ARGUS DC3500 2MP Digital Camera

The 10-second self-timer comes in handy when you're taking group photos or a self-portrait. It comes with a built-in 8 MB flash memory as well as a CompactFlash card slot for additional memory storage. You can directly download the pictures onto your computer using the included USB cable and software. Argus offers a one-year warranty.

After reading the other reviews, I bought a charger and 8 AAA NiMH batteries. i'm glad I did. They weren't kidding, this thing ate up the alkaline batteries in less than 10 pictures. But, the NiMH batteries are great. I've taken over 30 pictures on my first set and it's still going. I was going to find an AC adapter but now I think that two sets of NiMH batteries make this a very useable camera (it just isn't useable with alkaline).

Another draw back is that both the optical view finder and the lcd screen don't reflect the true picture framing. I can understand the optical view finder being off but why would the lcd display be off? It's best to use the lcd since it errs on the small side and while the optical view finder makes you think you're getting everything in the picture when you're not.

Also, the small size and light weight of the camera make it a little hard to hold steady while shooting causing some blurred images. This is not too big of a deal, I'm already learning to make special effort to hold it steady.

The buttons on the back of the camera are really hard to push. Sometimes you can push them, feel the click, but it hasn't actually been pushed. This is kind of annoying but, Once again, you get used to it.

Finally, an optical zoom would be nice but for the price you can't expect everything.

That's the bad side. The good side is that you get a 2 megapixel camera for half the price of any other one on the market. The pictures come out very well. There are a lot of nice adjustments like +/-EV and several different white balance settings. It also comes with a soft case which is a nice bonus.

Other things you'll need with this camera:
-8 AAA NiMH batteries and a charger
-digital imaging software - it comes with PhotoSuiteIIISE which is too stripped down to do anything but give you a taste of what a full blown program can do
-A compact flash card - the price of these is plummeting so grab 128Mb

Once again, For the price, you absolutely can't go wrong.

I broke The Nikon 775 - the... Digital Camera, I borrowed from work. Yes that camera had better software - but it stops THERE.

The ARGUS is very compact, has an LCD screen and once you buy an additional card and card reader... you are SET to run with the big dogs!

If you decide in a year or two you have gone PRO, then by all means, [get] a Nikon, but for your learning phase, this camera ROCKS!

But was I wrong. I've owned several digital cameras including the two Olympus, two Cannon's one Nikon and my current Canon D-60. This camera really surprised me, especially for the value and surprising reasonable picture quality. Battery life with 4-AA rechargeable Ni-mh batteries has been as good as my Nikon 950. Picture quality is good; surprisingly good. ...The downloads from the camera to my PC have gone very easily as the camera was instantly recognized by my XP machine at home. I've not bothered using the onboard software as XP can handle photos fine.

I had a week to make up my mind if I wanted to keep the camera, and the decision is quite easy - it is a keeper. This is an inexpensive good camera and will make a good gift for my son who is off to college this fall.

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