Pinch me! I think I'm dreaming! (Digital Dream l'espion)

Member Name: cmh4135

Product:	Digital Dream l'espion
Date:	21/06/02 (731 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very small, Easy to use

Disadvantages: No flash so no photos in poor light!

There are few products on the market where the maker’s name truly reflects the product in question but I have found an exception. Digital dream have come up with just that, a digital dream. L’Espion must be the hottest gadget to have come to the streets in the last year. It is a wonder of design and a welcome addition to the camera market.

L’Espion is a digital camera with a difference. It is the size of a matchbox with a relative price tag to match. Forget spending hundreds of pounds on a serious piece of equipment, spend just £40 and amaze your friends.

IN THE BEGINNING

We were approaching our first wedding anniversary and my husband had been dropping hints about a digital camera. Not being one for an easy life however, it was around that time when my workload seemed to explode. I was working 16-hour days and simply had no time for anything else. Now, unless you have money to burn, the purchase of a digital camera is going to be a big expense and something that is not to be done without the requisite research into what you need from a digital camera and the relative merits of one product over another. I had no time to do this research and was not about to part with a couple of hundred on the off-chance that I was making the right product decision.

Then, into my mail-box dropped and email from firebox.com, that saviour-site full of gadgets and toys for the not-so-young! There, on the front page, was a picture of the l’espion… I read on.

This seemed ideal. At £40 I couldn’t go far wrong…if it was useless I could say it was a joke…if it lived up to its claims well…BARGAIN! (and with a 5 year guarantee to boot!).

I placed the order.

IN THE POST

The camera arrived the next day (can I wholeheartedly recommend firebox, the service is first class!) I was anxious to try out the camera but our anniversary was a week off…

The c
amera is packaged in a pyramid shaped box, far larger than the camera itself. Think of a jewel display case with a single precious stone set in the middle. This was the l’espion. The clever packaging held not only the camera but the manuals, guarantee, computer disc and USB cable that was required to run the camera.

IN THE OPEN

This little matchbox sized camera is silver in colour and quite "plastic-looking". It doesn't look much more sturdy than your average cracker prize, but, as you will read below, this is no duff toy, rather an elegant talking piece. In practice the camera is sturdy enough - it survived a weekend cycling in the New Forest as its first real outing, has gone through several battery changes and been dropped a few times!

IN THE STUDY

We were going away on the weekend of our anniversary so I decided to give my husband his present slightly early so we could try it out. Now, my husband is a typical man. Instructions? What instructions? I just want to play!

So, there was me, Little Miss Technophobe, with the instruction book, whilst my husband proceeded to just bung the CD into the computer and let fate take its course. I needn’t have worried. Not only were the instructions simple to read and understand, simply putting the CD into the computer was about all that was required with respect to set up. The CD then ran you through a “wizard” (sounds very Harry Potter-esque) which enabled you to install some photo viewing and editing software (Ulead PhotoExpress) together with Adobe Acrobat (necessary for viewing the detailed instructions) and a webcam programme (oh, I didn’t mention that it was a webcam too did I?).

In no time at all we were snapping away and downloading photos to see what we would get!

IN THE VIEWFINDER

Taking photos with this little babe is a treat. Forget framing, forget focus, forget flash, forget red eye just poin
t and shoot (well, that’s what I said anyway!). The camera is a fixed focus piece of equipment (sound familiar?) with automatic exposure (ooohh errr). It’s working range is 0.8m to infinity but in reality the best images are those that are between 1 –2 metres from the camera. There is no flash on this little wonder and so you will be limited to capturing the brighter moments. In reality, this means outdoor photos or indoor photos where it is really bright! Take this to the pub and you won't get anything!

To take a photo simply pop up the retractable optical viewfinder, aim it in the right direction and pray! One of the problems with this little beast is that as it is so small it is easy to think that you are holding it straight and level when in fact you are well off line (or was that just the effects of the champagne?).

ON THE SCREEN

Downloading your photos is a piece of cake (oh yes, we had some of that too!). All you need is a computer with a USB port and the CD that came with the camera. A couple of clicks later and your photos are on the screen ready for you to manipulate and send onto your friends.

The software that comes with the camera is very easy to use and has some interesting features that you can use to manipulate your pictures with. The software will not stand up to many of the professional photo editing products that are available, but for the purposes of adding a frame, resizing, altering basic colours or even warping, it is more than adequate.

IN THE FIELD

One of the biggest assets of this camera is its size – at 58x40x15 mm this is small enough to go everywhere with you and it only weighs 40g (or less if you remove the attached keyring!). In fact, the cover that it is supplied with even has a belt clip so you need never be without your trusty l’espion!

We are not big takers of photographs, mainly ‘cos we are too lazy to take a camera out w
ith us. We found with l’espion, however, that we were taking loads of photos! Stills, landscapes, even cycling action scenes. What is even better though was that by taking my husband’s laptop away with us we were able to download and view our pictures when we got back to the hotel!

Being so small you do not have to buy a separate memory card for the camera, it is integral. The camera will store up to 20 pictures at a resolution of 352 x 288 or 80 pictures at a resolution of 176 x 144. In reality, at such low resolutions there is not much difference in the picture quality. As you will see, the resolutions are low…this is not the mega-pixel camera that will set you back £400 it is only 0.1 mega-pixels (but with 16.7 million colours!).

IN THE EAR

The camera emits a rather satisfying beep if a picture has been successfully taken and a rather lower pitched beep if it hasn’t (this is in addition to the LCD display changing to show the available number of photos). This is probably the only bit about this camera that stops you using it for undercover work or capturing that secret liaison behind the filing cabinets….

IN THE HANDS OF A CHILD

Or maybe that should read “idiot” as many children are now far more technologically aware! This has to be one of the most simple cameras to use. It has two buttons, one to take pictures and the other to turn it on, set up the functions and clear the photos. A little digital display will let you know what function you are on.

HR – High resolution (NB this is high only in l'espion terms - in relation to "proper" digital cameras it is very very low!) (the number of photos left will also be displayed after a couple of seconds)
LR – Low resolution
CL – Clear (you need to press the shutter button twice to activate this so there is little chance of you losing your photos)

…then…. <
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IN EXTRA TIME

CT – (continuous) You can also record short video clips of about 10 seconds (on low resolution) which also view fairly well.

ST - There is a self-timer function which gives you 10 seconds to remember where to stand before the camera clicks into action!

This little marvel though is not just a digital camera. As already mentioned it can be used as a web cam – and a very good one at that with 16 frames per second. The pictures are clear and the movement sharp.

IN THE PLUS BOX

What are my bottom five reasons for getting this product:

1 – It is tiny and so you will take it places
2 – It can be a real talking point
3 – The software is easy to use and hassle free
4 – It is cheap with good extra functions
5 – Powered by easy to find AAA batteries lasting for around 800 photos!

IN THE MINUS BOX

Against the product?

1 – There is no picture preview facility so you take pot luck as to what you have captured
2 – You cannot delete pictures one by one – it is all or nothing
3 – The batteries drain very quickly if left attached to the computer via the USB cable
4 – No flash can be limiting
5 – The picture quality is more suited to email or web use than printing.

All in all I would heartily recommend this camera. It is a fun gadget that is easy to use and won’t set you back too much. It would be the ideal entry into digital photography for kids and although the snaps will never win many prizes they are more than adequate. It is not a camera for the serious enthusiast but as a camera to keep in the car, to take on a hike or to the beach it is superb! You could even get it just to snap those things you want to sell on ebay - perfectly adequate and I'm sure that you'll recoup the money in no time!

Other manufacturers are bring
ing out similar cameras, and Digital Dream have also produced another similar camera. More and more features seem to be included – things can only get better!


TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS:

You will need:

A PC with a 166MHz processor (or better), 32MB RAM, 10MB Hard disc space, USB port, CD-Rom drive and Windows 98/ME/2000

or

A Mac (Imac/G3/G4) with USB port, memory as above, Mac OS8.6 or better and quick image application supporting Adobe Photoshop plugins (you cannot use the Ulead software with a Mac) and Apple Quick time for viewing videos.


CLAIRE’S BOTTOM TEN TIPS for getting the most out of your l’espion:

1 – Don’t leave home without it – you never know when that hotshot might come;

2 – If the light is poor, tilt the camera slightly towards the light, you may just capture that shot;

3 – Save your piccies to your computer as .jpeg files as they will take up less room in your memory

4 – Use low resolution for the video clips – you get longer and there is no difference in quality

5 – When you install the software it will ask you for the serial number of the camera – you can find this on the CD jacket (I spent ages looking for it!)

6 – Unplug the camera from the USB lead when not in use to save the battery

7 – If light is poor and you don't mind using all the shots at once, try the CT (video) mode as this will record in any light (although the results are likely to be dark).

8 – Remove the keychain to make it even lighter (although more fiddly to hold onto!)

9 – Take more than one shot if it is important just in case you miss!

10 – Take it out, shoot, and have fun! That's what this product is all about

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