Previous Woot

I gotta say I use my forward facing camera on my phone, Having the screen facing sure helps a lot. It takes all the guesswork out of lining up self-shots with friends.

(Just kidding, we all know woot is my only friend.)

CowboyDann wrote:The LCD at the front is great for making sure your arms aren't in the frame when you're taking your profile pictures. People still do that right? take pictures of themselves for their profiles.

What a shock. a video demonstration on how to use this.

Here was my post from last time.

Ouch my poor wallet. But missed out the last time and lost sleep over it during the great two day bacon woot off so didn't take long to pull the trigger this time. In for one.

Note the lens spends most of it's time at f/6.3...not a large enough aperture for indoor sports shots and also sluggish AF. Don't understand apertures? Read a book...preferably mine.

I bought this last time around and I am very satisfied. The wife and I have a collection of arm's length shots of the two of us and this camera allows me to take them right the first time. No more cut off heads.

The wife likes being able to see overall composition (i.e. hows she's posing) when I am taking one of her too.

Lastly, I love how fast it turns on and ready to shoot. Good for grandkids.

Thanks for the warning about the sluggish apeture speeds, it's my biggest complaint about my current PHD (push here, dummy) camera.

One of the best features of this camera is the "Children Mode" feature. Instead of showing the subject in the front facing screen, you can program it to show a cute video that will actually get your kids to "LOOK!" at the camera. Very cool feature for parents with kids that will NEVER look at the DAMN camera!. Here's a video of the ST700, different camera, same feature.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg9wulOfp-U

radi0j0hn wrote:Note the lens spends most of it's time at f/6.3...not a large enough aperture for indoor sports shots and also sluggish AF. Don't understand apertures? Read a book...preferably mine.

zkentvt wrote:I bought this last time around and I am very satisfied. The wife and I have a collection of arm's length shots of the two of us and this camera allows me to take them right the first time. No more cut off heads.

The wife likes being able to see overall composition (i.e. hows she's posing) when I am taking one of her too.

Lastly, I love how fast it turns on and ready to shoot. Good for grandkids.

joeller wrote:One of the best features of this camera is the "Children Mode" feature. Instead of showing the subject in the front facing screen, you can program it to show a cute video that will actually get your kids to "LOOK!" at the camera. Very cool feature for parents with kids that will NEVER look at the DAMN camera!. Here's a video of the ST700, different camera, same feature.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg9wulOfp-U

I want to thank you folks for the helpful comments (Qual P's!).

RJ, glad to see you posting! OjO

radi0j0hn wrote:Note the lens spends most of it's time at f/6.3...not a large enough aperture for indoor sports shots and also sluggish AF. Don't understand apertures? Read a book...preferably mine.

Which one is your's? I just got in on a Canon T4i deal and now must learn all about photography.


How does this camera compare to a Canon A640?

We have one of these in our camera arsenal. It shoots good shoots. The front facing clown animation gets the little kids attention.

It just took a bath in the dog's water bowl, by the time my sife got to it is was sunk completely. we drained it, and threw it in some rice for a few days. I powered it back on last night and took a few photos. It seems to be working fine.

beastyribs wrote:We have one of these in our camera arsenal. It shoots good shoots. The front facing clown animation gets the little kids attention.

It just took a bath in the dog's water bowl, by the time my sife got to it is was sunk completely. we drained it, and threw it in some rice for a few days. I powered it back on last night and took a few photos. It seems to be working fine.

Your house sounds like fun.

I also bought one of these, 1 model down last time. The front lens is helpful, the children mode is great. What I have not seen is the ease of use. I carry this thing with me all the time. It is small, intuitive interface, modes, etc and takes great pictures. I also bought a pana---- 1 week later. While it may have a superior lens, the modes interface is so hard to use, I'm ready to list it for sale. The IA feature on the pana out guesses me and does not do what I want. Samsung all the way!

How is the video quality?

I have a decent camera now and considered this the last time it came around. i need to get 1 camera with good video AND pics. this seperate camera and camcorder stuff is getting old.

I know there is a good book for people who just bought a new digital camera but I can't remember what it's called. Any Wooters remember ?

gusvonpooch wrote:I know there is a good book for people who just bought a new digital camera but I can't remember what it's called. Any Wooters remember ?

chezteladog wrote:Which one is your's? I just got in on a Canon T4i deal and now must learn all about photography.


How does this camera compare to a Canon A640?

The book is "How to Use the Digital Camera You Just Bought". The Amazon link is http://www.amazon.com/How-Digital-Camera-Just-Bought/dp/1886173028/ref=sr_1_123?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346801031&sr=1-123&keywords=how+to+use+digital+camera

After buying one like this.. it was Samsung L74 .. it did something unforgivable.

Setting the camera to capture photos at the highest speed (it uses internal memory to buffer photos are then written to memory)..
the camera locked up and I had a meeting.

After taking 20 photos (about) it was 10 minutes just watching it. It was hoped it was storing those photos.

There was no indication of it. So with the lens still sticking out like a young dog not sure what to do.. it was left for 3 hours.

When later that night there was time to look at it.. the battery was either dead or it was pulled out.

So here's the good news.
a) The lens wouldn't go back in.
There was an 'error'.
Doing everything that could be thought of.
1) swapping the battery with a fresh one.
2) Turning it on with 'certain' buttons pushed. There were supposed to be various buttons that might get it going.
3) Same with a 'reset' or something 'useful'.

It ended up just having it's nose stuck out. Oh yeah and it was willing to take photos. They wouldn't / couldn't focus.

So it was time to get out the original photos. They were there,
all of them, in the memory card.

So why did the camera lock up.
Why didn't it 'show' me it was
storing the photos
Why did it store all the photos
but the lens never would retract.
Why after reading for hours and trying everything 'sweet' did it
simply 'break' .

So being a marketing genius looking at Ebay to see what the more common failures of my camera were.. hard to do there weren't many Samsung L74s. So the next best thing was to look at the
'selling for parts' of cameras that review sites said were like mine.

All of them were being sold 'cause the lens was stuck out.

100's of them. Buyers having bought a nice camera (1) only to
find it simply stopped and now
it was being sold for parts.

A feeling of how each of those persons felt was clear to me.
My anger was bubbling.
It was that moment I said, "never will a camera with retractable lens, thin body (2) ever be bought by any(one/thing) I control or myself. Never.
And it's been that way for a few years.

(1) Mine was $164 here at Woot. It took about 200 photos and one night out at Christmas is all.
(2) The thin body with extendable
lens were the majority of the types being sold for parts.

Oh me? An engineer, research scientist, chemist and that's about all. Homeowner, rental owner. That's it.
Camera buyer but NEVER one with a thin body and retractables. Oh and Samsung - you'll never get a sale to me again either..
unless somehow you make this right. Yes it's out of warrenty but it was used less than a few hours.

Later following instructions of how to , probably, put the lens back without taking, the camera, apart were .. just a novelty , something new
to occupy my time like you not buying this camera and reading this. Yep. And it worked! for maybe a few shots, then it
wouldn't get into focus. More reading and .. now 'hate' loathing of how we're told "it's OK" and they take your money and like a dying
horse they don't tell you it drank a gallon of mercury liquid the night before (or your wife's in my bed) or there's glass in your
Wendy's hamburger (that was a terrible burger.. the pickle was rotten.. how can it go so bad in less than a year or two)

If you don't buy one.. you'll make me feel better.. if only because it's my 'doing the right thing' growing into pressure on
Samsung, and 'companies' to stop making stuff that doesn't last forever. Yes. Stuff should last 'forever' and like the guy
who's perfect software is alive .. he'll always be loved and remembered. No take that out. Just don't buy one.
- A is for 'a perfectly decent note'