I recently got the chance to review GE’s new E850 digital camera. You may remember that I wrote about this camera in the past but that was before I got to take a firsthand look at it. My impression of the camera is not that good and it has a few quirks that might bother some users.

The good is that this is an 8 megapixel camera with a 5x wide angle optical zoom, 28mm to 140mm (35mm equivalent) focal length which is very good, especially for a camera in the $200 price class. It can go up to ISO1600 and has a nice bright 3.0” LCD display.

While the LCD is large and bright, it fails to “gain up” in low light, making low light shooting painful, the reference SD800IS gained up well. Though the SD800IS has a smaller 2.5 inch LCD, it is a slightly higher resolution and is a bit easier to look at.

The manual states that you can only use up to a 4GB SDHC card in the camera, I’m glad to report that this is not a limitation, I have been using my Patriot 8GB Class 4 memory card in the camera without any problems and can shoot just over 2000 pictures in the highest quality mode. I don’t know if I would push past 8GB on the memory but it can go to at least 8GB without a problem. It also doesn’t make sense to me to have it written up like that, do they not want people to use higher capacity memory cards? It doesn’t matter, at least my 8GB card works to full capacity.

Another thing that bothers me is that the multipoint focus system doesn’t tell you what it is focusing on and this option can only be set in manual mode. It’s also odd that when switching back and forth from manual to automatic modes when reviewing the shooting options it will say it is set for multipoint autofocus but scrolling down through the options will say it is set for single point. This is not a problem in manual mode but I honestly think this option should be available in automatic mode, like it is with every other camera on the market.

I wasn’t impressed with the feel of the zoom slider switch, while it works and is serviceable it provides little to no feedback and requires too little force to activate zooming, for some this is a good thing, in my opinion this is a bad thing because you could accidentally hit the zoom without meaning to, but it would be hard to do. I prefer either the rocker types of switches on the back of the camera or those that have the zoom lever around the shutter button.

Generally the feel of the controls on the back were nice, everything has a nice satisfying click to it when you activate something or switch modes. There is a dedicated button for face detection and the face detection technology in this camera works and works well, it never failed to find a human subject and automatically focus on them.

The camera itself feels nice to hold though it is mostly plastic, it has the weight of a camera that would be made of all metal. It is a nice glossy black color with silver accents but that glossy black plastic is a magnet for finger prints and so is the LCD screen though the LCD is protected on this camera by a hard casing.

Any good point and shoot camera should have a fast startup time. The startup time on the E850 is sluggish but this is partially due to the fact that it likes to display the GE logo every time it starts up. The time to get going on the camera is about 3 to 4 seconds but as I said, it’s delayed a little bit because the company wants to remind you that you are using a GE camera, even though the logo is right on the front.

That 4 second startup time seems dirt slow after using a PowerShot SD800IS for the past few months. The SD800IS is ready to go the second you hit the power button.

It’s cruel to compare the E850 to the SD800IS but both are point and shoot models in the same relative class. Granted, this is GE’s first attempt and amount to an “okay” first attempt. Autofocus times were just a shade slower than the SD800IS, as were cycling times between shooting and taking pictures.

The tripod mount on the camera is located on the extreme left side of the camera and is made of plastic, this is far from the most stable mount you could have. Cameras should have a metal tripod mount situated in the middle of the camera for stability and durability purposes. This one has neither but I’ve yet to mount any point and shoot to a tripod, some of you might so this is something to be aware of.

The AV port cover is located directly above the tripod mount, I guarantee the first thing on this camera you are going to break is that port cover, as it’s very flimsy and very, very fragile.

The E850 isn’t the best performer but at the $200 price point it still has a slew of other features. Let’s go ahead and take a look at image quality.

Almost all the low light shots using the flash had too much noise in them, not to the point of being completely unusable but when compared to the images taken by the Canon PowerShot SD800IS showed more imperfections. Though, the shots would still be usable as 4 x 6 prints or shrunken web images.

The stabilized shots were even worse, instead of using an optical stabilizer the GE E850 increases ISO settings and turns off the flash to compensate for motion, the results are the exact opposite of spectacular. These images were laced with noise almost to the point of being completely unusable but were not quite that bad. I wouldn’t want to enlarge them at all 4 x 6 prints are questionable though they were useable as web shots.

Nearly all the low light shits with flash or without flash taken by the PowerShot SD800IS had less noise but that’s exactly what I would expect. It should be noted that the noise in the GE E850 was quite bad and unacceptable for almost every ISO setting when compared to the competition.

Also, the indoor shots seemed to be better exposed and brighter on the SD800IS.

Pro:

Large 3.0” LCD display

5x optical zoom with 28mm to 140mm focal length

Dedicated face detection mode button

Solid memory and battery compartment cover

Nice build quality

Cons:

Case attracts finger prints easily

Placement of tripod mount

Flimsy and very breakable AV out port cover

A bit heavy

Could be smaller

Startup time could be faster

At $200, the GE E850 looks good on paper but it doesn’t have the performance to go along with it. It’s possible to do worse but not by much. If you simply must have those 8 megapixels then the E850 might be for you but you can buy better performing lower megapixel cameras for the same price or slightly less, it would be hard for me to suggest the E850 be on your shopping list.

Maybe next time, GE, try purchasing the imaging processors and sensors from Canon.

Related:

Pentax set to launch new Optio series cameras in September

GE announces 9 new cameras at PMA 2008

Single use digital cameras fail on all counts

General Electric offers 8 megapixel E850 digital camera for $200

Samsung L77 reviewed, long zoom, slim body, sluggish performance

Entry was posted on Tuesday, August 14th, 2007 at 1:30 pm under Digital Camera, New Products, Point and Shoot.

Read more entries by Jonathan Schlaffer.