can be viewed in even the brightest sunlight without reflection, therefore the lack of a viewfinder is not a problem, and is a necessity in order to make the camera so small.

This makes it a perfect camera for holidays, where you want to have a camera you can take anywhere with you. It will fit in your pocket to take on an evening out, or day trip.

There are cameras out there with higher resolution now, but I doubt many of them can compete with the flexibilty and versatility this offers.

what a shame...

i bought this camera about a year ago, it was my second digital camera ( the first one a problem this its battery life), so this time i went for a reliable sony. it was brilliant and did every thing that i needed, good battery life, easy to use and small and compact, however one day it just stoped working, showing the same access message other sony cameras seem to have, i sent it back but they said they couldn't fix it, what a shame because it was my baby, i would warn people of getting a sony camera now.

Good quality easy camera

This camera has been great. When i first got it i was very pleased with it and i still am. The quality of the camera is excellent. It even looks nice which is a bonus and it's also very easy to use. It's not too big or too heavy. I think this is the best camera i've ever had but now i am selling mine so i can get a new olympus one with more megapixels.

easy to use

I bought a fuji finepix E500 for my son a couple of years ago, when it was one of the Which Guide's 'best buys'. Then I got myself one when I saw how easy it was to use - so easy even I could use it.

Since then, I've learnt how to use more of then non-automatic features (like taking better zooms, adjusting light and quality and taking black and white photos). The quality of close-ups is brilliant, and it takes wonderful scenery shots too. I haven't been quite so impressed with facial shots, but they're not bad.

The video quality isn't great, but if you happen to be out and see something you want to capture its quite good enough.

If you looking for good pics, but not at professional level, then this is a pretty decent camera.

If you want to see the sort of quality it gives, take a look at my blog"Words that Flow" at http//wordsthatflow.blogspot.com