5569 Anyone with even casual interest in photography will likely recognize the names Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, and Canon as major players in the category, but far fewer will be familiar with Concord cameras. I�m a photography buff, and I hadn�t heard of Concord until a press release crossed my desk in February announcing the release of the new Concord Eye-Q 3040 AF digital camera � a 3.1 megapixel unit for the very attractive price of $129.95.

Pretty hard to argue with that as an excellent value � that is if the camera lives up to its billing and impressive inventory of features. Actually, Concord is a well-established manufacturer and global distributor of digital, instant, Advanced Photo System (APS) and 35 mm cameras, which are sold under both the Keystone, Le Clic, Goldline, Apex, Argus, Concord, Concord Eye Q and Polaroid trademarks � the latter of which has plenty of name recognition, and is used under license from Polaroid Corporation. A $189.8 million, USA publicly traded company (NASDAQ: LENS) employing in excess of 4,000 people worldwide in seven countries, Concord maintains sales and service facilities in the United States, Canada, the U.K., Germany, Hong Kong, and France. The cameras themselves are manufactured in Shenzhen, China, in a class 10,000 "clean room" digital technology manufacturing and assembly facility.

On paper, the Concord Eye-Q 3040 AF looks great, featuring a 3.1 megapixel CMOS sensor, 4x digital zoom, a 1.6 in. color backlit LCD monitor, autofocus, 7 MB of internal memory, support for making AVI video clips, and macro mode for close-up photography. The camera also supports a SD/MML memory cards, which are a popular memory expansion card format. The 3048 AF has a 9.0 mm f/2.8 glass plans, and supports resolutions up to 2048 x 1536. There is a built-in flash with redeye reduction, a self-timer, an optical viewfinder, and a handy tripod socket.

So, it certainly sounds great on paper; what�s the real thing like to use? My first impression upon opening the Concord Eye-Q 3040 AF's box was that it seemed very attractive in appearance and solidly constructed. Something that immediately delighted me is that the camera comes with not one, but two printed manuals � a Quick Start Guide and a more detailed User�s Guide with 50 + pages in English and Spanish respectively (109 pp total).

Also included in the package are a wrist strap, a soft padded Neoprene (wetsuit material) case with Velcro closure, USB and video-out cables, and a pair of Duracell alkaline AA batteries.

Speaking of which, good on Concord for choosing a no-hassle, inexpensive, standard battery type. I detest specialized, proprietary or oddball battery types in any sort of consumer electronics. Both standard alkaline or NiCad or NiMH rechargeable cells are supported. As with any electronic camera that has an LCD display, the 3040 AF goes through batteries fairly quickly, so rechargeables will be the economical choice, and it's wise to carry spares whatever battery type used. There is a battery charge indicator in the digital readout.

There is also a CD containing software necessary to support picture downloads in Windows, but with Macs, no additional software is necessary. More on that in a bit.

The first order of business was to attach the wrist strap, which was a bit fiddly, but only took a couple of minutes. The camera's battery compartment, accessible through a panel on the bottom of the unit, also contains the slot for the optional memory expansion card, and SD cards up to 512 MB are supported. With the standard, built-in 7 MB of memory, the number of shots you can store ranges from approximately 223 in the economy mode at 512 x 384 resolution, to a mere five in fine quality mode at 2048 x 1536 resolution (3.1 MP). Striking a balance between image quality and capacity, normal mode at 3.1 megapixels will allow 13 shots storage, and normal mode at 1600 x 1200 resolution (2 MP) allows 27 shots.

The camera's back and top are chockablock with controls, most of which are very small buttons that may be awkward to use if you have big fingers. I managed OK, but would prefer that the buttons were a bit larger. The LCD display is flanked by menu selection and LCD on/off buttons, which are somewhat more generously sized, and there is a three-position slider switch to select the operational mode: still camera; video clip; or contents review. On top of the camera are an on-off power button and a two-stage shutter-release button.

The LCD displays no less than 14 different icon readouts for a variety of functions, which are all very small, and not especially intuitive, but they do supply a lot of information once you learn to decipher them.

Navigation through menus and other selection functions are handled mainly by a north-south-east-west-center circular button cluster similar to those found on VCR remotes, only the buttons are in miniature.

I will not exhaustively describe all of the control functions and settings here, but will try to hit the highlights. Be prepared to spend a bit of time with the manual in order to learn to configure the camera. Once configured, to take a picture in a single shot mode, just turn the camera on, make sure it�s set to Camera Mode and the Macro Mode switch beside the lens is set to Distant Mode. Frame the subject in the viewfinder or with the LCD. Press the shutter release half-way to activate the autofocus until the little green LED beside the viewfinder lights up. Then fully depress the shutter to take your picture. The camera will beep and make a soft click sound to indicate that the shot has been successfully taken.

As an eyeglass-wearer, I found the optical viewfinder less than satisfactory, although this is a standard complaint with this type of viewfinder and not specific to this particular camera model. I have the same difficulty with my own digital camera.

You can also use the auto-focus lock function to freeze the focus when the main subject is not located at the center of the picture, and the digital zoom offers up to 4x magnification which can be monitored in the LCD. Here is the zoom set at its widest (normal) angle:

And here is the same scene shot at 4 x zoom:

You can fine tune picture appearance for quality and resolution, scene selection (Party/Indoor; Beach/Snow; Night Portraits), and white balance as well as image quality (JPEG compression) and resolution. Macro mode allows you to take closeups at an optimum distance of 7.9 in. (20 cm).

For taking video clips, you will really want more memory than the built-in 7 MB. You can review your video clips in the LCD monitor, or connect the camera to a television using the video cable provided

Still photos can also be reviewed in the LCD as either individual (including enlarged image) or thumbnail modes. You can of course download them to your computer to store, turn into albums, post on the Internet, email to friends, and or/enhance using image editing software.

Now here is where you can pat yourself on the back for being smart enough to own a Macintosh instead of a PC. If you have a PowerPC Mac with UDB running OS 9.0 or later, you�re good to go. No software driver installation whatsoever is necessary. Pure plug and play. Fully 12 pages of the 52 page User�s Guide are taken up with instructions for how to install and use the required software for Windows support, and you can skip the whole thing. Smugness is unavoidable.

Just plug the provided USB cable into a USB port or hub on your system, power-on the camera, plug the other end of the USB cable into the camera's USB port, and in a few seconds a hard drive icon will appear on your Mac's Desktop. Click the hard drive icon, then the DC112 file, and then the 100_3040 file and voila! There you will find the picture files stored in your camera, and you can select and drag any or all of them to whatever destination on your hard drive suits you. Eject the camera �Hard Drive�, unplug the cable, and you�re done. I found that it worked flawlessly in both OS 10.3.2 on my Pismo PowerBook, and in OS 9.0 through a MacAlly USB PC Card adaptor on my old WallStreet PowerBook. Slick. This little camera is very Mac-friendly.

I was pleased with the picture quality too. For comparison, here is a shot taken with my 35 mm Olympus OM1 35mm SLR through a Sun 24 mm f/2.8 wide-angle lens after the blizzard of '02:

And here is a shot taken from the same spot after the blizzard of '04 with the Concord Eye-Q 3040 A at the highest quality and resolution setting. The digital camera doesn�t have as wide an angle lens, but the image quality is satisfactorily comparable -- with detail as sharp or sharper. The color balance difference is partly attributable to the fact that the '02 shot was taken under overcast skies, while the '04 pic was shot in bright sunlight.

As you�ve probably guessed. I like the Concord 3040. It works well, is loaded with features, and doesn�t cost a whole lot. What�s not to like? Well, there are those tiny buttons, the eyeglasses-unfriendly viewfinder, and I don�t like two-stage shutter buttons, which I find counter-intuitive, but all of those gripes would apply to a wide variety of digital cameras and not just this one. Oh, and I wish there was a socket for a cable release which would make tripod-mounted use more convenient.

Otherwise, I think the Concord 3040 is a great little camera, and a tremendous value for the price.

There is also a slightly less expensive 2.0 Megapixel Concord Eye-Q 2040 model selling for a MSRP of $109.99

Concord Eye-Q 3040 AF Specs
� 3.1 Megapixels, 2048 x 1536 Resolution
� 1.6" TFT Color LCD Display
� 7 MB Internal Memory, SD/MMC Card Slot
� AVI Movie, 15 fps at QVGA
� 4x Digital Zoom
� Video Clip Recording Capability
� Macro Mode
� 3 Preset Scenes
� Compatible with Windows 98SE/2000/ME/XP and Mac OS 9.0 and higher
� MSRP $129.99

Concord cameras are available at major retailers.

For more information, visit:
http://www.concord-camera.com/products/digital/digital.htm#3340z

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