Inexpensive enough to appeal?
(by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer)

Unlike the likes of Canon, Olympus, Nikon and other traditional imaging companies which generally are involved in a variety of fields, the Concord Camera Corporation has just one goal, and that is to make and sell inexpensive digital and other cameras. They are the world leader in single use cameras and sells dozens of millions of cameras every year, both under their own name and for others, including some big name brands.

In the digital space, Concord currently offers no less than 14 different cameras ranging from the minimalist Eye-Q Mini VGA camera all the way up to the flagship 5-megapixel 5345z that has been available since April of 2004 and generally goes for around $299. What exactly do you get with the Concord, and why would you want to pick one over one of the more prestigious "name brand" cameras?

For starters, the aluminum-clad 5345z looks anything but cheap. In fact, it looks and feels like it is crafted entirely from a solid block of magnesium or titanium. Design and execution are first rate and much better than what you'd expect from a low cost camera manufacturer. Every line, curve, and detail is just right, and the fine matte silver power finish is perfect. The camera is also smaller than it looks in pictures -- just 3.5 x 2.4 x 1.25 inches -- and it weighs under six ounces. No one would be surprised if "Canon" or ćMinoltaä were embossed on its front instead of "Concord."

A closer look reveals lots of very well thought-out details. The two ports (USB and power) are protected by rubbery little flaps attached to the camera so you wonāt lose them. There is a minimum of controls, yet they do everything you need in a point & shoot, and they are clearly marked. There are two buttons for taking and viewing pictures, and a five-way navigation disc that also controls macro and flash. The navigation disc is flanked by a menu and a display button. One control that takes a bit of getting used to is the zoom. Instead of a rocker operated by your thumb, the Concord uses the ring around the shutter for zoom control. This means that your index finger can either depress the shutter or operate the zoom, but not both.

Push a small recessed button on top of the camera and the Concord starts up almost instantly, shooting out its zoom lens barrel as if it were spring loaded. Unfortunately, there is long waiting between shots and while the manual lists a burst mode, we couldnāt find it.

Despite having only 85k pixels, the 1.6-inch LCD display is sharp and crisp. When in use, pushing the "disp" button cycles through LCD on and off, LCD on with info, and LCD on with info and a histogram graph that will quickly tell you whether you end up with a dark, bright or well balanced image. Very handy.

The Concordās on-screen menus are as simple and elegant as the camera itself. The system uses three tabbed folders for recording options, memory options, and setup. All menus are transparent and all menu options are in plain English and have walking menus where needed. Things like white balance, filters, or exposure compensation actually open up a little live window so you can see what selecting a setting will look like. There are no less than 19 scene modes. Each one of them is explained by a cute color image and a description of what the mode does. In "Pet" mode, for example, the camera shows you a stylized dog and explains: "High sensitivity. Shoot from the eye level of your pet."

You canāt select between shutter or aperture priority and such, but the Concordās menus give you a lot of control over auto focus, metering, white balance, sharpening, saturation, filters, image size and quality, contrast, flash intensity and more. This is a point & shooter that also lets you fiddle with settings to your heart's content.

The Concord comes with 9.7 megabyte of internal storage and you can also use a SD card (none is included). The card is located next to the batteries which have no retainer to keep them in place, so make sure they donāt fall out when you insert or remove a memory card. On the plus side, the Concord comes with a charger that can handle any rechargeable AA batteries.

Video clip fans may be disappointed that Concordās top of the line camera can only do up to 60 seconds worth of 320 x 240 clips and sound only plays back once the clip is on a PC.

Picture quality is quite good. 5 megapixel resolution means you can take 2560 x 1920 pixel pictures in three different levels of compression. Thatās good enough for 8 x 10 prints or even larger. A macro setting lets you get as close as four inches, the flash is strong, and there is a 4X digital zoom on top of the very quick 3X optical zoom. The display washes out outdoors so youāll have to rely on the optical viewfinder.

On the software side you get MGI PhotoSuite and MGI VideoWave, both good applications. Unfortunately, there is nothing for Mac users.

Ultimately, however, the Concord's classy looks promise more than it delivers. It's an elegant little camera and we appreciate the design, the picture quality, all those scene modes, the ease of operation, the nice menus, but things like the limited movie option and the very slow recycle time mean the camera will be mostly judged on its low price, and even that doesn't seem that low anymore.

-- Conrad Blickenstorfer