Now, let's take a brief look at the camera, and it's
features, before we get to the "meat" of the article, the dreaded photo
comparison.
On the relatively smooth and unadorned front, the
business end of the camera, are simply the optical viewfinder, the lens, and the
flash. To the side of the lens is the camera's light sensor, used for white
balance adjustment, and for determining the function of the auto-flash.
The back is fairly Spartan as well. You'll notice the
lack of an LCD preview/viewfinder, a common feature on digital cameras at and
above the $200 price range. There are indicator/status lights for BUSY (when
writing the image to the Compact Flash card), FLASH, and MACRO mode (The flower
icon). There's also an EXIT button, used when shuffling through the various mode
settings on the camera. Towards the top is a "snap" style ON/OFF switch, similar
to the switch on my Kodak DC215. At the extreme right, is the cameras "function
wheel". From this wheel you can access the camera's SETUP functions, SELF TIMER,
RECORD, PLAYBACK, DELETE, and DOWNLOAD (via the RS232 serial cable) modes.
At the top is the Shutter release, "+" and "-" buttons
for adjusting exposure settings (lighter or darker pictures) and the unit's LCD
alphanumeric display showing mode and memory status, ect...
Along the side, are plug ins for video, and serial
connections, as well as a DC-in jack for a 6v DC power brick. Sadly, no AC power
adaptor was provided. Also, there is a toggle switch, for selecting between
Normal and Macro image modes. Macro mode has a fixed focal length of 8 inches.
The Largan Easy 800's 33 page mini-manual, was thorough
and well written, laying out the functions of the camera in a logical manner.
Installing the camera's included TWAIN capture driver, as well as Adobe Photo
Deluxe was uneventful.
So far, things look pretty good spec-wise, but there are
a few warts on the frog. Before we cover those let's go now to the image quality
comparison because it's here where things really count.
Next page: Taking pictures
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