Reviews

Concord DVx

These days MP3 players have become as ubiquitous as cell phones, so I guess it was just a matter of time before it occurred to someone to combine an MP3 player with a digital camera just as they have done with cell phones. Actually, in spite of some claims by others, Kodak was the first off the mark with such a combination gadget several years ago. Maybe it was the right product at the wrong time (I loved mine), but it just didnāt catch on. Hopefully the time is right today for Concordās neat little DVx. The DVx isnāt just a digital camera and MP3 player, though, it also can record MPEG movies (68 minutes with a 256MB card), act as a voice recorder (18 hours with a 256 MB card), work as a bright LED flashlight, and work with your computer as an SD/MMC card reader! Thatās a lot of features to pack into such a tiny body which measures only about2 3/8 X 4 X 5/8 inch, and weighs less than four ounces with rechargeable battery and SD card.

I have to admit that I didnāt have high expectations when I unpacked the DVx because it just seemed so small and lightweight. The day after it came in I installed the 128 MB SD card that came with it and slipped it into my pocket for a trip into the country to do some tests with a ćrealä camera. I pulled it out of my pocket several times while driving around and snapped photos with it. My only real criticism of the DVx as a camera is that it has no optical viewfinder and even though its 1.5-inch LCD monitor is exceptionally good, I still found it almost impossible to see outdoors in bright light. Indoors or in dimmer light this was not a problem and allowed me to make use of the built-in 4X digital zoom feature.

Now at 2 Megapixels (4 Megapixels with in-camera interpolation) you arenāt going to use the DVx to make wall murals, but the lens appears to be of very high quality and the images I got are very sharp, so I would expect to be able to make very good 4 x 6 inch prints from these files. As you can see in the landscape photo accompanying this review, the small twigs on the tree were rendered sharply without any stair-stepping or color fringing, performance which really impressed me and I am not that easy to impress.

Perhaps the neatest part of the DVx as a camera is that the lens and itās accompanying LED illuminators are mounted in a revolving drum. Use the wheel on the side of the DVx to rotate the camera straight up and it is completely hidden and protected. You can revolve it so it points out of either side of the DVx, so you can see yourself when holding it at armās length to shoot self-portraits.

How did the DVx perform as an MP3 player? To see, I loaded some of my favorite tunes onto the SD card and listened to them (legally downloaded via iTunes, of course). I donāt claim to be an audiophile, but I think they sounded as good as MP3 files played through little ćear budä earphones can sound. I can see putting the DVx in my pocket when I go out for walks so I can listen to music and snap photos if I come across anything interesting. The Concord DVx is certainly one of those neat little gadgets that you just have to have once you know about all it can do, sort of a ćdigital Swiss Army knife.ä And with a suggested price of $ 199, it isnāt likely to bust most budgets.

÷Bob Shell
www.concord-camera.com

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