Agfa ePhoto 1280

Opinion: Having purchased this camera at a large discount I was more than pleasantly suprised at it's performance. Pictures are sharp and the colors are right on. The flash works very well for indoor use and it remembers what setting you used last. At first I thought that I would miss an optical viewfinder, but that hasn't been the case. The large 2" LCD and the ability to swivel the lens to get the best shot more than makes up for the lack of an optical viewfinder. I've used the swivel lens to take pics at floor level and to get above the heads of people around me, this is a great feature for the ballgame, the ability to hold the camera over your head while framing the picture is nice! The one button menu navigation system is easy and straightforward to use. Get a spare set of NiHI batteries, cause with the LCD on all the time it uses up batteries fast! Fortunatly, there is a timer that puts it in power saving mode after 60 seconds, a push of the shutter button wakes it back up. I borrowed a Kodak DC210+ and took a day's worth of side by side photos, and even with the Kodaks larger CCD (1 million pixels opposed to 810k) the 1280 consistantly took photos the quality of which is every bit as good as the Kodak. The camera's recycle time is a bit slow, 7 to 10 seconds depending on the resolution the picture is taken in. Shutter lag is very slight, something under one second. I've never been a fan of interpolation, but the PhotoGenie software that comes with the Agfa has made a believer out of me, it works well, every time. The ability to make full manual adjustments is here, which is nice, but the auto setting does a fine job under normal circumstances. Even when I tried to fool it, I couldn't make it take a bad picture. The 3x optical zoom is quick and reasonably quiet and the lens is threaded for filter and lenses. I added a UV filter just to protect the lens, and I plan on adding a Tiffen teleconverter soon. I'm so impressed with this camera that not only would I purchase another, I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone interested in digital photography. I'd love to go right out and upgrade to a 1680, but the 1280 is too good to part with!

Opinion: Excellent product in it's price.

Opinion: Having owned the 1280 for well over 1½ years, I'm getting tired with it. The picture quality is satisfactory for my amatuer use, but it's too big to take along.
Battery life sucks, sure misses the optical viewfinder!
Menus is easy to handle, but it doesn't remember your settings
exposure LAG is too long for snapshots, and you can't turn the beep off.
The housing has a few problems: The door for the connections flips open too easily, and the play/rec knob offers too little resistance.
It's a nice camera for studio/still-life photos, and definetly a good bargin now, with the low price.
I'm probably going for a newer and more portable Canon Ixus (S100), as I belive it'll suit my needs better

Opinion: I've had my 1289 for 2 years and let me tell you the image quality beats the pants off the Kodak D280L I have to use at work. OK so the camera is a little ackward to use but I don;t get nose prints on the LCD like viewfinder users do! I am now using the Energizer Lithium batteries and have taken hundreds of pictures on my first batch. I also like the light collectin properties of this camera. I've taken many concert photos from the nose bleed seats, turning the camera to the dark conditions and no flash settings, full zoom and have amazing photos. Maybe I'll start looking again next year, (since new cameras tell you how many shots you have left and how much battert time) but for now, I am more than happy with the 1280.