With all of Peter‘s talk about his digital cameras, I figured I’d throw my own hat into the ring.
A few weeks ago, I purchased a Traveler 6.31 Megapixel Digital Camera, from, of all places, Aldi. As mentioned in the comments, the camera appears to be a rebranded Vivitar Vivicam 4000.
Thus far, the camera has worked wonderfully. To start with, it came loaded with accessories – 2 Lithium Ion batteries and charger, a car adapter for charging on the go, a small carrying case with belt loop and plenty of cables for connecting your camera. The 128MB SD card was a bit small, but I have others (more on those another time).
The quality of the pictures has been solid, but I must admit that I haven’t used it nearly as much as I should have. I’ll try and put it through some paces one of these days.
As I understand it, this camera went for $269 over the Christmas holidays, and even at that price it would seem to be a pretty good deal. When I bought mine, they were apparently clearing them out, because it cost only $169, making it seem like a complete steal. I’m very happy with it thus far, but I’ll keep you posted on that if it changes.
Update May 26, 2006: I encountered the “take a couple pictures and the battery dies” problem myself. Thus far, no resolution. It seems that I can take somewhere between two and five pictures and then the camera shuts down, despite the battery having a seemingly full charge.
Luckily the batteries used by the camera are fairly common, though somewhat less so in the US than in the UK. I have found them here (charger here if you need one).
Free shipping on orders over $50, though I’m not sure how long that offer lasts. I’ve used this site before, and their products seem to work just fine – or they have in the past, at any rate. Let me know your experience if you use them and I can update the information here. I haven’t yet decided if I’ll invest more money in this camera or get a new one.
Update August 8, 2006: I ended up purchasing two of the batteries and a new charger from Atbatt.com (as linked above). I used them somewhat extensively on a trip last week, and they worked wonderfully. I have tried charging the old batteries, and they still aren’t working too well, but at least the camera is working again.
Update: Alas, the camera itself finally died, due to my own problems (I dropped it). For some reason, the camera works to some degree – it will go through menus and whatnot, but it won’t actually go through with the taking of any pictures or anything. So I’ve moved on. I have another Traveler camera, and I’ll post a review of it soon. It does not take these batteries, however, so if anyone needs any, contact me using the link below if you need some and make me a fair offer if you’re interested.
Update: The camera and all accessories have been sold. Thanks!
Comments
96 responses to “Traveler Digital Camera”
Can anyone tell me were I can get a manual for the slimline 6.2 in english? The camera is the “DOGS”.
Love the camera. Can’t believe all the features this camara has for the price. I also only paid $169 for my over 6 mp camera!
No problems at all… but why worry… it comes with a 3 year manufact. warranty!
Judy, about post 48, sorry. I see you have the DC 6300, not the X5. If you can determine which “name brand” is the same camera, you can get the batteries same way i sugguested. I recall seeing the DC 6300 as a “name brand”.
Judy, do an internet search for Minolta Dimage E50, which is the same camera, you’ll find replacement batteries for ~$22. can you answer my question above: When in auto-flash mode does the icon on the LCD sometimes briefly go red intermittently for no apparent reason? This means that the flash is charging and a picture can’t be take at the time. My other digicam, a Panasonic, charges the flash at startup and when a picture is taken, but not randomly like this one.
My husband and I have had our Traveler DC 6300 (bought at Aldi also) for over a year now. It’s been great! Love the video recording feature. Draw backs I have encountered so far are low battery life and my shutter button has moved off track some and won’t always work. I’m in the process of trying to find more rechargable batteries. I was told from the hotline to go to http://www.star-battery.com but couldn’t find what I wanted. That’s how I came across this website…searching. Let me know if you find a place that sells them.
I just bought the X5 from Aldi last night for $188, now with a 256 XD card along with the other goodies. Seems like a great deal. However, the battery life (on first full charge, so may get better) is not too good. Also, the camera will occasionally turn the autoflash icon on the display red, at which time a picture can’t be taken. Is this “normal”?
I too was intrigued by the Aldi Traveler digital camera. Aldi has the 5MP version on sale this week for $188. It seems like a sweet deal for the price and after searching for reviews of this camera, I came across this website in case anyone is interested.
If you scroll down, you will see the review for the Traveler Slimline X5 with docking station – which is a version of the Konica Minolta Dimage E50. I chose not to purchase this camera based on that review but still think it might be a deal for the price considering all that you get.
As far as I can tell Aldi’s is getting a real deal here. I am AMERICAN living in Germany. You think you got a deal. I have ALDI here too. They have a 8.1 Megapixal for 259.00 Euro’s equal too about $300 US. (This is fully loaded too.)
I know that Germany is selling them. I am still trying to find out who makes them because they will still work on American computers. I am hoping that the instructions are in English also.
I have been thinking about buying one of these cameras also. I found out that they are made by a German company Supra Foto Electronics.
Solution to download problems with Windows XP:
Bought my camera recently, but had problems with the docking station and downloads to my computer. The helpline gave a hint that led me to try this: Instead of connecting direct to the USB ports on my computer, I connected through a cheap little laptop 4-port USB extension hub, and everything works perfectly every time. My guess is that the hub is USB 1.1 as it has no external power, but what the hell if it works. I get the standard error message telling me that the camera is a USB 2.0 high speed device in a USB 1.1 port, but I should care, and anyway there was no speed at all when it didn’t work! Maybe even a USB extension cable will do the trick.