Table of Contents

The Product

Vivitar V3715 rebranded as 'Traveler' by Aldi, offered at 99ukp

Package contents

Review

I queued up at Aldi to get this camera, since at 99ukp it represented (potentially) amazing value for money. I was looking for a cheap replacement for my Canon Powershot A5, which has a faulty battery, and for which Canon want to charge 45ukp for a replacement (plus 10ukp for a replacement battery cover for the cracked one). I was a little apprehensive about buying a camera with a fixed focus lens (the Canon was fully auto), but decided to buy it anyway and return it if it turned out to be rubbish. So far, I have no plans to return it. (side note: Queuing outside Aldi should only be attempted by the terminally sad. There were about 50 people waiting to grab this camera as the doors opened)

My first impression of the camera was good. With the batteries in place, it weighs enough not to feel cheap and tacky (and enough that it isn't prone to shake), whilst not being heavy enough to annoy me when I put it in my pocket. The back of the camera is neatly styled and the whole thing fits well into my hand. The only parts of the design I don't like are the lens cover, which is rather lightweight and doesn't mate brilliantly with the curved camera body when closed, and the port covers, which are made from a fairly stiff rubber, and, in the case of the video port, doesn't exist.

The controls are simple. Being a fixed focus camera, there is no 'two click' trigger, and the focus controls are neatly hidden by the lens cover when it is closed so you wont accidentally bump them. The power button is recessed slightly so you cant accidentally kill your batteries, and the function is selected by the jog-dial. The 1.5” LCD is clear, and there is a brightness control as well. The on screen menus are easily navigated with a 5 way (4 directions and 'click) d-pad. My one complaint about the controls is that the d-pad is a touch too small for my fingers and I often press something I didn't mean to. Fortunately, delete requires two presses, although I've come disturbingly close once or twice.

Images are sharp and clear, however using the correct focus setting is a must. The focus control is simple (macro, normal, and infinity) and the settings lock in place with a positive 'snap'. In low light, the flash is recommended, since, although the CCD can get acceptable results, the exposure time can be as much as 1/2 a second, which can introduce some shake into the image. The Macro mode is fairly pointless, requiring about 1 metre between the lens and subject for best results. The CCD does perform quite well when overexposed, keeping bleeding to a minimum, and images I thought would be awful actually look ok surprisingly often.

Battery life is respectable, easily enough for any outing, however the batteries do NOT appear to charge when the mains adapter is plugged in (presumably why Aldi ship the unit with a charger as well as AC adapter), nor does the camera retain (all of) its settings when you swap the batteries. A workaround is to swap batteries whilst it is on mains power, although obviously this wont be useful in the middle of the lake district. The flash recharges in about 5 seconds on fresh batteries, or 10-15 on old ones. In my camera, I can hear the DC-DC converter when the screen is running, although I may just have one with a noisy inductor. The screen seems to generate a fair bit of electrical noise, which can be picked up by the CCD. for photos this is not a problem as the camera disables the screen for the shot, however in video mode the occasional glitch is recorded. One last niggle is that when plugged into the computer, the camera wont power off by itself, and if on batteries, will run them flat, losing your preferences.

Here are some sample images, taken in SHQ mode. (the latter two were cropped following downloading).

Linux support

The camera uses USB mass storage to communicate with the computer, so linux is supported.

Summary

The camera does perform well. It is a capable replacement for my old Canon A5 and its fixed focus lens is far less of a problem than I had anticipated. Low light does need the flash in order to keep exposure time down, but overexposure is not too much of a problem. The cameras auto white balance produces pretty consistent images, and you can set it manually if you desire. Sadly, there is no raw image capture function. Future firmware could fix this but whether Vivitar agree is another matter. for 99ukp this is a difficult to beat deal, especially given the extras Aldi ship the camera with.

Addendum

Some things I noticed after using the camera a little longer

Camera Specifications