Epson PhotoPC L-400 review

It has been over two years since Epson brought us the PhotoPC 3100Z (see issue 84 p145), so the pocket-friendly, 4-megapixel L-400 marks Epson's overdue return to the digital camera market. Choosing to play it safe, Epson has opted for fairly pedestrian specs, with a 3x optical and 3x digital zoom, plus a focal length equivalent to 34-102mm on a conventional 35mm camera. The camera's optics, however, are very good. Our test photos showed no evidence of chromatic aberration and colours were, for the most part, true to the original subject.

It's not all rosy, though, as many of our pictures were marred by a grainy finish. This could be due to the pokey 1/2.5in sensor, as smaller sensors don't have the resolving power of larger devices. In addition, the L-400 frequently complained that things simply weren't bright enough. At noon, in a well-lit conservatory, it insisted on firing the flash when set to auto, as it did when we snapped a test scene illuminated by three 100W household spotlights, each trained on the subject in question.

Switching to more subtly lit surroundings caused serious problems, with our results both saturated and grainy, indicating a slightly lengthy exposure. ISO settings are conservative, ranging from 100 to 400, and we expect most cameras to be fairly noise-free until reaching the top of that scale or beyond. The implication is that the L-400 is only happy in well-lit conditions. Exposure compensation is a fairly ordinary +/-2EV in 0.5EV steps.

Images are stored on a 16MB SD card and power comes in the shape of four AA batteries. We'd have preferred rechargeable cells, but at least the bundled alkalines are easy to replace. Epson claims they should last for 500 shots in normal use, which is more than enough to fill the memory card several times over.

The L-400 squeezed just 11 high-resolution, fine-compression shots, or one minute, 51 seconds of 320 x 240 pixel AVI video, into its allotted 16MB. This includes audio, but unless you drop the resolution to 160 x 120 it shoots in bursts of no more than 60 seconds. At the lower setting, we filmed three minutes, 26 seconds without a break, although there was evidence of banding across the frames.

Using the finest compression setting, we could find no artefacts on any of our stills unless we magnified them considerably. The 'normal' compression level, on the other hand, smoothed out some areas of dense texture, such as carpet, and detail was lost. Macros, though, were excellent.

Build quality is first class, with a frosted metal body, a bright 1.5in LCD and a well-placed optical viewfinder directly above the lens. It's also light and easy to pocket, even with the batteries in place. Our only complaint on the build front was the location of the tripod mount, which is offset from the CCD and so could produce some strange effects if you're shooting panoramas.

The L-400 certainly isn't expensive, and if you're happy to pay an extra £20 you can have a Stylus Photo 830U printer thrown in for PC-free printing direct from the camera. Unfortunately, though, we're not convinced its images are as good as they ought to be. This is a camera that craves bright light, so would be perfect for sunny holidays. In the midst of a rainy British winter, though, it just doesn't cut it, so you should also investigate the Canon IXUS i before parting with your cash.

Author: Nik Rawlinson