Home > Consumer Reviews > Agfa ePhoto SMILE 0.2MP Digital Camera

My first experiences with AGFA cameras were inexpensive, cheaply-made, but functional cameras. The ePhoto SMILE is not an exception.

The fact that you can get a camera with a resolution of 640x480 with this many features for this cheap is quite amazing. However, before you start reaching for your credit card, remember a few things:

1) 640x480 is great, but the compression algorithm (makes the picture smaller in size - this does have an affect on quality) leaves much to be desired. You don't get really clean 640x480 pics out of here

2) If you are going to be using this camera to take pics of items to sell on eBay or other auction sites, or just to toss up on your homepage, this camera does quite nicely.

3) If you are trying to sell a product and want the photo to look professional, this is not the camera for you, check out a camera with an LCD display on the back and that does at LEAST 1024x768.

4) This thing eats batteries. Guess what, so do all digital cameras. Especially those with an LCD display on the back (this one doesn't).

5) It comes with everything you need to get started - camera, software, computer cables, carrying case, etc. You don't have to go out and buy anything else just to get started.

Overall, not a bad camera for the price, but if you want a high quality camera, you need to expect to spend $200-$300 at the bare minimum.

Bought one from Amazon and begun immediately to take shots with the included batteries. Agfa's box made me thought it was a toy instead of a real camera. Looks good and is very small (wrong measures detailed on amazon) Beware: it lacks of an LCD screen and you WON'T be able to review your pictures until you get to your PC. When I downloaded (very easy to instal and download, but slooooow transfer over serial port only) my first bunch of photos I found the quality to be TOO BAD to get printed. No way. This camera wasn't for me. It's ok if you want to send brochures or e-mail attachments, but don't point it on your sons at the park: IT IS NOT A TRUE 640x480 camera. It's a tweaked 320x240 I guess. No selections or settings. Gave it to a digital-photo-novice friend and he LOVED it (his first camera). If you want to take pictures of people this is not the camera for you, better go spend some extra bucks, but if you want to make your first digital steps or just take shots for e-mail or brochures it's ok. 4 stars cosidering the price...

First of all the camera is tiny. It easily fits in one's pocket, and can be transported around without too much bulk. Think about it, you are spending $50-$70 on a digital camera, you are getting what you pay for. People who buy the camera expecting great pictures are fooling themselves. If you want a great camera drop your $300 on another camera, and post a 5-star review over there. This camera for the price is what I expected. THere are some qwirks, but once you muddle through them, you've got a camera, which costs less than most PC/MAC camera's that sit ontop of your monitor, and you can take some decent pictures. Here are some hints if you buy the camera: 1. Register the product on the AGFA web-site and download the latest version of the software (the most recent patch). Until I did this, I couldnt download the pictures. 2. Be wary of the light in your pictures and do NOT include any light sources, only indirect light. 3. ALWAYS USE THE FLASH. 4. When placing the pictures in a web page or an email, reduce the size by about half and the pictures look great! 5. The "Quick Fix" function does a great job, so use it! After learning these simple tips, my pictures are very clean, and look great as an EMAIL picture, or one for the web. This is not the kind of camera to replace your film camera, just one to take fun pictures and send to your friends. If you expect more, you are fooling yourself! Have a good time snapping your cheap digital pictures!

I bought the Smile to have a handy, inexpensive way of addingphtos to web pages. I didn't want to spend $400 on a camera that wouldbe obsolete in a few months. I figured for $100 I couldn't go wrong. I was mistaken.

The Smile just has too many compromises. The lens is a tiny fixed-focus item that requires bright light to form an image. Battery life is abysmal- it seems to chew up a pair of AAs shooting a dozen pictures. I should have spent $200 and gotten a far better camera.

I have purchased a number of digital cameras over the last 2 years, including one from AGFA, the ePhoto 307 (A great little camera). The ePhoto Smile is an Affront to the AGFA brand name. The pictures are awful, the battery life abysmal, and worst of all, it would be a bad deal at 1/2 the price. I recently bought my youngest daughter a Polaroid Digital 320. It takes much better pictures, and we're still working on the 1st set of batteries . . . .. In short, don't buy this camera. If you really want to take digital pictures it's hard to go wrong with the Olympus 340R for under $300.