The Agfa CL20 provides an ideal introduction to digital photography and a good replacement for a traditional point-and-shoot film camera. The camera comes packaged with a case, hand-strap, USB cable, AA batteries, software on CD, mini camera mount and, usefully, a printed quick-start guide. The provided software includes PhotoWise 3.0 for arranging your pictures, VideoImpression for making videos, Microsoft Netmeeting for video-conferencing.
Agfa have clearly focused on ease of use with the CL20 -- camera controls are limited to on/off slider, shutter release, 3 mode selectors and a button which activates the AGFAnet Print Service program on the PC. There is however no LCD panel at the back for previewing and reviewing pictures.
The camera fits snugly into the palm of the hand and is the size of a small film camera, measuring just 95 x 65 x 35mm. It comes with only 1 MB of internal memory which is good for 6 images at high resolution (1280x960), 10 images at medium resolution (1024x768) and 30 images at low resolution (512x384). Agfa have also included a Type 1 CompactFlash slot for further storage.
The images produced by the CL20 at high resolution are crisp and clear and generally have a good colour balance. They are of sufficient quality to produce prints at the normal 6x4" size. One criticism of the CL20 is that the delete function is slow and is limited to either removing all pictures or just the last taken.
Agfa also provide access to their own printing bureau. The process is straightforward; simply connect the camera via USB and press the button on the camera. This starts up the Print Service program that prompts for selection of photos, selection of print service and entry of payment and delivery information. The service was tested using Bonusprint. The prints were of good quality and were competitively priced when compared to the total cost per print for standard film development.--Nick Baxter