Minor Authors : Marc Cancio, Bryan Lopez, Nerissa Benedictos, Amarie Santos, Mae Pareño.
My first digital camera is a GE A730 that I bought as a Christmas gift for myself a year ago. When we talk of digital cameras, more famous brands such as Canon, Sony and Olympus easily come up to one’s mind. It is relatively true because GE is a new player in the digital camera market, having entered the industry in 2007. Also, GE is more associated with kitchen appliances unlike Sony which has etched its name in the gadgets line for many decades now. Nonetheless, it is not a big issue to me whether my digital camera and our refrigerator has the same name. J
At the time I bought it (December 2010), the camera cost me around P3000. Presently, I think the camera’s value is halved because of the introduction of newer and more functional models of digital cameras.
Without the batteries, the camera weighs around 130 grams with dimensions of (W x H x D) 93.5 x 61.0 x 28.55 mm. Though it is lightweight, it does not boast of the sleek design like other digital cameras. It is powered by two AA alkaline batteries or two AA NiMH batteries. I am using the NiMH batteries because it is rechargeable, thus more economical than buying alkaline batteries again and again. GE A730 consumes a lot of energy, and can only take less than a hundred shots before the battery runs-out. So, having rechargeable batteries is really the wisest choice.
The camera has an internal memory of 26 MB and can support up to 4 GB of SD card / SDHC card. It can be connected to a computer via USB/AV port, and DC in port. Though there are lots of options to connect the camera to the computer, it does not have the Bluetooth technology that newer models of digital cameras have.
The camera has a focal length of 6.1mm (Wide) to 18.3mm (Telephoto). It is a 7.0 megapixel point and shoot digital camera that has a 3x optical zoom and 4.5x digital zoom. It has a focus range of 60cm, 5cm at wide angle and 40 cm at telephoto. It saves photos in JPEG format with sizes ranging from 0.3 MP to 7.0 MP. Also, it has a movie function that can record 640 x 480 or 320 x 240 of video frames in MP4 format.
The bad thing about this camera is that when you record a video, the scenes become dark at some point and then will go back to normal after a few seconds. It is like the lighting fluctuates as the recording gets longer.
The LCD of the camera is a 2.5 inch low-temperature polycrystalline silicon that has an equivalent of 153,600 pixels. The screen gets blurry, though, when it is zoomed to the fullest. Its ISO sensitivity ranges from 80 (which is good for taking pictures in daytime), 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1600 (for night pictures).
You can adjust the brightness of the LCD from -2 to +2 in increments of 1/3. This is good when you are saving the life of your battery. Furthermore, three light metering settings are available:
Artificial intelligence, center- weighted average, and center – fixed. The shutter speed goes from 4 seconds to 1/2000 seconds and has a continuous shooting capability of approximately 2.1 frames per second. Also, it has a built-in flash and you can choose red-eye reduction.
The camera has different shooting modes. You can go from automatic which has a default setting already, manual if you wish to do the settings yourself, image stabilization to combat the shaking of your hands, panoramic mode if the object you wish to take is so wide, portrait if you are shooting faces of people, and built-in scene modes. In scene mode, there are 12 modes you can choose from and each has an automatic setting depending on the scene mode you are using. The modes are: Sport, Children, Indoor, Leaf, Snow, Sunset, Fireworks, Glass, Museum, Landscape, Night Landscape, and Night Portrait.
When it comes to color temperature, the camera has 7 modes of white balance to choose from: Automatic, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent, Fluorescent CWF, Incandescent, and Manual. Also, it has some editing tools such as red-eye removal, trim function, and rotate function.
Basically, this camera doesn’t have a lot of features unlike the newer models of digital cameras. Even its built-in function doesn’t work out perfectly; e.g. some of the scene modes produce a blurry picture so most of the time, the camera is in automatic mode. Also, when you remove the batteries, the preset date and time will be lost, so you have to re-input the date and time again when you replace the battery. Moreover, and I guess the worst thing about this camera, the battery life is low. If you are using alkaline batteries for a whole day of shooting, you will spend much in replacing the batteries. It is advisable that you use rechargeable batteries and bring extra pairs because you will surely need it.
Although it has a lot of cons, the GE A730 is suitable for people who are just taking pictures for fun. It is also a good companion when you are practicing photography. With its lightweight appearance, it is easy to carry and you can even just tie it on your wrist. With its price of P3000, it is not a bad investment after all.
Photos of GE A730
Photos taken by GE A730
