Moultrie M-880 Low Glow Game Camera

Moultrie M-880 Low Glow Game Camera..

Special Price Moultrie M-880 Low Glow Game Camera By Moultrie

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191 of 191 people found the following review helpful.
Moultrie M-880 beats Bushnell Trophy HD
By David Humphries
I own several game cameras: Bushnell Trophy 8MP HD, Primos Truth Cam 35, and now a Moultrie M-880. I have been operating the Moultrie for 10 days so far. I've used the Bushnell for about 6 months. I've used the Primos for almost one year. The Moultrie clearly beats the Bushnell in several characteristics. (The Primos does not rank against these two cameras.)

1. In the field, and I know there are lab results that claim differently, but in the field, the Moultrie triggers faster than the Bushnell. This was easily noticeable in the first set of pictures I downloaded. I have had both cameras in the same position monitoring the same section of my driveway (we have a long driveway). The Bushnell often catches the very end of the rear quarter panel as a car is exiting the field of view. The Moultrie catches the front quarter panel as a car enters the field of view. Wow! Then it catches pictures of the entire car as it passes by. I knew that was significant at first glance.

2. The imitation bark housing works surprisingly well. This camera completely dissolves into summer woodlands. Unless someone steps right up to it, they're not going to see it. The Bushnell, in brown, looks like just what it is: a game camera strapped to a tree. You can pick it out from 250 feet.

3. The Moultrie has motion freeze for night pictures. It is an improvement over the Bushnell's night shots, but that's about all can be said. The feature itself is nothing spectacular.

4. The Moultrie costs about $25.00 less.

5. In night photos, the Moultrie reaches further. Moultrie claims 100 feet. I think they're reaching that (see Update below). Bushnell claims 80 feet and I think that is true also.

6. The thumb latches on the Moultrie can be released with gloves on. This is not possible with the Bushnell. However, no other functions on either camera can be operated with gloves on, so this issue may be unimportant. (See Update below)

For the above reasons, the Moultrie I have beats the Bushnell I have.

Cons:

1. The Moultrie uses a double-ring locking hasp which makes it too wide. It requires a lock with a minimum shank length of one inch. This length is predominately available on big, honking padlocks that are overkill for the application, and since they are usually finished with bright zinc, they compromise the very effective bark camouflage. I wish the hasp was smaller. (See Update below)

Other comments:

Daytime picture quality is comparable between the two. No noticeable difference. (Wrong. See Update 9-23-2013 below.)

Given these differences and assuming there are no future reliability problems, my next camera will be definitely be another Moultrie.

UPDATE (9-8-2013):

1. The night distance illumination continues to impress me. I am using the "image freeze" feature for night shots, which is a faster shutter speed and consequently, less light, but my night time photos are well lit as far out as 90 feet (measured). It's probably better than that, but for my camera placements so far, 90 feet is as far as foliage will allow me to see anyway.

2. I really don't like the latches on the Bushnell. I have medium sized fingers, but it's always a struggle to pull the latches on the Bushnell. I have to use my limited fingernails and if the tree is big, which limits the space behind the latches, then it's a real struggle to get my fingers behind the latch.

3. In case anyone is interested, I came up with a solution to the wide double hasp on the Moultrie, which requires a lock with a minimum 1" long shank. I cut the loop end off of a 3/16" steel cable just behind the ferrule. I flattened the ferrule to make sure it could not pass through the hasp on the Moultrie, and I squeezed the cable loop with pliers to make it narrow enough that it will pass through the hasp. I drop the loop through the hasp till it sticks out the bottom (the ferrule stops against the hasp), and then I pass a small padlock through the exposed end of the cable loop and lock it. Done. (See two photos in Customer Images)

The more I use this Moultrie, the more I like it.

UPDATE (9-23-2013):

I swapped the cameras a few days ago. Now the Moultrie is strapped to the same exact location where the Bushnell was and vice versa.

1. The night illumination of the Moultrie is a whole lot better than I even realized. Now I can see that, at 90 feet, the Bushnell has reached its maximum distance and the field of illumination is a flashlight effect, roughly 15 feet wide and falling off rapidly after that. The Moultrie easily reaches 90 feet and floods an area at least 40 feet wide.

2. The daytime pictues of the Bushnell have a lot more image blur. When people pass the Bushnell, their legs are a complete blur, whereas on the Moultrie only their feet are completely blurred.

3. The Moultrie absolutely positively triggers faster. I was jogging past the cameras and the Moultrie caught me when I was about 1/4 of the way into the field of view. The Bushnell did not snap a photo until I was 1/2 way into the field of view. In each case I was passing perpendicular to each camera and the same distance away, give or take 5 feet.

One last UPDATE (12-5-2013):

1. I have noticed that the Bushnell triggers on motion at a greater distance than the Moultrie. This is a mixed blessing. In daytime pictures, it's a plus, hands down, but in night photos the Bushnell will trigger on subjects further away than its night illumination will reach. Even with photo enhancing software I cannot make out what the subject is, but by switching between pictures I can tell that something is there. In contrast, if the Moultrie triggers, I can tell what it is. Regardless, I do wish the Moultrie triggered on subjects further away. It seems to reliably trigger to about 60 feet. (A little hard to pin down, because it is dependent on ambient temperature.)

2. There are two big issues with the Bushnell that I have not mentioned so far because I thought they might be user error, but now I know they are not.

Issue 1: For some reason one or more batteries will pop loose. When this happens the camera shuts down. I have no idea why the batteries pop loose, but I know from the 12 to 15 pictures recorded that the camera worked fine for a while and then suddenly stopped. I have had two instances of this happening. This may have been addressed on new versions of the camera, as I have seen pictures that show the batteries mounted differently.

Issue 2: When we returned home from Thanksgiving travel, the Bushnell had taken over 1500 photos! Normally it takes about 60 per day with us home, so it should have recorded less than 240. This has happened on several more occasions since then and it appears to be getting worse. On one occasion it took over 3300 photos! I can't sort through 3300 photos. At this point, the camera is all but useless. I'm here to buy another Moultrie to replace it.

3. Batteries last longer in the Bushnell, but that stands to reason. The Moultrie puts out more nighttime illumination, so it uses more energy. I just changed the batteries on the Moultrie and the meter showed 40% remaining. I use alkalines. I ran the batteries in the Bushnell till they completely died and got about nine months. Extrapolating the 40% left on the Moultrie, if I ran its batteries until completely dead I guess I would have gotten about six months. For me, the increase in nighttime illumination on the Moultrie is worth the shorter battery life.

After four months of using both cameras in the same locations, for me, the Moultrie is still the clear winner. I'm buying another one.

***************************************************

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful.
Best value out there!
By 1ontheleft
All things considered this camera is a super buy. I'm sure there are better cameras out there if you want to hang $600 on a tree and walk away. The only negative is that with the "freeze" motion thing on some of the detail is lost at night. This camera is well worth the money.

42 of 46 people found the following review helpful.
Cheap Home Security
By Gavin Anderson
I can't afford, nor do I want, the infrastructure of a CCTV or security system at my home. Additionally, I rent so the return on long term investment isn't there. I've had three windshields broken in the past 6 months. I installed this product on the roof of the home and the pictures it takes are crystal, even at night the facial recognition is remarkable. I also hunt, so it's a win-win. Highly recommend this product.

Weakness - You have to purchase an SD card separately. You have to download and install software.

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Outdoor Fake , Dummy Security Camera with Blinking Light (Silver)

Outdoor Fake , Dummy Security Camera with Blinking Light (Silver)..

Special Price Outdoor Fake , Dummy Security Camera with Blinking Light (Silver) By UniquExceptional

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459 of 471 people found the following review helpful.
Phooey on 'FAKE'
By N22Tango
I live on a farm, miles from the nearest town and neighbors. My place has been hit a couple of times, quick grab and go scoundrels and not much more. I purchased 6 of these to place around our property and I used lithium batteries, not the cheaper types that you might install in a flashlight.

The lithium batteries power a small red LED light that blinks on and off and give the impression the cameras are "on" and "seeing" what might be in their view. The LEDs have been blinking reliably for a month straight and at night they look VERY real.

I'm impressed with this device because they resemble true cameras that emit an invisible infrared light for night viewing. They have held up well in storms and are easy to adjust and rotate. If someone looks close at the front of the camera, it appears to have built in infrared illuminators. These are the new technology "lights" that provide an invisible light that the eye can not see, but a professional crook might understand and know is the same style of light used on expensive "game cameras" that hunters use to capture images of animals at night.

I'm happy with my purchase and I feel these "fake" cameras do a good job to discourage thieves.

(UPDATE... NOVEMBER 2013. These "cameras" are still working well and in the 2 years since I wrote this review, I have not had any crooks steal anything from me.

Some points...
* Lithium batteries. Sometimes they will run the camera for 3 weeks and sometimes they run 5 weeks. I surmise this might have something to do with cold or hot season.
* Some discussions here stating "no wires" and my thoughts are "no big deal" because WiFi cameras look a lot like this and, cameras placed around by deer hunters have no wires, because the have SD cards that can record video.

Bottom line... in two years, I have not had a failure in anyone of the 6 "cameras" I bought, and the little red blinking LED light is easy to see at night. They have been sitting outside, unprotected and have been rained on, snowed on, have stayed out in the Texas sun (it was 111 degrees here one summer) and they haven't missed a beat.

171 of 178 people found the following review helpful.
Good buy
By Ken
Looks good. Can't tell it's a fake. It takes 2 AA batteries. I have had it on for 3 months and it is still blinking bright. Gonna get another one to mount on the garage wall.

131 of 141 people found the following review helpful.
Let me mention..it draws attention...if thats your intention
By powerop
Just a couple weeks ago I heard noises outside very late at night and saw through the 2nd floor window two punks trying to break into a car. I made a noise, they saw me, and they ran away. I imediately wanted something to deter this from happening again so I got this fake vid cam as a temporary measure until I get something that takes real photos. So far no noises, but its too early to tell.

From my point of view, this fake camera looks real from afar, especially if you install it somewhere elevated and out of reach. I highly recommend the latter because, up close, it looks and feels plasticy. At night, a trespasser might not tell the difference. But since its low quality and empty inside, it can be easily destroyed and knocked down (by the trespasser). ANother tip, it comes with a realistic power wire stemming from behind the camera down to the mounting bracket., but obviously, you have to install it in a place where its believable. Dont be installing it on a palm tree or concrete wall expecting burglars to think there's power running to the camera.

The battery compartment was a real pain to take off, I felt like I was ripping the thing apart. But once installed the red LED light blinked continuously for 1 second every second. So it WILL be noticed. Now people will know you have "eyes at night". WIll they think its fake? WIll they think you are protecting something important? Only time will tell, because this camera won't.

UPDATE 10/26/12 *******
Its been a year now since I originally wrote this review, and so far I haven't come across an incident where I was startled by suspicious activity from the outside (knock on wood). I did have to replace the batteries once during this time period... just dont let anyone see you put batteries in a security camera with a cable running into the wall.

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Panasonic LUMIX DMC-LX7K 10.1 MP Digital Camera with 3.8x Optical zoom and 3.0-inch LCD - Black

Panasonic LUMIX DMC-LX7K 10.1 MP Digital Camera with 3.8x Optical zoom and 3.0-inch LCD - Black..

Grab Now Panasonic LUMIX DMC-LX7K 10.1 MP Digital Camera with 3.8x Optical zoom and 3.0-inch LCD - Black By Panasonic

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557 of 576 people found the following review helpful.
PANA keeps improving on the LX3, but still not "perfect..."
By Nathaniel Allen
Wow, this was a tough upgrade decision. Sony's RX100 is superb competition, and I was certain *IT* would be the camera that pulled me out of the Panasonic camp (I also own an old Panasonic DMC-FX50 "bridge camera" in addition to an LX5, which replaced my LX3 -- plus my wife kept a Pana FX35 in her purse before she switched to Sony's slim TX9.

Despite keeping these few cameras around (really just the 3: the FX50, the TX9 and now the LX7), I'm just your Joe Average photographer, shooting mainly the kids, family/friend gatherings, special events, and some home construction-type projects, and other hobby interests.

And what I've ever really wanted out of the LX series is a compact, low light-capable camera with a respectable set of manual controls. Exactly what the SONY RX100 is with its huge sensor, and of the two, it is unquestionably the better performer for indoor shooting situations of fast moving kids, compared to the LX3 and LX5.

If that were my only criteria, I'd have never ordered the LX7, and might be typing up my thoughts on the RX100 instead. But maybe my four years of familiarity with the LX3/5 got the better of me. Maybe I'm just a sheep with a Panasonic logo branded on my flank. But there were a couple of sore points with the Sony that just plain made me unsatisfied. Rather than trash the RX100 (not my intention), here's my list:

- There's no escaping the benefit of the wide 24mm lens on the LX series. Not to mention the handy aspect ratio mode switching right on the bezel. And I use the 1:1 aspect ratio more than I care to admit.
- The Panasonic's hot shoe is a hot commodity when I need it. I have a Metz 36-AF4O (since replaced by the Metz 36 AF-5, I believe) which is about as big as the camera itself, but provides more than adequate light with bounce capabilities.
- Two of my gripes with the LX3 and LX5 were the difficulty of adjusting manual settings via push-button & thumb dial inputs. The LX7's aperture ring and dedicated manual focus lever have addressed this, with varying degrees of satisfaction.
- I get to keep my LX5 spare battery, which isn't such a huge deal, but just know that its shelf life is spectacular. Although my predicted number of shots between charges has decreased, per the manual. Nothing drastic; still great battery life.
- Most importantly, the Panasonic LX7 has a certain ease and quickness about it -- probably due in part to my use of its predecessors -- and combined with the newly added manual controls, it feels to me the design is finally at a point where I can set up various shooting solutions with a minimum of fuss and button pressing, nearly (but not quite) like my SLR days many years ago. The "user experience" of the Sony, by comparison, felt a little too menu driven and sticky.

Where did Panasonic fall short with this new model?

- For one, the image quality really hasn't changed. My thoughts are that the LX3 was excellent, but the LX5 tended to focus a little soft -- although nothing that stood out horribly amiss; maybe within the normal manufacturing variations? I don't want to speculate on sensor sizes or type playing a role, but I can attest Sony's RX100 shoots a "cleaner" or "crisper" portrait-style photo -- although that difference disappears once the image is downsized for printing/sharing.
- There's still no remote. Or cable release. Or Bulb mode. Can't tell you how much I enjoy those features on other cameras. For the LX5, I have a cable release adapter that slides into the hot shoe and extends an arm over the shutter release for a cable release to activate, but the hot shoe has been realigned on the LX7 so it no longer works.
- I continue to have trouble reading the silver-on-silver symbols etched onto the 4-way keys.
- If you're one to complain about the lens cap (I'm not, but I know a lot of LX users HATE the thing)... well, it's still here, and it's smaller than before, making it a little more difficult to clip on/clip off.
- I once committed to never buying a camera without a tiltable display, but that's just not an option. All things considered, the LX7 display is not as bright at the RX100, but is very visible in all but direct daylight, and viewable from off angles without the colors inverting.

What did Panasonic get right with the LX7 update?

- The redesigned lens is noteworthy. It's a definite improvement over the LX5 for indoor shooting, and that extends through the entire zoom range (still only 90mm, which was an improvement over the LX3). I find that I take the vast majority of my photos on the wide end of this lens, but in low light settings, I've been forced to if I'm trying to avoid using the flash. With the lens redesign, I've got a little more flexibility in my zoom before resorting to higher ISOs.
- IC? Firmware? Who knows! The camera is snappier than its predecessor, in all aspects: start up, menu navigation, auto focus delay, and shot to shot. It gets shots off near instantaneously. And the kicker is a burst mode!
- I can't say I was disappointed by the 720p video of the LX5, but full HD video is a treat -- especially with memory prices as cheap as they are compared to two years ago.
- Finally, a dedicated white balance button on the 4-way controller! (Panasonic eliminated the "Focus" key featured on the LX5, and also added burst mode selection to the shutter self timer key.)
- I'm very excited about the inclusion of a time lapse feature. This was overdue.
- The clickable, dedicated aperture ring, especially, and the manual focus lever, sort of (light applause -- needs something more "ring like")
- The mode wheel is substantially firmer, preventing inadvertent turns while in the pocket.

Some random thoughts on the Sony RX100: It feels a little "rough" at startup (i.e. not-so-smooth lens extension, kind of rough feel & sound), and starts up about a second slower than the Panasonic, but not having to remove a lens cap negates that. Zoom time from full wide to full tele is about one second snappier on the Sony. I felt that the Sony's auto white balance "got it right" more often than the LX, but the custom white balance is at minimum one level deep into the menu (if set to the Fn key). Shutdown immediately after snapping a pic is an agonizingly slow 5-6 seconds for full lens retraction; 3-4 seconds if the camera is already at idle. And not so much a dig at Sony as a kudos to Panasonic, but with the 28mm constraint on the wide end, switching from 4:3 to 16:9 simply crops the top and bottom of the frame, whereas on all the LX cameras with their unique sensor usage, I actually gain extra pixels on the sensor to help compose the shot I want.

Panasonic's history of product support HAS to be a consideration. They released mid-cycle firmware updates for both the LX3 and the LX5, and with the unexpected LX3 update in particular, added new features -- not just bug fixes. (Wish I could say the same about the FX50, but that's a story for another day...)

I wouldn't be so bold as to recommend the LX7 over the RX100, but only want to give a little insight via some of the features I hold in high regard. They both definitely have their strong suits. If you're at all familiar with the previous LX cameras, you have a solid basis for understanding the LX7 improvements, as well as its shortcomings. That certainly didn't stop me from happily purchasing the RX100 before giving the LX7 a chance to hit the streets, but by doing so I immediately proved to myself that there is still no "perfect camera," and with the compromises that I had to accept, my preferences fell mainly back to the LX line.

191 of 200 people found the following review helpful.
Best compact camera for the price
By Bob
I feel bad for this camera because it got overshadowed by the Sony RX100, which everyone thinks is so amazing because it has a sensor that's midway in size between a compact camera and an APS-C DSLR.

Leaving aside the RX100, the LX7 is the best compact camera I have ever owned with respect to image quality and useability and features.

Some of the wonderful attributes of this camera are:

1. It focuses as fast as an entry-level DSLR.
2. Built-in level.
3. "Step-zoom" allows you to select focal-length-equivalents of 24, 28, 35, 50, 70 and 90mm.
4. Manual focus gives you an electronic depth of field chart which changes as you change the aperture. This makes it great for either zone focusing or for finding the hyperfocal distance. There's also an "MF Resume" option which will return the lens to where you last manually focused.
5. Lens is really sharp, only minimal corner softness at F4, and very useable wide open, more so than the Sony RX100.
6. I also see nearly zero purple fringing with this camera--I'm not sure if its the amazing lens or Panasonic post-processing tricks, but it's nevertheless impressive.
7. Lens is so fast that this camera is actually a BETTER low-light camera than any entry-level DSLR if you are only going to be using that DSLR with the kit lens. The lens is also faster than the RX100, so you need to take that into account when you compare the two cameras. The lens is fast enough to give you a little bit of blurred background, something I've never seen before on a compact camera.
8. Widest angle is 24mm (equivalent), which is a premium feature that you don't get on basic DSLR kit lenses and you don't get on the Sony RX100.
9. For a sensor if its size it's probably best-of-class, with better DR and less noise than sensors from a few years ago.

The negatives of this camera are:

1. Not as small as a Sony RX100. It is not a pants pocket camera, but fits fine in a coat pocket. The LX7 is slightly more pocketable than an Olympus E-PM1 with the Panasonic 14mm pancake lens.
2. The LCD is nice, but not as nice as the one on the Sony RX100.
3. Has a lens cap you need to remove before using the camera. The camera comes with a little cord you can use to attach the lens cap to the camera so you don't lose it, but I tried it and hated having a lens cap dangling around. So far I've only lost one lens cap in the last ten years, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.
4. Even at base ISO, the sensor is a good distance behind top-quality larger sensors, like the one in the Nikon 3200, so if your photographic goal is to make really huge prints, I recommend a Nikon 3200 with a sharp lens like the Nikon 16-85mm DX VR lens. But you would probably not notice this sensor's shortcomings in anything smaller than a 13 x 19" print.

Bottom line:

If you are going to buy an entry-level DSLR or micro-four-thirds or NEX camera, and are only going to use that camera with the kit lens, then you are probably better off buying an LX7 instead. This camera even has a flash shoe and can be used with a real flash, so there's nothing you can't do with this camera just as well or better that you can do with a DSLR+kit lens.

185 of 198 people found the following review helpful.
Best hiking/climbing camera ever
By Monty VanderBilt
My primary requirement for a camera is that it be compact, but still take great pictures under the conditions I run into often. I hike and climb a lot and do not want the bulk of a DSLR hanging in front of me, and the camera must be accessible so I don't delay the group while digging my camera out of the pack. So I gravitate toward the compact camera that gives me as much of the DLSR feature set as possible.

I chose the LX7 primarily because it has a very fast lens. For me that means handheld shots under a thick forest canopy are not blurred because of slow shutter speeds. My previous camera was the DMC-LX5, the predecessor to this model and it was great. I'm replacing it because I made the mistake of taking movies in a sandstorm during a hike down Buckskin gulch in Utah. Ever since that the camera has been complaining when sand grains stick in the lens mechanism and get inside the camera on the sensor. So don't do that!

When the LX7 arrived I downloaded the PDF manual (much easier to read than the small one in the box) and went through the new features to familiarize myself with how to use them. I kept being delighted with the improvements over the LX5 that make this the best camera I've ever owned for hiking/climbing shots. In brief, they are:

1) Fast lens - good for hand held shots in dim lighting situations (forests, twilight, ...). You don't hold up your companions setting up a tripod shot.
2) Wide angle - no need for a panorama when the wide angle lens can get it all
3) Compact - light and small enough to hand around your neck all day without being uncomfortable
4) Raw - Most of the time I take jpeg simply to document the hike. But when dramatic lighting or scenes call for it I can kick in the Raw for a killer result.
5) Bracketing - many outdoor shots with snow or sun/shadow scenes have huge contrast. Exposure bracketed shots combined in post solve this.
6) New! Auto HDR - LX7 will do the bracketing and merging in camera. Haven't tested enough to see if it beats (4) for quality though.
7) New! Auto Pano - I take a lot of panorama shots from viewpoints, and it's time consuming to stitch them in post. The LX7 will do them in camera.
8) New! 3D - I know, 3D is overrated, but for that shot hanging over the cliff nothing else works as well. LX7 has a 3D photo mode.
9) New! Time Lapse - I don't do time lapse much because I couldn't, but I hope to capture progressive alpenglow from camp, and a time lapse of 3 shots 1-minute apart also works as a long self-timer. I've nearly fallen scrambling on steep summit rocks to get in the picture withing 10 seconds.
10) White body - I bushwhack a lot and twice my camera has "sneaked" out of my case when I forgot to close the zipper. White cameras are easier to find!

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GoPro Camera AHDBT-302 Rechargeable BatteryVideo Camera (Black)

GoPro Camera AHDBT-302 Rechargeable BatteryVideo Camera (Black)..

Special Price GoPro Camera AHDBT-302 Rechargeable BatteryVideo Camera (Black) By GoPro

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
GoPro Battery Good to Go!
By Christian Vedder
The GoPro Battery gets the job done! See your manual for recording times based on the format you are shooting, but these do fairly nice job, but have not compare them to other aftermarket batteries. They charge fairly quick, and again just a good idea to have extra one standing by on ready.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Worked perfect. Always nice to have a backup
By Adam
I ended up using it on a caving trip after the original battery was about to die. Worked perfect. Always nice to have a backup.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
GoPro Hero 3 Battery
By GR
As with all equipment that requires a battery i always like to have a spare. this is the first spare i've purchased but will most likely buy another one. it's a little tighter fit than the battery that came with my Hero 3 but it works fine.

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Canon PowerShot SX280 12MP Digital Camera with 20x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom with 3-Inch LCD (Red)

Canon PowerShot SX280 12MP Digital Camera with 20x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom with 3-Inch LCD (Red)..

GET Canon PowerShot SX280 12MP Digital Camera with 20x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom with 3-Inch LCD (Red) By Canon

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297 of 305 people found the following review helpful.
Great Camera! Love the Wireless!
By Telemachus
I've had a number of PowerShot cameras. Really impressed with the picture quality of the camera and the overall speed. Colors and picture quality are quite good and the low-light performance is superior. The previous review focuses nicely on the picture quality, so I wil stick with the human factors.

Manual control and adjustment are simple to master, so you won't need to rely on the automatic settings. My only concern with the camera is hat the wifi settings are difficult to set up. I'm pretty good with wireless technologies and it took me quite awhile to figure it out. Make sure you run the set up disk. Unlike many other consumer wireless gadgets, this one requires that you run the setup software. Couldn't just turn on the camera and connect it to the router. As much as it pains me to say this, I should've read the directions prior to jumping in to try to set it up! :-)

Once it's setup, it works great. I've been transferring files to iphone, ipad, and laptop; and transferring to the Canon Image site. All directly from the camera. Even emailed my wife a link to a photo directly from the camera. Camera IS a bit of a battery hog, but I was expecting it.

Update: Since I concentrated on human factors in my review, I thought I would weigh in on flash location interfering with handhold
position. Personally, I didn't notice it until I read the other reviews. I've had other cameras with pop up flashes, so I think I just automatically adjusted to it. That said, I can see how it would annoy some people. The flash is located in the front left-hand corner of the camera, but there IS sufficient space behind the flash to place your finger. Could be a problem if you have large hands, I suppose.. Motor is also strong enough to remind me to move it when it pops up.

----------------------------
Update 20 May:: There is a glitch that's been widely reported that shows that the battery is drained when in video mode. This is a glitch in the indicator, not the actual battery life. Cannon has acknowledged the problem and is working on a fix. Expect the next firmware update to address the issue.
-----------------------------
Update 5 June: New Firmware Released Today!! Details Firmware Version 1.0.2.0 incorporates the following fixes and improvements:

1. Increases the duration of movie shooting by 20% in cases where the optical zoom is used compared to cameras running Firmware Version 1.0.0.0 or Firmware Version 1.0.1.0 through a reduction in the power consumption of the optical zoom.

*Time under default camera settings, when normal operations are performed, such as shooting, pausing, turning the camera on and off, and zooming. (based on conditions established by Canon).
-Under some shooting conditions, the recording time may be shorter than mentioned above.
-Recording time with a fully charged battery.

2. Fixes a phenomenon with cameras running firmware version 1.0.0.0, in which the low battery level warning is prematurely displayed while shooting in movie mode.

Firmware Version 1.0.2.0 is for cameras with firmware Version 1.0.1.0 or Version 1.0.0.0. If the camera's firmware is already Version 1.0.2.0, it is not necessary to update the firmware. Please note that, once the camera is updated to the latest version, it cannot be restored to a previous

I installed it with no problems.

443 of 462 people found the following review helpful.
A Great Campact Camera
By Just Another Reviewer
Enough said about how good this compact camera is in the other reviews. Only two quick comments: It is an excellent compact zoom camera complimentary to my SLR camera/lens collection on the road for quick shots (photo & video) without lens changing. Case Logic DCB-302 Compact Case provides good protection and a perfect fit with room for extra battery and SD card.

Update 5/8/2013: Per Canon technical support, the battery inside the camera cannot be charged via USB port like your cell phone when connecting to PC or outside USB power source.

Update 5/13/2013: When using "AUTO" on the dial as well as ""AUTO" ISO" in "P", "Tv" and "Av", the ISO is automatically selected from 80 to 1600, not to 3200 or 6400. To manually select ISO 3200 or 6400 in "P", "Tv" and "Av", you need to select "FUNC. SET" and then choose the 3200 or 6400 under the"ISO" list.

Update 5/19/2013 The flashing "low battery" warning in the video mode is indeed a design fault of the battery indicator not the battery itself. With a freshly charged battery, I can take either around 200 photos or about 30 minutes video (1080p 30fps). The low battery warning comes in about 2 minutes into the video shooting after some zooming.

Update 5/20/2013 Per Canon technical support, Canon is trying to resolve this "low battery" warning issue in the video mode. Decided to return this wonderful camera. Will buy it when the issue is resolved.

Update 6/5/2013 Canon just published a firmware update for SX280 to fix the low battery warning issue in the video mode at this web link: ([...] Click on "Drivers & Software". Select your computer's Operating System and OS Version. Click on "Firmware". Download the firmware zip file and unzip the file. Follow the instruction in the PDF file to update the firmware.

Update 6/7/2013 I repurchased a new SX280 with the hope that the low battery warning issue has been fixed by this firmware update. I updated the new camera to the new firmware 1.0.2.0 from 1.0.1.0 following the procedure in the PDF file. The premature low battery warning in the video mode for the updated SX280 has improved but not fixed.

260 of 274 people found the following review helpful.
Terrific Camera Overall
By J. Malinsky
Hi there

I've replied to a few reviews of this product before choosing to write my own, while keeping in mind everyone's opinions (especially about the battery) thus far.

Out of the way, I too noticed "problems" when shooting video on a not-fully charged battery. I put the word in quotes, because in my experience/view, it's really a software problem that can be fixed with an upcoming firmware update. It just flashes red prematurely, and you can certainly repeat steps to have that happen consistently. Also, you'll only get about 30 minutes or so of 1920/60fps HD video per charge (keep in mind the battery will likely be flashing red most of the time). But keep in mind, its really just a bug. When you power up your camera, the true charge is shown on the indicator.

I took the camera with me today to shoot a typical days worth of exciting things with my kids. I took about 35 photos, and a combined 7 minutes of full HD/1920/60fps video. I also transferred a few images wirelessly to my Android phone. After all that, my battery is still showing as fully charged and does not do the 'premature red battery' even if i take it to video. So that seems like a decent day for me, and it doesn't show a dent (and rightly so). I'll just have to remember to charge the battery fully before I take it out.

In the end, I do recommend the camera because of what I bought it for: excellent, truly best-in-class images from a camera under $400. This camera is my '2nd' camera, for times when I don't feel like dragging my DSLR around. The images aren't as good as a DSLR (no surprise) but they are by far the best images I've taken with a point-and-shoot. The 20x optical zoom is truly incredible, and the true/natural Image Stabilization (*not* digital) is fantastic: you can actually take a 20x zoomed picture without it being blurry! Not only that, the IS during video shooting makes it smooth-as-silk on playback, especially in truly stunning 60fps mode. Shutter-lag isn't as good as a DSLR (because the concept doesnt exist with mirrors), but it's miles ahead of my last 2011 P&S and also faster than my 2013 smartphone camera.

I can see why the video/battery issue is so frustrating: the video from this thing is truly amazing (stereo, Image Stabilization, and did I mention 1920 and 60fps yet??!) and you *want* to shoot a ton with it. It's also in ultra-convenient mp4 format right out-of-the-camera. And it does a superb job of focusing as you zoom on video (my older p&s wouldn't let me zoom in video mode at all). But if video is really your mojo, get a camcorder for the same price and be happy. If you're after stills, or shooting video "shorts", this is your bet. And hopefully the short-ish battery on video will make better videographers out of people by forcing them to cut down on the extra crap they shoot that nobody watches anyways :)

Touching on a few remaining things: I love that the camera has a metal body, love its hefty weight (remember when cameras felt like cameras and not TV remotes?) and dig the wireless. I'm not a GPS guy because the privacy issue freaks me out, so I don't run the GPS. As mentioned by other reviewers, the wireless is a bit tricky to set up if you want to go camera->computer wirelessly - you'll have to run the software on the CD (it retrieves the latest version from the net automatically). The easiest set-up is camera->smartphone; as long as they're on the same network, transfers are easy. If there's no wireless where you're shooting, you can actually use the camera as an access point itself and connect your smartphone/tablet to the *camera's* network. Keep in mind that the wireless transfer is *not* eye-fi: you have to *select* the images you want to send, after they've been shot (photos aren't automatically transferred wirelessly as you shoot). Believe it or not, you can actually tweet from the camera itself. That being said, I think the omission of Flickr is a drag, but perhaps that's because they are pushing their own "Canon Image Gateway" service for photo sharing/storage.

Also, I appreciate the restraint in megapixels... the filesizes and document sizes are realistic and appropriate for people who aren't blowing photos up to large dimensions. Focusing on image quality instead of megapixel count is a much welcomed approach in my opinion, and I hope the ridiculous megapixel race slows down in order to focus on the sensor quality/lenses that can be crammed into a P&S size camera.

Also, coming from DSLR world, I'm actually pretty happy with the amount of customization offered. The manual (on the CD only) is chock full of information, including how to use the self-timer in "wink" mode (wink to take the shot!!). All modes I shoot on (M/AV/TV/P) offer *center only* focus. I haven't seen that mentioned too often, but that is *exactly* what I like - in fact the first thing I do on my DSLRs/new cameras is turn off the 'smart autofocus' to use center-point only). It means you might have to take a moment to frame the shot you want (focus then frame), but to me it cuts down on silly camera "intelligent" errors when it focuses on things with contrast instead of the content that matters.

I don't find the position of the pop-up flash an issue; my finger fits behind it. Also, consider that the pop-up flash reduces red-eye quite significantly by being further away from the lens. Not only that, but this camera is *great* in low-light for a point-and-shoot - ease up on the flash and enjoy the great new processor!

This camera does exactly what I want it to do, and does it *really well*, but if I was planning on a day of really heavy shooting with video, I'd buy a spare battery. And I'm looking forward to a firmware update!

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Sony HDRCX330/B Video Camera with 2.7-Inch LCD (Black)

Sony HDRCX330/B Video Camera with 2.7-Inch LCD (Black)..

Special Price Sony HDRCX330/B Video Camera with 2.7-Inch LCD (Black) By Sony

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30 of 30 people found the following review helpful.
Great video quality, iffy UI & controls
By J. Treworgy
I bought this brand-new offering from Sony after some research based mostly on its claimed low-light performance and WiFi connectivity. I shoot a lot of indoor home videos and one of the biggest problems with many of the last generation of consumer-grade cams seems to be low-light performance.

GOOD

The video quality is indeed very good in low-light situations, and for this reason -- by far, the most important criteria for a camera -- it gets four stars. It makes great videos. You can choose from a variety of video quality settings (balancing recording time with quality). The lower-quality settings compromise a lot in low-light, I'd use at least FH ("High Quality") to get acceptable video in most situations. It has amazingly good image stabilization.

The camera has a little built-in USB cable which tucks into the handle when not in use. This is a surprisingly handy feature since it means you'll never be looking around for a wire when you need to charge it on the go. It's completely unobtrusive. It also has a regular micro USB port.

It's got a built in DLNA server feature so you can just switch it on and view your videos right from the camera on most any modern TV or DVD player. It works very well.

LESS GOOD

It's extremely lightweight, which I guess is good, but it feels kind of cheap. I doubt it would survive a 3 foot drop onto a tile floor. The settings are managed through a miniature joystick which you use to navigate through menus and push to select. It works okay, but a touch screen would have been far better. There's also another button under the joystick which switches between "record" and "play" mode, mostly.

There are a couple minor but somewhat irritating design issues. First, when using power save mode, the camera powers itself off after some pretty short period of inactivity. There's no way to power it on again other than closing & reopening the screen. Not a big deal, but just one of those "really?" kind of things. If the screen's already open, why can't I just push a button to turn it back on?

Next, the camera itself has just two operational buttons (record and photo, to take a still), plus a zoom control. Frankly, a couple more buttons would have gone a long way, because basically anything you want to do other than start and stop recording, must be done through the tiny joystick. I sure hope it doesn't break! That includes: switching to very-low light mode; changing basically any video setting; syncing with a PC.

Speaking of syncing, this was one of the other primary features I looked for. It's got a "push" function that lets you transmit your videos to a PC via WiFi without needing to access the PC. In theory, anyway. I've been unable to make it work more than once. Following a physical USB connection to a PC sporting the (not bad but a bit bloated) PlayMemories software, it's supposed to just connect and transfer automatically. The problem is, it only works once. If I go an plug it into the PC via USB again, I can get it to sync wirelessly once more. But then it won't work next time. It's still possible to sync wirelessly if you initiate it from the computer -- that is, the device does actually connect over WiFi, it just doesn't perform the transfer as it's supposed to after the first connection.

When I get around to one of those mind-numbing tech support calls I'll hopefully have a better resolution in the future. I'm a geek, though, usually if I can't figure it out, it's broken. There's almost no information online about troubleshooting this, and the manual is terrible (to the point of not even mentioning the vast majority of the configuration options!) Luckily this seems to be a UI that's standard to other Sony cameras so you can find out what the stuff means online, but it seems pretty lame that the manual doesn't even mention (much less explain) most of the settings. The manual has a tab on the front page referring to a section called "Customizing your Camcorder" which doesn't actually exist.

So overall:

Pros:

-- Excellent video quality
-- Good battery life
-- Nice feature set (assuming you can get everything to work)
-- Lots of options, effects
-- Excellent image stabilization

Cons:

-- Clunky UI & controls
-- Configuration for useful WiFi push sync feature problematic
-- Cheap-feeling construction

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
Good things come in small packages.
By Del Hollingsworth
Excellent camcorder, no bigger than a soda can and half the weight. Awesome zoom and HD picture. battery life is incredible. Love the fact that only 4 buttons control multiple functions. Recorded outside at night in low light and could not believe good the picture was. Great value.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
Amazing Camcorder
By Freddie Lee
I have owed many camcorders in my life and this is by far the best out of all of them. Out of all the brands I have used, Sony is my favorite. This one in particular is absolutely amazing compared to the Sony hdrcx220. I especially like the mp4 video format, it loads extremely fast when I load onto YouTube for my channel at "Freddie's Modern Kung Fu". I had to purchase a special memory card that was extra tiny but had a very high speed, that combined with the camcorder resulted in very fast uploads which is very important for me. The Wide Angle lens captures a lot of your surroundings even in tight fitting rooms which is a primary feature that I was most concerned with. Note that 26.8 mm means that it captures more than the 29.8 mm, the person at Best Buy told me the opposite which was not correct. Compared to the 29.8 mm, the 26.8 mm wide lens does capture much more. Excellent camcorder that is well worth the money, I highly recommend it.

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Canon PowerShot SX170 IS 16.0 MP Digital Camera with 16x Optical Zoom and 720p HD Video (Red)

Canon PowerShot SX170 IS 16.0 MP Digital Camera with 16x Optical Zoom and 720p HD Video (Red)..

Special Price Canon PowerShot SX170 IS 16.0 MP Digital Camera with 16x Optical Zoom and 720p HD Video (Red) By Canon

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397 of 420 people found the following review helpful.
Great Compact point & shoot for the money, battery is a non- issue
By Amazon Customer
Technology marches on. I am an avid amateur photographer with 50+ years of experience with every film and focal plane technology ever created. This camera is my latest "pocket camera" to have with me 24/7, it's for those unique unplanned shots that always pop up when you least expect them and when your DSLR is just not an option to lug around with you all day.

Some have criticized the change from AA sized batteries to a Canon propriety battery pack. Hogwash. Technology is going to move forward and the use of a battery pack simply does not mean this camera is any less useful. When you travel into the great whatever with an older camera you thought ahead and took extra batteries with you. Now you think ahead and make sure your battery is charged and yes if you will be away from an outlet you take as many extra battery packs as you need. I am guilty of not thinking ahead plenty of times with the AA technology with no means of stopping into a store to buy more, this camera is no different.

The feel and user friendliness of this camera is outstanding. The controls are simple, the instructions (PDF on-line only) are clear and easy to follow, and the image quality is great. You are not going to shoot that perfect close-up shot of a running back diving across the goal line with this camera, but for every day snapshots it offers a nice, cost effective solution to carry in your pocket every day.

It's not a DLSR. If you want a full featured high performance camera you'll need to spend a lot more money!

9/30/2013 addition- the more I use thus camera the more I like it. The autofocus feature is very fast, and images shot at max optical zoom are beyond my expectations, far superior to earlier Canon point and shoot products.

48 of 56 people found the following review helpful.
Great!
By begoodorbegoodatit
I was sketical about buying this camera. It should be stated that I am not an owner of a DSLR or Nikon, although I've used those before so I know how some who may own those and buy a camera like this may be disappointed or find it less than great. I don't really think it's fair to rate this compared to those kinds of cameras so I am comparing it to my previous "point and shoot" camera.

We had some traveling coming up and wanted a new camera since my current camera looks in really bad quality at night time or dim lighting (like concerts). So I opted for this camera with the Black Friday sale. I've taken multiple shots with this camera and my old one to see what the difference really is and I will say that this camera shoots way better. My old camera in natural light in my home would be dark, this one is naturally very bright. If I took a photo of a carrot peel with my old camera it would just look like some orange thing, whereas with this camera the carrot peel looks way brighter, the image is sharper, you can see the details such as texture or drops of water on the carrot unlike the old camera. I did go outside and try to take photos and while this does shoot better at night than my other camera, there isn't even a night time option so I'm still having that issue of the photo comes out with the bright lights looking hazy, but it's an improvement from the other camera we owned.

Overall, if you just need to update your "point and shoot" then I recommend this camera. My old camera only had a 10x zoom and it was 8 MP so this was a really nice upgrade. I take photos of animals, food, and landscapes and have been really pleased with the outcome. If you own a fancy camera, you probably won't be impressed with this camera.

326 of 413 people found the following review helpful.
The Day the Last 2-AA Battery, Travel & Field Camera - Died
By John Sturgeon
As some of you know, the Canon SX100 series are my favorite cameras. I always carry the latest model with me in a video-camera-shoulder-bag (i.e. - "purse" for dudes,) everyday, wherever I go. I have owned and used all of them from the SX100 to the SX160. I have long-considered the Canon SX100 line of cameras to be "The Best 2-AA-Battery All-Purpose Travel and Field Cameras Ever Made." I have posted 5-star reviews of both the SX150 and SX160 here on Amazon during the last two years, and I have made it abundantly clear why I feel so strongly favorable of them.

Accordingly, I bought a new Canon SX170. I tested it out to compare it. For sentimental reasons, I intend to keep it. But for the most obvious of reasons, which I just indicated in the above statement, I'm not pleased with it. To the contrary, I am deeply saddened about what has now been completely lost to all consumers, worldwide - The day the last full-featured, full-manual-control, compact, 2-AA battery, travel & field camera left on the entire worldwide market - Died.

Here is a summary of my comparative conclusions.

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SX160 IS vs. the SX170 IS - A CAMERA COMPARISON - THE BOTTOM LINE

The Canon SX160 runs on 2-AA rechargeable batteries.
The Canon SX170 runs on a Canon NB-6LH proprietary battery.

Other than the battery, the two cameras are virtually identical.

I will start with the conclusion first - There is no serious reason even to consider buying the new Canon SX170 instead of the previous model Canon SX160 ... unless you absolutely HATE using 2-AA rechargeable batteries in a camera.

Both cameras have exactly the same features, the same functions, and the same specs - except for the batteries. Cosmetically they are virtually identical cameras in almost all respects except for a small change in the shape of the grip on the right side of the SX170 camera. Functionally they both work exactly the same, and they both produce identical quality pictures. No changes were made to either the sensor or to the DIGIC 4 image processor to bring any improvement to the final images produced.

The initial Amazon release price of the SX170 is $179. (Sept. 2013)
The current Amazon price for the SX160 is $144, about $35 less. (Sept. 2013)

Literally, you have to HATE using 2-AA rechargeable batteries in a camera to want to pay $35 more for the same camera with a mini-sized proprietary battery that will only take about half as many shots with each charge, when the quality of the pictures you get will be absolutely identical with both cameras.

SPARE BATTERIES. Amazon is currently selling official Canon brand NB-6LH spare batteries for about $38 apiece. (Remember, people, your camera warranty is now VOID if you use a "cheap Hong Kong knockoff" proprietary battery in it. You do so at your own risk.) A spare pair of top-quality Sanyo brand "eneloop" rechargeable AA batteries can be bought on Amazon for about $4, but even "cheap" AA batteries won't void your warranty for the SX160.

CAVEAT EMPTOR.

That is the bottom line.

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SX160 & SX170 - BACKGROUND INFO & THE "2-AA" BATTERY CAMERA.

The SX170 is the seventh model of the Canon SX100 line of cameras. This series began with the SX100 in the year 2007. From the beginning these cameras have always run on 2-AA rechargeable batteries. That has always been their strongest selling point - the fact that they use 2-AA batteries. If you happened to run out of rechargeable AA batteries, you could always buy spare AA batteries for them to keep taking pictures.

That is the main feature which made them ideal travel & field use cameras literally anywhere in the world.

The cameras of this SX100 series were all full-featured, with full manual control, and a good megazoom. They were also very affordable. Spare batteries for them could be purchased easily and economically. So these cameras were also inexpensive to use, too. And if you bought a new camera, you just transferred the rechargeable AA batteries to the new camera. You never had to buy any new (and much more expensive) proprietary batteries each time you bought a new camera. So in the long term, the AA battery cameras were always much less expensive for people to own and operate.

The new model SX170 no longer uses AA batteries. Instead it uses a mini-sized NB-6LH proprietary battery. These batteries are not readily available except by mail order unless you happen to live near a very large city. If you are traveling, the situation gets much worse. In many places the NB-6LH batteries will not be locally available at all. So the usefulness of the SX170 as a travel & field camera worldwide has been negated. If you are stuck in the middle of nowhere with dead batteries, then you are just stuck with no more pictures!

During the last couple of years, these Canon SX100 series cameras were the only full-featured, 2-AA battery, travel & field cameras still left on the world market. The SX160 was the last one. Now the consumer can no longer buy a full-featured 2-AA battery camera at ANY price, except for a few leftover models from previous years. And soon enough they will be gone too.

Some of you may realize the gravity of this loss, others may not. Most people don't miss things until they suddenly realize they can no longer buy them, because "they" don't make them anymore. And that is exactly what has just happened here. The day the SX170 was introduced was the day the last full-featured, full-manual-control, compact, 2-AA battery, travel & field camera left on the entire worldwide market - Died.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
ERGONOMICALLY - THE "NEW" GRIP

There is a "not-so-new" larger grip on the right side of the SX170 camera. Canon claims it has "introduced" a design change with a larger grip on the right side of the camera for better one-handed shooting. Ergonomically. This will indeed be a fine feature for many people. I agree. But Canon's P.R. department says this was only made possible by using the new smaller proprietary battery. No. That is not true.

The original camera of this line, the SX100, had that same style, larger right hand grip on it, and it used 2-AA batteries. Canon removed that feature from the next model, the SX110, and made the overall camera flatter. Some of us would have preferred that Canon not make that design change, but that was Canon's decision.

Now Canon is "reintroducing" that larger right hand grip feature with the SX170, but it has nothing to do with having to drop the 2-AA batteries. I measured the two cameras with a set of calipers. The dimensions of the larger grip on the right side are very similar on both cameras - the grip on the original SX100 (using 2-AA batteries) and the grip on the new SX170 (using the new proprietary battery.) Canon could have "reintroduced" this same design change all along on any of the other SX100 series cameras, and still kept the 2-AA batteries in the camera just fine. So the justification Canon is giving for being able to make this design change is completely bogus.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
RATING THE SX170

I'm giving the new Canon SX170 IS a 3-star rating only for sentimental reasons - it's still a Canon. It is still an excellent camera in many ways. It still has all of the same excellent features. ... But I won't recommend the SX170 to anyone.

Since it now runs on a proprietary battery, then it has to be compared to all of the other similar cameras today that run on proprietary batteries. And in that comparison, it does not measure up very well.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
WHAT THE SX170 IS NOT

The Canon SX170 is not a fast-action camera, and it never will be. It still has all the same problems of the previous models. It has a noticeable shutter lag, a slower focus, a slow image processor, a slow maximum shooting speed of 0.8 fps (less than one picture per second,) a very slow flash recovery time, it doesn't work very well indoors or in low light, and it does not shoot full 1920x1080 HD video, either, only the older 1280x720 quasi-HD video.

The SX170 is not a good camera for taking pictures of fast-moving children or pets, fast-action sports moments, or fast-focus views of flying birds. The SX170 simply won't work for that kind of photography.

There are literally dozens of other more modern proprietary battery cameras out there today that can run circles around the slow-performing, antiquated design and performance of the older-design SX170. So if you really want a modern, fast-action camera that works well in low light and that also shoots full 1920x1080 HD video, then why would you even consider buying the SX170?

Canon designed the original electronics for the SX100 line of cameras way back in 2007.* These cameras were originally designed as, "Stand here while I take your picture" cameras. And basically that is what they still do best. Changing the battery isn't going to change the primary use for which these cameras were originally intended. No more than injecting "energy steroids" into an old dog is going to teach it to do new tricks.

If you want a modern, fast-action, full-HD video camera, then the SX170 will simply not work for you.**

* Actually it was released in 2007. Design precedes release by about 2 to 3 years, so essentially these cameras were designed almost ten years ago. Remember what that world was like? Digital cameras were low quality and high priced. Most people did not have PCs, and fewer still knew how to use Photoshop. Computer hard drives were 30 gigabytes - smaller than a standard 32 GB SDHC camera memory card of today. Photo paper for printers was terrible and would begin to fade out within months, gone altogether in a few years. .... Most people were using 35 mm film cameras with 36 shots for each roll of film, paying $27 or more at 75 cents per print each time for all the photos, both good and bad. (There was no "preview" feature before they were developed and printed. Besides, you could not "preview" photos very well by squinting at a tiny, color-reversed film negative.) ... Most people could not AFFORD to take more than a few pictures each month. Taking pictures was expensive! Every single picture had to count, so yes - literally - using a camera back in those days meant, "Stand here while I take your picture!" It didn't MATTER if they were slow. Getting your "36 prints" back from the developers at Long's Drug Store took two to three days anyway. That is the world in which the electronic circuitry for these SX100 series cameras was originally designed.

** (If you do want that however, which obviously many people do, then for a short list of modern, fast-action, full-HD-video cameras in a similar price range of the SX170, please see my post of suggestions in the Comments Section, page 1. For a comparative list of (almost all) current Canon point-and-shoot and bridge cameras, please see my post in the Comments Section, at the bottom of page 4.)

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
FOR A CLASSIC CAMERA WITH FULL FEATURES, USING "2-AA" BATTERIES, CONSIDER THE CANON SX160.

If, on the other hand, you do like the classic Canon SX100 series camera line - as I do very much - you have to like it for what it is. It is an older style, classic design, point-and-shoot camera. As such you simply have to accept the fact that it has some very real limitations. And those limitations are not going to be "fixed" simply by putting a different battery inside the same camera.

It makes no sense to buy a camera first, expecting it to meet your wants and needs, and then end up being disappointed when it doesn't. It works the other way around. You find the camera that actually does fit your personal wants and needs first, and then you buy that camera for yourself and enjoy it.

If you do prefer the convenience of owning a classic design, 2-AA battery, travel & field compact camera, then I suggest you consider buying the Canon SX160, on sale now, while the supplies still last. That is what I chose to do. I bought two more SX160 cameras, and tucked them away safely in a storage box for my future use and enjoyment for the time when my current SX160 either wears out or breaks down. If you are interested in the SX160, please see my own previous Amazon review of it - 5 stars and more, if I could.

The Canon SX160 is still my number one favorite camera I have ever owned, and I still plan to keep right on using it for many pleasant years yet to come.

Sincerely, and with best wishes to everyone, John AKA SLOphoto1

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
POST MORTEM - USING "AA" BATTERIES AS A RELIABLE POWER SOURCE.

Energy independence. That is one of the main reasons why some people - like me - have been fighting so hard for so long trying to keep the last remaining full-featured AA cameras on the market - If you can choose your own AA batteries in a competitive market, then you have total control over your own power source. And there is no future time limit for being able to still use your camera, either. ("They" don't make that battery any more.)

I still have my original digital camera, an Epson PhotoPC 600, from 1997. It runs on 4-AA batteries. It still works well, and it still takes some interesting pictures. They are particularly interesting because the pictures have an "older" look to them, because of the older camera technology. I don't have to fake this "older" look with special effects in a modern camera or with Photoshop manipulation. They genuinely look older because they really are "older," due to the older technology actually producing them inside the original camera right now.

Imagine trying to locate a proprietary battery for a fifteen to twenty year old camera? The only reason I can even still use that camera at all is precisely due to the fact that the camera was originally designed to run on 4-AA standardized batteries. The same thing will be true of the SX160 cameras of today. Fifteen or twenty years from now, they will still work just fine, because they were designed to run on AA batteries.

AA batteries were standardized way back in 1954. Almost 60 years later, in 2013, they are still the most widely used standardized battery in the world. And especially now that they make rechargeable AA batteries (as in "green" - reusable and even "renewable" if you use a solar-powered AA battery recharger,) there is virtually no doubt they will still continue to be very popular for at least another 60 years into the future, too. They are and will continue to be a very reliable source of power - for millions of different items. This will still be true long after the proprietary - and non-standardized - batteries of today will only vaguely be remembered as a passing fad (and expensive folly) of the early 21st century.

Non-standardized products have no long-term future in an increasingly globalized world.

That's my personal opinion about it, but speaking as a retired history teacher I am also asserting that based on actual and repeated long-term historical patterns and precedents.

Again, best wishes to everyone - John AKA SLOphoto1

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

UPDATE: A FEW WORDS ABOUT BATTERY USAGE - HOW MANY PICTURES PER CHARGE?

I've been asked to comment on battery usage. How many pictures should a person expect to take with each charge? Here is some data on that. This includes an actual field test I did myself of the earlier model SX150.

The proprietary battery in the SX170 - the Canon brand NB-6LH - is rated at about a 1060 mAh (milliamp hours) charge. The preferred, high-quality Sanyo brand "eneloop" rechargeable AA batteries are rated at about a 2000 mAh change (or about twice as much.) There is no great mystery to it. 2000 mAh of power will take about twice as many pictures as will 1060 mAh of power.

The SX160 and SX170 each require about 2.1 to 3.7 volts to operate the cameras. That requires either one NB-6LH proprietary battery (at about 3.7 volts) or two "eneloop" AA batteries at 1.5 volts each, (two for a total of about 3.0 volts.) The NB-6LH costs about $38 on Amazon. A pair of "eneloop" AA batteries costs about $4. Either system requires less than one cent of electricity to recharge each time. However, the NB-6LH will probably recharge only about 700 times, based on typical lithium-ion battery life spans, which have a pretty high burn out rate, whereas the "eneloop" brand AA batteries are advertised as being able to take at least 1500 recharges.

I haven't tested the SX160 and SX170 cameras yet for the number of shots they will take per charge in actual field use (where you are actually using the camera under field use conditions,) but I did do just such a test earlier for the SX150, and here are the results. (Reprinted from my earlier review of the SX150.)

&&&&&&&&&
"On a recent field trip to the local mountains near Monterey, CA, I set out with a fully-charged pair of eneloop AA batteries in the SX150, and I carried a backup pair of eneloop AAs just in case. I did a full day of shooting with 425 full-sized JPEGs and 8 minutes of HD video, and I used a lot of zoom and frequently turned the camera off and on too. That is a LOT of battery use for one set of AA batteries. The batteries finally ran out early the next day as I was testing some of the features on the camera."
&&&&&&&&&

Based on previous experience, when I actually get around to doing an actual, full-day field test of the SX170, I anticipate the results to be about half the amount of the results I obtained for the SX150 (or would similarly expect with the SX160, since the electronic circuitry is basically unchanged in all these SX100 series cameras.)

&&&&&&&& PLEASE NOTE: These cameras all show a "low battery" indicator based on a sensor which looks for a voltage drop. In the SX160 and in previous models, these cameras were designed to use regular Alkaline AA batteries which start out at about 1.5 volts (3.0 volts for two of them.) When they begin to drop too low, the low battery indicator appears on the LCD screen. Rechargeable AA batteries like the Sanyo brand "eneloop" type only recharge to about 1.2 or 1.3 volts (or 2.4 to 2.6 volts for two of them.) The internal sensor will "think" that they are running "low" long before they actually run out, once they begin to drop below the "warning point" for the internal sensor in terms of "low" voltage. They are not actually anywhere near "out." My advice is just to keep right on using them until the LCD on the camera finally tells you to "change the batteries," as it shuts down on you.

I hope that gives everyone a fairly good idea of what to anticipate with both the SX160 and the SX170 cameras in general terms of the number of pictures to expect per charge.

Again, best wishes to everyone, John AKA SLOphoto1

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
UPDATE: Sept. 30, 2013 - DESIGN FLAW DISCOVERED IN THE SX170. POTENTIAL DAMAGE TO THE CAMERA.

Recently while testing the Canon SX170 camera in the field I discovered a serious design flaw. This flaw became apparent entirely by accident through normal use of the camera. It seems that the camera suddenly and unexpectedly turns on or off simply while handling it in a routine manner. This is especially true when trying to pull the camera out of a coat pocket, purse or camera carry bag.

Apparently in one of the few design changes, Canon has now relocated the On/Off power button almost to the very end of the right-rear-top of the SX170 camera (literally, only about 1/4" from the right rear corner of the top of the camera.) This is the side where the new larger right-hand grip is also located. It is the natural hand position to reach into your coat pocket or carry bag and grab the camera by the main grip in order to pull it out. When you do, if your thumb happens to be on the top of the camera, you can very easily activate the camera and possibly jam or even break the lens-extension mechanism.

When the lens pushes out against a resistance (like still being confined partially inside a coat pocket,) then the lens stops and retracts, and there is a series of several quick "beeps," similar to those of the time-delay shutter release. The more serious aspect of this is that each time this happens it puts stress on the delicate gears inside the lens-extension mechanism. Eventually this type of stress can cause the lens-extension mechanism to fail, and the camera will no longer work. (You see them on eBay, "Lens won't extend outward.")

Back in 2008, Canon faced a similar problem - and a number of lawsuits - over this very same problem with one if its "G" series cameras. If the extending lens hit an obstacle, the extending lens would sometimes jam and the camera would become altogether inoperable until it was factory repaired. (And the warranty only lasts one year.)

The SX160 did not have this design flaw, nor did any of the other previous SX100 series cameras before it. All six of the previous models of the SX100 series cameras had the On/Off power button located safely inward toward the center of the camera by at least 3/4" to 7/8" from the right end of the camera.

I've taken a total of 58 shots with the SX170 camera so far, and this "accident" has already happened to me three times. This same easy activation has also suddenly turned the camera off twice while I was simply standing there holding it. This design flaw is an accident waiting to happen.

I don't know how much of this type of stress the lens-extension mechanism on the SX170 can take. I have never encountered this problem before with any of the other six models of the SX100 series that I have owned and used previously. They all had the On/Off power button located well inward at a safe distance from the right end of the camera. So I have never previously encountered this sort of "activation by accident" with the SX160 or any of the other previous cameras of this line. But this flaw does have the very real potential to cause serious damage to the camera, and even render it completely inoperable, just by the ease with which the SX170 can be so readily activated just by complete accident.

Earlier I said that I would not recommend the SX170 over the SX160 to anyone. Now I must say that I specifically recommend against it.

Once again, best wishes to everyone, John AKA SLOphoto1

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& FIN.

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Sony Alpha a6000 24.3 MP Interchangeable Lens Camera - Body only

Sony Alpha a6000 24.3 MP Interchangeable Lens Camera - Body only..

Special Price Sony Alpha a6000 24.3 MP Interchangeable Lens Camera - Body only By Sony

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51 of 52 people found the following review helpful.
Great upgrade to NEX-6
By JeffT
Having pre-ordered and purchased this as an upgrade to a NEX-6, here are some initial impressions:

First off, the biggest improvement by far is the autofocus. They're not kidding - it is fast. DSLR fast. Even in low light situations that would leave the leave the NEX hopelessly hunting for focus, it can lock on. Focus seems very accurate as well.

Other enhancements:

+ More ISO Choices: The NEX-6 ISO settings were in 1-stop increments - 100/200/400/800/etc. The A6000 offers 1/3-stop increments: 100/125/160/200/etc. I'm sure this will come in handy. In addition, it offers multi-frame NR as an additional option when selecting auto-ISO (though this option is not available when shooting in RAW/JPG mode)

+ Better menu system: It is now much easier to use, and resembles the menu system of the RX100. I was able to get the camera set to my liking in a fraction of the time that it would have taken with the NEX-6, even today after using it for over a year and nearly 10,000 shots.

+ Better low-light performance: Shooting back-to-back with the NEX-6, the A6000 yields much cleaner JPG output at a given ISO. I haven't yet had a chance to look at RAW.

+ Burst mode: WOW. Continuous Shooting drive mode now offers three modes: lo/mid/hi. Speed priority is no longer there, I presume because of the much faster image processor and autofocus renders it unnecessary. On "Lo" it feels about the same as the NEX. On "Hi" it is like a chain gun.

+ The viewfinder: Yes, I think it is an upgrade. I could not discern any lower resolution, but it definitely is faster on the refresh and better in low light.

+ Auto-ISO: As was pointed out by a helpful commenter, it IS now possible to change the default range limits that auto-ISO uses. This is a much-needed upgrade, and will make this function usable for me now.

Cons:

- As another reviewer pointed out, the (legacy lens) manual-focus assist zoom button has vanished. When using a legacy MF lens, they were a big help. However, the C2 button can be repurposed for that function via the menus, and although it doesn't work 100% as before, it does the job.

Overall, I'd give this camera six stars at this point if I could.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
Highly recommended as an upgrade from NEX-6
By F.A.H.
Compared to the NEX-6, from which I just upgraded, the a6000 has (1) much faster, more accurate AF (works as advertised!); (2) menus that are much easier and faster to navigate; (3) more customizable buttons; (4) auto ISO in manual mode; (5) more resolution (allowing for more cropping); (6) more pleasant noise at high ISO due to the smaller pixels (at normal image sizes, noise looks like film grain); and (7) a more solid, tighter "feel."

There are other improvements, but these are the ones most important to me.

Highly recommended as an upgrade from NEX-6!

19 of 26 people found the following review helpful.
One of the best pocket SLR's out there!
By AW
I work at a camera store, so I was lucky enough to snag one of these before we sold out. I have a feeling I'll be selling a lot of these. Here's what I love about it.

Pros: 11fps shooting for up to 6 seconds before the buffer slows down, or half that with raw+jpeg.
Very impressive auto focus that never seems to be searching or fishing around for a focus point, it just jumps to it.
Full size 24mp APSC sensor, as big as a full size SLR
Great video quality, and up to 60fps video in 1080p for quality slow-motion shots. Sound is clear and in stereo.
Good low-light handling.
Very clear digital viewfinder looks almost as good as the screen.
Optional zebra stripes for overexposure, and focus peaking.
Size is small enough that I want to carry it everywhere, but hefty enough to feel like a real camera (almost a pound with a lens).

Minor cons: Not a con, but definitely counter-intuitive; the viewfinder takes more power than the screen. Normally I conserve power by using the viewfinder, but it is actually rated for fewer shots than using the screen in the manual.

The battery life is pretty short, but about what I'd expect for a camera with no optical viewfinder.

Overall, this camera is a perfect fit for me. It balances size and quality perfectly, not compromising on either, and has all the features I am used to from previous cameras I've owned (Nikon 3200, Canon 7D) in a smaller package that I'm more comfortable carrying around. After all, "the best camera is the one that's with you!"

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Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS25 16.1 MP Tough Digital Camera with 8x Intelligent Zoom (Blue)

Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS25 16.1 MP Tough Digital Camera with 8x Intelligent Zoom (Blue)..

Grab Now Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS25 16.1 MP Tough Digital Camera with 8x Intelligent Zoom (Blue) By Panasonic

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117 of 119 people found the following review helpful.
Great Waterproof Point and Shoot
By Jamie
I have only used this camera underwater once so far, but it was absolutely fantastic. I took it to the swimming pool with my daughter and niece as a test run, and got some great shots of my niece swimming underwater, and alternated with underwater shots and above the water shots. The camera is made to slough off the water as soon as you pull it out, so the pictures out of the water don't have spots or water drops on them. It seems like a minor thing, but it really made a huge difference. As for being waterproof, it seemed to hold up great. After we got home, I noticed it had some chlorine spots on a couple pictures (after I tried to use a dry cleaning cloth on it) so I soaked it in a sink full of clean water for about 5 minutes, and voila! Perfect photos again. I've seen some reviews that say this camera doesn't work well inside, haven't noticed a problem myself. Pretty much every single picture I've taken with the camera has turned out with great color balance and good lighting. I have had a couple overexpose a bit with the flash, but hey, this is a point and shoot camera, not a professional grade camera. The overexposure can be fixed on the camera itself with the offered image editing or with editing software on your computer.

We'll be taking the camera on a trip to the lake in a week, so we'll see how it holds up with the sand and murky water, but so far I am more than pleased with this little camera, especially for the price! Can't wait to take it out and play with it some more.

EDIT: Used this camera on a trip in pools, lakes, and rivers. Had a blast. Got some great shots in the water, above the water, canoeing, kayaking, and even in a water feature fountain thing for the kids to play in, all with no worries about water leakage. I do recommend purchasing a floating wrist strap because the camera itself doesn't float if you drop it in deep water. Even in the lake and river the pictures came out great, though you need to be close to your subject in dirtier/murkier water. After a month and a couple weeks, I'd say it's already earned its keep for the price I paid. I think we took somewhere around 1600 photos on a two week trip with this little camera, and 99% of them were fantastic. I also bought an extra extended life battery, and with constant shooting, I did need to change the batteries about once a day. But, I take a LOT of photos.

EDIT2: After reading some of the other reviews here, I think something needs to be said - this is NOT an expensive, professional level camera. It isn't being sold as one, because it's not. No, you are not going to get perfect pictures every single time. You're not going to get perfectly clear-as-day underwater photos (although you will get some awesome ones). This is a point-and-shoot camera that you can take in the water with you. If you expect more than point-and-shoot quality, you should not buy this camera. But understand you will spend more money on something else. For the average user, it is an absolutely fantastic camera for the price. You can take it anywhere, it fits in your POCKET (how nice is that?) and it will stand up to being dropped, getting wet, getting cold, etc. Take it on your family vacation without worrying about it. Now try to do that with a $3000 professional camera. Also, for people saying the quality sucks, I have blown up some of the photos from this camera to 16x20 prints and hung them on the wall. I certainly can't tell they were taken with a $140 camera, and neither can anyone else.

72 of 83 people found the following review helpful.
Don't know much about cameras but I like this one...
By Mike Jacobs
UPDATE 2: Just noticed another issue. The flash sometimes causes a bit of reflection the color of my finger along the right side of the imate, evidently becuase my fingers are too close (to the flash). This isn't an issue, I just move my fingers a bit. Good thing I preview work-pictures, though. I can't tell you how much I am appreciating the water and dust-proofing in this SE Florida monsoon season! No change in the rating.

UPDATE 1: Since purchasing I've used this quite a bit for work and personal photos. I still love the camera - I've been able to take pics in rain, around water and with a 4 year old hanging all over me without worrying about dust, water or dropping it. However, there are a couple of issues I haven't seen in other reviews: (1) the lens is easily "dirtied" by a finger print when you take this out of your pocket (no cover), and (2) I have to be more careful about taking photos in the direction of the sun or I sometimes get a big glare-streak... don't know why my other cameras didn't have this problem but it sometimes requires two hands (one to block the sun). These issues have not changed my rating.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: Lots of camera-geek analysis here, and from what I read Panasonic meets my criteria - fast cycle after shooting, wide angle, durable and mainstream ("reliable") manufacturer. I mostly take photos for work, and any modern camera is satisfactory for family use.

This has a wider angle than my Canon PowerShot, which I am replacing, and no moving parts. I can shoot in the rain and carry it in my shirt pocket, neither of which are feasible with the Canon. The unit is "closed" so that I won't get construction dust or lint inside the lenses, which is why I need to replace my Canon.

Other than that, it's just a nice camera that I can get wet or drop, with all the usual bells and whistles (90% of which I'll never use). The price:value ratio is very good for my needs.

72 of 87 people found the following review helpful.
Works Well.
By DianeB
I took this camera to Mexico with us on vacation. The camera worked well and took some good pictures in and out of the water, as long as you used the normal optical zoom. My only complaint would be that the Intelligent zoom does not work very well, it's a bit grainy, especially in low light and under water. Saying that it has an 8X zoom is a bit misleading, since it is not a true optical zoom. Had no problems with leakage and we snorkeled for a couple of hours. My husband has an older model that has manual modes and a lot more picture options. Next time I would go with a higher end model to have those options. This camera is very small which can make it a bit hard to hold on to and the movie mode button is so small it is hard to push, especially if you had larger fingers. All in all I like the camera, but some small changes could make it much better.

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Nikon D5300 24.2 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with Built-in Wi-Fi and GPS Body Only (Black)

Nikon D5300 24.2 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with Built-in Wi-Fi and GPS Body Only (Black)..

GET Nikon D5300 24.2 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with Built-in Wi-Fi and GPS Body Only (Black) By Nikon

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175 of 183 people found the following review helpful.
Stunningly Good! An Insane Value!
By 7
I got this camera as an upgrade to my beloved D5100 so the bar was pretty high and so this review is often D5100 vs. D5300. I'll be frank. The D5300 outclasses the D5100 so substantially that it has utterly obsoleted the D5100. Ignore those who say that the D5300 merely provides an opportunity to pick up a D5200 or D5100 for a bargain price. No. The D5300 is now the ONLY camera in the Nikon D5xxx line. It has changed the game. Don't bother counting pennies, this camera is underpriced at full price. The fact that I am sincerely comparing images from this $800 camera body to my D800E's images truly says it all.

Please allow me to just get into the Pros and Cons:

PROS:

1) PHENOMENAL IMAGE QUALITY! AT LOW ISO THE D5300'S IMAGES ARE ON PAR WITH THE BEST CAMERAS IN THE WORLD AND THAT IS NO EXAGGERATION WHATSOEVER. I can't believe there is still a debate going on about the efficacy of Anti-Aliasing filter removal. I'm sorry, but the difference is so noticeable there is no debate. And moire was a myth even on the D800E, which I do also own. I guarantee you that you will find more moire in a D5100's or D7000's images than you will on the D5300. Color and saturation from the D5300 are exceptionally good versus ANY camera at any price point. Now, I will still take the D800E's images over the D5300's but it is not at all night & day. They are actually surprisingly close at low ISO.

EDIT 2013-12-09: Photographing cats a lot I am catching a little false color on shiny fur. Nothing of concern to me though.

2) Focus point spread (area of image with AF sensor coverage) is MUCH greater than in FX ("full-frame" sensor size) cameras. The D5300's AF point coverage extends left-right top-bottom much farther than FX cameras. I would estimate the D5300 covers probably double the area that FX cameras do and this is an ENORMOUS advantage. I always leave my D800E's focus point glued to Center because the AF coverage is only in the center area anyway so why bother with the other 50 AF points when they just don't cover anything? I actually do use my focus points on my D5300 because they cover the frame pretty well. I'd still like to see even more coverage, but vs. the FX bodies, APS-C cameras have a tremendous advantage.

3) Minimum shutter speed in Auto ISO now has AUTO setting that adjusts based on focal length! This is SO much better than a fixed shutter speed regardless of lens length.

4) Hard to quantify but the HDR images look much nicer than the D5100's and the Extra High setting is intense and beyond the D5100's abilities. I have not been able to verify this but it *appears* as though there is now image alignment for the 2 photos used for the HDR image as my handheld HDR shots nearly never look like 2 images whereas they often did on my D5100 at full or nearly full magnification. HUGE improvement!

5) Great-for-DX and pretty-good-versus-FX ISO performance. I'll put this to bed right now; the D800E smokes the D5300 for high ISO performance. Sorry, this is a different league. However, the D5300 substantially outperforms the D5100 at ISO 1600+. The improvement in the D5300 over the D5100 is readily noticeable.

6) Much more intuitive i Menu. The D5100's i Menu being J-shaped was ridiculous and totally awkward. I never got used to it after thousands of photos. The D5300's standardized 2-lines-across-the-bottom Nikon style is a drastic improvement.

7) GPS! I don't know what Nikon was thinking with that clunky expensive GP-1A. Did anyone ever buy one? The D5300's internal GPS works great and hooks up quickly and I'm big on geotagging so I am super stoked to have this on a REAL camera!

EDIT 2013-12-09: I spent a day in the country (wide open clear sky) with this camera outside of my normal metro town area and despite using A-GPS data, it took somewhere between 30-60 minutes to get GPS lock. Surprised, disappointed. But that was the only time I have had trouble with hookup.

8) Nikon's had truly exceptional built-in flash performance since at least the D90. The D5300 does not disappoint and bests or matches its predecessors at any price point. This could be a result of image processing more than flash performance but whatever it is, using flash is a joy, not something to dread.

9) The red body paint color is super-gorgeous! It's like a candy apple red Corvette color and it is way sexy.

10) The new bigger, higher-pixel screen is REALLY nice. It is not insignificant like many reviewers dismiss it as. I like it a LOT. :)

11) EN-EL14a battery with 19.4% more capacity is a nice treat and helpful when running GPS and/or the silly WiFi. I have not spent a full day shooting hundreds of photos with the D5300 yet but I have shot perhaps 100 shots in a day with GPS on and flash here and there and a lot of reviewing and in-camera editing and not gotten below 2/3 battery level in a day.

EDIT 2013-12-09: GPS was on from about 8:45am to 5:30pm, WiFi was off all day, I shot 362 photos (almost all were 14-bit RAW+Large Basic JPEG so roughly only about 170-190 shutter clicks) and probably 15 of those photos had flash, 2 minutes of video, edited 6 photos and had a couple of review sessions during the day. Battery level fell to 1/3 remaining. Not bad but could be better. If you're a heavy shooter and will use GPS and/or pop-up flash, carry a spare battery.

12) Here's a gem for the old-school film guys like me. ;) Or a little "secret treat" for digital-era photographers with a true creative streak. In Manual exposure mode, the "T," or "Time" setting has returned! Want to take a 5-minute or 5-hour exposure but you left your plug-in intervalometer/timer at home? Lol, as if you even have one... No problem. Turn your shutter speed dial all the way past 30-seconds, past Bulb and click on into good ol' Time at the end of the dial. Press the shutter button to open shutter, let your wristwatch or phone tell you when exposure time is up and then press shutter button again to close the shutter. Seriously?! Yes, seriously. How cool is that?! I miss this so much and guess what? Even my D800E does not have T and the D5100 does not either. According to the Nikon info page for the D5200 (Yes, D5200. Not a typo), T is there but you need the ML-L3 remote to use it.

CONS:

1) EDIT 2013-12-09: I have found that focus points other than THE Center focus point are somewhat frequently inaccurate. Focus points at or near the left and right edges are rarely accurate and almost never dead-on. If you use ONLY the Center focus point, focus accuracy is quite good and consistent. As Center AF point AF-S is almost always how I shoot, this is not a deal-breaker for me but it is certainly a handicap. If you use multi-point AF tracking or regularly venture away from Center AF point, you had better experiment with different AF points at a local camera store before buying one from any store, Amazon included. I am beginning to think my camera may be defective and will likely send it to Nikon for repair or exchange it with Amazon for a new one. Honestly, I expect this to be a performance trade-off that Nikon will not remedy. Though $800 is not cheap, this caliber of image quality for $800 is going to come with trade-offs and I bet being forced to use Center AF point is one of those trade-offs.

2) EDIT 2013-12-09: I had a chance this past weekend to use Live View in some beautifully sunlit countryside. Sorry, even with truly ideal lighting Live View is horribly slow and constantly hunting. Don't use it for anything other than manual focus confirmation with screen zoomed for precise focusing. And focus VERY slowly as screen update time has substantial lag. I'm not really concerned about video, but this camera cannot focus worth a darn for video. It really is that bad, sorry.

3) When reviewing a photo on my D5100 and even the D5200, I could just press the OK button to get into Retouch Menu and then get into RAW processing of that image in another click of OK. Boom, 2 presses of OK and I am RAW processing the image I'm looking at. Well, not anymore. Now I have to press the "i" button to get into Rating/Retouch/Send Menu and then click OK to get to Retouch Menu and then another click of OK to get to RAW processing. Hardly a nightmare but takes an extra button press and, more importantly, is ergonomically awkward and more prone to mistakes.

4) Noisy Multi-Controller. I like having solid clicks, but man, clicking Up, Down, Left or Right on this Multi-Controller is literally enough to wake someone up. My gf grumbles at me for reviewing/RAW processing in bed because of that. It's also not so great in public areas as it intrudes on the conversations of neighboring tables, etc. It's really an irritating higher pitch that grabs attention. I know this complaint sounds whiny, but it truly is an intrusive noise problem.

5) WiFi is rubbish. You can't upload full-resolution images to your smart device via WiFi. And I don't believe (but I could be wrong about this) that you can WiFi upload at all to a PC. I wanted to have instant constant file backup via WiFi. Nope.

6) Slow RAW process Menu navigation. Perhaps it's the sheer file size but things like scrolling Picture Control modes in RAW processing is very slow relative to the D5100.

7) Slow photo review after taking a picture(s). Takes too long for the D5300 to gulp down one or a few RAW+Large Basic JPEG shots (my standard resolution).

8) After assigning HDR function to the BKT button (D5100)/Fn button (D5300), activating HDR now requires holding the Fn button and turning the dial until you get the setting you want before letting the Fn button go. On the D5100 you set your HDR preference one time in the Menu and then activation via BKT button only took a single press. Now it's a process. And my favorite setting (High) takes the most clicks (3 to the left or 3 to the right) to get to. The Auto HDR mode should simply be removed so we just scroll Low, Normal, High, Extra High and should be permanently Menu-set to facilitate 1-press activation a la D5100.

9) To get autofocusing you MUST use an AF-S or AF-I lens. D5300 body has no focus motor for AF or AF-D lenses. Metering requires a CPU lens.

CONCLUSION:

The D5300 is not a camera for sports, when rushed or in demanding conditions and you are gambling when you change away from Center AF point. Many consumer cameras like to claim performance in this fast-action realm, but no. If it's not pro gear it will suck at sports and tracking a subject. Always has been and likely always will be the case. However, for general photography, landscape, portraiture/still life, macro, time-lapse, etc. the D5300 creates stunningly sharp and colorful images able to be painlessly enlarged to enormous proportions. I wouldn't hesitate to print 3-foot x 2-foot (that is 36x the size of a 4-inch x 6-inch) prints. And that would be essentially pixelation-free. 6-foot x 4-foot would still look fantastic.

98 of 103 people found the following review helpful.
DRAMATIC upgrade from D5100, SURPRISING image quality improvement from D5200
By Paul Christensen
I've owned every "compact-format" Nikon from the D60 to the D5000, D5100, D5200, and now D5300. And while my D5200 is less than a year old, I chose to upgrade to the D5300 for two reasons: convenience (built-in WiFi and GPS removes 2 devices I had to carry / attach) and improved video (60fps). I chose the new grey body which is a nice departure from the traditional black, although the glossy finish is a bit of a fingerprint magnet around the back of the articulating display. Luckily, the rubber grips are still in place around the rest of the body.

What I didn't expect from the D5300, but actually blew me away was the stunning improvement in image quality over my D5200. First, and some would say finally, Nikon appears to have dramatically improved the auto white balance for incandescent lighting. Secondly, in side-by-side comparisons with the same lenses, focal distances, and shots, the D5300 shows dramatic improvement in image sharpness over my D5200. I'm not sure this can be attributed only to the lack of a anti-alias filter on the sensor, especially when using my Nikon 16-85VR (F3.5-5.6). But when viewed at 100%, the photos are dramatically sharper in both RAW and JPEG versions on the D5300 over the D5200. Given the dramatic improvement in image quality that the D5200 brought over my D5100, I wasn't expecting such a marked improvement that the D5300 brings. Although the D5300 boasts a higher ISO range than the D5200, I haven't noticed a dramatic improvement in low-light performance (the D5200 was already outstanding).

Other notable improvements from the D5200:
- new 24.2MP image sensor without anti-alias filter
- higher ISO sensitivity (100-12800) and low light performance
- new larger 3.2" articulating display is also much brighter, although still not a touch screen like others offer
- built in WiFi is much more reliable and faster with my iPhone than the Nikon WiFi dongle I used with my D5200
- built in GPS, although I found it slow (several minutes) to acquire a lock outdoors
- autofocus time in LiveView is noticeably faster, but sadly Nikon still relies on contrast detection so focus is slow
- video can now be captured in 1080P resolution at 60 frames per second
- slightly smaller and lighter camera body, without (in my experience) sacrificing handling
- higher capacity battery (EN-EL14a) provides 600 CIPA shots per charge vs 500 on the D5200/EN-EL14 (but if you turn on GPS and WiFi, the battery drains much faster)

And, if you're upgrading from a D5100, the D5300 carries over these improvements from the D5200:
- dramatic focus improvement: 39-point AF, 9 cross-type AF points, and 3D focus tracking
- Nikon EXPEED 4 image processing engine
- 5 fps continuous shooting (JPEG); if you're shooting RAW you can shoot up to 6 images at 5 fps
- stunning HD video capture, including live output of uncompressed video through the mini HDMI port
- built in stereo microphones for video capture

If you own a D5100, the new autofocus system (taken from the higher-end Nikon DSLRs such as the D7000) is stunning. With 39 autofocus points, it quickly identifies the subject and locks focus. With my D5100, I had some instances of out-of-focus shots (especially in low-contrast subjects or greater distance). With the D5200 and now D5300, focus has been perfect for every shot.

So what could be improved? The GPS sadly disappoints. Given how horrible the reviews are of Nikon's external GPS unit, I wasn't expecting much from the built-in unit. But even outside, it takes several MINUTES to get a GPS lock. And when you switch off the camera, the GPS doesn't keep its last position, so it must hunt AGAIN when you power on. I have read that there are workarounds (you can manually download GPS assist data but you have to keep it up to date every 7 days) to improve performance of the built-in GPS.

As I mentioned earlier, LiveView focus performance, although notably improved with the D5300, still disappoints. Nikon is one of the last camera manufacturers to rely only on contrast detection for live autofocus. So while the articulating screen is great, don't expect to capture an action shot in LiveView.

Finally, while the display is greatly improved in brightness and clarity over the D5200/D5100, it does not support touch, which can be useful for choosing focus points for example.

Also important to note is that some Sigma lenses are incompatible with the D5300 (no autofocus in LiveView, no optical image stabilization). Sigma has issued an advisory, and has said they will correct these problems in a forthcoming firmware update. But Sigma is not issuing updated firmware for discontinued lenses.

That being said, the negatives are easy to overlook when you consider the stunning image quality, autofocus and scene detection, shooting performance, and HD video capture. Taken together, Nikon has a real winner in the D5300. It is definitely for their target buyer - someone like me who is not a professional photographer but who demands top image quality without taking up a lot of physical space in the camera bag.

*** UPDATES:
Nikon has released updates for both ViewNX 2 (v2.8.2) and Capture NX 2 (v2.4.5) that support the D5300 RAW image format. Make sure you have installed these updates.

For a truly outstanding GPS unit, I can confirm that the Solmeta Geotagger N3 external geotagger is supported by the D5300 via the accessory port.

129 of 142 people found the following review helpful.
GPS function is useless!
By PawPawDog
The primary reason for me to upgrade from Nikon's D5100 to D5300 was new GPS location recording function. A secondary reason was hoping a sharper image without the low pass filter. After a few thousand shoots in a recent trip, I would say it is a reasonable but not necessarily compiling upgrade from the D5100 and probably even less an upgrade from D5200.

Pro:
* It is slightly lighter than D5100. I like it but others may not.
* LCD screen is bigger than D5100.
* There is an added single/continues/self-timer selection button. Although the button position could be better, but it is still better than D5100 has go through quick menu to change it.
* Day time outdoor image is marginally better with Nikon's 18-200 lens that I use as walk around lens. Night time performance improvements are more significant. Although the "Auto" and "Night scene" modes are still bad for night landscape shoots.
* Auto focus under bright light is marginally quicker than D5100 but under dark conditions it still hunts.
* LiveView although still sluggish, at least it is much improved over D5100.
* Although it includes the new En-EL14A battery, old EN-EL 14 battery still works! This means I can keep my spare batteries.
* Wi-Fi function was not important to me but with Nikon's Wireless Mobility Utility I can sync the camera's clock with my phone. This is important for using the phone as GPS logger. The utility also functions as remote with ability to turn Live View on/off.

Con:
* When I first got the D5300 three days after it was released, the GPS's performance is just awful! Then there was talk about update the camera's GPS file. With the update, the GPS function improved somewhat but there is catch that we the owner need to download and applied new updates every two weeks! Even with the update, it is still near useless in the field! First, even with the update it still take time to lock on satellite signal! To make matter worse is even with the GPS logging function on, the camera will not maintain the lock once it goes to standby mode and upon wake up, it needs to rescan and lock! Further more, even after it locks, any movement can cause it to loose the lock even by just walking a few steps! I even have many shoots just seconds apart without moving and yet the camera still could not maintain the lock! I would say the outdoor shoots managed to get GPS data is only about 50% and one can forget any hope the GPS can track indoor or inside cars.
* As the GPS not able to lock quickly not bad enough, it is also not very accurate!! While some pictures that I shoot so far are accurate, most of them are at least 50ft-100ft off and many are even more than 1,000ft off!!
* Not only the GPS is close to useless, it also drain battery much quicker! With the GPS on, the battery can be drained with as little as 200-300 shoots! When changing battery with GPS "on", sometimes the GPS came back resumed to "on", but other times it came back as "off"! I found it very frustrating as most of time I need to change battery in a hurry and do not have time to check all the status.
* D5300 has an AF assist lamp as the D5100 and it has the same problem. While this lampmay be good for some cases, it is inappropriate for others. The way Nikon implements it is not very flexible. The default setting is have the lamp on all the time for Auto and PASM mode with some pre-programmed scene modes will disable it. The only way for user to turn it on/off for PASM is to go through custom setting menu and it applied to all modes. One cannot program PASM differently that made this function less useful or even annoying.
* Wi-Fi function was not important to me but it seems I have to use it for some functions only the wireless utility offers, it matters now and I was surprised to find out it can only be connected to smart devices with either Android or iOS AND with Nikon's Wireless Mobility Utility running. It does not connect to PC or router. It is a two stages job. First to connect the two with Wi-Fi and then start the utility on the smart device. For some Android devices that supports WPS, the connection is secure. Otherwise by using SSID to connect, it is unsecured with SSID broadcast wide open that some one else can possible to connect to the camera.
* The wireless utility has a function to use smart device's GPS tag which is very good. But, my test so far seems it will only embedded the tag as picture been transferred from the camera to the device not directly to the SD card in the camera. Although I can understand the logic in view of possible unsecured link, it is another two stages job first to transfer the image to device and then to PC or somewhere else. It also made this function not very practical to use when travelling as the smart devices' memory are much smaller than the SD card and the prolong use of Wi-Fi seems draining the battery quickly.

Bottom line is if you overlook the poor GPS performance and need a DSL camera, D5300 is a good choice. If you are like me already own a D5100, it probably is worth to upgrade if you shoot a lot night scene and indoor without flash shoots. If on the other hand, the GPS is your main reason to get this camera, you should pass.

Edit 11/20/2013:

* Because of the AF assist lamp setting was so inflexible, I turned it off when I first got the D5100 and did not even remember it also has the lamp until I am comparing it with the D5300. Too bad Nikon has not done any improvement on the settings.
* Tried the GPS on another open space, it was even worse than before! It seems this GPS function is worthless as is. If GPS function is an important buying factor, I would rate the D5300 THREE STARS or less. If you are like me already have the D5100 or D5200 thinking about upgrading to D5300 for the GPS, you probably should stay with what you have.
* Added comments about Wi-Fi

Edit 11/22/2013

S. Fox mentioned SSID for Wi-Fi. Although I have seen it before, never thought I will use it because it is unsecure. But since Fox mentioned, I gave it a try and that is when I found out it can not even connect directly to PC or router!

Edit 11/23/2013

* Mercury Coach mentioned updating A-GPS data might help. Well, it did! Although the GPS is still inconsistent that took from 10s to 1 min. to lock on at same location, it is at least far more usable now. The problem is it seem we have to update this GPS file every two weeks to keep it happy.
* Tried Wi-Fi and the Wireless Mobility Utility a bit with mixed feeling.
* Although the GPS is faster now , it also seems less accurate. Those pictures taken before the update were very accurate but those taken after the update were at least 200ft off. I will test some more to see if indeed the update traded accuracy for speed.

Edit 12/1/2013

Just came back from a trip. I am very disappointed with the GPS even with the update! Most of the time it could not lock on or maintain lock to signal when we walk around a handful of cities in Germany. Not only it is useless for the trip, it also drain the battery much faster than I like or expect! I will give more details later.

Edit 12/3/2013

Added more details about the GPS.

Edit 12/5/2013

Added comments about image quality.

Edit 1/10/2014

Now that I have used the D5300 from US to Europe and Asia with multiple A-GPS file updates, there is no doubt in my mind, the GPS is less than useless because not only it can not lock on signal in reasonable time, it also drain the battery way too fast!

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