Konica Revio KD-400Z is all metal, mostly brushed aluminium
surfaces, with a few chrome accents.The camera is compact,
solid, and very well finished.
The
Konica Revio KD-400Z is a small camera, comparable in size to Canon's
Elph (IXUS) line, with which it bears some resemblance.
Sliding back the lens barrier of the KD-400Z provides a surprise. As a
"Windows Start-like" sound clip plays, the camera's bright blue
AF assist lights, mounted under the lens, erupt in a display not unlike
the mothership's light show in the movie, Close Encounters of the
Third Kind.
A glance at the top of the KD-400Z shows it to support only the shutter
release, and a small microphone. The shutter is 2-stage, providing Autofocus
and AE lock when half-pressed.
To the left of the microphone, logos indicate another characteristic of
the KD-400Z: its compatibility with both SD/MMC (Secure Digital
and MultiMedia memory cards) and Sony Memory Stick. Also worth
noting, the KD-400Z has 2MB of internal flash memory, which can be used
to store 640 x 480 pixel images.
Aside
from the shutter release, all the other controls are on the back of the
KD-400Z. Three buttons are placed above the 1.5 inch LCD screen. Starting
on the left, these are for:
Playback
Mode button, which works whether the camera is On or Off.
to
turn the LCD screen On or Off; or switch the picture information
display On and Off.
the
Delete button.
On
the opposite side, the KD-400Z provides controls for the zoom:
moves
the zoom lens to the telephoto position, and in Playback magnifies
an image being shown on the LCD screen up 9X.
moves
the zoom lens to the wide angle position, and zooms out of a magnified
photo.
Two more
controls are provided on the lower back of the camera. The biggest is
a 4-way control that serves not only to navigate the KD-400Z's menus,
or scrolling around when a magnified picture is displayed, but also to
select:
the Flash Modes with the right arrow (Auto, Red Eye Reduction,
Fill-In, Slow Sync, Forced Off).
or,
with the left arrow, Macro mode, Landscape mode, Self-Timer
mode, Self-Timer and Macro- mode, Self-Timer and Landscape mode.
Last, a small button next to the LCD screen serves to:
call
up the menus, or confirm a selection.
The Konica
Revio KD-400Z is a point and shoot camera. It is easy to operate and fast
reacting. From the time the lens barrier is slid back, to the time the
camera is ready to shoot takes about 1 second. Once the picture is taken,
the camera takes less than 4 seconds to store a 4-megapixel image, at
the highest image quality (approx. 1.7MB). This is a very responsive and
classy camera; and one that is fun to use.
