In this video we're going to be looking at this camera that's the Concord 3045 from 2005. Now
we know what you're thinking never heard of it! Based in Hollywood that's Hollywood Florida not la
la land Concord made affordable cameras under many brand names including Accomplishments, Concord,
Concord IQ, Fun Shooter, Easy Shot... you get the idea they produced loads of cameras
under loads of different brand names, none of them really were household names.
They also produced many cameras for stores own brand labels and also for a short while
produce cameras under the Polaroid and Jenoptics brands.
The specs for this camera in 2005 weren't ground-breaking by any means but they weren't
that far off what the likes of Canon Nikon and Sony were offering in the <£200 compact camera
market. Looking at the front of the camera it's your average compact camera fare with a flash,
lens and viewfinder and decoration of its pixel count, which of course was the norm in the
noughties - it proudly displays a sticker listing all of its main features. The lens is fixed
and has an f stop ranging between f2.8 and f8 the focal length is 47 millimetres and
we do have the option of a, mmm lovely, 4x digital zoom - that's going to make the picture quality
fantastic! It does have macro and wide mode settings which is available by using a switch
on the side of the camera. Overall the camera is very much a light affair,
weighing in at 100 grams without batteries and feels unsurprisingly plasticky. The body
features a curved end on one side to attempt some kind of ergonomics, along with a thumb grip
on the back, but that shiny silver paint is so typical of the time is far too slippery to
obtain a real firm grip. On the back of the camera we have the viewfinder, a 1.5 inch screen, buttons
to select the self timer, burst mode and zoom in and out with that wonderful 4x digital zoom.
I'll be quite honest, the camera does actually have more features than you would expect in such
a cheap and cheerful camera. Using the mode dial on the top of the camera, we can move the camera
out of auto and put it into manual where we can change things like the white balance and
alter the exposure of the image. We can also set the date and time of the
camera we can also switch off all those really irritating beeps this thing makes! A swift
twist of the mode dial and we're into the video mode which was quite exciting for 2005.
Now we're going to be shooting in AVI video a maximum resolution of 640 by 480. wow!
Best feature, or possibly worst in reality, is the fact that you can record your own voice
using this little device. That's right if you want to sound like a Cyberman from
Doctor Who trapped in a linen closet then this is the camera for you! [ camera audio:
this is a test how does this camera record your voice and how does it sound].
As was typical of the time this camera can also be used as a webcam and connect directly to your PC.
It even sports a little tripod mode. That's enough waffle from me
so only one thing left to do let's take it out and shoot some photos.
I'm out this morning with the Concord camera and we'll see
what kind of photographs we can get with it. It's midday there's plenty of light in the sky
and it's overcast so hopefully not too much in the way of harsh shadows for the camera to try
and cope with. We'll see what 3.1 megapixel images on this little Concord camera actually look like.
Back home after the trip out with a little Concord and well what did you
think? I thought the images came out pretty good considering this is only a three megapixel camera.
The macro setting is a little bit of a misnomer if you get too close to your
subject then you'll find that the images will be out of focus. That said when you do nail the focus
the images are quite sharp nicely detailed and the colours are vibrant.
In the wide angle mode the images were different again. Now usually in a cheap point-and-shoot you
tend to expect blown out highlights that type of thing. This was a different setup on the Concord,
it seemed to latch onto a sky quite easily and expose for that sky
correctly but obviously you would then find that anything on the ground was a little dark.
All the images in this video have not been treated in Photoshop in any way they are straight off the
camera jpeg so those colours are pretty good, as I say with the wider shots you do get that sort of
slightly darker look to the images something that could obviously be
addressed in post if you wished. On the whole I didn't think the concord 3045 was that bad,
I thought the image quality was quite good, especially the camera of its era certainly
better than the Lego camera I tested a few weeks ago, even if it doesn't look quite as cool!
Let me know what you think of the images in the comments below and if you've enjoyed this
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