Home > Consumer Reviews > Konica Revio KD-400Z 4.13MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

It's tiny (little bigger than a credit card and beautifully finished in two-tone stainless alloy and yet this point and shoot digital really packs a punch. Minimalistic, with only seven buttons and a shutter, most functions are intuitive and the controls are surprisingly ergonomic and solid for a camera of this size - allowing it to be used even by those with Gulliver-like hands. The KD-400Z's main claim to fame is in its ability to house two flash cards - SD and MS and it is possible to shift data between them. A 128 mb MS holds around 176 high quality pics at 4 megapixels and 76 in uncompressed mode and of course this can be doubled with a second card.

The camera leaps into action upon liding its steel lens cover to one side within just over a second - greeting you with a Windows like sound from its built-in speaker. Pictures are generally outstanding on wide angle - although there is a tendency to blur on telephoto - particularly with non-static subjects. Macro goes down to 4 inches. The camera is limited to 15 second at a time videos with sound(of very basic quality) irrespective card size. The zoom lens is virtually silent, responsive and lightening fast. The menu system comes in three colours and is generall easy to follow - offering a choice of detailed or basic options and it is possible to review pictures without turning the camera on.An index menu allows 9 images and pictures may be scrolled and zoomed into up to 12x. Some menu items like spot metering and exposure shift are embedded a little deeply in the menu system.And date imprint settings are extremely difficult to master.

This is essentially a sophisticated point and shoot camera with focus lock, exposure control, slow synch, flash settings and spot metering options being the sole overides - but at least they are useful. It is a pity that setting a fast speed manually is not available as this would avoid shake on moving targets - so easy with diminutive cameras.

Despite near instantaneous startup, it takes around 4 seconds to produce subsequent shots and around a second longer with flash. A novel three LED blue panel flashes on startup, self-timer and as pictures are taken. Battery life is reaasonable @ 60 plus pictures with average use of TFT screen and zooming, although a card reader would be useful and a second battery essential. Konica supply an optional case which is jazzy and compact with a pocket for spares, but charge a high price for what it is.

Turning the camera off seems to require a gentle touch since the lens cover is only a quarter of an inch from the 2.8 lens.

Overall, if you are prepared to forego some manual options and risk blurred shots on moving subjects, this is both a gem and an object of stainless desire, sold at a price which easily beats the competition. Photographs have superb colour rendering, exposure,resolution and are accurate and there is very little color noise at low light levels. Highly recommended and beautiful too.

I head an Engineering department, and we have been through a fair few cameras. The KD-400Z is very well-built, great value for money and produces excellent pictures. The sharpness and details of the images are amongst the best I've seen from a sub-$... camera.

Its diminutive size and tank-like build, makes it ideally suited for travelling and every-day use.

On the down side:- plastic tripod fixing, very few manual override settings and limited range of accessories, are some of the things that may bug you.

Overall though, the positives far outweighs the negatives. For the price, I don't think there's a better point-and-shoot camera.

Update:

After nearly two months of use, the camera is performing very well. Our heavy-handed engineers tend to throw it into their brief cases and tool-boxes (despite the fact that we bought it for its ability to fit into pockets!) but the KD-400Z does its job and produces consistently good results.

I would like to comment on some of the "problems" stated in a couple of previous reviews:

"Focus problem" - The KD-400Z, like all compact digital cameras, does not have an active infra-red focus like some larger cameras. Instead, it relies on image processing of real-time images. This means that the focus can be fooled, especially in low light conditions and low-contrast scenes. In these cases, you should focus on a high-contrast object of equal distance away, and lock the focus before taking the picture. Given these limitations, the focus on the KD-400Z is as good as it gets.

Aother thing that is often mistaken for mis-focus, is camera shake. We found that one of our engineers always seem to take more out-of-focus pictures than others (with all our cameras!). We actually found that this was due to him moving the camera as he pressed on the shutter button.

"Cannot review pictures without opening lens cover" - With cover closed, just press and hold the play the button, it's in the manual!

"Cover knocks the lens when closing" - On our KD-400Z, this simply is not possible. No matter how hard you close the cover, it always stop just before the lens. Once the lens have retracted, then the cover can be closed fully.

"Picture quality" - We can not fault the excellent pictures. Colours are vibrant and spot-on. At maximum resolution, the sharpness from the Hexanon lens, coupled with the 4M CCD, is good enough for a full page picture in one of our brochures! Beware thought, the CCD does not have high gain for low-light scenes. The flash however, is suprisingly powerful for its size.

In conclusion, it's well-built, easy to use, and produces excellent pictures. We are very satisfied and have bought another two KD-400Zs.

This is the best ultracompact for your money. Four megapixels for a price lower than 3 megapixel Canon's S230. It's lighter, the same size, and has a 3x optical zoom, superior to the S230, and even better specwise than the 3x of the S330. The camera is very durable, has an excellent design to protect the lense (no lense shutter which can stop functioning). Startup time is excellent. In two seconds of opening the shutter, the camera is ready to take a photo. Compare this to say, the Minolta F-100, where you'd have to wait up to 7 seconds once you turn it on.

Low light pictures are good, although red eye is a problem if you use flash. You'll want to either go for a slow exposure, or correct red eye corrected with Photoshop Elements, which is included in the package (the best software package included with any digital camera). You may want to update your firmware software to improve low light shooting and inbetween flash times. Go to the "Other digicams" forum at dpreview.com and read up on how. The KD-400Z is one of the top rated cameras out there, and a well kept secret.

I've been shopping around for an ultra-compact digital camera that uses SD cards. I spent a month trying out the Konica Revio KD-400Z, but wound up returning it to the store because I just wasn't happy with it.

Despite its 4.13 megapixels, this camera suffers in terms of picture quality. A close friend of mine has a Canon A40, and over the course of a few days we took several pictures under similar conditions, both outdoor and indoor. Seeing the shots side-by-side, I noticed a number of disappointing things about the pictures taken with the Konica Revio.

The main thing I noticed was lack of detail in the pictures. The Konica Revio handled bright colors, bright light, and contrasts very poorly. Bright colors, such as red, were super-saturated; all detail was drowned out. Pictures taken in a dark environment using flash suffered from excessive brightness and contrast. There's no way to turn the flash down. Taking pictures of my friends across a restaurant table at night produced shots where the background was extremely dark and the faces of my friends were lit up so bright they looked like washed-out ghosts. In fact, anytime there was a bright object in the picture, the camera handled it poorly, giving it an overexposed appearance and losing the details.

Indoor shots suffered from a brownish-yellow haze, despite my attempts to adjust the white balance.

The cool blue LED on the front of the camera had an adverse effect on the color in macro shots. I took a close up of some purple orchids at a flower show and they wound up looking white-blue in the photo due to the influence of the blue light.

All in all, it seemed like the colors and lighting weren't true with the pictures I took with this camera. For what I paid for it, I expected much better picture quality. And seeing the output side-by-side with another camera confirmed my impressions that it just wasn't taking very good pictures.

Pros: The camera is small, compact, and stylish. I kept it in my purse and barely noticed it was there. The LCD screen was nice and bright. The zoom worked well.

Another pro is that there was almost no shutter lag (which can be an issue with digital cameras). It is truly a point-and-shoot camera in the sense that you can take instantaneous snapshots with it.

However, for what it cost, it should have more features and controls, and should take nicer pictures. In the end, I was not happy with this camera.

I'm going to try out the Casio Exilim next.

I was one of the first purchasers of this camera. I was excited by the small size and prospect of 4mp resolution. I also liked the slide=away lens cover which I felt would be highly protective and the metal body.

It is a lovely camera but has had one flaw that makes it less than ideal for me.

The problem is the focus, indoors in low light. It's fine for outdoor snaps but most of the pictures I take are indoors. Often the light is low because I am in a meeting room.

In this case, the camera cannot autofocus well and, as there is no manual focus to override it, the problem is impossible to fix.

I returned the camera for service, thinking perhaps it was a manufacturing defect but, sadly, it did not improve.

I am now looking for another camera to replace it.

It's a pity because it is a sweet, compact thing that's easy to carry. It would be a great choice for someone who is mostly interested in outdoor pictures.