Alright, so I hadn't bought a regular I-Zone camera. I bought the combination of a digital and an I-Zone, which seemed very cool at the time. My daughter is a techno-expert herself, so when she opened it up last Christmas, she screeched with joy, "Yay! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!", and geared up the installation proccess with the CD that came with it. Well, that happy screech turned into a "When can we try it?!" and the hunt for batteries began. This camera needed triple A (AAA) batteries. Not just your local drugstore brand batteries. I mean the "chrome plated, heat and waterproof, 100,000 hour capaticity, super powered" batteries. (AKA-30 bucks a pop for 4 measly batteries.) If you dare tried to use any other type, the Liquid Crystal Display beeped at you, angrily saying "LB" or "Low Battery" even though you just opened the battery package.

Once we took a week to sort that one out, we began testing photos. They came out pretty nicely. But then we tried to get about 3 feet away from our subject and we got a nasty, either discolored or complete white, glare. It's a fact that photographers hate glares. Well, then, this camera is not for them. Our hopeful 2001 Christmas card photo had to be taken outside on a rare sunny day. And it still didn't come out quite right. I wish I could show you those photos, because you would be amazed at the quality.

But the camera testing wasn't over. We still had a few neat-o programs, Photo Impression, and Photo Montage. Photo Impressions made absolutely fabulous, comical pictures. Say Aunt Kassie comes over during the holidays, and wants a portrait quality photo of herself, with a nice frame, and wants to print it out for her fridge. Well, you get the nice picture of her, then you place her head on a clown or spaceman's body. Photo Impression made that possible. We got a few laughs after putting my niece's face on a 'Titanic Survivor' frame with a lifesaver tube around it. Then my husband was the victim, his head in a 1940's housewife's body.Photo Montage found thousands of tiny photos, combined them all, and formed them into your picture. It had a lovely effect, but didn't quite come out clear.

We returned the camera about a month after using it, because it was clearly defective, but exchanged it for another identical I-Zone/Digital combo. So, what about the I-Zone features? Well, I'm getting to it. It came with two film packs, a 19.99 value. That means we're never buying the film by itself. We had fairly good, Polaroid quality photos. We also experimented with 'ghost' photos, in which you take the picture twice on the same photo. Once on the backround, once on the subject. And we gave some baby photos away to relatives. That's about all for the I-Zone part, no defects, nothing exceptionally great.

All and all, you should just buy a normal I-Zone for if it intrests you, and save your money for a better quality digital camera. My advice is, if it's under 100 dollars, it's cheap crap. We're buying a new camera this Christmas, either a Vivitar digital or Nokia. I will, of course, review it.

Recommended:
No

Amount Paid (US$): 79.99