DXG-506V Digital Camera

Picking this camera up, I immediately noticed how lightweight it was, even with the batteries. This was in part due to the fact it does not take a heavy lithium block battery, but instead takes 4 AAA batteries. The four brand new batteries I put in the camera, lasted approximately 4 days of off and on use, but they are easier to replace than a proprietary cell and charger. I could take this camera to the desert and still find a store that could sell me batteries.

That being said, the fact it was light did not make it feel ‘fragile’, I felt like this little beauty could actually take a little bit of abuse. (Not that I abused it to find out!)

Electronics should feel natural in your hands. Your mouse, your cell phone, your mp3 players are all designed to sit in your hand and feel like they belong. This camera holds well in a small hand, and would be very comfortable for kids to use, but meatier mitts may have trouble. However, the way it seems to naturally sit in a right hand, partly caused by the balance of the unit, causes the holder’s forefinger to cover the flash.

That being said, lefties can rejoice, you’re not left out. I found this camera to be more comfortable and functional in my left hand, because the flipped out screen balanced on the side of my hand and I did not need to grip it the same way I did with my right hand, and therefore did not cover the flash.

Button placement is perfect; it’s all in the thumb. All were easy to use and had a good ‘click’ feel when pressed. The design was intuitive both physically and in the on-screen menus. I never had to open the instruction manual, just as it should be. The lens cap fit REALLY tight at first and felt like I was going to crush the entire camera putting it on, but that loosened up and was never an issue after the first day. Just a note, remove the smaller lens cap strap before you thread the wrist strap into the camera loop, trust me on this one.

This camera comes with lots of supplemental accessories, a carrying case, lens cap, software, USB & AV cables, the list goes on, but the one little thing it was missing, and I found very odd, was there’s no tripod attachment, there is no way to mount this camera onto a standard tripod, which means you’d have to use a beanbag type support.