4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Meade CaptureView - Very Angry
Date of Review: Dec 24, 2003
The Bottom Line: No recommendation here for product or Meade company.
I purchased the Meade Captureview Digital Camera Binoculars. I took some test pictures in the house and lighting was bad so pictures came out horrible. That was okay, did not expect to work good, just testing. I took pictures outside and they came out fairly well. I was driving from New Jersey to Florida to see Dolphins-Eagles football game. What a great time to have this product. I took pictures along the drive and some at first half of the game. The picture counter was up to 102 pictures. So, I took some more pictures and noticed the counter was now at '000'. Somehow, it wiped out all '102' pictures. The battery level was fine. What happened? I did not erase pictures myself by mistake.
So, I snapped some more of the game and halftime Miami Hall of Fame retirement event for Duper and Clayton along with my idol, Dan Marino. I kept checking the counter and battery icon and both were fine. I then snapped more pictures after game and along ride home. The counter showed '210' pictures.
Well, I get home on Thursday and went to download the pictures, it beeped, and the counter went back to '000'. IT ERASED ALL MY PICTURES. I drove 2,100 miles with NOTHING to show for it. I reread instructions and it stated that the camera has 60 seconds of memory storage to change batteries. I then put fresh batteries again and took more pictures and replaced battery for testing purposes. Each time I changed batteries within 10 seconds, and each time the pictures were erased.
I called Meade on the phone and they said they knew about it and it was a misprint in the instructions. Anytime you replace batteries, or they are dead, YOU LOSE ALL PICTURES. They admitted it was their mistake and I quote, "We are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused". Are you kidding? I lost ALL pictures for this 'once in a lifetime trip'. What a waste with no kind of replacement. If I was not returning it, I would have smashed it against the wall. Anyhow the 1 star rating was because it would have been a great concept because a regular digital camera really does not have a good zoom.
