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BenQ DC C1050

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Performance

Start-up time is reasonably quick once you've turned off the start-up image. The camera freezes just a little too long after taking a picture, making it slightly difficult to take pictures in quick succession. This is improved if you turn off the option to review each picture for three seconds after it's captured, which isn't a very helpful feature anyway as you can't delete the image if you don't like it.

Burst mode cranks out a slightly asthmatic 0.5 frames per second but will happily continue taking pictures for several minutes. Our model only stopped when the 1GB memory card was full after 5 minutes of continuous snapping. The screen unfortunately goes black while it's capturing images, so you need to compose your images carefully before hitting the shutter. This does seem to defeat the point of using the burst mode to capture sport or movement, as you're unable to follow the action onscreen.

Battery life isn't great, but the advantage of AA batteries is that they're easily available. You won't ever be caught out without a charger when the batteries give out.

Image quality

Picture quality on the DC C1050 is good. Detail isn't quite as crisp as you might expect from a 10-megapixel camera, but it still produces strong images. There's some evidence of purple fringing on high-contrast areas, but it's not severe. Our only real criticism is that colors feel somewhat muted, and there's no option to alter the color settings or boost the saturation.

ISO levels start at 50, and go up to 1,000. Noise appears at ISO 400 but is acceptable even up to 1,000. At its maximum sensitivity, images are grainy but are not as horrifically smeared as images produced by some other compacts at similar settings.

The DC C1050 performs well in low light, although you're better off avoiding the digital image stabilization mode and using shutter priority to set a slightly slower shutter speed coupled with a lower ISO. Noise is a problem in darker conditions at ISO 1,000 but settings of 200 and 400 are relatively untroubled by unsightly speckles.

Conclusion

The BenQ DC C1050 is a straightforward, chunky compact. It won't win any prizes for styling or innovation, but it's tasteful, reliable and simple to use.

The most distinguished feature is the continuous mode, which isn't supersonic, but will merrily snap all day.

 
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