A close friend recently decided to buy an inexpensive camera that would basic digital still photography and video. He wanted a digital camera so he could make notes on job sites and record some information for work purposes. David is an accomplished photographer but he's not a techie so he turned to me for advice when he started picking out cameras.
He was really wanting to keep the price low. The camera, after all, was only for documentary purposes and not for art or anything serious. He ended up buying a $39 Vivicam made by Vivitar. The features of the camera, taken at face value, were reasonably attractive: 14 megapixels; video; SD card memory; built-in flash; plus a carrying case and cute table-top tripod.
I have never bought an inexpensive camera like that and was curious--if not dubious--of how it could really perform.
Sadly, the camera was worse than I could have imagined.
The most glaring disappointment was that the video recorded no audio. Period. The lag time on the shutter was pathetic and the quality of the images was stunningly poor. The camera body was toy-like. The slot for the SD card was not even behind a protective cover. It simply slipped into a slot like the front of a computer or card reader.
I wish I had kept an image from our brief experiment. But we packed it back up and returned it to the store for a refund.
Lesson learned. Not all 14 megapixel chips perform alike. There are a lot of valuable algorithms, mechanical and electrical features that make a camera perform well. Don't be fooled by big numbers and small prices. My old, old Fuji 4 megapixel $150 point and shoot outperforms this clunker by far.
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