Review of the Benq BenQ DC P500

www.benq.co.uk This is a fairly basic camera, despite the Performancetagline. With basic exposure control, and a manual mode that doesn’t seem to do very much at all. It does offer a Pentax 5x zoom, and 30fps video. Design This is a solid if somewhat boxy model, but looks better than many other entry-level models thanks to its metal shell. The 2.5-in LCD screen is a welcome treat for a camera in this price range, while the controls are average. Performance The P stands for ‘performance’, which begs the question: What kind of Performancecan we expect from a 5MP compact for £140? The camera’s a little slow to start up, and there’s some shutter lag too, which is expected to some degree on compacts, but this is worse than we’d expect. Strangely, the EXIF showed all my exposures were f/1 at 1 second at ISO 99. Image Quality Images are surprisingly reasonable, if a little over processed. Noise is visible in shadows, but there’s plenty of detail and sharpness. Exposures are good too.