All Reviews > Hardware > Cameras > Camcorders
November 9, 2005
The G-Shot DV610 is an example of how not to make a great digital camera/camcorder hybrid. In fact, Genius touts the DV610 as a six-in-one voice recorder, MP3 player, webcam and mass storage product. Any device that does this much is obviously overcompensating and the DV610 is no exception - it promises everything but delivers little.
Actually, this is unfair. It's not the sort of product an older market would enjoy, but it's perfect fodder for the young 'uns. It's incredibly cheap to boot.
The DV610 is truly portable and comfortable to use. The buttons are kept to a minimum, but what we found surprising was the range of features available - you have control over configurations such as white balance, exposure, effects, sharpness and metering. There's image stabilisation for camcorder wobble, too.
More plus points go to Genius for including a rechargeable battery, headphones, a case, an adapter and a generous software bundle.
So what's the problem? Well, the G-Shot's base specifications are rather shaky. The touted 6.6Mp (megapixels) with a maximum resolution of 2,976x2,232 is only possible through software interpolation and the image capture device isn't a CCD (charge-coupled device), it's a 3.2Mp Cmos sensor, which can produce weaker images.
There's no focus lock - you hit the button and hope for the best - and no optical zoom, only an 8x digital. And the 16MB is nowhere near enough.
Images we took looked blurry and flat, lacked detail, and exhibited difficulty in coping with light and shadow on the same shot.
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