I thought this combined with the AV340 would be a great all-in-one device... I ended up buying a Kyocera SL300R Camera which boots in less than 1 second and can shoot 2.5 frames per second to the limits of the SD card (get 256MB) and does video to the limits of the card. Better, smaller, faster and not much more expensive.

All in all the Archos AV340 is a very cool device but the AVCam 300 attachment, while a great concept, leaves much to be desired.


Nice Cam, but does lack in areas   December 25, 2003
 20 out of 21 found this review helpful

The ARCHOS AVCam was a main factor in my purchasing of the base unit the AV340. I just recieved my Cam and I was impressed in some areas and not so impressed in others. First, it is a bit steep in price at around $200.00, but it is a camera and camcorder. I've taken probably 100 pictures already today, and when you hold it steady, and have the right lighting the pictures come out amazingly well. However, you shake the camera little bit or the lighting in the room isn't the greatest the pictures can turn out a little on the mediocre side. I was impressed with the camcorder part of the package though which you can switch to in seconds from the camera. It takes good videos unless it's really dark. You can make it lighter, but for the most part the videos turned out pretty good. A few of the downers besides price are it eats the batteries like crazy. I was actually kinda shocked at how fast the batteries drained. It's not instantaneous but be prepared to recharge the ARCHOS often if your taking alot of pictures or videos. Also, it does make the AV340 heavier, and the whole thing isn't that light anyways. Overall I would reccomend getting this if you have the ARCHOS AV300 series and the money to spend on it. Hopefully with future firmware updates and maybe a battery with a longer life this will become an even better camera than it already is.