Go Go Budget Digitals No 7- Vivitar ViviCam 3745

Back to the early 2000’s with this 3.3.MP camera. The Vivitar ViviCam 3745 was one of legion that of digicams sold under Vivitar branding and you can still buy today. Almost all the models were for the budget end and this is no exception. But is it worth a few quid today ? Oddly that might be yes if you just need a simple digicam but there are issues.

Bridge over NIth . ViviCam 3745. 2024
Iso 100 1/201 f/6.84, Dumfries 2024. Click on images for full size.

Exactly when this camera arrived is unclear. The earlies reference is a 2004 user review on reviewcentre. The manual which is available on the internet archive adds no clues either.

Chunky Monkey – Looks

Vivitar ViviCam 3745
ViviCam 3745 with lens extended when on

Most digital I’ve seen have been fairly svelte. Even the 2xAA Samsung S860 was pretty pocketable, the 3745 is one chunky monkey. In part due to the 4xAA. It’s a heavy beast at 200gms without batteries & SD card which will add about another 130gms. So it can double as a projectile weapon if you’re getting mugged.

Ye Olde Friars Vaults. Vivitar ViviCam 3745. 2024
100 ISO 1/367 f/6.86. Dumfries July 2024

Not that the champagne silver with chrome accent body would survive I suspect. That said it’s rigid enough and has a curved appearance. It wouldn’t win awards but I guess is not untypical for the era (if a bit bulkier)

There is no lens guard just a clear lens cover

Core spec

ViviCam 3745
ViviCam 3745. the optical finder sits at 11 O’clock above the lens

The 1/2.51″ CCD is listed as a 3.3MP but in fact puts out 3.236 MP. It’s not alone in rounding up and really you’ll not miss the 0.74 MP. It coupled to a X3 zoom lens with a 6.2-18.6mm. The lens describes itself as having a 1:2.9-6.3 aperture but the manual suggest the tele end has an aperture range of f/3.02-6.9. The lens use AF which places it above many fixed focus Vivitars of the era. Although no details of the AF system are given.

No details of the metering system are give. The aperture varies from f/2.9-6.9 wide and f/3.02-6.9. Shutter goes from 1/2-1/800 sec. No ISO details described and you can’t alter in menus. Shooting in low light I couldn’t get it higher than 200 ISO and in bright-normal light it shot at 100ISO.

Lamp. ViviCam 3745. 2024
ISO 100 1/576 f/6.86. Dumfries 2024

Video is just 320×240 and has no sound. It seems to focus.

In the Manual mode you can adjust EV ±1.8 in 0.3EV steps. It has auto White Balance plus option to set in manual mode (Sun, Shade, Fluorescent, Tungsten)

SD card support up to 256MB in manual. It sits behind a wee door on the mode dial end of the camera. I tried with both 512MB & 2GB cards. Initially it described an error but if you in device formatted the card it would work and show a correct frame count.

On the other side behind a rubber cover are sockers for a DC power supply, AV out and proprietary USB connector

Flash has a 0.6-2.4m range. There is a 8MB built in memory.

Macro shot ViviCam3745
Macro shot were actually all right. ISO 100 1/676 f/6.86

Layout

This camera features not just a rear colour 1.4″ TFT LCD and optical finder but there is a small monochrome LCD on the top plate.

On the top

The LCD is the big thing here. there is a simple shutter button and mode dial.

Top plate of the Vivitar ViviCam 3745
Top plate of the camera

To the rear of the top LCD you have 3 buttons. One to adjust flash (auto, red eye, forced on, forced off). The middle adjusts quality and and resolution. In default its set to 2048 x 1536 pixels at super fine quality. Click it once drops to fine quality, then normal. But if you click again and the resolution drops to 1024×768 pixels at superfine. Pressing it again drops the quality as at full resolution (fine then normal). It then will return to default starting position

The last button brings up the menu. This varies by mode

Old photo recovered from buffer. ViviCam 3745
One of the old images stored in on board buffer from 2006. ISO 100 f/6.86 1/126

Top plate LCD

That small LCD is key as the main display does not show a lot of info. In fairness this is from the days when film was king and affordable digitals were only just becoming a thing. The rear screen needs to be turned on manually again not uncommon in the old days.

Top LCD on the ViviCam 3745
The LCD shows battery strength, the flash is turned off, higher resolution (arrow pointing to 4×4 grid), superfine quality (3 stars) and 231 images remaining.

In use shows the remain shots, image resolution and quality (see below), flash mode, macro, timer and battery strength. Non e of this is replicated on the main LCD or visible in the finder

Mode Dial

5 setting. You have a setting mode, video mode, playback, standard (shown by a camera icon) and so called manual mode (M with camera). Manual mode isn’t what you think. Its best though of as program mode v the auto mode of normal. In both modes you can adjust the LCD brightness , toggle quick view (see shot after taken) and toggle digital zoom. In manual you get to fiddle with White balance, EV comp and image sharpness.

On the Rear

rear of the ViviCam 3745

The big feature is the LCD. This is quite low resolution. And although typical of the era is poor compared to more modern cameras. Above it is the on/off toggle switch and the optical finder

That finder is simple with no frill. There is nothing in the finder but a single LCD beside it It can turn green ,red or orange and can be solid or blinking indicating camera ready (solid green), charging flash (blinking orange). That said the small indicator can mean more than one thing so the blinking orange in addition to the flash also tells you if the camera is connected by USB or the image is being written.

To the top right is a jog pad for menu options. In Use pushing the centre toggled screen mode (off, on, on no icons). Right side brings up last image and left side puts on macro (focus down to 10cm).

to the side of that are zoom buttons

The LCD is limited in shooting it shows you the mode, macro and timer as icon but nothing else.

In use

Load up with batteries, add card and turn on. You may need to set time and date when you start. The camera takes a wee while to boot up.

As mentioned the LCD is off by default. If you want to use it press the centre of the joy pad. Whether you use it or the viewfinder aim and zoom if needed and depress the shutter. There are no guiding AF zoom squares nor any helpful info. There are no clues in either finder.

LCD of the ViviCam 3745
LCD just shows you a live view and what mode you’re in. Not even a shot count

Depress shutter half way the camera LED will turn red and then green to let you know it’s ready to take a photo -Full press.

Now that’s what should happen but it doesn’t always and you’re left unclear if you’ve actually taken the shot (highly recommend turning on quick review option, at least you know the image is there

This all adds to the lag process.

The LCD darken in bright light. It does mean you can still see an outline of objects at least. But even is duller light it isn’t great. How you could use it for all the DPOF printing malarky these early cameras have is beyond me

Results

Pentax 17 captured on ViviCam 3745
I might actually use this in my Pentax 17 review when I get round to it, Click on image for full size

This actually proved better than I thought it would. My better half had come across the camera while helping clearing a sadly deceased relative’s house. The photos were variable on it but I suspect her late relative had maybe not followed the waiting period needed

Exposure & Dynamic range

Broadly the camera did alright on non complex shots. It clearly has very limited metering capabilities as I can’t cope with backlit scenes very well

underexposed image. ViviCam 3745
Metering for the sky and sun not the foreground here

Flash shots were okay

Dynamic range is not spectacular but typical for a early 2000’s budget number. Don’t expect to see much in the shadows and given there is no spot metering options expect shots to suffer where you get complex lighting. You also tend to see the skies being washed out a bit nearer the ground where a more modern camera would dynamically cope better,

Dynamic range example. ViviCam 3745
f/6.86 1/459 100 ISO

Image colours are a little to vivid for my tastes but that as much a personal thing as anything. But broadly colour replication is okay except it could do with being toned down a bit

Colour intensity a bit overblown here   shot
f/6.86 1/816 ISO 100

ISO & Low light

the camera will do it’s upmost to keep you at 100 IS. All the shots except for this deliberate lo-light test have a 100 ISO (even our grid tests)

Low-Light test shot with ViviCam 3745
200 ISO 1/9 f/2.9.

The image was hand held. It is soft and suffers from shake. Not surprisingly given age and budget there is no VR system. But the wide aperture doesn’t help. There is quite a bit more noise. It’s fine for a web page image. But if you zoom in the details gets lost due to noise as well as soft focus as seen in this 600×600 px crop

Crop of low light image
600×600 px crop of the above image

Optics

Radial distortion is evident on both ends. At wide you get Barrel distortion it’s about what I’d expect on budget zoom.

Radial distortion grid test for Vivitar ViviCam 3745 on wide
wide lens test using test grid on PC

And on wide we have some pincushion distortion. It’s not bad

Radial distortion grid test for Vivitar ViviCam 3745 on tele.
tele lens test using test grid on PC

In good light at 100 ISO a good shot shows reasonable detail. Take this image

The Bridge. ViviCam 3745. 2024
ISO 100 1/294 f/6.8. 2024

IF we crop in to a 600×600 crop detail is okay. You get some edging artefacts but it really is not too bad

Close crop of above shot

Fall off to the corners does occur as you can see by the grass in the below photo but it’s not bad. It’s evident on both wide and tele shots

Water Safety Code. ViviCam 3745
ISO 100 1/253 f/6.86. Dumfries 2024. Click on image for full size

Almost all shots I took on wide were at the narrowest aperture, The metering wisely obviously tries to keep it there to help improve focus via DoF. Closer objects are sharper at both focal lengths. The sign above is reasonably readable.

Frothy Biker. ViviCam 3745
a combination of lens softness and typical budget over processing ruins the sign here. ISO 100 1/735 f/7.05 2014

But both end suffered at extreme long distances for sharpness. The tele end was just perhaps a little weaker than the wide but more likely that was due to picking up movement more obviously. but even on this wide

Broadly images are okay in terms of sharpness but there is an issue that sometimes the AF latches onto something closer or just misses the park

Bronzed. ViviCam 3745. 2014
My target had been the shop opposite but focus has picked out the road nearer my side. ISO 100 1/408 f/6.86

It did alright on most shots but you’ve no way of telling what it’s locking onto. This also means you can go from reasonable sharp images to soft as taffy. So forget this if you want targeted focusing. I guess the intended user would be taking simple shots of landscapes or groups of people.

Macro mode image were generally quite good

Video

Yeah best ignore, we’re talking perfect for capturing cryptid footage if you get my drift (lo-res, noisy and no sound). It does seem to adapt exposure which is something I guess.

Final thoughts on the Vivitar ViviCam 3745

All in this is not awful. It’s not fantastic either but for a early 2000’s budget zoom digi it frankly did better than I expected.

It’s slow and there’s not much AF feedback and the screen is not brilliant

But it actually can take okay images for what it is. It’s outclassed by budget models form the bigger names which cost roughly the same these days but not by much.

What’s Good

  • Better than you’d think
  • Takes AA batteries and standard SD cards
  • In good light acceptable images

What’s not so good

  • Acceptable images
  • slow to start
  • Bulky
  • AF no feedback and not always on point.
  • Video poor quality

Alternatives

For high end early noughties digi-compact the Canon Powershot G1 and it’s successors are true early digital beasts. It’s more basic brother the Powershot A80 is worthy of a sniff but is prone to sensor failure. Nikon’s Coolpix 5600 is another budget digital that out performs this. The 2005 Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ2 wipes the floor with all but the G1 of these however but is a slightly later camera.

There are no other reviews of this camera online other than mentions on review centre as discussed earlier.

One thought on “Go Go Budget Digitals No 7- Vivitar ViviCam 3745”

  1. The viewfinder is the main reason for using older digital cameras. Like the little display on top though.

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