Reviews

Epson photopc l-410

Epson makes some of the very best printers and scanners in the world, but they are not exactly known as a digital camera company. In fact, if you go to the Epson website you find exactly one digital camera listed there. This one, the PhotoPC L-410. According to a label affixed to its bottom it is made in China, so the highly regarded Seiko Epson Corporation probably didnāt mean for it to be a primary showcase of their often stunning technology. And it isnāt. In fact, the Epson PhotoPC L-410 digital camera is about as basic and straightforward a point & shooter as you can get.

So what made them offer the L-410 and why would you want to consider it? Because Epson does know a great deal about imaging. Their highly regarded PRINT Image Matching (P.I.M) technology is used by many other makers of digital cameras including most of the big names in digital imaging. PRINT Image Matching guarantees that you get the best possible color print from your digital pictures. To learn more about it and see how it works, check www.printimagematching.com. A brief explanation is that the P.I.M. system tags pictures with all the important information a printer needs to know to create the best possible picture. The camera basically passes on its specs to the printer.

What this means is that some people who already have Epson printers and scanners (and who hasnāt?) would probably be interested in a digital camera from Epson as well. Thatās because for the most part, components from the same manufacturer always work well together and youāre less likely to encounter incompatible standards as you do when you mix and match. In addition, if Epson invented the PRINT standard, it would appear likely that they did a very good job in using the technology in their own products. So the rationale for buying an Epson camera is definitely there.

Given this obvious marketing opportunity it is less obvious why Epson chose to limit itself to just one rather basic model. The L-410 is a nice, unassuming little ultra-compact (4.65 x 2.45 x 1.25 inches) with a smooth iridescent mother-of-pearl type of finish. It weighs all of 5.4 ounces, easily fits into any purse or pocket, and and couldnāt be easier to use. Yet, it also packs 4.1 megapixel, which is more than enough for snapshots, and even good enough for an 8 x 10 inch enlargement if you donāt insist on the highest quality standards. So the whole idea here is that of a simple and fun camera that still has enough megapixel and good enough optics to take decent quality pictures. And the L-410 does take pretty good pictures. Its macro function (you can get as close as 4 inches) never lets you down as shown in the close-up of the rock formation above. The autofocus is adept at figuring out what you want to focus on, and the 3X optical zoom lets you move in on a subject.

You can also do other fun, consumer-oriented things with it, like taking full VGA (640 x 480 pixel) movies with sounds that can be as long as you have space on the internal 16MB of memory or a Secure Digital card. The ability to record 640 x 480 movies can really make a difference, and itās something not found in many much higher priced cameras. You can also record up to 30 seconds of commentary with each picture, another feature many of the more expensive cameras are lacking. Or you can shoot continuously at about three pictures a second until the card is memory is full. Kids and others young at heart will love the PRINT Image Framer that allows you to overlay funny frames over pictures and then output them directly to an Epson PictureMate or Stylus printer. 25 of them are right in the camera, and another 80 frames are on the software CD that comes with the package. Finally, the L-410 lets you print directly to a variety of Epson printers via the included USB cable.

In automatic mode you donāt have to do anything other than point & shoot, nor can you change anything. In manual mode you gain control over a few settings, like picture resolution, exposure compensation, scene modes, white balance and such. And you have access to various flash modes and a macro mode.

In playback mode you can deeply zoom into a picture in 18 steps, pan around, do slide shows, tag images for print either individually or in albums, annotate a voice memo or copy pictures from memory to a card.

The built-in flash has six different modes (auto, off, red-eye reduction, forced, and slow synch) and is fairly powerful for such a small light. Definitely more than adequate for all point & shoot applications.

As far as power goes, the PhotoPC L-410 uses a single Lithium CR-3V cell, or you can use two AAs of any kind. I like the use of standard batteries, but unfortunately, there isnāt a retainer for them. So when you open the battery compartment to insert or remove the SD storage card, the battery (or batteries if you use AAs) can fall out and wipe out your date settings. Thatās very annoying, and could easily be avoided with a small clip that holds the batteries in place.

One thing we did not like is the tiny 1.5-inch LCD display that washes out almost completely in sunlight. This means that outdoors youāll almost always have to use the optical viewfinder.

I should mention that when we first received the PhotoPC L-410, it carried a retail price of US$399. At that price I would have never recommended this camera. It simply didnāt offer enough. You can get much more competent cameras with more megapixels for less. Epson apparently realized that it made a big mistake in pricing the L-410 as shortly before the deadline for this issue of Digital Camera Magazine, Epsonās PR agency informed us that the estimated street price was now US$199. Which means that you might be able to get it for even less. At this price, the camera is a very good value, and it offers a lot for the money.

There really isnāt all that much else to say about the PhototPC L-410. You either like this extreme point & shoot simplicity or you donāt. If youāre in the market for a competent, inexpensive, simple camera carrying a very prestigious name, the Epson PhotoPC L-410 may be the ticket. Especially if you already have an Epson printer or scanner.

÷Conrad Blickenstorfer

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