Vivitar Vivicam 2700

Review Date
December 10, 2002

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
2-5 years

Reviewed by
Dean , Intermediate , from Texas

Price Paid
$0.00

Summary
It takes some of the best terrible pictures you could imagine. If you are a real bad person, and love photography, this will be the one you get when you die and go to the bad place.

Strengths
Hooked to a VCR, it makes a pretty good monitor camera for around the house, (when connected to transformer).

Weaknesses
Eats batteries. Shutter button does not always work. shut it self off when LCD screen is on and trying to "process" a picture. Did I mention it eats batteries ? ( I have used it for a few years now with an adjustable power supply set at 9 VDC, and that stopped the shutdowns and seems to speed up the recovery for next letdown shot.

Similar Products Used
Pencil and paper.

Customer Service
yea , right !

Review Date
February 26, 2002

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
2-5 years

Reviewed by
joelgrice , Casual , from nashville, tn

Price Paid
$150.00 at eBay

Summary
If you're in the market for an inexpensive, easy to use, no frills first time digital camera.... DO NOT BUY THIS CAMERA!!!
This thing stinks! Outdoor photos are washed out and discolored. Low light photos are grainy, discolored and pixelated. Indoor photos are almost impossible because the flash is WAY too powerful and washes everything out. You end up with a solid white picture.
Avoid this thing like the plague.

Strengths
very cheap. I just found one on eBay that SOLD for $25.

Weaknesses
everything.
picture quality

Similar Products Used
Vivitar Vivicam 2000 (even worse!)
Fuji (the best on the market)

Customer Service
non-existant

Review Date
June 9, 2001

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
1 Year

Reviewed by
Stephen Shuler , Intermediate , from St. Joseph, MI, USA

Summary
I was looking to get an inexpensive digital camera after Christmas 1999 to suppliment my Canon A1 SLR and my Minolta Zoom P&S. This one was a Christmas return at the local WalMart. Originally it was $250, but was marked down to $100 They also had 2 photo packs with 4MB CF & power supplies for $10 ea. Total investment $120. Until I tried to use it.
The camera would only take about 9 pictures with the best alkaline batteries. I was told to use NiMH rechargeables. They batteries will last about 60 frames. Another $30.
After taking numerous pictures it became clear that this camera performs very pooly. Exposure is inconsistent and the pictures can have a lot of moire and noise. It will turn out an occaisional well exposed picture, but even those tend to be very 'soft'. All pictures look like they were taken through cheese cloth.
* I would not recommend this camera to anyone! Avoid it like the plague. The most one should pay is
* I would not recommend Vivitar products (except maybe flash units) to anyone.
* I am now in the market & looking at 2 - 3 MP Digital camera's to feed my photo bug. Based on this experience I will make sure the pictures are well exposed consistently and that it has a good sharp lense.

Strengths
* Very easy to use.
* CF cards very convienient. 4MB = 40 pics at best quality.
* Relatively quick shutter/capture.
* Feels good in the hand.
* Optical & LCD viwfinders seem to work well.
* Suffient options for what is now a low end camera.

Weaknesses
* Eats batteries (Use NiMH or better only)
* Very very very poor picture quality (All picts tend to be out of focus)
* Poor low light performance - (lots of noise).
* Inconsistent pic exposure.
* Flash tends to wash pics out
* 32MB CF limit
* Slow pic proccessing/storage (up to 30 sec)
* No lens cover - The plastic (I'm sure) lense is covered with a transparent plastic plate contoured with the front.

Similar Products Used
* Have used Mavica's mostly. Looked at Fuji. First one owned was this Vivicam.
* Am now looking at CF based cameras with good lenses.

Customer Service
* Very poor to non-existent. It appears Vivitar US is a Trading Company. I went on their Web page to submit a warranty complaint to Service it was ignored. The second submission was ignored also. There was no phone contact available. I gave up and decided never to buy a Vivitar again.

Review Date
December 17, 2000

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
2 Months

Reviewed by
Peter Anderson , Expert , from Levittown, PA

Summary
I bought the Vivicam 2700 for $75 on eBay, as a birthday gift for my eight year old daughter. She had been using my old Casio QV-100 for the last year (originally purchased by yours truly for $550!), but started saying, "Daddy, I want a camera like you have, so I can take pictures indoors." (My Casio QV-2000UZ has a built in flash, of course, while the three and a half year old QV-100 doesn't have a flash and is pretty much useless for indoor photography, although it takes decent pictures outdoors.)

SO, I thought I'd get her a 640X480 point-and-shoot digital camera with a built in flash, did a little research on the net, and got her the Vivitar. Of course I've used it quite a bit so I can best help her with it, and thought I'd submit my review here.

IN SHORT: This is a fine camera to give your kid, but for yourself, spend a little extra money and you'll do WAY better!

The foremost limitation is that it is 640X480. Hence, pixilation is noticable and detail is limited. The second limitation is that it is CMOS based. I understand developers are working on improved CMOS, but earlier CMOS based cameras have an inherently inferior image quality compared with equivelant CCD cameras. I will attest that this is true. My old Casio QV 100 is CCD based and takes clearer pictures with better color that the Vivitar.

That's not to say the Vivitar 2700 is no good. Not at all. It's ease of use, built in flash, and sturdy construction make it just the thing for your kids to use. They'll love it and you'll be a hero for getting them such an impressive item, with its built in LCD. And you won't break the budget.

By the way, this camera is a much better camera to get 'em than the Jam Cam (what a joke THAT piece of refuse is), the Barbie Cam, the Slam Cam, etc. And be sure to spend less than $100, preferably about $75, otherwise, forget about it--you'll do better to wait for what'll be coming later this year. And, for yourself, get a megapixel camera. You can get good ones (such as from HP) for about $200.

Strengths
LCD AND viewfinder; internal memory AND compact flash memory; built in flash; point and shoot simplicity.

Weaknesses
640X480 resolution; CMOS; photos look grainy because of the above; slow to toggle through pictures viewed through the LCD.

Similar Products Used
Casio QV-100; Jam Cam; Sanyo VPC G200

Customer Service
I downloaded the manual for this camera, as a PDF file, from Vivitar's website. That was helpful.

Review Date
December 8, 2000

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
2+ Years

Reviewed by
Kenny Skirvin , Expert , from gwynn

Summary
Nice LCD screen, Automatic Flash, Automatic power off, TWAIN interface,Size It was a good camera and I like having the advantage of disabling the power saving features. I liked how it was small in size. If you put NI CAD batteries in it you will have about 1 hour of juice.

Strengths
None

Weaknesses
None

Similar Products Used
None