A few usability questions for those lucky NX80 owners?

[Rosenkrantz]

Hey guys, can y'all lucky nx80 owners answer a few specifcs for me? I'm strongly considering getting one but want to know a few things, I'd appreciate it greatly. And good / bad points about the camera? How does it function in low light? How's the quality when capturing video as opposed to photos?

1. How long does the camera take to "boot up"? My NZ90 takes about 10 seconds before the camera can be used, a bummer when trying to get the quick family shot.

2. How is the new light? Is it one of the high powered LEDs? How bright is it? When / how is it activated and how well does it work? Any idea how much using the light drains the battery?

3. How is the light up keyboard? Is it always on or can you turn it on and off? Any noticeable drain on the battery?

4. And lastly, how is overall battery life compared to other clie's with cameras?

[kp*]

1. From a turned-off state to taking a picture at maximum resolution, coming out of another app (ZLauncher), just under 3 seconds. If the Clie is off but already in the camera app, under 2 seconds. With the Clie already on in ZLauncher, switching to the camera app and taking a picture, about 2 seconds. It takes about 4.5-5 seconds between pictures at max. resolution, at 320x480, it's under 3 sec. For regular indoor pictures, the ones I took were a little grainy, and some had focus problems, but considering the camera lacks a proper flash, I'd say they're comparable to some I've taken without a flash on my 2MP real camera. They wouldn't pass for professional photos, they would look like they came from a 1.3MP camera, and that's more than enough for what I need it for.

The video features are not nearly as good as the still photos. The resolution is very low, and I would say it's mostly suitable for capturing something you want to e-mail someone or just keep for reference, where quality is not a primary concern. Still, as it's a PDA not a Handycam, I think it's pretty cool. Also, you can use the flashlight for videos as well.

2. The light is a bright LED, not as bright as the very brightest of LED keychain lights, but better than most. The way I check my flashlights for brightness is to shine it in my eyes, and if I see stars for a prolonged period of time, it's bright enough. The Clie would pass my test. As far as taking good pictures with it, it's nothing like a flash. As others have reported, the shutter speed is very slow in low light and you're going to get a lot of blurring if you move around. In a pitch black room it will take pictures in which an object 1-5 feet away is recognizable and somewhat detailed. I took a picture of my stove in the dark, and you can see it's a stove, you can see all the knobs and various details, you can even make out the roll of paper towels on the counter behind it. The camera captured what was there, it's just not a pretty picture suitable for publishing or anything, but I don't think that's the point of a PDA camera anyway. The LED is activated by a somewhat small button in the camera app, next to the settings button. I wanted so badly to believe there's a hardware button to activate it, and I stumbled across something close enough: the jog dial scrolls through all the camera buttons, and then you click when you get to the LED. My NR does this, too, and I never noticed it or needed to search for it before. Good to know. After my experiments with taking all these photos and testing the light, my battery life is still 100%, and I haven't fully charged it since the initial charge when I got it yesterday, and have been using it constantly (have set it on the cradle periodically, though).

3. They keyboard is fully lit in orange. I'm not a keyboard person, though this may make me more of one, so I haven't spent much time playing with it. It lights up when powered on, then stays on for five seconds, and relights when a key is pressed. If there's a setting to have it always on or off, I haven't stumbled across it. There's a function key with a sun symbol on the keyboard which looked promising, but it turns out it's just for the regular brightness adjustment. If it's not supported, it sounds like the kind of thing someone will want to write a hack for soon.

4. All I can say about the battery is I've been using it much more than my average usage and have never observed it registering under 100%. I haven't really put it through sustained battery-draining activities yet, but I think you'd have to be taking lots of pictures, videos, use of flashlight, while listening to MP3s to really kill it. I'm not worried about it for my needs, but I know I'll be charging it once a day, for others it might be more of an issue.

[chopstxxx]

Originally posted by kp*
The way I check my flashlights for brightness is to shine it in my eyes, and if I see stars for a prolonged period of time, it's bright enough.

lol.

[karlie]

Not to forget:
you can take picture, from the Clie off and closed by pressing the shutter...
Which also means: make good use of the 'lock' feature.

[kp*]

Originally posted by karlie
Not to forget:
you can take picture, from the Clie off and closed by pressing the shutter...
Which also means: make good use of the 'lock' feature.
That's cool, I didn't know that. That could be very handy. Thanks for sharing.