LabsSub-£200 compact digital cameras
The BenQ DC C1000 looks a lot better than it feels. The case's black finish gives it an air of luxury that disappears the moment you pick it up. If you were to peel it away, though, you'd find some pretty impressive specs beneath. For starters, the chip produces 10-megapixel images; the shutter can stay open for up to eight seconds, which is enough to produce attractive night-time shots with trailing headlights; and there's a rather generous 24MB of internal memory, which is matched by the Nikon Coolpix S9 and beaten only by the HP Photosmart R727. The aperture range is an impressive f2.8-5.1, which will give you excellent control over depth of field if used properly, but the maximum ISO is only 200. This is disappointing and puts it in joint last place, along
Having taken our pictures, we were unable to mount the C1000 unless we used the specific cable supplied in the box. This is annoying to say the least, because it means you wouldn't be able to keep one connection at work and another at home. Once it did mount, though, we were fairly pleased by the results. The macro shot was detailed, with accurate colours and a narrow depth of field to direct the eye. The outdoor shots of an overcast cityscape were perhaps a little too dark and tended towards the red end of the spectrum, but they were by no means as muddy as the results we got from the Pentax Optio E10. When we zoomed into our scene, though, the ISO remained capped at 100, even though we had disabled the flash. Naturally, the results were blurred by camera shake. They were also blurred when we took interior portraits without the flash, and for the same reason: a low ISO rating of just 100, despite opening the aperture to its f2.9 maximum. When the flash did fire, it was quite fierce, leaving us with a very contrasty result, albeit with well-rendered skin tones. A good effort from BenQ here, but the C1000 is let down badly by the low maximum ISO.
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