Customer Reviews

DUPE-SIPIX SiPix StyleCam Snap

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

This thing is so small and cool I had to order it.
Pros:small, cool, cheap, downloads to PC fast and easy.
Cons:
1)Twice I lost all the photos I'd taken, even though battery was good and even with this new improved model that has a capacitor to keep this from happening.
2)Uses quite a few batteries, but still acceptable.
3)You MUST hold the camera VERY still.
4)It always defaults to indoor photo setting. Each time you want to take an outdoor photo you must go thru the menu again to outdoor(6 steps).
5)This camera never really takes a 'good' indoor or outdoor shot. Always too bright or dark or grainy or white.....
6)I got it mostly for my kids but they just can't hold it still enough. Then I decided it would be for me. 1 in 10 photos would be OK. I didn't keep a single photo I took.
I returned it in the end. Too bad cuz it was so nice to carry the thing around in my pocket. It really is the size of a cracker.

I bought two of these little cameras, in part because they were cheap (I paid around $$ each) but mainly because they were so small and light I could send one in a bubble-pack envelope to a pen pal in India (smuggled, in other words) and we could exchange pictures via the Internet.

When reading reviews here and elsewhere, it almost sounds as if there are two cameras in question. The biggest problem seems to be battery life, but everyone is vague about this. I tested mine in the following manner: I put in a fresh alkaline AAA battery and took 24 shots in "high" resolution (640x480) at 8am. I then checked hourly until 11pm to see if the pictures were still in the camera. After 28 hours, I plugged the camera into my PC and saved the pictures to a file successfully.

While the software says "copy," it apparently means "move." The pictures were no longer in the camera following downloading to a file. So I immediately took 24 more. Same battery in the camera. After this, I no longer checked by turning on the camera. I hooked up at 75 hours and was able to view the pictures as a slide show, which didn't remove them from the camera. Same story at 110 hours. That satisfied my needs, so I checked no more.

This is in stark contrast to other people's experience, so I assume they either left the power on, or have defective cameras. Since current drain would be a design function, I suspect the former.

As for picture quality, it's okay for snapshots where you just want a record. Not unlike a very cheap film camera. I did notice some blurry areas that don't look like lens problems. Maybe the surface the image is focused on isn't flat. I was able to get decent pictures without much attention to holding the camera in a special way, but I know how to depress the shutter without jerking, which is the key. I was even able to take successful one-handed "palm shots" when I didn't want to be seen taking a picture.

So if you have the option of returning a defective camera, and don't expect salon quality (I could enlarge to almost 5x7 in my computer), it's a neat little cheapie camera.

I agree with the previous reviewer's comments. The Stylecam Snap didn't retain the shots I took despite a brand new battery. I returned the product for a refund.