Home > Consumer Reviews > Agfa ePhoto CL18 0.3MP Digital Camera

I GOT ONE OF THESE CAMERAS BEFORE THANKSGIVING. I NEVER COULD USE IT. WHEN THEY PACKAGED THE DISCS FOR THE CAMERA THEY PUT TAPE OVER THEM TO HOLD THEM IN. THIS OF COURSE TOOK THE INFORMATION OFF THE DISC. I COULD NOT GET ANY COOPERATION FROM THE COMPANY DIRECTLY TO REPLACE THE DISC. AMAZON CALLED AND GOT ME THE INFORMATION I NEEDED TO HAVE THE DISC REPACED BY THE AGFA. AS OF TODAY, JAN 17TH, I STILL HAVE NOT RECEIVED THE DISC. FORTUNATELY, I HAVE ALREADY RETURNED THE CAMERA TO AMAZON. I WILL NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING ELSE WITHE THE AGFA NAME. THERE IS NO CUSTOMER SERVICE FOR THE CUSTOMER WITH THIS COMPANY!!!!!

Couldn't help noticing those "great bargain", "nicecamera", "super value" and all other such commentsabout this cam and decided to do something about it.

I borrowed thiscam from a friend who let me try it for a month. I won't bore you withthe specs, go check the website if you want to. It's small, it'shandy, and plugs into USB for fast sync. These are the pluspoints.

This camera is based on CMOS, not CCD. This means that youwon't get that nice color reproduction that your friend's cam can doat... more expense. 640x480 is a decent resolution, but the imagesensor really, really sucks. I wasn't expecting something great, justdecent pics, but the picture qualities are horrible. Fabrics looknice, and so do simple objects, but you're better off not takingpictures of any humans. I got my sister to pose for a few snaps, andher skin tones came out like she's got some major fungus growing onher skin and it's peeling off.

Even with the smallest amount ofcamera shake, pictures come out blurry - I couldn't take a sharp picwithout a tripod yet. Indoor photography is really dark and the flashdoesn't show any visible effect. Daylight photography is better, butyou do need a tripod. I think Agfa designed this cam for snipers orOlympic grade sharp-shooters.

By the way, I took all the pics on HQmode. I wonder what the LQ would be like.

If you already own thispiece of trash and want some tips, here they go:

1.Buy a tripod2.Avoid taking pictures of people who you want to retain as friends3.Min. 40W of fluorescent lamp power required for indoor photography4.Flash is useless, so you're better off without it 5.Get AdobePhotoshop, and Extensis Intellihance pro. Reduce the HQ pictures to320x240 and use intellihance's "digital camera"filter

Conclusion: This camera...! I wonder how come people love it.

I have learned that it seems that this camera takes better pictures when in broad daylight. I've taken pictures in the house and the pictures come out very dark. I'm still trying to get used to not moving the camera so much after shooting.

I would not recommend this camera to anyone. Poor image quality, especially indoors, makes taking a good picture more work than should be necessary. Also, the lack of a digital LCD on the back to view your pictures right on the camera is a definite drawback. Indoor photos have very poor contrast and taking pictures of a moving object is impossible. Just try to get a cat to sit still long enough to take a good picture.

I purchased this camera for my folks and attempted to install it on their computer. After hours of frustrating work with the unfriendly software, I gave up and we returned the camera.... The software was DIFFICULT AND AT TIMES UNINTELLIGIBLE, PLUS THERE WERE A LOT OF DRIVERS MISSING. I don't know if I got defective software or if that's the way this product is, but never again!