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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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
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
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,
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
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)
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
Optics
Radial distortion is evident on both ends. At wide you get Barrel distortion it’s about what I’d expect on budget zoom.
And on wide we have some pincushion distortion. It’s not bad
In good light at 100 ISO a good shot shows reasonable detail. Take this image
IF we crop in to a 600×600 crop detail is okay. You get some edging artefacts but it really is not too bad
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
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.
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
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.
The viewfinder is the main reason for using older digital cameras. Like the little display on top though.