Creative DC-CAM 3200Z Review

The 3200Z features a 3X f/2.6-4.9 all-glass aspherical zoom lens. When the camera is powered down the lens is retracted inside of the body and a built in lens cover closes to completely protect the lens.

An autofocus system permits the camera to automatically select the primary subject. Focusing range is approx. 20 inches to infinity in normal mode and macro coverage is approx. 4 inches to 20 inches.

The built in flash offers Auto, On (fill-flash), Off, or Red-Eye Reduction.

You can frame your pictures with the color LCD or to save precious battery power you can use the optical finder. It has no dioptric adjustment. Next to the finder in an LED that indicates the flash, write, and focus status.

On the top is just the shutter release.

Along the top is the Record / Play mode switch. Next to that is the Zoom controls. The 4-way controller lets you navigate menus and select images during playback. In record mode you press "Up" to change from Still capture or movie mode and in playback mode it acts as the delete button. Press "Down" to select the self- timer and continuous shooting mode. Pressing the "Left" button changes the focus mode. By pressing the "Right" button you can Quick Preview your shots. Under the LCD (left to right); the SET button accepts menu selections and selects the flash mode (Auto, On, Off, Red-eye reduction), the MENU button calls up and dismisses the menu screens, and the DISPlay button turns the color LCD on/off and controls the amount of data displayed on it.

See the next page for more information about the Record mode and playback menus.

The I/O ports: TV Out handles video (NTSC or PAL format) to connect to a TV set with the supplied cable. The DIGITAL port uses USB 1.1 to connect to the computer for downloading images and printing to DPOF (Direct Print Order Format) compliant printers.

The DC-CAM 3200Z is equipped with 16MB of internal flash memory and supports the use of SD/MMC memory cards up to 256MB.

The 3200Z can be powered by two standard AA-type batteries, alkaline or NiMH (nickel metal hydride) cells. Check out our NiMH rechargeable battery page for more info on NiMH battery types.