Home > Consumer Reviews > Agfa CL30 1MP Digital Camera

There is no doubt about it; this is a great camera to discover the virtues (and limitations) of digital photography. The interface, a menu system given via a LCD, is easy to understand and use, though in bright sun light the LCD can be nearly impossible to see. The camera's main problem, as many have mentioned, is battery use. The camera comes supplied with batteries (wow!) but since this camera is such a joy to use, you'll likely go through them on your way to the store to buy the NiMH rechargeables that you'll need. I purchased a 13hr charger and 8 AA NiMH batteries for $40.00 at Radio Shack.

The advantage of the digital is that I've been taking many many more "memory" shots of my life with this camera then I ever did using the traditional chemistry based system. Another advantage is that the LCD lets you review the pictures right after taking the image. This can be a great feature at parties and the like. When it comes to a traditional camera, the outlay of the many dollars and the amount of time between shot taken and shot realized was too costly for me to take many pictures.

The disadvantages of digital cameras, at least at this cost level, are resolution (you really cannot beat the old system yet) and image control (focus, f-stop, zoom, etc.) but maybe I just haven't discovered those aspects of the camera yet.

All in all, a great "new to digital" camera coupled with a great place to buy it. Amazon.com treated me very well when I had some problems with the order. I highly recommend them.

Pictures taken in High resolution are realy nice, although colors are shifted litle a bit to blue, but when you set to Low Res to spare some memory space, pictures get some unexpected and ugly artifacts on homogenous surfaces (like face for example).

That's not only due to lower resolution but rather to something wrong in software resizing in camera's firmware itself.

If you take HiRes and resize on you PC, everything is OK.

If you want to be able to store 30+ pictures on your digital camera (you'll have to use Low Res), don't buy CL30. If you don't care how many pictures you can store before download, for less then 300$ you'll have nice 1M pixel / USB digital camera.

I got this little camera yesterday as my Christmas present. This little camera has a really adorable looking. After playing it for about 3 hours. I got the idea of it. Both the advantage and defection are pretty obvious. The advantage is that it has lots of fancy features and can take really crisp pictures. And it is easy to use as well. The usb port is awesome, super fast and easy to get used to. The defections, huh, are kinda unreasonable. There is no cover on the lens. You have to take very good care of the lens. Other wise, you know... And it is a real batteries-eating dinosaur. You'd better get some rechargeable batteries or you gotta be buried by batteries. After all, it is a great camera for the price. You'll like it.

My husband and I received the AFGA CL30 digital camera as a Christmas gift and we have really enjoyed using it. It's a really great camera. The only negative thing I have to say about it is that the lithium batteries don't last that long when you're viewing the pictures on the screen. Other than that, the camera is great!

This camera was my first digital camera. It served the purpose at the time. You really need to fool around with the controls to get a good picture. I suggest that you get rechangeable battery unit as it eats battery life. I found the camera to be very heavy. People who have Windows ME operating system do not buy this camera. Afga at this times does not have drivers for the CL 30 for Windows Me. For the price, you can get a far better camera with higher resolution. (...) Digital cameras have come a long way in 2 years. (...)