Digital Camera Review

• 8.1 MP resolution with choice of 5 digital camera resolutions settings- 8M,5M, 3M, 2M and 0.3M
• 2.4 inch TFT LCD screen
• Movie mode. Digital Video resolutions (without sound) 640×480 (VGA), 320×240( QVGA).
• 64MB Internal Flash memory, and supports SD Card memory compatible up to 8GB.
• 8x Digital Zoom

Pros:
- Water resistant up to 30 feet!
- Supports an external SD memory card in up to 8GBs in size!
- Uses AA size batteries.
- Reasonably large LCD screen on the camera at 2.4 inches.
- Can record photos AND video.
- Comes with an adjustable wrist strap so it’s easy to secure to your wrist–however, should it come off your wrist the bright yellow color of this camera makes it easy to spot to retrieve unlike the blue model.
- Sinks somewhat, so you won’t have to deal with too much resistance to keep it staying underwater.
- Has the screw hole on the camera’s base for mounting to a tripod.
- When powering off the camera it clearly displays “Bye-Bye” on the LCD screen.
- Easy 1 touch “Mode” button to switch between capturing still photos or video.
- Lightning bolt button easily lets you change from auto-flash, flash (for all photos), or no-flash.
- Can take photos with Super Fine, Fine, or Normal settings.
- Although the camera is 8.1MP, you have the choice of shooting photos in the following resolutions (8M, 5M, 3M, 2M, 0.3M)-This can be great if you’re limited on how much space is on your memory card.
- You can adjust the white balance in Still Photo mode OR in Video mode. It defaults to “AWB” (auto white balance) but if you know how you’re lighting will affect your photos you can change it between Auto, Day Light, Tungsten, Fluorescent, and Cloudy.
- There are 3 Color Effect options to shoot photos in: Color, Sepia and Monochrome.
- There’s the option of changing the exposure setting from (-2.0 to +2.0): -2.0, -1.5, -1.0, -0.5, Auto, +0.5, +1.0, +1.5, +2.0
- It offers a Self Timer of either 10 seconds or 20 seconds.
- Date stamp is optional.
- A “Burst Snapshot” feature allows you to set up the camera to take 3 continuous images as you move the camera.
- Video’s are recorded in *.AVI format which are compatible with most Windows type movie-maker programs (ex: Windows Movie Maker, Corel VideoStudio, and many others)
- You can change the resolution of the video recording from 640×480 or 320×240. AND change how many frames per second it records (15fps or 30fps)
- You can “lock” the pictures you’ve taken to prevent them from being accidentally deleted.
- A Rotate option allows you to rotate photos taken at a 5M resolution or lower, on the camera.
- English not your primary language? No problem. There are 7 language options to choose from on the submenu: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese.
- You can set the light frequency from 50Hz to 60Hz.
- The beep/buzzer sound on the camera isn’t annoying loud, but you can disable it if you’d like.
- Comes with a USB/TV-out cable so that you can play back your photos on the TV or even take photos or video’s while hooked up to the TV! Just use the USB cable provided, plug the small end into the camera and then the yellow jack to your yellow jack on your TV, and then turn on the camera! (I’ve never had this feature before and I think this is awesome!)

Cons:
- There is a very apparent shutter-lag.
- The locking/closing mechanism on the camera for the area where the SD card and battery compartment is feels a little cheap to me.
- Buttons on the camera seem a little stiff to press down on, this is probably due to the type of engineering required for this type of cameras purpose.
- The Vivitar 8400 is a little larger and heavier than my Samsung S700.
- There’s no lens cap to protect it when not in use.
- No separate “delete” button function.
- After taking a picture, there is very little delay and it disappears very shortly off the LCD screen so there’s no time to check it.
- No sound on Video recordings which I think is a bummer given that the lower grade model-though priced higher (seen here: Vivitar VIVICAM-6200W 6.0
- No regular viewfinder like on standard cameras so that you don’t use up battery power with the live-view LCD screen.
- When switching from auto-flash, flash (for all photos), or no-flash mode using the lightning bolt sometimes it “hangs up” and gets caught switching and the screen will go blank and a blue light beside the screen will flash.
- The Rotate option does not allows you to rotate photos taken at the highest 8M resolution, on the camera.
- The 61 page user manual is on the CD that comes with the PhoTags software.
- The Photags Express software is not compatible on Macintosh computers.
- Does not come with batteries.