Agfa ePhoto SMILE 0.2MP Digital Camera

Other features include a built-in flash with four settings: automatic, red-eye reduction, fill-in, and off. Because the Agfa ePhoto Smile uses a serial (RS232) interface to link to a computer, downloading images is relatively simple. This camera is powered by either 2 AA batteries (alkaline, ni-cad, lithium, or NiMH) or an AC adapter (not included).

The Agfa ePhoto Smile digital camera comes equipped with Agfa PhotoWise 2.0 software, soft case, hand strap, serial and video cables, and a one-year warranty. It is compatible with Windows 95, 98, and NT operating systems.

Product Description
Agfa knows it! You hate all those buttons and switches. What you need is simple, uncomplicated technology! Well, Agfa has made it easy with its ePhoto Smile, a light and compact digital camera. Very affordable, the ePhoto Smile is packed with great features, like a 640 x 480-pixel resolution and a built-in flash memory. And the PhotoGenie - a breakthrough Agfa imaging technology - provides the superb image quality. Do it with Agfa!

The fact that you can get a camera with a resolution of 640x480 with this many features for this cheap is quite amazing. However, before you start reaching for your credit card, remember a few things:

1) 640x480 is great, but the compression algorithm (makes the picture smaller in size - this does have an affect on quality) leaves much to be desired. You don't get really clean 640x480 pics out of here

2) If you are going to be using this camera to take pics of items to sell on eBay or other auction sites, or just to toss up on your homepage, this camera does quite nicely.

3) If you are trying to sell a product and want the photo to look professional, this is not the camera for you, check out a camera with an LCD display on the back and that does at LEAST 1024x768.

4) This thing eats batteries. Guess what, so do all digital cameras. Especially those with an LCD display on the back (this one doesn't).

5) It comes with everything you need to get started - camera, software, computer cables, carrying case, etc. You don't have to go out and buy anything else just to get started.

Overall, not a bad camera for the price, but if you want a high quality camera, you need to expect to spend $200-$300 at the bare minimum.


CHEAP, QUICK and DIRTY!   June 6, 2000
Jared Brosch (PURDUE, Indiana)
88 out of 91 found this review helpful

First of all the camera is tiny. It easily fits in one's pocket, and can be transported around without too much bulk. Think about it, you are spending $50-$70 on a digital camera, you are getting what you pay for. People who buy the camera expecting great pictures are fooling themselves. If you want a great camera drop your $300 on another camera, and post a 5-star review over there. This camera for the price is what I expected. THere are some qwirks, but once you muddle through them, you've got a camera, which costs less than most PC/MAC camera's that sit ontop of your monitor, and you can take some decent pictures. Here are some hints if you buy the camera: 1. Register the product on the AGFA web-site and download the latest version of the software (the most recent patch). Until I did this, I couldnt download the pictures. 2. Be wary of the light in your pictures and do NOT include any light sources, only indirect light. 3. ALWAYS USE THE FLASH. 4. When placing the pictures in a web page or an email, reduce the size by about half and the pictures look great! 5. The "Quick Fix" function does a great job, so use it! After learning these simple tips, my pictures are very clean, and look great as an EMAIL picture, or one for the web. This is not the kind of camera to replace your film camera, just one to take fun pictures and send to your friends. If you expect more, you are fooling yourself! Have a good time snapping your cheap digital pictures!


What do you need?   August 24, 2000
Ramon Antonio Garcia Trabanino (El Salvador (Earthquake Valley))
73 out of 74 found this review helpful

Bought one from Amazon and begun immediately to take shots with the included batteries. Agfa's box made me thought it was a toy instead of a real camera. Looks good and is very small (wrong measures detailed on amazon) Beware: it lacks of an LCD screen and you WON'T be able to review your pictures until you get to your PC. When I downloaded (very easy to instal and download, but slooooow transfer over serial port only) my first bunch of photos I found the quality to be TOO BAD to get printed. No way. This camera wasn't for me. It's ok if you want to send brochures or e-mail attachments, but don't point it on your sons at the park: IT IS NOT A TRUE 640x480 camera. It's a tweaked 320x240 I guess. No selections or settings. Gave it to a digital-photo-novice friend and he LOVED it (his first camera). If you want to take pictures of people this is not the camera for you, better go spend some extra bucks, but if you want to make your first digital steps or just take shots for e-mail or brochures it's ok. 4 stars cosidering the price...


Don't waste your time   January 13, 2000
68 out of 73 found this review helpful

This camera's image quality is so bad Agfa should not even bother trying to sell it. The problem is with the camera's image compression algorithm. Instead of evenly dividing up the 2MB of storage space, they thought it might be a good idea to compression each image and cause so much data loss that images show excessive pixilation. I didn't have a problem with the 640x480 resolution or 8-bit color depth just the lousy fuzzy looking images the camera produces. If image quality doesn't matter to you, you might even like the camera's slick serial port hookup, compact size, and top mounted operations options window as well as the excellent Photowise image software utility.


Do NOT even think about it...   February 22, 2000
Ertugrul (Houston,TX)
59 out of 61 found this review helpful

Pics were awful, it hogs batteries, unlike most digital cams there's no power adapter included. Save some more money and buy something decent. I had tried a Casio QV220 about two years ago it was a lot better than this and it was priced about $80 more than this two years ago, I would have thought two years time would have slashed the prices and this one would be about the same quality... WRONG... this camera does not worth it's weigh to carry with you. Pictures are really bad.