The spies have a new toy
Written: Aug 30 '01 (Updated Aug 31 '01)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
| Battery Life: |
|
|
| Photo Quality: |
|
|
|
Pros: Fun and Easy to use. Variety of modes.
Cons: No flash, Not for low light situations
The Bottom Line: For a digital camera, it is cheap and at the low end of the digital camera market but it is value for money.
|
|
|
| fantail's Full Review: Aiptek PenCam Trio II Digital Camera |
Aiptek PenCam ll Trio
I bought this digital cameral for my 14yr old for his birthday. But while he has been at school I have have been having great fun with it.
Description
Requires win 98 or higher.
Colour VGA (640 x 480 Cmos image sensor
USB port needed.
9 fpt for QVGA (320x240 pixels ) 26 photos at this resolution
3 ftp for VGA (640x480 Pixels) 107 photos at this lower resolution.
Self timer
Continuous mode
Video camera. 7 seconds at 9fpt or 20 seconds at 3ftp
PC camera
Software bundle-
Pen cam Manager
Microsoft Net Meeting
Video mail
Ulead Cool 360
Ulead Photo explorer
Ulead Photo express 3.0
Ulead Video studio.
The camera is small at about 7in. Long and 1-1/2in wide. The metal casing is thin and no lens cap protects the lens, but it is resessed. The small plastic weighted stand is light but holds the camera when conected to the PC for web cam mode.
It takes 2 AAA batteries which last 2 hours continuous mode or 2 weeks on standby. When it is connected to the PC by its cable it draws its power from the computer. This is what we do with it, much easier than taking batteries out all the time.
It is very easy to use. The Shutter button on top and mode button below view finder. I have to make sure my finger isn't covering the lens and the view finder wasn't completely true to what I saw through it. It tended to cut the top off my pictures.
It is better for mid range photos. Close up tend to blur. It needs lots of light so inside night shots are out unless a bright light is shone on the item being photographed. It doesn't have a flash.
Uploading the photos to the PC was a breeze, plug it in and with the PenCam manager program select to preview the snaps taken and then select the ones you want to upload and discard the rest. The photos are saved in .bmp format so I have to convert them in another program to .jpg or .gif for use on the net.
In Web Cam mode you can snap shots or have it record. It will save movies as an .avi file. My kids love this mode of being able to see themselves on screen in real time. Wish we had a bigger hard disk to store all the videos.
The higher resolution is quite clear and defined and I am happy with the resolution for sending up to date snaps of the children to far flung relatives and photographing goods that I sell on an Auction site (my other purpose for getting the camera).
The lower resolution is alright, but tends to be quite grainy. Objects need to move slowly when videoing in higher mode as fast movement tended to be a bit jerky.
My son does get to see his camera, when Mum doesn't have it :). He makes his own claymation movies and uses the PenCam to record his movies frame by frame then with the Pen Cam Manager he chooses the option to combine clips into an .avi file which he then takes into Ulead Video Studio, adds a sound and music track, special transition effects and other editing. His finished movies look great and the Pen Cam makes it a lot easier than using our old video camera.
The software that came with the Pencam was one of the reasons why I chose this camera over other low end models. The software covers all the things you would want to do with the camera from net meetings, to creating special effects on a photo to movie making. All very easy to use.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 100
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
fantail
|
|
Location: N Z
Reviews written: 14
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
A good laugh is sunshine in a house. Thackery
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.