It's small, it's sleek, and it's worth a peek! (Trust Spacec@m 100 Portable)

Member Name: unnameable

Product:	Trust Spacec@m 100 Portable
Date:	23/03/04 (622 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap and cheerful, competent webcam

Disadvantages: poor battery life, no flash

Firstly, I would like to apologise for the title...it's about as close to poetry as I get (which I'm sure you're all glad of).

Anyway, onto my review of my webcam.

Last year, while being hounded by friends to let them see pictures of the children and my newly acquired chins I stumbled into a little shop in Paisley called Pc2Go. Now, they're not exactly cheap, but they do carry a good stock (and can order in for you)...but that's a different review entirely!

On the shelf amongst the expensive, frilly cameras I spotted this little cute thing looking not unlike a cross between a mobile phone and a zippo lighter. So, naturally, I wandered over to take a closer look. It fitted exactly with what I wanted so I ran over like a child in a tobacco shop to purchase this lovely piece of kit.

Introduction:

The Trust MobileC@m 100 is a 3-in-1 digital camera (as many of the cheaper ones are these days). This means that it can be used primarily as a webcam, but also as a stills camera when not attached to the PC, and as a very limited video camera!

Looks:

Well, the camera measures roughly 2 inches wide, 1 inch in depth, and a height of 4.5 inches. This makes it ideal for balancing atop your monitor (if only the stand would do it!). Finished in dazzling silver painted plastic it truly is a beauty (sarcasm is wonderful isn't it?)

As you can see from the picture, it is a very modern looking lump of camera.

Use:

It is surprisingly easy to use as a stills digital camera, as there is plenty of room to place your fingers so as to not get them in the way of the lens!

The stand looks as though it should be useful and sturdy, but on use it really is a pain in the backside. The weight of the cable plugged into the camera co
nstantly causes it to lean to one side, and you find youself trying to prop the camera up just to take a straight picture!

When using as a webcam, all you need to do is position it nearby (and pointing at yourself obviously!). You can broadcast the images over the internet through Netmeeting, or third party webcam software (readily available through the internet)

There is a handy timer feature that means that when used as a stills camera you can set it to take a photo 10 seconds later...you can muscle in on the photo yourself!

It is powered through the USB cable when attached to the PC, but otherwise you have to rely on battery power.

It really is a simple to use, point & click camera. No complicated features, or masses of buttons and settings. Just a power button, and a 'take photo' button!

As a video camera you only need to press the 'take photo' button once, to start recording, and again, to stop.... simple eh?

Bundled software:

On the enclosed CD you get a fair bit of useful software;

-Drivers (Including Camera Manager to take and store photos)
-Microsoft Netmeeting - use your webcam and a microphone to see and speak to people all over the world
-Ulead Phot Express - Nice little photo editing program...much like a cut-down version of Photoshop/Paintshop Pro
-Ulead VideoStudio - Edit video files taken using the camera. Quite useful if you want to keep a portion of a webcam broadcast
-Ulead Cool3D - A bit odd... use this to create 3D panoramic pictures by combining several photos
-VideoLive Mail - Use this to record video/sound files to attach to emails. Quite handy.

Connecting:

Bundled with the camera you get a USB cable and
two AAA size batteries.

Once all programs are installed you simply connect the USB cable from the PC to the camera, and hey presto, you're ready to us it!

Transferring photo/video files from the camera to your PC is done through the Camera Manager program.

Technical details:

Here's the bit that you can skip right on past!

Resolution: 0.1 MegaPixels (0.3 MegaPixels interpolated)

Memory: 2MB SDRAM - this can hold 80 low resolution photos, 20 high resolution photos, or a whole 15 seconds of video! (woooo!!!)
Video Capture: when using as a webcam you can have a maximum of 20 frames per second, which is entirely adequate for broadcasting your face to millions of net-heads!

Batteries: 2 x AAA to keep memory powered when being used

Viewfinder: Optical. Meaning it's an old-fashioned look-through-the-window kind of thing.

Focus free: No need to alter anything to take pictures of objects that are further away etc.

THERE IS NO FLASH! Sadly.

Compatible with every version of Windows since Windows 95, and will run on virtually any PC (minimum 166Mhz Pentium and 16MB RAM)

Cost:

Well, it cost me a grand sum of £29.99, bu tI have spotted it at dabs.com for under £25. Bargain eh?

Contact info:

www.trust.com (remember to change to English language!). Product info, gerneral news, and press releases are all available on the website.

An address is very difficult to get hold of as their website states that all enquiries have to be routed through their online forms (awful I know).

Their UK offic
e is in Colchester, and I will add the address as soon as I find it!

My experiences:

Well, I have managed to broadcast over the internet to family and friends pretty much successfully (only problem was finding compatible broadcasting software).

Picture quality is actually quite good considering how low the resolution sounds compared to other digital cameras on the market. No problems with blurring at all either.

Only major problem overall is the cameras total inability to function in anything but bright daylight. You're completely knackered if you try to use it indoors under light from a standard bulb....only way I have found to use it indoors in the evening is to stand in the kitchen under the big strip light! Even then, it isn't perfect.

Aside from that problem, I have found it to be easy to use, well made, and to give very good results (light permitting of course).

Definitely a camera to consider if you are after a nice cheap webcam to add to your gadget collection.

Tip: Be very careful when keeping photos/videos saved on the internal memory. This camera will go through the supplied batteries within a day! Transfer them to your PC as soon as you can.

Incidentally....this is almost exactly the same as the Medion cameras available at Aldi. The only difference is the plastic casing! Good eh?


Many thanks for reading!

Marc

Summary: