GE's E850 digital camera gets reviewed: it's not so good

GE sounded pretty cocky when it announced its first entries into the crowded digital camera market earlier this year, with the company's lead of sales is running around saying things like, "Our aim is to be Number 1 in all aspects – quality, technology, performance and value – and these cameras will do that." Unfortunately, however, it doesn't look GE is going to reach that goal as fast as they'd hoped -- Photography Blog got their hands on the 8 megapixel E850 model and although the design and price are attractive, the camera itself took "horrible" pictures and suffered from sluggish performance. According to the reviewer, the E850 has "the worst noise performance" he's ever seen, and the higher ISO settings make "great impressionistic paintings out of your photos." Ouch. All in all, it looks like you're better off spending your $200 elsewhere -- sorry about that, GE fanboys.

[omnicloud @ Aug 14th 2007 7:00AM]

GE has fanboys?

[Chris Macdonald @ Aug 14th 2007 7:46AM]

lol i was just thinking that... Talk about LOSERS

[joe1347 @ Aug 14th 2007 7:13AM]

Hmmm. Problems with electronics. Who would have guessed that a 'digital' camera would have a variety of problems that require a technical staff that understands digital Integrated circuit design. Too bad GE fired more than one hundred thousand of their high-tech staff over the past decade or so, but kept the bean counters and managers. The managers and bean counters better get busy writing memos and re-working their P&L spreadsheets to fix the problems.

[Moogle @ Aug 14th 2007 11:09AM]

This is not the "real GE" making these cameras. As was said in replies to the original story (http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/13/ge-slaps-its-brand-onto-a-line-of-digital-cameras/), GE licenses its brand to a bunch of other companies.

[Mike Elgan @ Aug 14th 2007 5:51PM]

"GE fanboys"

Hahahaha! Brilliant. -Mike

[SneezyPorcupine @ Aug 14th 2007 7:57AM]

Wow, this must be embarassing for them...

You know its weird, cuz GE used to be sucha great company! My friend's father used to work for GE. He was on the lead design team that developed the MRI. Shortly after that, he and many others left the company because of GE's plans to "reorganize staff."

All GE does now days is sell off the right to their patents enyway. I think they still have first or second in the number of patents that a company registers in a year. Either they are first or its IBM...

In any case, it seems to be a wild money-grab with GE now a days. They keep selling off alot of their assets. I think it was a while back that I heard they are planning to sell their aircraft manufacturing devision to Rolls Royce.

[ediecourt @ Aug 14th 2007 8:19AM]

Fortunately, if nobody buys their digital cameras they can always recoup the money from our friends in Iran.

[Del Monte @ Aug 14th 2007 8:36AM]

This really is a shock mainly because GE have their hands in nearly every business. From aviation engines to light bulbs to water to security. I'm surprised they couldn't pull this off. If you can produce some of the worlds premier aviation products but you can't pull this off? Maybe it was due to a lack of funding?

We can only hope that they take heed of the suggestions made and have a second series in the works!

[Ian Bowden @ Aug 14th 2007 9:47AM]

Sharing core competencies across any corporation, let alone the size of GE is very difficult. This is highlighted by HP who said "If HP knew what they know, we would be twice as profitable".

[GE Guy @ Aug 14th 2007 10:08AM]

Hey everyone - GE DOESN'T MAKE THESE.

Sorry to shout that, but I thought it would be obvious. GE licensed their name/logo to some other company to "brand" their product with the GE name. Bad decision on GE's part? Probably. GE manufacturing / design / engineering? Not a chance.

News flash! GE does not make: televisions, toasters, blenders, mice, keyboards, network cables, USB hubs, or CAMERAS. They license their logo to other manufacturers.

[Del Monte @ Aug 14th 2007 10:24AM]

OK, so GE don't make their own products. But by licensing their brand out they will have the same problem that they are having here. They will get poor quality products made by companies they deemed to be of 'high quality'.

GE need to research a tad bit more who they license their name too. Any more of this will hurt GE's reputation bad! Well not in the aviation market anyway....

[Fred @ Aug 14th 2007 9:01AM]

Geez, maybe it's not selling so good because there's a creepy ass eyeball in the lens?

[strider_mt2k @ Aug 14th 2007 9:25AM]

-and you know with eyeball jokes: The cornea the better!
Hey don't get cross.

[strider_mt2k @ Aug 14th 2007 9:03AM]

GE's other stuff may be okay, but GE's consumer stuff has nearly aways been weak.

[erhan @ Aug 14th 2007 6:09PM]

Shocking, it sucks.
Lol, why would anyone buy a GE camera?

[Bella @ Aug 14th 2007 11:24AM]

I was really disappointed with the quality of this camera!

http://www.thenaturalsapphirecompany.com/

[mattyb @ Aug 14th 2007 11:54AM]

i worked in an electronics department that sold some ge cameras... both floor models broke within a week or so.

from that moment on, i knew the ge was right for me....

[Ethan Kavet @ Aug 19th 2007 11:00AM]

I had ny E850 for a month before it stopped working.
Buying it was a crap shoot and I got crap.

EK

[greg @ Aug 14th 2007 12:54PM]

shocking!!!!!

i don't know why they just don't make appliances and small things like remotes (love my GE remote)

[toyotaboy @ Aug 14th 2007 6:31PM]

GE = good enough.. still holding true

[David Weitz @ Aug 14th 2007 2:56PM]

I actually bought this camera. The only thing that bugs me is the glossy frame since I get my finger prints on it. It's fine for my needs and it's loads better than my old Kodak C315. I've taken pictures with the ISO 100 setting and there were artifacts, but I usually don't take pictures at night and the pictures that I took in my house with only one light on were fine. The compression on the LCD isn't good, but they look fine when you copy them over to your PC.

[deedeedee @ Aug 14th 2007 2:49PM]

What the...? what a stupid idea, you know if you make aircraft engines, you shouldnt mess with cameras. Even this thing has super duper performence, I would wait for sony to come out with one and buy sony, not GE. Their upper management should be sacked. If Jack Welch was still the CEO he wouldnt allow this POS.

[Ethan Kavet @ Aug 19th 2007 10:54AM]

I thought the camera took decent pictures and I had fun with the movie mode but the E850 stopped working one month after i purchased the camera. I was using the camera one minute and calling G.E the next.
Now I have to pack it up and send it back to G.E.
They ignored all my emails, by the way.