There are better cameras for the money.

Author's Rating:

Pros: Software worked (particularly the panorama software).

Cons: Fuzzy spots in pictures. EATS Batteries! No customer service.

The Bottom Line: 
Buy something else that works and has some customer service

Author's Review
First off, I did not buy this product. It was a gift from my company for my twenty years of service! I won't comment who got the better end of that deal. It was my first digital though so I was anxious to try it out.

I was a bit disappointed that my first pictures came out blurred in spots. My first thought (briefly) was that I wasn't holding the camera still. My next set with the camera resting on solid steel was also blurry in spots. I even started testing it against patterns so that I could see where it was off.

I wrote to Vivitar and told them about the problem. No response. I was stuck at that point. It is really a shame as I was expecting much more from Vivitar. I have bought many of their products over the years. I guess they have decided to make money the easy way and have let everyone in customer service go.

I have made the best of it. I don't use the LCD at all and got about 100 pictures out of it (at the highest quality of course). I did find that if I use the LCD it runs out of batteries quickly.

Don't get me wrong, I have kept lots of my pictures and post them on the internet. The software all worked fine and I found that the panorama shots (taking 2 or more shots in a row and using the software to merge the pictures. Using this feature was really pretty good.

Overall, if you are given this camera, I would not throw it away. But I sure wouldn't have paid for it to begin with!