I’ve been on a crappy digicam kick lately. They’re a lot of fun to shoot with — after concerning myself with apertures, depth of fields, gray cards, tripods, flashes, etc. It’s a lot of fun to shoot with a camera that has absolutely no settings except a shutter. The picture above is close to actual size — it’s that small. It takes 640×480 or 320×240 pictures, stores a LOT of pictures (120 hi-res or 300 lo-res) and also works as a webcam or a “movie” camera – it takes a series of pictures in rapid succession.

It uses one AAA battery, and can shoot for a day or two on one battery – beware, the memory is volatile – when the battery dies, any pictures not downloaded are lost.

The Stylecam Blink appears with several names, and there’s a StyleCam Blink II and other models from SiPix that resemble the original Blink. Rumor has it that some of the cameras have non-volatile memory and will not lose the pictures when the battery is removed. Let me know if you find this to be the case!

With a camera this small, you can carry it with you always. It fits into a shirt pocket, the key pocket of a pair of jeans, and comes with a wrist/neck strap. I’ve already used it to catch pictures I’d normally have missed. The square design is easy to hold, and can be held in your hand for “shooting from the hip”.

What’s Included:

 

• StyleCam Blink digital camera
• Neck/wrist strap & swivel clip
• Tilt base with holder
• 1 AAA alkaline battery
• USB cable
• Quick Start Guide
• Software CD containing:
  – StyleCam Blink TWAIN driver
  – StyleCam AVI Maker
  – ArcSoft PhotoImpression
  – ArcSoft PhotoFantasy 2000
  – ArcSoft PhotoMontage 2000
  – ArcSoft VideoImpression
  – Inetcam iVISTA
  – Adobe Acrobat Reader
  – Owner’s Manual (PDF)

Full Specification:

Resolution	640 x 480 pixels
Image sensor	CMOS
Status display	Monochrome LCD
Internal memory	8MB built-in SDRAM
Viewfinder	Optical
Image capacity (varies according to complexity of images stored)	VGA: 100 (640×480) CIF: 400 (320×240)
Focal range	23″ ~ infinity (0.6m ~ infinity)
Lens aperture	F3.0
Focal length	f=6.3mm (35mm equivalent = 24mm)
White balance	Auto (indoor), manual (indoor and outdoor)
Exposure	Auto
Streaming Snapshot	Up to 100 images
Image format	JPG, AVI (through software)
Computer interface	USB
Power control	Auto off (60 seconds)
Power source	1 AAA alkaline batteries
Camera dimensions	0.6″ x 1.97″ x 1.97″ (1.5 x 5 x 5cm)
Camera weight	1.5 oz. (30g) without batteries
Package dimensions	11.78″ x 9.75″ x 7.02″ (30 x 25 x18cm)
Camera UPC code	815251000484
Camera part number	D220D0

 

Minimum System Requirements: Pentium PC with MS Windows 98/98se/ME/2000/XP, 64MB RAM, 90MB available hard disk space, 16-bit color display, CD-ROM drive, USB port.
Not Mac compatible, sorry.

Optional: 28.8kbps modem (for video conference & broadcast), Internet Service Provider (for video conference & email), Sound Blaster or 100% compatible sound card (optional), Speakers and microphone (for voice broadcast).

Owner’s Manual: PDF File Download