REVIEWS / POINT AND SHOOT / OLYMPUS

Olympus VG-140 Review

10 Dec, 2011, 3:55 pm IST | by Roydon Cerejo | Point and Shoot

Point and Shoot

Stylish looks

Stylish looks
Poor screen and button quality
Decent zoom levels

PRICE IN INDIA

Free

TECH2 RATING

6.0

AVERAGE USER RATING

7.5

How we test

CONTACT

OLYMPUS

The new VG-140 point and shoot from Olympus is the middle child in their ‘Smart V’ series. This camera is designed for a beginner or for someone who wants a basic shooter for those weekend trips to the beach. It packs in quite a decent feature set as well like 720p video recording, 5x optical zoom and plenty of scene modes to play around with. Let’s see if its performance matches up to its trendy looks.

Design and Build
Available in three colour trims, the VG-140 sports a full metal body making it quite sturdy and durable. The camera was still working fine after being dropped a few times (accidentally, of course!). The camera is fairly slim at just 9.3mm in depth and quite light as well at 125g, even with the battery. The design and aesthetic is trendy, which will definitely appeal to the fairer sex. There’s quite a bit of chrome bits all over as well, which makes it lean more towards looking a bit cheap, but that’s just my personal taste. In the front, we have the xenon flash, along with the AF assist light. The microphone is placed towards the bottom along the rim of the lens.

Stylish looks

Stylish looks

 


There’s a provision for the handstrap and microUSB port on the right, while the power and shutter release buttons are placed on the top. The VG-140 uses a Li-ion rechargeable battery (650mAh) that can be charged from the camera itself. This means you need not remove the battery to charge it, which is quite convenient. The compartment that separates the SD card from the battery is very flimsy and can be damaged when inserting the battery, if not careful.

Poor screen and button quality

Poor screen and button quality

 


All the controls are in the back, starting with a large 3-inch LCD display. There isn’t any optical viewfinder present here, since this is designed to be a basic, budget camera. Starting from the top, we have buttons for zoom, video recording, picture review, four-way navigation, menu and help. The quality of plastic used is quite poor and the fit and finish feels flimsy. The VG-140 comes with a carry pouch, charging cable, video-out cable and driver disk. Overall, the camera is compact and slim, but we aren’t completely sold on the fit and finish of the device.

Features
The VG-140 is fitted with a 14MP sensor that uses their own lens. It has a 5x optical zoom with an equivalent focal length of 26-130mm. DIS mode let’s you shoot using high ISO settings with faster shutter speeds for reduced blur.

Decent zoom levels

Decent zoom levels

 


The interface is pretty straightforward. To change the shooting modes, you hit left or right on the navigation pad and then scroll down to fine tune the settings. Scene mode lets you choose from a variety of settings like Sunset, Self Portrait, Indoor Sport, etc. Magic mode gives you access to various effects like Pin Hole, Fish Eye, Soft Focus, etc and a newly added Sparkle mode. Along with Panorama mode, we have Program mode that let’s you adjust the ISO setting. You can choose from ISO 80 all the way up to ISO 1600. The main menu is very easy to navigate through as well. In case you’re not sure what a particular menu does, simply hit the help button for an explanation. Video recording maxes out at 720p at 30fps. 

The quality of the viewfinder is not great, as there’s some noticeable banding and colours appear muted and dull. Also, the viewing angles are too great.

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Design - Build Quality and Features


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The Tech2 Labs receives many products every single week and each of them is tested with the utmost care and highest level of objectivity. There’s a constant effort to reduce and totally eliminate subjectivity. Each product is tested according to set test processes so the same test scenario is used.

Verdict
The ratings awarded to a product are derived from a number of tests and calculations, keeping certain important factors in mind. These factors consist of features, performance, quality and value for money. In case of software and some other categories, build quality might be replaced with ease of use or ease of installation. Products are compared with other products in a similar price range or product category.


Features
The features component of the score is rated based on the kind of features present on a particular product. Features are a big part of what people look for when they’re buying a new product such as a phone or a camera.

Performance
The performance score is derived from the benchmarks and tests run on the product. In case of the subjective scores, an average of the scores given by the group of reviewers is considered.

Build Quality
The build quality of a product is important so that it doesn’t fall apart after some use. The build quality scores from the way the product is designed and the kind of materials used in the product.

Value
Value for money comes from the fact that a cheap product is able to provide most of the performance of a higher priced product. Once again, value for money is judged by comparing pricing and performance of products in a particular price range or category. 

There are many other aspects of the product that are looked at such as the bundled software and accessories. All of these scores are aggregated together to form the final score.

What do the ratings mean?

Ratings are simple - higher the score, the better the product. A brief listing of the features and what they mean are given below.

1 - 3

The product is bad in almost every aspect. We strongly advise against purchasing this product.

4 - 6

An average product that isn't the best you can buy, but isn't the worst either.

7 - 8

Product with this rating is highly recommended because it's priced sensibly, has a good set of features and performs well.

9 - 10

Exceptionally excellent product with features and performance unlike any we've seen in the past. A must-have for everyone!

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We at Tech2 take product reviewing very seriously and every product is tested with the utmost care and level of objectivity. The end user who buys a particular product and uses it over an extended period of time has his own take on a product and there might be nuances that he or she can shed light on. The Average User Rating is present to help readers get the complete picture of how good or bad a product is. The Average User Rating is calculated by averaging the ratings by the thousands of readers visiting Tech2.com every single day. To record your own rating of a product, simply click on the user rating bar. If you disagree with our ratings or our community's product rating, please don't hesitate from voicing your opinion in the comments section below the review.

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