I?ve got a small one and can?t stop playing with it! (Sipix Stylecam Blink)

Member Name: Nemesis_252

Product:	Sipix Stylecam Blink
Date:	10/06/02 (889 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Size, Picture Capacity, Value For Money

Disadvantages: No Flash, Basic

No, not that dafty? I?m talking about my camera!

I bought the SiPix StyleCam Blink some time last week and I haven?t left it alone since. My main reason behind its purchase was its price. At £40.00 you could be forgiven for thinking that you were about to buy the worlds worst digital camera. In fact that?s further from the truth than you could believe.

The reason for the low price is simple. SiPix have done away with all the modern conveniences that your everyday digital cameras have, such as a display to show the photo?s taken, a timer, and noticeably, a flash. This really is a no frills camera. So what?s so great about it I hear you say? Well?

Its size is one great factor. Measuring 5x5x1 cm it?s not much bigger than a matchbox. This makes it unbelievably useful for when you're out and about and humping a camera about is one think you really don?t want to be doing.

Secondly, its 8MB?s of SDRAM let it hold up to 100 pictures of high quality (640x480 pixels) or about 300 low quality (320x240 pixels), though I think quality is the wrong word to use. The quality remains the same throughout; it?s simply the picture size that varies.

Powered by a single AAA battery, it is very cheap to run, but you must download your photos onto a PC before your battery dies otherwise your photo?s die with it. Having said that, it does give you plenty of warning that the battery is on its way out.

As well as its ability of taking pictures, when connected to a computer (Via USB) it also acts as a more than able web cam, video camera (Making MPEG videos) and can also be used as a camera run through the PC, with the added function of a self-timer.

As if all this isn?t enough for your money, SiPix also very generously provide a CD-ROM with a whole bundle of software on it, such as: PhotoImpression 3.0, ArcSoft VideoImpression, ArcSoft PhotoMontage 2000, ArcSoft PhotoFantasy, Inetcam iVISTA, StyleCam Blink AVI Maker, Adobe Ac
robat Reader, and also a PDF copy of the owners? manual (A paper copy is provided too).

Bearing in mind the price of the StyleCam Blink and the price of its competitors, and also bearing in mind that any other camera in its price range has far inferior picture quality, it is a winner every time.

Additional: My original report was written about six months ago. During these six months, everything written above still holds, but I will warn you of one problem that I've experienced... Although it claims to hold 100 high quality photos, but battery (without fail so far) will die at around 40, so although its memory allows for 100, the battery allows for somewhat less. But hey, as long as you've got a PC handy and some AAA Batteries, its still a great buy.

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