lawgirl's Full Review: KB Gear JamCam 3.0 Digital Camera
One afternoon I was checking my stockback.com account and decided to see if they had added any new merchants. (This is a site that gives you cash back when you go to an internet site through them and buy something. They get money from the retailer you bought from and they give it to you and invest it in a mutual fund, called the stockback fund.) I saw that Dell was a participant (8% of your purchase price was the rebate) and I decided to take a look because we had been thinking about buying a new computer.
What a dangerous thing to do! Right there on their site it said you got choice of scanner, printer or digital camera with purchase. Well, that’s it! I said to myself. Time to buy a new computer! (Fear not—I had done tons of research and talked it over extensively with my husband first!) I chose to get the free camera since I already had a printer and a scanner which both worked just fine. The free camera was the Jam Cam 3.0.
How do I feel about this camera? Well let me sum it all up in one sentence: Thank God I didn’t have to pay for it! I think it is good for one thing: what I call “throwaway photos”. I am going to use this camera for my ebay auctions and silly photos and that is about it. This camera does not take very high-quality photos so I would not want to take photos of important events with it. I only want to take photos I know I won’t keep- throwaway photos- such as ebay items that will be sold and you’ll no longer need the photo.
What do I like about this camera?
Size and appearance.
This camera is small, and light. It won’t take up much room in your purse (or in your desk drawer where mine lives.) It is also very cool looking- it has a neat black and silver case and it has been marketed to the young, so you know it has to be funky. It also comes in blue and you can get all kinds of accessories for it.
It has a flash.
See how I am grasping at straws here? I mention this because after reading the epinions on Jam Cam 2.0 I see that one didn’t have a flash. I cannot imagine spending money on this camera if it didn’t have a flash. Yikes!
Comes with good software. Well, some of it is good.
This camera comes with Jam Cam software, which is basically a Twain-driven upload device. It gets the photos off your camera and does some very, very basic editing to it. However, this package also comes with Adobe Photo Deluxe, which is actually a descent program. It will let you do some fun editing with your photos like adding text or doing cool effects to your photo.
Price.
This camera retails for $100, although currently on amazon.com you can get it for $50. Not bad if you want to do very basic, throwaway photography. I am still glad I got it free, however, as I see $100 way too much for this camera. I probably would pay $50 for it.
Easy to use.
This camera does not have tons of bells and whistles and is pretty easy to use. It has an automatic timer, a flash that you can turn to on/off/automatic, two sizes of photos to take, and all of that is shown on a cute little LCD display on the back of the camera. It is mostly a point and click. Very easy to use.
It comes with USB and serial port cables.
I like this feature because it makes it adaptable to all computers and you didn’t have to pay for the extra cable. I use the USB port and it is very simple to install and works quickly.
Why I cannot imagine spending my own money on this thing.
It only holds 8 photos!
Well, I should clarify that. You can select two sizes of photos- one is called an R1 and the other an R2. The R2 is a normal sized photo and this camera only holds 8 of them!!! Arrrgggghhh- this has caused me no shortage of angst. I was surprised how fast I can take photos- it seems like I have to stick close to my computer so I can be constantly uploading them and freeing up the camera memory.
The R1 size is much smaller and not worth a whole lot. You can hold 28 of these. And here is what irks me the most: You can buy a memory card for $50 which will hold roughly 60 R2 photos. I feel like I got screwed!! In my opinion the camera should have come with one of these cards. I feel the manufacturer is really trying to stiff the consumer. You sink $100 into a camera and it only takes 8 photos? Who is not going to want the memory card? I certainly do. I feel stiffed.
VERY slow taking photos.
Point, click, and wait is the name of this game. I like to be able to take photos back to back without having to wait much for the camera to mess around. I timed it and the Jam Cam 3.0 takes 8 seconds to reboot so you can take another photo. This time does not change if the flash is off or on. To me this is a lot of time! For example, my little brother is in a marching band. If I took this camera to take photos of a parade, I would not get many photos in as the band marched by. I want a camera that is a lot faster.
Terrible battery life.
This camera takes a 9 volt battery. I have taken approximately 50 photos with it and the battery is already half gone. To me, 100 photos on a battery is not very good- perhaps if some of you reading this could leave a comment if you find that 100 photos is a lot for a camera. I have no expertise in the digital camera realm (this is my first) so perhaps my expectations are a little high. But anyway, 100 photos to me is not enough for a battery. At least it does not take one of those highly expensive camera batteries.
Photos are not very good quality.
My photos taken by this camera have all come out either very blurry or too dark or too light. I took some photos of my cat indoors with no flash and they turned out too dark. I turned the flash on and they were way too bright. These mistakes could not be fixed in the software- they were way too extreme. Even if I could master the light, the photos are rather blurry and not very sharp.
My impressions overall.
This camera is fine for very casual picture taking. For the ebayer I say YES!! this camera is fine for taking pics of your items for sale. But for the new parent or grandparent or for taking photos at a very important or fast-moving event I say NO!! Knowing that, make an informed decision. And be sure to buy the memory card unless you want to have to stick by your computer to keep uploading your photos.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
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