Customer Reviews

Philips GoGear Wearable Digital Camcorder

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Let me just say at the start that I am not looking at this device to replace a normal sized video or still camera. I am looking at this to be on the same level as a cell phone or PDA camera, not your new digital SLR.

First, some good points:
- It's really tiny for such a functional camera. It's a little wider than and twice as thick as your average USB drive.

- The color LCD viewfinder works well. It's really a miniature LCD and some optics in there - just like a bigger camcorder would have in the eyepiece. You can't really tell focus from it, but it's good for status info, exposure and framing.

- The device works in windows XP without a driver - it just shows up as a USB drive and you can copy your video clips/pictures from that. Point being that I had no software problems getting the thing to work, which is a first for me.

Picture Quality:
- Resolution is apparently really 2MP this time ( unlike the previous 1.3MP model which was actually interpolated. )
- Contrast is average. t's a CMOS sensor. The lens is okay. Nothing to write home about, but not really objectionable for snapshots.
- Compression is not so good. JPEG compression artifacts are pretty obvious in some pictures, especially in areas of high contrast.
- Low light performance is marginal ( This includes pretty much everything indoors. It is hard to take a picture with the camera without blurring a bit unless you're outdoors or you hold it against a stable object )
- Video quality is reasonable. Basically, it's 320x240 resolution MPEG4, about the same quality as your VCR was. The audio quality is acceptable, but not great. It suffers from many of the same low light/contrast problems as the rest of the pictures.

Operation:
- Operation is really really simple. There's two buttons and a three position dial. Very easy to use. Feedback is through beeps and the LCD.
- Unfortunately, there are really no settings you can set. You can't change the JPEG quality or photo size. You can't set the video or audio recording quality or framerate. You can't turn on or off the beeps the device makes. You can't turn off the LCD to save power. You can't adjust the fact that it shuts down one minute after the last thing you did. There are no settings that you can change on this device. Period. Perhaps this is something that Philips could work on as a firmware update.

NOTE: There already appears to be a firware update for this camera. Don't know what it does, but I went to http://www.philips.com/support and I downloaded and installed it.

Overall, I am pleased with my purchase. It won't replace my camcorder, my SLR, or my point and shoot. It will, however, allow me to have a semi decent camera for snapshots with me wherever I go.

I often work with other people by writing stuff on whiteboards, and I purchased this little camera for two purposes: to take pictures of the whiteboard, to remember the details of the discussion, and to take quick sound recordings when needed.
I could not be more satisfied, for the above purposes. The camera is small, light, works very well, and transfering photos/videos to laptops and PCs is a breeze. No adaptors to lose, no software to install (between work and home, I have various PCs and laptops, it would be a hassle to install software on them all).
In fact, it even works decently as a low-quality camera. The camea has 2MP, but the image is blurred, so I believe that there are at most 0.5MP that contain actual information; still, the quality of the photos is better than I expected for such a small camera.
The video quality is very good, roughly comparable to that of my Canon G2 - and it can take recordings that last longer than those of the G2!
All in all, a very useful and practical product.
The two only CONS are:
- It would have been nice to have some kind of lens cover. I put the key in a small plastic envelope to protect it from dust and scratches to the lens.
- I wish, given my intended purpose, that the optimal focus distance were shorter. The camera focuses from 1.5m onwards; I would have preferred a range 0.8-2.5m or so, but I know I am probably alone in wishing this.

My main purpose when I bought the Philips Key019 Ring Camcorder was to use it as a thumb drive and secondly as a camcorder for quick videos on the go. I also intended to take quick pictures here and there that I normally would not bring my bigger, bulkier and more expensive 5MP digital camera; for fear of losing it or breaking it. Like many MFDs out there don't expect this device to be a great mp3 player, USB drive, digital camera or a camcorder. But I was impressed with each aspect on this particular unit. I've read a few reviews out there already and I would agree with most of them. Here are my thoughts on each:

Thumb Drive
Great USB drive. Detected without problems on Win 2000 and XP. Transfer files at a reasonable rate. 124MB useable space.

Camera
Picture quality was surprisingly good. Not the best but good for its size. Lighting is very important! Some photos seem washed out in bright conditions and it didn't capture pictures well in low light.
Color LCD viewfinder was added plus I thought. *You can review pictures and videos when the supplied remote is attached.

MP3 Player
Nice mp3 playback (sound) but no play list option.

Camcorder
Video will be shaky because of its small size but worked well. And again lighting is important here too.
*You can review pictures and videos when the supplied remote is attached.

Although this device was a lot bigger than I had hoped for(about the size of one and a half lighter), it worked fairly well overall. It was easy to use and had a "cool" factor. On the bad side, the power indicator didn't work well and the charging time was a bit long for me. If you are a gadget lover, get this item. It is a well rounded unit but it will never replace any of the 4 devices mentioned.

I'm no expert photographer and I'm not expecting 5-MP photos from something this small. Given all that, I'm quite impressed with this camera/camcorder from Philips. It's small, cute, and does more in a well-lit room and in overcast conditions than I would have ever expected. True, it doesn't function great in poorly lit areas, but it can produce very good pictures where there's good light. The camcorder aspect seems good, too (I've never used another camcorder, so who am I to compare?), and the photo quality is quite good as long as I hold the camera steady. The only negative thing I've found thus far (after just a little bit of use in a couple of days) is that the button to delete files is very hard to push; of course, that may be intentional so that I don't accidentally delete files I really want to keep. I found the best price on the store.philips.com site ($179.99 plus tax). If you want a tiny camera/camcorder/flash drive/MP3 player, this is the one to get!

I purchased this camcorder to take videos from my radio controlled helicopter, the DraganFlyer V Ti. For this type of application, the Philips Key019 is a great and lightweight solution. The video is surprisingly clear and the 25 minutes of recording time is more than enough for radio controlled flight. This is vastly superior to most inexpensive radio controlled video solutions where you have to radio back the video signal with unpredictable interference and deal with lugging around a lot of extra equipment. (sending antennas, receiving antennas, power supplies, power inverters, frequencies, DV camcorders, RCA cables, DV tapes, etc) This solves that equipment problem with one tiny 2oz easy to use solution for only $149. The highly compressed video in asf/mpeg-4 format works well and is editable with the newer video editors. Just drag and drop the files to your PC with no video format conversion necessary as is required with the "Octave Multipod 5 in 1" the main competition to this device. As a bonus, I get a free 2MP built in camera that produces good 1600x1200 jpg photos of my fellow R/C friends around the field vs taking no photos at all, because I am rarely motivated to carry around another device. The 128mb usb1 flash drive, while a small capacitity and a lttle slow these days, is good enough for quick data exchanges with my friends on the fly. The MP3 player sounds fine, even though I will rarely use it. For this niche application of capturing video from radio controlled helicopters, planes and vehicles, it is a good and a very reasonably priced solution that produces nice clean videos.

To call this a camcorder or even a digital camera is a real stretch, its truly more of a snapshot video audio fun toy. The pros are: really great audio sensitivity, acceptable photo and video quality in good light (ie outdoors), and the ability to use it like a portable usb based hard disk for transferring files between different computers without installing any drivers (Win XP). The cons are: mp3 playback (and all media playback) requires plugging in this cheezy little control stick on a wire - the buttons on the stick are so pathetic and it is so fragile it will barely survive being in your pocket. Consequently I dont ever bother with playback and just use the unit as a capture only device in good light. No lens cap means you need to improvise some sort of case for your pocket ( a plastic bag? ) There are no adjustments of any kind for photos or video, just shoot and see how it comes out. The shutter button on top requires so much pressure that photos sometimes come out blurred as you try to squeeze the top as hard as you can until it beeps. 125mb is just barely adequate for about 24 min of video. There is no way to record mp3 or record audio only or video only. Still all in all it is very small and stealthy, integrates well with my computers, and is a lot of fun to have around.

I bought this item for what it is.. a "GO" gear. I'm an art student on the move and having the convenience and ability to take a picture whenever and wherever I please is a definite plus.
I believe by today's standards, a digital cam should be at the minimum 3.2 mp, and flash drives should at least be 512 mb. However, don't let the lack of specs turn you off.

As most other reviewers mentioned, the major drawbacks are that it requires a lot of light to take a decent picture. Also, anything within 3 feet may appear blurred. My guess is that because of how small it is, the camera tend to shake a bit when the shutter is pushed down. However, I was still able to take some great pics outside, so I really shouldn't complain. The cropping is also correct, as you can verify exactly what you see in the LCD viewfinder, which is totally a cool thing to have for such a tiny device.

Same can be said of the camcorder feature, and I wasn't expecting it to have a full blown feature like the high end camcorders does. Another downside is the fact that I need to have the remote/earbud handy to view the previously stored pics or videos, and that I'd have to unplug it in order to take new pics or video files. It's quite a hassle for me, so unless I really feel like listening to tunes, I won't bring the remote with me. However, the remote itself (though very simple functions) does indeed have important functionality, so do NOT lose the remote. Once it's gone, you're out of luck. With that said, the camcorder has crashed on me once, forcing me to reformat my drive. Otherwise, it's been working fine for me since.

One major concern I believe every owner would have with this device is figuring out how to protect the lens.. I personally purchased a mp3 player case that fits it quite snug through ebay, so I would encourage people to pick those up. Just make sure the measurements are correct before you do. Thanks to that, i've no worries sticking this with my keys and loose change in my pocket.

Music on the other hand isn't bad at all, as it functions like any mp3 player. I've been playing Mp3 on this constantly, and the quality of the tunes are as good as the ones you upload into the device. The stock earphones are sharp, and you can upgrade to whatever headphones you please by switching it up with ones with better sound quality.

The other upside is definitely the USB functionality- like how it charges while you keep it plugged in, and a major portable drive for anyone who needs to transfer files from office, to school, to home, or wherever. That I'd say is the uber cool factor of this device.

Bear in mind that this is a simplified version of the 3 devices combined into one. Camera does not have image quality settings or macro features, camcorder is just a point and shoot, and even the mp3 player itself lacks any type of shuffle feature or music title display. Just imagine an ipod shuffle without the shuffle, and you get the picture. Otherwise, I highly recommend it, especially for the price, you just can't beat it.

I am really satisfied with this amazing portable device, I have come to know about this product long back ago, about one and half year ago, this product have won so many awards in its categories.

I was eagerly waiting for this product but was not able to purchase as it was not available where I was living.

I really was impressed by picture quality, well not truly amazed but satisfactory. Some time pictures washout from the corner I don't know why? The movies capturing also good but some time washout!

But overall I am happy, I would be happy if 256MB or 512 MB storage would be there, 128MB is nothing, and maybe Philips will update it soon or come out with new model. In my opinion Philips should have expand memory at least 512MB, and i guess that would be sufficient, and flash would be good inclusion and if they can add optical zoom not digital but optical would be great.

Good product, full marks to the Philips for amazing product, I love it, it is very small and handy!,

Pros- This is a compact, easy to use, stylish little camera. It's nice that you can use it for pictures, video and listening to mp3s.

Cons- There is no flash so it had better be a nice bright day when you want the pictures, also the quality is what you might expect from something so small. Pictures are a little fuzzy. Not having the option to zoom is frustrating because everything is always ant-sized.

Overall opinion- This is a decent camera for the size and price. Don't expect anything more than a quick snapshot at medium resolution. This is not intended for high quality pictures or video. This is just nice for a small camera that you can always carry around with you to catch "spur of the moment" snapshots.

I can't wait until they can come out with one this small, a little extra storage, maybe a zoom and flash.

It's handy and small. Very easy to use. It make's video pretty good in a flash. The only thing is it would have been good if phillips added a light to allow the video picture to be clearer. I would buy it again, at the amazon price of half the major electronic stores. Good purchase. Also takes pic & is an MP3 Player.