Today I just happened to stop by Aldi, and gazed up at the huge poster
advertising the Medion 4.1 megapixel digicam.  The specs and price
looked amazing, so I bought one on the spot.  I was assured by Aldi's
store manager than I could return it.  Great!

My current (4th) digicam is the Nikon Coolpix 800, which is loaded
with features. But it has some grave problems, like the bottom-mounted
CF card door, weak flash, long focus/exposure lock delay, etc.  Also:
no USB. It works, it makes clear, crisp images, I like it a lot; but
the digicam world has changed a lot in the past 2 years since the
CP800 was introduced.

Well, the Medion has everything I wanted, except aperature-priority
mode. The CF door is on the side (where it should be).  USB works
great, with a standard jack, not some proprietary cable. It uses
standard AA NiMH batteries, which I like.  The package came with not
only an AC adaptor, but a standalone battery charger as well.  Very
nice!  My Nikon had no AC adaptor, no charger, no rechargeable
batteries and crappy software.

The Sony CCD and Ricoh lens work VERY well.  I'm quite pleased with
the photos that I've taken so far. Color haloing is almost
non-existent.  Flash is even and warm, with no hot-spots (thank god). 
Colors are saturated, but not too saturated (like Kodak). Close-up
flash photos of people produce excellent skin tones, a tad on the warm
side (which I prefer).  Sharpness seems very good.

I have read the other postings about this remarkable little
Medion/Jenoptics camera on this group (but only after I bought it).  I
have to agree with the enthusiasts:  This is a LOT of camera for $299!
 I was considering the Fuji 4700; but the Medion has better images.  I
wasn't sure I was going to keep the Medion camera; but now I think I
will.

There are a few let downs, however. The specs say nothing about
autoswitching ISO equivalence; but I'm sure that it is being done,
since noise levels seem to modulate in various light conditions.  The
autofocus is a bit odd, too.  The center-weighting seems to be skewed
away from the center.  I haven't tried all of the modes yet. I would
really have liked some kind of visual indicator of the zoom setting;
but alas, there is none.  Also:  There is an indicator saying "FULL"
on the LCD; but I can't figure out what it's indicating.  It doesn't
seem to change.  Weird. The interface is pretty good; but not perfect
(hey, I design interfaces for a living - I'm really picky!)  Looks to
me like the camera's OS is basically the same as the Sony cameras (but
with fewer features).

Like most digicams, this one isn't quite perfect.  But superior image
quality, great price and ease of use win the day for me.  This camera
is a great value.

Barry Sanders

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