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Philips Demos Keychain-sized Camcorder
mateub writes "Philips gave PC Magazine an exclusive demo of the KEY019 USB camera/camcorder etc. Sez PCMag: 'You can use the 128MB of internal memory for 2.0-megapixel still shots, digital video, MP3 files, and document storage.' How long before we read the first story of some, um, inappropriate footage captured with one of these?"
Take a look here for a handheld camera which can be upgraded to use 128mb SD cards. In it's standard 8mb form, it can take 2 minutes of low res footage at 15fps.
Just a comparison. We got one, it's really pretty good for the price.
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Their 1 megapixel version sold for $130, so it probably won't be too much more than that.
Considering that 2 megapixels gives you slightly more pixels than fit on a 1600x1200 computer screen, that's actually pretty darn good (depending on the quality of the pixel). You must still be thinking of the old cheapy 640x480 (1/3 megapixel) devices.
Granted you need more if you want photo-quality prints, but it's more than adequate for on-screen use. In a device this small, the real limitation is the size and quality of the lens (ie, crappy) rather than the resolution of the sensor. There's a reason that good cameras have big lenses, and it has little to do with the size of the sensor or film they're recording on.
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There are some nice pictures and such in a Philip press release at:e bit2004-568.html
http://www.press.ce.philips.com/press/2004-2-23-C
The problem is that the tiny, crappy lens doesn't even have an optical resolution of 2 megapixels.
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I don't know which is more depressing, that 2/3 didn't care enough to vote, or that 1/2 of those that did are crazy.
2 megapixels is just fine for lots and lots of things. Few years old "real" non-professional digicams are 2mpixel, most of the time the pictures from those are just fine. They are light years ahead of this thing, despite the same theoretical resolution.
These, on the other hand, as you point out, simply don't look good, they look fuzzy, and the colors are off, but that's not because they don't have enough resolution on CCD, it's because they have absolutely CRAPPY optics, and crappy electronics, and crappy software.
Unless the optics get a lot better (they wont't, size and especially price places some limits...) you won't get any major improvement in few years even if someone is insane enough to put a 5mpixel CCD in one of these, 5 megapixels of blurry lens does not look any better than 2 megapixels worth of blurry lens, it's just a bigger picture of same crappy lens.
The KEY007 is marketed as 1.3MP, but it only has a 0.3MP sensor, and the images are upscaled to 1.3MP. All I see is "2MP sized images", nothing about what the sensor really is? Nowhere does the press release mention the sensor size, only that it produces 2 megapixel images. My gut feeling tells me that this is a 0.3MP camera, or maybe if we are very lucky, a 1.3MP camera, that is upscaled to 2MP. I'd love to be wrong.
A) it's smaller and easier to conceal than standard small cameras
B) doesn't look like a camera so it's less obvious you're recording
C) sometimes you're in situations where you didn't plan on something happening so you didn't bring your trusty camera, like the girl dancing on the bar during happy hour (usually that's unexpected, although I know some bars...)
this would be great in strip clubs where you're not allowed to bring cameras in.... wonder how it handles in low light? Please include "nightshot", the world needs more Paris Hilton type videos ;)
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Link to pre-order
That version had just a passive lens viewfinder; this new version has an electronic microdisplay that lets you see previously recorded videos or pictures. That ought to rise the price quite a bit.
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The 1.3 MP is actually 0.3MP
r ings_additional_info.cfml
see http://www.doyourthing.philips.com/tt_camera_key_
How does it work?
Your Camera Key Ring captures pictures using a VGA sensor, which displays about 300,000 pixels (640 x 480). When you upload the pictures to your laptop or PC, Photo Manager automatically enhances your images using digital interpolation to 1.3 million pixels.
I have one of the early thumb drive/camera combos. I notice that many of them need a lot of light to take a picture. Mine won't even let you try to take a picture in dim lighting. Outdoors, they work OK.