Casio QV-2900UXCF 2.1MP Digital Camera

shots, don't know what some of these people have been doing to
get poor results. Works every bit as good as any film camera
that I have used. Software is easy to use (once I figured out
that the USB function in "setup" on Win98 was "disabled" and
corrected that.) Using MS PictureIt! (included in the MS Works
Suite) for photo manipulation and email transfer, works great!
Wouldn't hesitate recommending this camera to anyone.


For a low priced camera, this has the best feature/quality   November 19, 2001
Troy (New York, NY USA)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

As always, before buying I did some research. And all I can say is, this is the BEST (budget) camera you can get in the 2.1 Megapixel category. If you compare this camera feature-by-feature, you will see that you are getting the most out of your money. Just 3 things...

First, this camera has a Type2 compact flash slot, meaning you can have up to 1 Gigabyte of storage, and as far as I know that is the MAX you can have atleast for now, and (no other budget camera) in the 2.1 Megapixel category has a Type2
compact flash slot.

Second, the swiveling lens is absolutely great, for a low cost camera this is a bonus. I wouldnt be suprised if in the future others would use this design in the (...) budget camera.

Third, hey it's 8x OPTICAL ZOOM and 4x DIGITAL ZOOM, and belive me NOTHING COMES CLOSE. You can search the entire planet to look for a (budget) camera with 8x optical and you wont find anything else.

So if you are still confused on what to buy, thats your problem.


Goods and Bads   October 30, 2001
Jon (Singapore)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

Ive had this camera for about a month now, and i'd like to say im pretty pleased with it. I'd say just ignore the other review, which ends up being one or two lines about how horrible the image quality is and how he (she?) wasted their money. First and foremost, this is an extremely cheap digital camera, with a lot of neat little funtions. However, i do agree that the QV-2900UX (the camera youre reading a review for) is well aimed at amature and beginners in the digital photography world.

This *is* my first digital Camera, so i have no real bases to compare it to, however as an amature, i think its a nifty little bugger. It comes with all the regular accessories (mine only came with a 4mb card TT) and also an easy to use 'photo loader' program, for obviously, transporting your photos from the camera to the computer.

Feature wise, the 2900 is well off. Supporting a few different shooting modes (normal, portrait, landscape, night scene) and also the 'Best Shot Gallery' (which helps you take higher quality pictures based on the situation your in.) You can also adjust the filters and white balance which helps you get better lighting (personally, i like to play around with these features instead of using auto, it usually gives a better picture in the end.) This camera also supports an 8x optical zoom, plus a 4x digital zoom. Most people usually use the optical (which can get you EXTREMLY close to whatever you're taking a picture of) and the 4x digital doesnt seem to distort the picture at all.

I agree that when recording the pictures the lcd does apear 'grany' or 'sandy-like'. however this has NO EFFECT on the picture itself, and when you play back the picture on the camera, its cyrstal clear. Another cool feature about this camera is that you can turn the lens all in all dirtions! this was a charming feeature when i got bored and decided taking picture of myself (which i know we all do) The camera also has the ability to shoot 15 second silent mpeg movies. You also have the choice of shooting in two different ways, starting after pushing the shutter button, or recording until you hit the shutter button... i have no idea why they included the second one, i hardly use it (infact, i hardly use the mpeg mode anyway, i have a digital camcorder!)

But this camera, just as all cameras, is not without it's problems. it does not have a little hole to look out of when taking the pictures... i have no idea what its called... a manual view finder? and of course, there is also that lcd recording problem which i just spoke of (however, its completly able to live with). Another shameful thing that i found was that this camera does not support MANUAL FOCUS! i love have the option of being able to focus in on objects at a high zoom manually, because although the auto focus works fine, i just dont find it 100% reliable. Another problem i descovered was when uploading the pictures to the computer, they apear a little darker then they were on the camera, so thats something else to watch out for as well. and the last problem, occurs with all high zoom capable cameras, is that when you are in the 8x zoom, its really hard to keep the camera steady, i found myself having to use the burst option (which lets you take 3 pictures in order, right after eachother). I really wish Casio included a optical or digital imaage stabalizer like most Digital CAMCORDERS do now.

So in the end, the is a pretty good camera, with no REAL annoying problems (except the picture comming out darker on the computer, that may turn out troublesome. But you can always fix it with a computer program, i.e. Photoshop). And im overal quite pleased with the camera so far.


Very good camera at a very good price   February 8, 2002
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

I have owned this camera for almost three months now, and while the initial excitement of owning a new toy has waned, in my opinion this is still one of the more impressive cameras in the market today. The picture quality of this 2.1 mpixel camera is just the same as, if not better than, other comparable (and more pricey) brands.

The swivel lens is a great feature in that I can take photos from a variety of angles without positioning myself awkwardly. It features 64 best shot modes, including that's 32 built-in to the camera. Best shot mode automatically sets the camera based on the subject you're going to take picture of, so the result is the best possible scene shot- just select the type of shot (night scene, blue sky, portrait, sunset, etc.) and you're set. This feature has proven very useful in my case. The QV2900ux can store image resolution of 800x600 or of 1600x1200; both can be set to low, medium or high quality. I usually opt for 800x600 high quality which allows me to store about 100 pictures on the 16mb compactflash card which Casio so generously included in the box. Unlike most cameras, this model does not have an optical view finder (that little square hole you usually look through to frame your shot) so you have to get used to framing your picture using the LCD. Then again, unlike most cameras, this one has an 8x optical zoom plus 2x digital. I've only seen one camera that can equal that and it's more than twice the price of this one. Since it uses LCD for framing pictures, it uses more power that it gets from four AA batteries stored from underneath it.

Now certainly this camera has its deficiency. One very obvious flaw is that in low-light condition the results can be very poor in quality - which is a major bummer. Also, the flash is not that good in that its effective range is only about 2 meters. I'm not saying that you cannot use this on nighttime photos. Certainly you can, using the combination of best shot modes and manual inputs. Another issue that they could improve on is the cover for the connectors. I fear that if I'm not careful whenever I open it, the plastic 'hinge' might break. Speaking of plastic, someone said that the body appears to be constructed in cheap plastic. Well, there has to be some trade off for the good features. Even so, what digital camera won't survive if it falls on hard floor?

After photo shoots, I use the Photoloader software to,well, load the photos into my hard drive. This cool tool creates an HTML program that organizes the pictures by dates. They can either be viewed by selecting each manually, or by slide presentation. Btw, this nifty software is included in the package too. The camera drivers available in the CD are only for Win95, Win98 and Windows 2000. If your operating system is not one of these, it would be wise to call Casio first for inquiries.

As an advice to future buyers, I suggest that you get 2-3 sets of NiMH (at least 1600mAh), a battery charger, higher capacity cf card, and, of course, a camera case. If you have a pcmcia card slot in your pc, a pcmcia card reader is nice to have so you don't have to buy an AC adapter (which voids the warranty) nor the expensive Casio brand. Owning a tripod would also prove useful.

Overall, I am happy with this product. Personally, I really think I made a good buy on this. If you're on the market for a digital camera, I recommend that you at least include this in your shortlist of choices.


Exceptionally low-priced, decent for photography beginners   October 20, 2001
Annihilator (Chicago, IL United States)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

I think I have to somewhat disagree with what the other customer is complaining about this camera. I think this camera produces at least pictures of average quality. And if I am more lenient, I would say it is only a conservative estimate and that it could be "slightly above average". At least you can't VERY EASILY detect the difference between pictures taken by this camera or other famous name brands. So I wouldn't put it in the "poor" category. I wouldn't regret buying the camera because it has a powerful 8x optical zoom lens, 2.1 megapixels, swivel lens, "best shot mode library" plus a bundled 16M CF card (usually you only get 8M for others) for within (a dollar amount), and this is the only one that gives me such exceptional optical zoom power with this low price in the current digital cam market (Yes, I have done a lot of web research already.) Plus it also supports IBM microdrive with large storage capacity, which I am already thinking of getting one myself. However, I also have my own complaints about the camera. First, there is no optical viewfinder, which makes it very hard to see the view clearly under bright sunlight outdoors. Second, the LCD screen is quite grainy (not clear). Third, the "RESIZE" function doesn't give much convenience because the resized images, diminished in size, are deteriorated in the pictures with objects having "jagged edges". I would rather do the resizing myself in software. But since I don't use "RESIZE" function, it doesn't matter to me.

All in all, I am at least satisfied with this camera and that its advantages and value more than offset its shortcomings. I simply believe you could not ask for more with only 400 bucks. But I would only recommend this camera for beginners with a limited budget. If you are going professional, this one may not be for you.