Posts from — February 2010

Hands on with the Epson PhotoPC 650 One-Megapixel Digital Camera

by Louis

What do you get when you combine one million pixels of image resolution, a compact form factor, and fully automatic shooting? A versatile digital camera that Epson calls the PhotoPC 650. The 650 brings the ease of a point and shoot 35mm to the sub-$400 digital camera market.

The first thing you notice about the PhotoPC 650 is the rubberized grip on the right side that comes together organically with your fingers and thumb. Even with one-handed operation, the 650 isn’t going anywhere. On the back side you are greeted by a high resolution 1.8 inch backlit LCD screen and an array of menu control buttons. With the LCD, not only can you see the photo before you take it, but the final result can also be displayed, allowing you to easily show off your picture-taking skills – try that with a 35mm film camera. In addition to the back LCD screen, a second monochrome LCD rests atop the camera body to display image quality mode, flash mode, battery life, shoot mode, and photos remaining. Between the two information displays, you can be confident in having all available information at quick glance.

Picture taking with the 650 is very easy. Simply open the lens cover, switch the LCD into view mode of choice (view or off), set your image quality, and depress the shutter. Lag time is about one half second, but with a half depress to bring your image into focus, shutter-lag is almost nonexistent. Images are recorded onto a compact flash card, the 650 comes with 8MB of storage, or enough to hold 35 photos in 3 out of 4 star quality mode. This is plenty of storage space for most users, but for those needing more, the camera will easily accept cards of 32MB or larger.

In the test photos I did notice a small amount of lens flare in a brightly lit outdoor shot. Macro mode was slightly blurry, but the shot could have been improved through the use of a tripod. Another slight issue was the occurrence of blacks showing up as purple, nothing that cannot be fixed using Adobe’s Photoshop 6.0.

In conclusion, Epson’s PhotoPC 650 brings affordable digital photography to the average consumer. While it is priced about three times more than a comparable 35mm camera, the cost savings in film and ability to instantly see your photo make it well worth the extra greenbacks.