ePhoto clik!, as called by AGFA.
To understand where it's coming from you have to place it in it's target group. While it may not have this or that doesn't mean much because it wasn't meant to have those features and wasn't targeted for those customers. When Rocky says it doesn't have zoom well no s**t sherlock, was it suppose to have it or someone just forgot it.
I shudder to think about the camera competition, there's a ton of them, camera after camera with this feature or that but the one common that they all share is they're all deficient in storage, try taking one on vacation where the ability to off load 300 or so pictures isn't available and the worth of that camera is suddenly apparent. AGFA's camera is targeted to the common user that wants cheap storage and the ability to take lots of pictures without reserve. The target group is the mid range Sony Mavica customer, it's where the market numbers are.
Lets talk about the costs for a moment. A $599. Suggested retail puts the street price around $490 - $540. But wait that includes a set of 4AA NiMh batteries $20.and a battery charger $25. So now the actual price of the camera is $435 - $485 you could further equate the cost savings of three $80. 16 meg smart media cards minus a $10 Clik! disk or $230 bringing the price down to $205 - $255. In other words to get the equivalently priced flash camera you would have to ad $275.
The disk form factor is commonly understood and with the built in TV interface there's an opportunity to consume more disks by permanently storing pictures on disk, something that you wouldn't want to do if all you had was flash. Question, The TV out ( NTSC and PAL ) ports that these cameras have allow transmission to TVs, do the flash cards have the ability to loadin information from computer thru the flash reader interface enabling this to happen. If not pictures that aren't already on the flash cards couldn't be seen on TV and the application for the flash cameras is very limited. The clik! Camera could have an unlimited TV show of pictures by just inserting the next clik! disk.
Some had mentioned that the camera looks cheap and I agree, that from the picture at least the camera doesn't look like much but there's another side to it's looks. It's a small form factor small enough to be carried in a pocket or purse and while I really like my ePhoto 1680 camera I have to carry it or strap it on. Notice the dimensions of this camera, it's only 2" thick by 5" long and 3.16" wide, it would easily fit in a pocket and stowed away on one's person. IMO the features this camera has are state of the art, the small form factor with Clik! technology will set the industry on it's ear.
A few other mentions are the USB interface, LCD and optical viewfinder, and the B/W mode, making a nice package.
It becomes easy to over look the obvious when involved with the latest and greatest technology but this camera is made with the general public in mind.
Regards
Reseller |
