Casio QV-R51 5MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom
By: Casio Average Rating: 3.5 Total Reviews: 11
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 On: 2005-12-04
We have been very happy with this camera. We bought it a year and a half ago. Large screen. Good pictures. Small size.
Buy extra rechargeable batteries, so you always are ready to put in a fresh pair. The flash will use them up fast.
I selected four stars because I would have liked it to be a little quicker to take the picture, and quicker to charge the flash. You will probably only get those features on a digital SLR at a much higher price, however.
On: 2004-10-01
Its hard to complain for the price, the QV-R51 is very good in most ways but I have some gripes. Using the internal HTML album generation, the metadata came out all garbled (must be a software bug). It comes with other bundled software for generating albums offline though, which is adequate (it generates HTML that works with IE Explorer, but not fully with Mozilla). As far as the other bundled software, the autoloader is ok, but they include a lot of other stuff which is junk, youll waste an hour looking at it and then throwing it away. Just pay a few bucks for better software.
The focus is pretty unstable in movie mode.. the movie feature is just there as a freebie I suppose, but lack of sound and focus limits their usefulness. Usually the snapshot auto focus is good, but it is slightly off often enough (even in good light) that you are forced to zoom in on the image in playback mode if you want confidence that you wont be disappointed with some shots when you get home. It would be nice if it did a zoomed-in review of just the target/focus area for you automatically so you could quickly see if it was good enough without pushing a lot of buttons (manual focus mode does something sort of like this).
My main gripe however, it that it suddenly quit working after 22 days of gentle use. Casio has a one year warranty, but dealing with their customer service is a hassle... its hard to track down a human Casio rep, and they wont pay for shipping to their service center.
On: 2004-09-30
Its hard to complain for the price, the QV-R51 is very good in most ways but I have some gripes. Using the internal HTML album generation, the metadata came out all garbled (must be a software bug). It comes with other bundled software for generating albums offline though, which is adequate (it generates HTML that works with IE Explorer, but not fully with Mozilla). As far as the other bundled software, the autoloader is ok, but they include a lot of other stuff which is junk, youll waste an hour looking at it and then throwing it away. Just pay a few bucks for better software.
The focus is pretty unstable in movie mode.. the movie feature is just there as a freebie I suppose, but lack of sound and focus limits their usefulness. Usually the snapshot auto focus is good, but it is slightly off often enough (even in good light) that you are forced to zoom in on the image in playback mode if you want confidence that you wont be disappointed with some shots when you get home. It would be nice if it did a zoomed-in review of just the target/focus area for you automatically so you could quickly see if it was good enough without pushing a lot of buttons (manual focus mode does something sort of like this).
My main gripe however, it that it suddenly quit working after 22 days of gentle use. Casio has a one year warranty, but dealing with their customer service is a hassle... its hard to track down a human Casio rep, and they wont pay for shipping to their service center.
 On: 2004-09-22
The casio qrv-r51 take wonderful still pictures. I really love the 2 inch screen. The movies look perfect. I rated it a three because the movies have "no sound"! No where in the description does it say "no sound". This is the 21st century. You do not expect to make a movie with "no sound". The owners manual talk about transfering audio files. How do you do that if there is "no sound". Beware the company will not take back or even exchange for a higher priced camera. I love the still pictures. I hate not having "sound". I will purchase another camera. "Not a Casio".
 On: 2004-08-14
I cant say that I am an extremely credible source on the subject, but I know high quality when I see it. The Casio QV-R51 is by far the best digital camera I have ever encountered, and although it has its faults, it is definitely the best around for the extremely low price range. Not only is this camera a 5 mpx gem, the photos (if you have any SKILL to those posting reviews below) come back with incredibly high quality and breathtaking detail. 2560x1920 images and a 2 inch LCD, who could go wrong?
I have had this camera for three months, and I have used it so much that one would assume that I have had it for over a year. So far, after thousands of images, I have encountered no major problems that would ever make me even consider sending it back.
On the negative side, every camera has its faults, the first being that the zoom isnt as large as Id like, but it works well, so its not a major issue. Second is that the red eye doesnt work in all cases, but it is not a function that I normally use, so I dont have problems with that either. The majority of the cameras I have encountered have problems with resolving red eye, and I am still convinced that my little sister is cursed with red eyes that simply cannot be avoided. There is also the issue of having video mode with no audio, but seriously, if you really have a need to be taking a 60 second video, it must be something so interesting that audio is not necessary. This is a digital camera, not a video camera, so dont use the function if youre going to be nitpicky about it!
All in all, with the bestshot functions, video functions, manual focus, AA batteries, and every other thing about this camera, faults and all, I still reserve five stars to my newest obsession! Trust me, it will be more than well worth it for the price.
 On: 2004-07-22
What can I say... This one disappointed me. I did a lot of research before buying a digital camera and seeing the first 3 reviews I figured it is a good camera.
The good things first. The big LCD is really a plus. It is really difficult for me to go back to a camera, which has a smaller LCD (we DO get used to a good thing too quickly). However it lacked clarity especially in the dark (my friend had an older 3mp-cybershot camera from Sony and the quality was incomparable).
The size is nice.
I expected the batteries to last longer but it was ok. Plus I do have 2 other pairs of rechargeable batteries so it was not a big inconvenience.
The picture quality was OK...Neither nor... some pictures were blurry some were very good... red eye reduction didnt really work on all the pictures. Nighttime pictures werent that great.
The video without sound that was a really bad one. I understand that this is not a digital camera but what is the use of a video without sound.
The next thing, which convinced me I should return the camera, is the way it looked after a couple of uses. I was really careful with it however after a few days the camera looked as it was used at least for a year. The zoom and the shot button silver paint were wiped and you could see the ugly yellow plastic. I would have expected it after at least a year of extensive use but not after 100 pictures.
As a result I just shipped the camera to Amazon.
Hopefully they will honor the 30-day return policy.
On: 2004-07-17
I bought this dig camera when there was no customers reviews, so i basically risked it. Well, my consequence is that I have to send it back to the Casio Company for repair. I bought it in March, 2004 and now tons of lines appeared on the screen for i dont know what reasons. They said maybe I drop it, it went through some scanning problem, or just there are some problems with it! v.v ... Other THAn that.. this dig cam is pretty good .. but I dont know what the say.. not only half a year yet~ The pictures are pretty nice, great functions, it would be better if this 5 mp dig has sound for the video mode. Hopefully the problems will be fixed or else I guess risking is baD.
On: 2004-07-14
I like the camera a lot but the red eye thing is really hard to get away from since the flash is so close to the lens axis. The camera is small, easy to use and with a 512 KB card can really take a lot of photos. The video feature is useless, but so what, thats why I have a video camera. I like the battery chargers small size and the ability to use commonly available batteries while the rechargeable ones are in the charger. All in all an easy to use and carry camera that does a decent job of taking pictures and with careful placement of people and using the red eye elimination feature can do good close up work. Oh by the way my wife reminded me that one of the more important reasons that we got this camera is the larger view screen.
On: 2004-07-11
Like so many other people I researched digital cameras before I bought this one. I played with it for a week and was disappointed in the picture quality I got. Any pictures taken later in the day produced red-eye, even with the red eye reduction feature on. You also have to hold absolutely still. If you dont you get fuzzy pics. If your subject moves, same thing. The camera was great, and easy to use. I was just expecting more. I have played with my family and friends cameras and they get much better pictures with less hassle. I did load my pics onto my computer to fix them, but the software that comes with it is useless. In order to get rid of the red-eye, I had to use other software that I already had on my computer. I decided that if I didnt have the extra software to fix my pics, I would be very unhappy with this product. Thats why I returned it. I do understand that I will not get perfect pics all the time with other cameras, but I was getting more pics to "delete" than I was to "save".
On: 2004-06-15
We are very pleased with this little camera. We got it for a trip to Disney and were concerned about the print quality. Ultimately, we just wanted great prints. Well, they exceeded our expectations! Heres what else we liked:-Great price for 5MP camera.
-Easy to use, but with a few extra features (like a histogram and various adjustable settings) for those who want to use them.
-2 NIHM AA rechargable batteries (with a charger that is great for travel) that last a long time (a full day at Disney, plus some--about 150 shots)
-Small, compact camera size makes it easy to carry around.
-21 settings on the camera help you to set the best shot. (Like a "Fireworks" setting that we used in the evening at Disney; also Scenery, Portrait, Monochrome, Night Scenes and others.)
-Zippy start-up time when you turn it on
-Can take short, silent movie clips What we dont like:
-Red eye on some shots--even with the reduction feature. Youll want to play around at first to learn the best settings, but the great thing is you can always just delete what you dont like. This was a GREAT replacement for our film camera! Well worth the price!
On: 2004-05-16
This Casio QV-R51 is really SUPER! You have to THINK about what you are buying, and why. For starters, this uses 2 of the most available AA batteries, period - NO special $30 to $50 batteries. Then, even if you should crash the TWO INCH (about 1/3 LARGER than usually found on cameras of this type) VIDEO viewfinder, there is ALSO an OPTICAL viewfinder that also works with the optical 3X Zoom lens so you can SEE what you are looking at.
The QUALITY of the pictures is great, and you can print them directly to most Epson printers, and many others that allow it, without going thru a computer. The software included makes quick downloads to any USB equipped computer. You can also shoot up to 60-second MOVING PICTURES (60-seconds at a time). While there is no sound available for this, and the quality reminds me of when my father took 16-mm movies of me a zillion years ago- - it is like a freebee, and not why I bought this camera. They dont come much smaller, and they dont come any better.
On: 2004-03-22
The day before we went on a family trip I decided we needed a good digital camera (I had it shipped to the hotel where we were staying). This camera is every bit as good as advertised. The quickstart and battery life of the camera are phenomenal. The fit and finish of the camera are top notch. Using the QV-R51 weve been able to take some brilliant pictures weve framed and hung on the wall or emailed to friends and family. I held out on the last star only because Im reserving the 5th star for the camera that has all the QV-R51s features but with the additional ability to take multiple shots per second.
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