File:Casio QV-100 (1995).jpg

English: (Res 640x480 or 320x240)

Although this camera is old I just had to write a review on it. It has been a very dependable unit for me for many years and deserves some credit. This camera was ahead of its time. It has features thatmany digital cameras of today do not have !!!

Although I will compare features of this camera to units of today My Review ratings are going to be based on 5-6 years ago when I purchased this unit for $700.

For the record I do not even consider this camera as a recomendation for today at all. it is a BAD buy by current standards UNLESS

You need pics for things like website or ebay OR Macro Shots. For these type of uses it is GREAT even by today's standards. Also if you have anolder laptop with NO PCMCIA or USB but have a serial and do not want to carry extra junk around All you need for this is its serial cable.

For some things I even still use this camera today !!!

First I bought this camera because it was the best of what was available at the time (hence the $700 price tag)

Its only real lacking (and a serious one) is NO flash. Although if there is any reasonable amount of light this camera's CCD does a wonderful job of taking advantage of it. Indoor photography is easily possible and practical as long as you keep certain things in mind. The shutter speed will be much longer and you do need at least SOME general ambient light. A dim room is a goner. (flashlight helps though)

I had even purchased a hot shoe flash and rigged a SWITCH for it. Another failing of this camera is the LCD only viewfinder runs at 7 frames a second. This turned out to be a blessing.

Because of this I was with practice able to Activate my Rigged up Hot Shoe Flash with a button to set it off and CAPTURE the flash with the QV-100 and able to capture some VERY nice well exposed indoor shots even in near dark conditions !! It takes practice but I got good very fast :-)

The resolution is either VGA or Half VGA 640x480 or 320x240

Obviously I never used thehalf VGA unless I had to. Another very nice feature of this camera is you can REDUCE a VGA picture to a half VGA picture AFTER you had taken it inside the camera to further clear space for more pictures. THIS was a very nice feature.

I have to say though I rarely need more than the 64 shots the 4 meg of internal memory could capture.

I built myself a cardboard box computer in the summer of 1997 with a TV out cable (no need for a monitor) so I could take more than 64 pictures with the camera when we went on vacations to florida.

I came home with over 800 pictures !!!

This Camera uses a serial connection that is NOT exactly fast but not dreadfully slow (remember I am comparing as if this is 1995) About 10-15 mintutes at most!

It also ahs a very cool TV out connection that I used extensively (more on this later)

You could activate a SLIDE show feature in play mode to automatically scroll through the pictures)

The swiveling lens (more than 180 degrees of swivel) was GREAT

I could Angle the the lens in such a way that I could hold the camera Above my head to get OVER a crowd and yet still see the screen so I could FRAME the shot I wanted and not depend on luck. VERY cool I have used this a LOT

This also allows you to do the opposite. Hold the camera down just below your CHEST to make is easier to see the SCREEN in sunlight yet still point the lens Forward.

The Macro Mode is AMAZING I do not know exactly its limits But I easily git within an inch or 2 of objects to capture magnificant macro shots of objects butterflies in cypres cardens etc..

This camera is also GREAT for wildlife shows. Every eyar we attend the Harrisburg Farm show in PA. I can go right up to Owl Birds Reptiles etc.. Whatever is there and catch close macro shots without disturbing the animal and causing it to bight. The camera is absolutely silent in operation and with NO flash to accidentally set off. I surprised even the animal tenders who were leary of me getting so close.

As for Printing. Believe it or not the prints are not entirely too bad. I call them "good" enough. They will not make even close to a photographic for are WONDERFUL for reports etc.. I have even used glossy paper to make 80% of an 8x10 that was very respectable.

Now for thehard part. the newer your printer the WORSE the output !!! YEs I did not mistype that. The Older your printer (to a point) the better the output.

I have a HP 932C that make incredible 2400 dpi photo quality pictures and the casio images are HORRIBLE ON IT.

YET on my HP660C they look not all that bad. the lower resolution of the older printer "smooths" out a lot of the imperfections in the highly compressed image.

The newer printers print every single imperfection and jaggy.

Some Cons for today are it proprietary format. a .cam file for each iamge.

IE you HAVE to use there software. Thankfully it is a VERY small program. I think it only took something like 3 or 4 meg of HD space.

IF I recall right it also aloud you to BATCH export images to almost any format you want from JPG to TIFF (point ?? :-)

It also had a VERY important other feature I liked.

You could UPLOAD back to the camera !!!!!! It even let you open OTHER format images and IMPORT them a little red BOX would appear and you could drag it around to crop (to proper aspect ratio for camera) to selct which part of the image you wanted to be uploaded !! This was amazing! !!

In class I would upload whole presentations to the camera and I would hold the camera in my hand (about size in L&W of a palm pilot) I just thumb through the images to make them appear on the TV in my presentation.

THIS WAS AMAZING. I could even SAVE these presentation for later use since they wer ejust cam files not and the software stored them as ALBUMS

Wonderful feature that KEEPS this unit useful even today !!!

This is also a TOUGH as nails unit (or I was really lucky) since I dropped it on CONCRETE many times without bad effect !!

Now the camer is whearing thin. For some reason it will no longer take CLEAR pictures (dropped once to many times ??) but I can still use it since I can upload imges to it and still use it as a presentation tool.

Simply a wonderful unit.

It has the ability to Digitally ZOOM on the screen 2x. If you want to see something in more detail or to check to subtle BLurring that might need a reshooting of the image. Even besides that the LCD was of such high quality and so SHARP that you would usually notice a poorly taken pricture immediately.

It had feature to allow more picture show on screen at once from 4 to 9 or 1 at a time. You could then SELECT a picture in this Multi Frame mode and bring it to full size.

This nice feature also translated to the TV when it was plugged in to one.

To have a slide show just hold down the advance button for a few seconds to start the show. Press it again to STOP where you are.

Sadly it did not transmit a live feed to the TV in record mode. Only stills in PLAY mode.

I also Experience the problem of accidentally turning on the camera when sliding it into its case. You learn to be careful.

Battery Hog is the descriptor of the day (not NEARLY as bad as my New PDC-700 though!!!)

With average daily use (I take LOTS of pictures) I got about 2-4 days out of a set of good alkalines.

Here is the kicker. This camera unlike others take FULL advantage of Lithium cells. I regularly get a FULL MONTH out of it with Energizer Lithiums. !!! Even though they are $10 for a set of 4 (then) Do the math and it is cheaper. The camera is also MUCH ligter with the lithiums in it instead of the Alkalines.

When I went to florida My first 600 pictures were on a single set of Lithium (viscious LCD usage control IE I tend to leave cameraon between shots)(and I even did 4 downloads with that) most downloads were done with the AC connected!!

Alkalines will usually fill the camera but usually not last for a full download.

Boot up is rather quick but refresh between shots is 7 seconds.

The shutter is also isntant Press it and the picture is taken. and in BRIGHT conditions it has a suprisingly fast shutter (up to 1/10,000sec)

If you want just Lower res macro or ebay web usage and don't mind slight longer but simple downloads (the software is actually very nice) this is a VERY good camera and This is even proven by the fact that is still fetches a decent price on ebay. I regularly see it fetsh $100 to $150 on ebay. Although now with the onset of much cheaper cameras it is going down. If you can use it and can get it cheap I advise buying it.

This would actually also make a VERY good kids camera considering the price if you get it used. A Quality camera kids can enjoy Not the toy junk selling nowadays.

Recommended: Yes

CASIO QV-10 - 1995. First consumer digital camera with a pivoting lens and first with an LCD along with a viewfinder. 1/5-inch 460 x 280 pixel CCD. All output from the camera was converted to 320 by 240 pixels (or interpolated up to 640 by 480 pixels). The camera's semiconductor memory held up to 96 color still images; had a fixed focal length lens with macro positioning; high-speed shutter (1/8 to 1/4000 second); and automatic exposure. Other features included: video output port for output of images to a TV, VCR or video printer; a multi-screen viewing function for viewing 4 or 9 images on a single screen; auto-playback for visual presentations; self timer; and a memory protect function to guard against accidental deletion. MSRP $1,000 ($1,400 in 2009 dollars) .