Rollei Powerflex 210-HD Point & Shoot

Key Features

As part of Powerflex series of digital cameras from Rollei comes the 210-HD Bridge camera. A bridge camera is a type of camera that finds middle ground between a point-and-shoot and a DSLR camera. This makes the 210-HD an ideal choice for those looking to make an informed and gradual transition from a compact digital camera to a DSLR. It is also a very sensible choice for those looking to get as close to a DSLR as possible without having to spend a great deal of money.

A common feature among most bridge cameras is the availability of long range zoom lenses, and the Powerflex 210-HD certainly doesn’t disappoint in that aspect. With an operational focal length of 4.5 to 94.5 mm or a 35 mm equivalent of 25 – 525 mm, this Rollei 210-HD offers very advanced levels of optical and digital zoom functions.

Featuring a mind-blowing 21x optical zoom along with 5x of digital zoom, this Rollei bridge camera gives you unprecedented magnification. This superior zooming ability along with the camera’s CCD image sensor lets you capture images at an amazing 16 megapixel resolution. This gives the Rollei 210-HD the ability to record high quality videos with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at 30 fps.

As with the design of most bridge cameras, the 210-HD is closely comparable to a standard or a basic DSLR in shape and size, managing to weigh 355 g which is excluding the batteries and memory card. The back panel of this Rollei bridge camera sports a 3 inch LCD colour display. Apart from letting you view the images from memory, this LCD screen also doubles as a live-viewfinder, thus compensating for the absence of an optical viewfinder.

Battery and Storage

The 210-HD from Rollei features an inbuilt memory of 128 MB which helps to speed up the camera’s operations and the image processing time. But the camera’s main memory storage device comes in the form of an SD, SDHC or SDXC memory card that is upgradable up to 64 GB. This Rollei bridge camera gets its power from 4 disposable or rechargeable AA alkaline batteries.

Performance

The aperture control lets you adjust the amount of light that falls on the image sensor, which on this Rollei ranges from f/1:3.1 - f/5.8. Featuring an autofocus function with a range that spans from 100 cm (Wide) and 150 cm (Tele) to infinity, the 210-HD also has macro focus capability.

The light sensitivity of this Rollei bridge camera is from ISO 100 to 6400, which lets you take clear high quality images even under insufficient light. The camera also features a wide range of adjustable shutter speeds to help you achieve your desired result. The 210-HD operates with a maximum shutter speed of 1/2000 sec to a minimum of 15 sec.

The low light capability of this camera is further increased with the integration of an inbuilt pop-up flash. This can be used in various pre-set flash modes that include Auto, Red-eye Reduction, Slow Sync, Forced On and Forced Off. Using the camera’s high-speed USB 2.0 port, the files recorded on the memory card can easily be transferred to a PC or a laptop. It also features an analog audio/video output, capable of transmitting both PAL and NTSC signals.

Features

The Face Detection function identifies and locks-on to the faces within the frame, so it can give priority to the clarity of the faces and not to the other low priority elements. To further tweak the feel and temperature of the image, there are  pre-set white balancing settings that include Auto, Incandescent, Fluorescent, , Daylight, Cloudy and Custom for you to choose from. The self-timer function on the Powerflex 210-HD lets you delay the shutter release by 2 or 10 seconds, making self-portraits or group shots extremely fun and convenient.