A year after joining the race for digital camera supremacy, GE is out to prove that their initial success was no fluke. They open their case with their new release, the E1050TW.
On the surface, this cam impresses: three-inch touchscreen, 10.1 megapixels, 5x zoom and 28mm wide lens and an HD-resolution video capture mode. Despite all of this, no one's about to anoint it as "the one."
The E1050TW's touchscreen doesn't falter for the most part. There's no time for watching grass grow here -- read: it operates without a glitch, no annoying processing delay. The buttons are also large enough for your Hulk-sized digits. One imperfection though might scare you once you learn of it: the screen can be quite difficult to view against sunlight. but that's a weenie's excuse not to get this.
Image quality is another hit and miss affair. There's a slew of top-tier features to drool over: Face, Smile and Blink Detection, Images Stabilization, Panorama stitch , which is by the way, quite a doozy. You can stitch three images together to create one wide shot, but image quality is quite on the average side. The culprit: the quality of photos it generates at different light settings are inconsistent. The level of detail and definition is also something to worry about. Bottom line is, you're getting what you pay for.
Looking at the camera's price tag, those "few" shortcomings are quite forgiveable. Or you can also find comfort in the HD video mode, which is a welcome bonus.
Specs at a glance:
Resolution: 10 megapixels
Lens: 28-140mm, 5x optical zoom
Screen: 3-inch touchscreen LCD
Card Slot: SDHC
Special Features: 18 shooting modes, HDTV output, 720p video recording
Size/Weight: 92.5x57x23.5mm/145g
