Customer Reviews

SiPix StyleCam Blink Digital Camera

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

The soda-cracker sized wonder not only fits within my shirt pocket, it leaves room for three pens, an envelope, a folded piece of typing paper and half a dozen 3x5 cards. And the picture quality, even compared to the full range if sub-$1000 digital cameras, is reliable and good at 640x480 resolution.

It is always with me. Remember that face you saw on the subway that was like an epic novel, or that serendipitous combination of advertising sign and pedestrian, and wished you had a camera? Now you can.

One important suggestion: the latency period between pressing the shutter release and hearing the beep to indicate the picture has taken is the better part of a second and, because the lens is tiny, the exposure time is long. So hold the camera very, very steady. Then shout your surprise when you first see on your computer screen how well [this]camera serves you.

Rating: Quality per dollar and fun per dollar are both five star-plus.

This is a fascinating little product - carry it in your pocket without any weight. I love carrying it along to kids games, and the kids want ones of their own.

It has a few drawbacks, however. Some expected, some that need fixing in the next generation.

The expected (but still a little disappointing)
- limited focal length lens means that elements outside the very center of the picture are blurred (barrel distortion)
- No flash for low light situtions

The real problem:
- it loses your pictures when the battery drains down, i.e. its memory is volatile. Flash memory is so cheap, why did the designers make this choice?
- There is no early warning, actually no warning at all when the battery is too low. In fact if the battery gets low it will still take pictures as normal, then it freezes up, and all your pictures are gone.

Caveat emptor here - a great product in so many ways, but make sure you replace the batteries early i.e. Every 50 shots or so. Its not a cost issue, but you will lose your pictures beyond hope for recovery, even though the camera seems to continue to act normally.

As a Minox fan and owner since 1969 and gadget lover, I was eager to see how this much-touted little gem worked. I first did a lot of research reading data and reviews. BOTTOM LINE PREPURCHASE INFO: No other beginners camera even comes close to the quality of photograph and accompanying software. Having bought two fancy digital cameras for family and friends and a Panasonic Palmcorder with good digital camera inside it, I am well aware of imaging software. ...P>PERFORMANCE: The little camera performed as expected. Operation was simple with two buttons and good menu and LCD menu indicator, photos reasonably sharp given the tiny size, and the accompanaying software superbly usable. It even came with a Duracell AAA battery, a detail no other review noted, but to me connoting a note of quality and not tyring to cheap out every which way. As a webcam, I looked at the images produced, and they were typically sub-mediocre but also in line with webcams of this price. Indoor shots are a bit fuzzy, but my son took a great panorama shot in a seminar room of me giving a seminar, which I easily stitched into a broad panorama with the included software. By the way, one review I read was dead wrong: The delayed beep does not indicate when the photo exposure starts; rather, the delayed beep indicates when the photo exposure stops, which inside in dim light is a couple seconds.

TWO FLAWS: First, I almost sent the camera back, because the image gets a bit blurred around all the edges. Then I looked up photos posted on the British Amazon site and elsewhere, and they were the same way. This I can live with. Second and more serious, the battery drains disturbingly rapidly when you're storing a lot of pictures. For two weeks I had no trouble, but last weekend I went on a trip, took perhaps 30 pictures, and the battery drained in less than two days, leaving me with three photos only. This problem has been noted in other reviews, but I can live with it also. However, if you take a lot of photos, download soon. I have yet to experiment systematically with it, but I changed the battery quickly with those three pictures, and they were still there after changing the battery, whereas the instructions say you will lose pictures when you change batteries. There may be some mechanism that allows you a socond to change batteries and not lose your photos.

...P>CONCLUSION: The SiPix Blink is the first camera ever that allows the general public to experience what (subminiature camera) Minox owners have enjoyed for decades: A camera you can and ACTUALLY WILL take anywhere that takes decent pictures. SiPix is currently a price performance breakthrough, throughly fun, and a great affordable way to get into digital. Not bad for insurance purposes too. As for me, I'll use mine a lot, but I'll still carry my Minox B, the last of the Minox cameras needing no batteries.

Jim

For - Great design, really small, easy to install, superb software, extremely easy to use, quality tolerable

Against - Refuses to take pictures indoors (even on inside mode) unless your room is very bright, therefore can't capture any night time events so its not for students!!!!! Will flash up error. Size would make it ideal, but as it won't take pictures its useless for this. Quality is limited. Proper digital cameras (1.3Megapixel) ...

Overall - If they added a flash or even made it work in low light (even if results are not stunning) it would be a great little gadget. As it is, I'm dissapointed because I've taken it out and it won't take pictures. It may fit into your pocket on a night out but it won't work! Taking fireworks tonight proved impossible, it still thought it was too dark. For daytime use its great for web pages, but the quality is nowhere near a proper digital camera, then again the resolution is better than competitors. No other camera this small takes better pictures.

...

I got it and it worked great. No, image quality is nothing compared to a megapixel camera, but its great for fun snapshots or quick email pics. Then I tried the movie feature which is really just a mode which allows the camera to shoot up to 100 frames in rapid succession. It wasnt smooth hi res movie footage, but it was fun and mimicked video. Lastly, I tried out the webcam feature. The picture quality was on par with other webcams Ive viewed. So I am 99% satisfied. My only complaint is that it eats batteries, even when the camera is off. The type of memory used creates a constant battery drain, so DONT leave the battery in it.

Leaving the battery in also runs it down when on webcam mode. It doesnt need to battery for that so take it out. So anyways, I decided that its a keeper. Wanting a way to protect it I decided it needed a small case to keep it in. Nobody makes a case this small so I made my own. I cut some pieces of suede leather and taught myself how to slow. It took me the exact running time of Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone to make this case. Yes folks, the camera is just that good to be worthy of such labor.

Sipix tech support is excellent. I dont know what you other reviewers are talking about, but I have gotten a lot of good info from Jim who is always very helpful and knowledgeable. By the way, I have never needed tech support for the blink, but for my other Sipix cam.

Point is people that this camera is for fun. Dont expect it to take pictures in the dark or record family home movies.

....but not much more. This is a handy little digicam with very limited capabilities, the best of which is its ability to function as a very adequate webcam, broadcasting at a standard Internet quality resolution of 640 x 480. As a camera for general photography, however, this is far from adequate for anything other than emailing images, posting pictures to websites or dropping pictures into reports. There is not enough resolution to make printable pics (even standard 4" x 6" will look grainy), and the lack of any kind of zoom limits its use further. It is easy to use, happily runs on a single AAA battery, has an adequate (but non-expandable) internal memory and attaches easily to your PC via any USB cable. If you're looking for an inexpensive webcam that just happens to offer easy pocketability in case you want to take it with you for some potential photo opportunity, you can hardly go wrong at this price. However, if you're really looking primarily for a camera (as opposed to a webcam), you'd be advised to look elsewhere.

I have wanted a digital camera for over a year now. I usually research items before I buy them, since I am always budget conscious. With the recent popularity of digital camera, there are many from which to chose and many of the ones that caught my eye were very expensive. In addition, researching everything I purchase can take its toll; the brands, the types and subtypes for digital cameras are extensive - and I was getting extremely woozy. Examining my budget and what I wanted, I had to reexamine my criteria, which basically came down to snapping pictures here and there on a daily basis to form a web diary of sorts and for a personal digital photo album. I'm not a professional photographer, and just need something that is very lightweight and dont need to lug around or suffer about having an expensive item stolen. Enter the SiPix Blink Camera. This thing is a godsend and one of the few items I've found to be REAL affordable in todays camera market. This camera has bad rap, because I think people expect extremely high end, multi-funtional capabilities of a very expensive unit. The pics arent high quality, and it offers resolution a bit better than a good webcam. BUT this camera is extremely fun, click and go, and comes with very functional easy to use software, a webcam clip for laptops, usb cable, a keychain strap, little neckstrap,and a battery to get started right out of the box. Not only that, it functions as a respectable webcam and can hold hundreds of pictures, and costs so little that I can still make my car payments on time. Also, I was really getting tired of trying to figure out the technical jargon for digital cameras and found this a great opportunity for a beginner. All you have to really know is how to press a camera button and where to plug it in to your computer. Thats it! If you only need a camera for the reasons outlined above, dont be tricked into buying more functionality than you need. Me, this camera is perfect for my current needs and it seems you get alot more than for what you pay. Its all self contained and dont need to learn anything new and dont need to buy additional expensive accessories. At the very least no matter what you do dont let the camera companies trick you into buying an expensive camera. You can buy this one or if you need a little better quality for those important memories keep in mind that you dont need to spend the more than the GNP of China to get it. It baffles me how this little camera got such bad reviews.

Even though this review is mentions many of the camera's negative qualities, I really like this camera. For the 4 stars, about 1 star is the camera and 3 stars for the price, size, and fun.

The images of the product do not do it's tiny size justice. It's like getting a piece of spy gear. For the price it is a no-brainer if no other reason than just to play with it. I have no qualms at all letting my 4 year old daughter have fun with this camera. The camera beeps when the photo is captured so you can know when to let the button go. I don't think you can turn the beep off, so no pictures in church!

I have had it a couple of days and have taken about 100 pictures with it. The camera claims to hold about 100 640x480 images and I have had 70 on it at once. It took a little fiddling with the software to get it to work but I am now downloading images with no trouble. When the software gives you a choice for "normal" or "larger" images, large apparantly means blown up in software. So don't use that as you can probably get better results enlarging the photos in another application. After those 100 pictures plus the PC transfer, I am still on the first AAA battery that came in the package. Photos seem to be stored quickly and the camera can take 1 shot every 2 to 3 seconds (in other words don't buy for the movie feature). I have not tested the web cam functions and do not plan to.

The blurry edges described in other reviews are definitely present on my camera. Make sure to get your subject in the center of the frame or you will miss the shot. I'm also pretty sure that there is a fair amount of barrel distortion because if you get just a face in the frame the nose area looks a little too big. No zoom on this camera so between that and the resolution you realistically have to be within about 10 or 15 feet of your subject or you will probably be disappointed in the photo.

It also needs a fair amount of light to take a picture. I took it into an Outback Steakhouse and it was too dim to take a picture. When that is the case the camera tells you by a "err" message on the little LCD readout. No Mac drivers which is a bummer. I would love to not have to fire up my PC just to get the photos off.

I had this camera although is adorable and it felt as if i was a james bond movie person, it took horrible pictures. The inside pictures if it didn't have the right amount of light the camera would not take pictures at all and when I took pictures outdoors it woould have a blue outline around the images.

The saying you get what you pay for is very true.

The lens that SiPix chose for this camera is too small for the imager used. Note that most of the examples shown are either in round or oval frames. This hides that fact that the edges are blurred. And it doesn't matter how steady you hold the camera.

Following is SiPix technical support's response to a question concerning this blurring:

"The camera uses a wide angle lens, this causes the outer edges to be slightly blurred.

Thank you for contacting SiPix Technical Support."

I think that response speaks volumes ...

This is NOT a camera company with an view like that about the images their product produces.