A Near-Perfect Gadget
Written: Mar 02 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Camera works, even in dim light; easy-to-read LCD screen; many watch functions
Cons: Slightly too big; PC link must be purchased separately
The Bottom Line: The Casio Wrist Camera makes an excellent gadget as well as terrific gift. Go for the stainless version for better quality and durability.
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| hbj200's Full Review: Casio WQV1-1CR Watch |
The Casio Wrist Camera Watch is truly a gadget, and it deserves five stars for 1) working as promised, and 2) giving you a strong dose of coolness boost.
(Note: I have the stainless version of the Wrist Camera, model WQV1D-8CR, which not only looks better than the plastic version but is also of better quality. I hope it lasts a long time.)
The No. 1 reason to buy the Wrist Camera, of course, is to use its digital camera function. With 28,000 pixels and up to 16 grays, it's definitely an under-powered digicam, but you have to keep in mind that this is a camera on a watch! This means you can take it with you 24x7x365 (except when you shower or swim or scuba-dive, of course), and snap quick shots any time.
If you keep your expectations in line, you'll find the camera function quite tolerable. While rated 100 lux or above, I've found the camera to give grainy yet recognizable pictures even under very dim lighting conditions. The aperture and speed are set automatically, but you can manually increase or decrease the aperture. It also allows you to set white balance manually to one of three modes: outdoor, indoor with 50Hz lighting, and indoor with 60Hz lighting. (I believe that here in the States we use 60Hz AC, so I guess that means the indoor 50Hz setting is not applicable for us. Correct me if I'm wrong.)
To get sharp and clear pictures, obviously you should try to shoot outdoors. In fact, the outdoor white balance setting is the default. You also need to take care as not to move the object or the camera. Because the shutter button is easy to press, I find it not impossible to take steady shots with the watch on my wrist. One tip: use your index or middle finger to cushion the watch as you press the shutter with your thumb.
In addition to the 16-grayscale photos, you can also take merged photos (two separate shots merged together) as well as "art" photos (only 2 grays used). The Wrist Camera has 1MB of flash memory built-in, which allows you to take 100 photos and stores them even when you take out the battery.
Viewing images is quite straightforward. With each image you can even add up to 24 characters of text. The example in the user's guide (which is, by the way, very thick because it has 11 languages in it, including Chinese and Arabic!) gives an idea of using the Wrist Camera: when you meet someone you like, take a picture of him or her and then record their name and phone number on the Wrist Camera!
In addition to the camera mode, the Wrist Camera keeps time, allows you to set up to 5 different alarms and also hourly chime, provides you with a countdown alarm as well as multi-function stop watch, and lets you beam images to another Wrist Camera or, with the separately available PC Link kit ($50 MSRP), a PC. I purchased the PC Link kit because I wanted to archive all my photos. The kit is compatible with Windows systems only -- it connects to a serial port -- and converts the images to BMP or JPEG upon uploading to the PC.
The Wrist Camera uses a single CR2032 non-rechargeable battery that's rated to last 6 months (with 60 seconds of camera operation per day). To conserve battery power, the Wrist Camera allows you to use the camera mode for up to 60 seconds each time. Then you'll have to wait up to 60 seconds to use it again. This seems a hassle at first, but it's really just an auto-power-off function. And if you really need to take a lot of shots for more than a minute, you might as well use a real camera.
At $199 for the plastic version and $229 for the stainless version, the Wrist Camera Watch is not cheap. But, alas, it's a gadget, and as such it actually is quite useful, especially if you are a photography freak like me. Every time I see something on campus or on the highway, I just go "snap!" with my Casio. No need to take out a real digicam and wait for it to power up. And when I'm bored, I can play spy on my friends!
(I give the Wrist Camera a 3 for "photo quality" because the rating system is designed for real digicams. Basically I think the Wrist Camera's image quality is tolerable for what the device is designed for. Obviously color would have been nice...)
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
hbj200
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Location: USA
Reviews written: 183
Trusted by: 10 members
About Me:
I'm poor but I'm proud. I'm a gadget freak. :)
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