^/\^ PeAK /\^/\

The Promise of DIgital Photography
My original page on digital cameras began sometime in late 2000. I had narrowed my choices down to something that could could capture an image with slightly more resolution than your average television. 300k pixels (0.3 megapixels) was equivalent to 640x480 or VGA. Today (Sept 2004), almost four years later technology drivers on and we know live in an era were a 512 memory stick is less than $100 dollars.

As I have not updated this page in 4 years, it is not suprising that almost/most of the links are dead. There have also been some really neat developments in small digital cameras with fixed memory called tinycams. ( Note: The newer site is now located here. There is an associated Yahoo Groups tinycam page where you can post links, discuss and share. The shapes and capability of these cameras just continues to grow and amaze. Here is a sampling.
I have in my hand a digital camera with a USB interface (high speed serial interface for uploading images from the camera to the PC) that is about the size of a pack of matches. It can hold 26 640x480 (0.3 megapixel) images using one AAA battery!
This page is really about cameras with no expandable memory that you could stick in your Jeans or wallet. Typically, the cameras are either 0.1, 0.3, or 0.48 megapixel cameras that are capable of storing on the order of one or two hundred pics. They have no expandable memory and use common batteries.

1. What to look for and what not to look for
2. Background reading...boning up on Digital Cameras

2.1 General Specifications and Comparison Shopping
2.2 0.3 Megapixel Cameras...just what the doctor ordered


1. Nexxtech 3-in-1 keychain digital camera
2. L'espion Xtra 800x600/0.48 megapixel
3. Sipix Blink II
4. Fuji Finepix A101 camera
5. Minolta Dimage XT
6. Radio Shack Flatfoto 1.3 Megapixel

3. Summary...go for portability and quality
4 HIT Mini Spy Camera

^/\^ What's New ...

Oct 15, 2004


• I think I want one of these FlatFoto cameras. The low power technology allows these things to run at 1/10 or more of the power of conventional CMOS sensors. (The power draw of this camera capturing in Video mode is equivalent to that of cameras with volatile SDRAM memories in standby mode....about 10mA!!!). The FlatFoto is available as of September 2004 in RadioShack stores for $70 (1.3 megapixels, 16MB of integrated memory, metal body, SD memory expandable)....like I said...I want one of these.
• Want a small digital camera ? Take a look at Camborg's Small Camera Guide

1 What to Look and what not to look for
What I like to put down here are a few thoughts of what I think are the real world practical needs/requirements of people looking for a low cost/moderate quality/well designed digital camera. I have owned a number of traditional film cameras and a a site covering buying tips by Philip Greenspan should be read whether you buy a normal film or digital camera. Problem is that some parts of his site where last updated in 2001 and the digital cameras reflect that. His choosing a digital camera caters to the high end 11x14 pro-oriented consumer and not so much the point and shoot crowd. I've revised my list for a first camera. Take a looke at the EZ200 link to see the sort of pictures that you should expect at very minimum. These are far short of what can be achieved by a reputable manufacturer (like Fuji in a 1280x960/1.3 Megapixel format). Back in the year 2000, I thought the Epson 550 passed with flying colours...and I think it is a good standard to aim for, still, by the low cost units that are "Made in China". As important as image quality, the combination of useful features found in today's Key chain Camera was previously (in 2000) unheard of.

1. Muli-element Glass Lens: At the end of the day, the sharpness of the lens counts. The standard of what can be achieved is the EPSON PhotoPC 550 for VGA stills. The Kodak EZ200 is an updated version of this camera but with a much worse lens. Take a look at these sample pictures on a PhotoPC 550 and on the EZ200. The other aspect is that sensor are key to the image. Anti-reflection coationgs and spectral shaping are key to wringing out natural looking colours. The reality is that at the price point of tinycams, most will be using Polycarbonate...and at the very low end, plastic. Avoid plastic as the images are just poor looking.

   Flash forward to today and the previous paragraph does not hold. High quality polycarbonate (used in eyeglasses and not to be confused with plastic) can be used to generate a lens with sharpness, low chromatic abberation, and neutral bokeh. Many of the reviews at Imaging Resource contain actual pictures that you should look at. For those who need more info

2. Very reasonable battery life. This means lithium and rechargable Lithium-ion batteries are not required. My old mechanical cameras could take me into the woods for two weeks to a year on a single set of hearing aid batteries. I like to see at least 250 exposures (10 rolls of film) on a set of akaline batteries. That means giving up the LCD display, TV-out and flash. The Epson PhotoPC 550 can take up to 1,000 picutures on 3AA batteries. Many cameras will power off after about a minute of non-use to conserve batteries. The Fuji Finepix MX-1300 somehow manages to consume a paltry 45 mA of current when powered on in miminum power mode (no LCD finder, no flash). This means a set of 1300mA-hr batteries could last up to 26 hours. You could prove this to yourself if you could remember to turn it back on whenever it shut itself off. Choose a camera that uses commonly available AA or AAA batteries so that you can use Rechargeable NiMH or disposable ones in a pinch.
   
   
3. Good Picture Quality: The sharpness has to be reasonable with accurate colours and good saturation. Fixed focus seems to be adequate with this unit as the depth of field extends from about 4 feet to infinity. The 550 can double as a scanner by use of the "macro" range allowing it to ffocus down to 4""
4. 320x240 Mode: This is great for the kids and encourages experimentation/learning and ultimately better photography. The people plugging Megapixel cameras have got it all wrong. It means longer download times, bloated hard drives and extra battery consumption. This mode has 1/4 the area and 1/4 the storage requirements of 640x480.
   Whether it is acceptable for pictures depends upon two possible uses. For 4x6 inch prints...it is stretching it...especially at graduations. For display on television, the horizontal and vertical resolution (330x485) would probably be better suited for VGA. The sensor resolution tells part of the story as most low cost cameras are crippled by plastic lens and poor sensors.
   Update: For this mode to be more useful, the image quality needs to be generally better. Aiptek has generally excelled at implementation of small format cameras (glass lens) and also give a indication of the best this mode can do. Take a look at some early 320x1240 images at Charle's Tinycam site. Image quality was the focus of early generation digicams, like the Epson 550. They could take 147 low resolution picturres on a single 4MB smartmedia card. Kudos by compressing these images down to aroud 25KB per image. Charles images could problably hold up when put up on a TV, but a lot of low-res cameras cannot.
   
   Below you will find a table for a dual resolution MX-1300 that has 1280x960 and 640x480 modes with a 8MB card:

   Image Capacity vs Resolution/Quality		High Resolution (1280x960)	Standard  Resolution (640x480)	(320x240)
   Fine Quality	Images	12	45	180
   	Approx. Compression	4:1	4:1	4:1
   Normal Quality	Images	24	89	360
   	Approx. Compression	8:1	8:1	8:1
   Economy Quality	Images	47	178	720
   	Approx. Compression	16:1	16:1	16:1

   Table 1 Capacitry for Fuji MX-1300 with 8MB memory at 4:1, 8:1 and 16:1 compression

   Based on the image quality in the "Fine Quality" mode the 640x480 resolution takes about 180K (i.e. 8e6/45) using 4:1 compression. Using 12:1 compression would allow for less quality and about 3x more pictures and 1/3 the storage at about 60K per image. Doing the calculation for a 2MB memory (not 8MB) using 12:1 compression would result in the following image capacity. The amount of memory for each images is about :
   

   Bytes/pic = 640x480 pixels * 3 bytes/pixel / 12 = 77KB = 0.077MB MB/picture
   Capacity for 2MB memory = 2,000,000 bytes / (77e3 bytes/pic) = 27 pics
   
   

   Image Capacity vs Resolution		High Resolution (640x480)	Standard  Resolution (320x240)
   Standard Mode	Images	27	108
   	Approx. Compression	12:1	12:1

   Table 2 Capacitry for 2MB memory at 12:1 compression
   
5. No Flash: Nothing like a flash to prevent blur and to provide fill-in. The small size of these cards preclude a flash. Instead we will depend upon the low light capability of CMOS and CCD sensors
6. Optional or No LCD finder: If one is included, there must be a optical finder to allow one to conserve power. If I wanted an LCD screen I would lug around a camcorder. In order to have the a camera be truly free of using the LCD finder, commonly used info should be available on a small monochrome LCD setting window showing exposures left, flash mode and self-timer functions...just like a good old mechanical SLR
7. Mutiple Operatiing System Support: BeOS, MacOS, Linux and Win95.
8. Cost: These sorts of cameras cost less than $50. Typically, they will have about 8MB of built-in memory

2 Boning up on Digital Cameras
There are a few exceptional web pages out there that cover just about every facet of digital photography due to its long infancy. The manufacturing base has enlarged so that computer peripheral makers, such as Epson and HP, are now marketing cameras. The "getting started pages" of The Imaging Resource is a great resource for the beginner P>

2.1 General Specifications and Comparison shopping

1. The Big Chart had all the relevant information on major digicam manufacturers as of 1998. Today this table is out of date but gives you an idea of the state of the art in 1998. Data is organized alphabetically by manufacturere on picture format, memory modules expandability, optical/LCD veiwfinder, maximum number of pictures, focal length/F-stop, ASA rating, and File Format.
2. C't of Germany has jotted down some very good thoughts about the state of the Digital Camera world. A good read for the future when you do want a camera capable of taking your daughters wedding pictures.
   
   
   

2.2 0.3 Megapixel Reviews/Images...just what the doctor order...

I started doing a fair amount of darkroom work by developing black and white film and enlarging prints when I was about 12 years old. I attempted to do colour work for a while but I found it to be expensive, stinky, and demanding in terms of temperature/process control. I did limited amounts of colour enlarging work as a result. Flash ahead to a year ago when I manipulated the team hockey picture so that the person on the far left, who forgot his hockey sweater,so that his white T-shirt took on the Team logo and colour of the person standing 5 players away from him. Knocked my socks off!....I was converted.

Nexxtech / MN100 / SY-2107 / Keychain Cameras
These cameras come in many shapes and are barely larger than a pack of matches and usuall contain 0.1 to 0.3 megapixels. The recent ones contain more memory (8MB), higher resolution(640x480) and the MN100/SY-2107 is distiguished by the following features:
• Based on DSC 2770 chipset
• 1 AAA battery
• Auto-off during 20 seconds of idle
• 300K pixels or 0.3 megapixels resolution (640x480)
• 10 second self timer
• Advertised 8MB (2MB calculated...see above table 2 ) internal memory said to be good for 26 pics(VGA) or 107 pics(QVGA)
• fix focus
• No LCD
• Plastic lens (too bad)
• low resolution mode of 320x240 (QVGA)
• USB
• Pros:
  • Small size and simplicity
  • USB
• Cons:
  • These cameras use a form of memory called SDRAM which constantly requires some small power draw when off. In this case it amounts to about 4mA. This means a freshly charged 700mA-hr battery will drain in about a week.
  • Poor Image quality...when will they realize that image quality counts! At the low price levels where the cost is discretionary, quality control may be low and unit to unit variation the norm. Take a leaf from Minox...small can be good and precise. Pour money into the lens of these tinycams and I'll beat a path to your door.
  • Poor shutter release feel...the smaller the camera, the more critical that you be able to "squeeze" and release the shutter predictably.
  • Possible false advertising of memory capacity based upon image quality of pics. If 8MB is memory,then compression is 4:1, else 2MB would mean 12:1. I tend to believe the later.
1. SY-2107
2. Support site for owner's manual and USB driver
3. Paul's Samples Pics
4. Charles Moore Samples 100K (352x288) version by L'espion
5. Buy it as Radiio Shack in Canada

L'espion Xtra Reviews
This camera is an upgraded version of the SY-2107 with 800x600 resolution (0.48 megapixel). It distinguishing features are a metal chassis.

1. L'espion Xtra

Sipix Blink II
This camera is very similar to the Nexxtech but features more memory, a real viewfinder, better LCD display and a fan base consisting of image based websites:

1. A galllery of photos by Kaatan and his Sipix Blink
2. Mark's thoughts about his Sipix at his 1000 Words site.
3. Digital Camera Basics review of Sipix Blink II
4. Rog-Cam Sipix Blink II summary.
5. My own feelings about Pencams vis-s-vis Sipix.

Fuji Finepix A101
This camera features 1.3 Megapixels and probably represents the culmination of the tinycam revolution in a few years. It is included for those to see what is missing in today's tinycams versus an entry level picture taker from one of the big boys (expanded memory, 2x linear resolutio, great optics, great colour). It sets the bar for tinycams except for the requirements of added memory and the higher resolution mode. Below is a picture shot with a $100 Dimera 3500 in 640x480 mode that takes up about 60 KB of storage. This is the sort of quality you can expect from a tinycam (or worse) with a no-name sensor and no-name lens and fairly high compression (16:1).

Dimera sample-> A101 resolution sample-> (Click to enlarge) The A101 is 4" wide and 2.5" high. As much as small size is nice, larger cameras are more easily held steady and can lead to sharper pictures. The smaller the camera, the more critical is the design of the shutter release. The 1.3 Megapixel format reprents "twice" as many dots along each dimension (1280 versus 640 and 960 versus 480) as the high resolution VGA mode (640x480) found in tinycams. This makes for an image that matches or exceeds the resolution of most graphics card/monitor settings. Just as when we put up tiles on floor, a room twice as long and twice as wide requires 4x the number of tiles...so it is with the amount of storage.

Minolta Dimage Xt
What is the magic ingredient that lets a small camera join the big boys ? I believe that is the "folded lens". the idea is to have a the focussing and zooming done by internal lens elements and to then use a periscope idea to make a vertically orientated lens (pointing to the sky) by way of a pentaprism. Externally, their are no moving parts and the power up time is fast. Some loss of detail and low light capability (effective f-stop) might be an issue as indicated in some of the user reviews. The more recent cameras have moved away from the proprietary lithium-ion batteries towards rechareable AA format. The problem is that all of these cameras have phased out the optical viewfinder. Here is a link to a comparison chart of their family of cameras. Olympus has just adopted this technology in their AZ-1 model and their Ferrari series of digicams.

1. Imaging Resources Xt Review
2. Steve Digicam's Xt Review

Flatfoto 1.3 Megapixel


Judging by the information LCD on the back of the camera, the innards of this camera was designed by the same folks that brought you the Sipix Blink/Blink II. Apparently, the innards of this camera was market under the Fuji brandname called the Axia model. Click below on the thumbnails to get enlarged images of the rear "info LCD" and "specs":

LCD info Display-> Flatfoto specs-> (click to enlage)

What has changed in this camera are the following:
1. Increased resolution to 1280x960
2. Glass lens
3. Built-in flash
4. USB 2.0 (claimed)
5. 16 MB Internal Flash memory
6. Metal Body (should be more ESD immune)
7. Expandable SD memory slot
8. Flat form factor that can fit in shirt pocket with flash
9. Very low power dissipation. May not be applicable to this camera as no Video mode present.
Cons:
1. Puky red color...how about a titanium tinted unit
2. Built-in rechargeable Lithium is less flexible than AA/AAA batteries. Good thing is that a charger is available from any PC that has a USB slot!
3. No reviews or sample images from creditable review sites, yet. Need to know startup time, general image quality, and robustness.
4. If the the the "guidenumber" of 4.5 is correct for the electronic flash, then the F3.0 aperture will only allow a range up to 1.5 metres ( 5 feet). Good only for head shots...maybe two heads close together. 1000 pics per charge (no flash)...about 200
5. No built-in lens cover
6. Dropped the video mode (not that useful on Sipix but with expanable memory...might be a consideration to include in the future)
Links:
1. Radio Shack's Flatfoto page
2. User's Manual
3. Early user review
4. World's first Tinycam's user's Flatfoto.
5. Flatfoto is a SMaL based design. The basic features of a 1.3 megapixel can be found in this design kit page.
6. Like to take a look at the insides of this camera ? The 1.3 megapixel SMaL kit uses a unique Lithium battery technology that is equivalent to the what the Tetrapak was to canned drinks. They have housed the battery into what looks like the MSG packets that come with your instant noodles.
7. First Generation "640x480" Flatfoto review and Logitech Digital Pocket (SMaL based) 130 review.
Note that the innards of the camera are very similar to the Logitech Digital Pocket 130 that retails for about 3x more. The advantage in the Logitech is that it has a built-in lens cover. The Logitech 130 has decent image quality and is probably what you can expect from this second generation Flatfoto using a glass lens.
1. Techimo Hardware review of Logitech 130 with sample pics
See the image below:

Sample Logitech 130 image
(click to enlarge)

3 Summary

I applaud Epson for originally making good tradeoffs such as omitting flash, LCD display, and TV-out. I think I'll throw one in my backpack and go hike around Euroupe for a few months. Apparently Fuji, Kodak , Minolta , Casio , Nikon , Canon...have been listening

Today my manual camera has shutter speeds from 1 second to 1/1000 of second. I can take pictures inside a church without a flash. The bride still looks beautiful and the lack of shadows makes up for the lack of "glam" common in the typical holywood "flashbulbs" everywhere shots. From what I have seen of CCD camcorders, the behaviour of CCD cameras at low light is quite different from conventional film at low light levels. It is a bit like night vision where details in the shadows seem to come through better. The only thing missing on the Epson would a small zoom and through the lens viewing coupled with a larger aperture.

The manufacturers have to beware of the "me too" syndrome that is very pronounced in the computer laptop arena where increase features are add odds with power consumption. I can justify a large/expensive battery in a $3000 laptop but not in a $200 portable camera. Picture quality good enough for 4"x6" prints and for web publishing have already been demonstrated coupled with real portability. The need for a low cost grphical input device into a computer is very much like the need for 3.5" floppy disks. I hope this thing has as long a life as my Fujica ST-701 camera that I still use today....It would be a sad lost if these units were not available in the next year and superseded by battery draining LCD units without the 320x240 mode. Less is more.

4 Mini Spy HITS camera

Take a look at ads below from the back inside cover of comic books from about the 1970s. I was a 12 year old who got one of those yellow notices from the CUSTOMS/SHIPPING office and had no idea how to take public transport....so long mail order camera.

(click to enlarge)

The topic of mini spy cameras came up after my wife found Nexxtech mini-digital camera discussed above with a neighbour. It was not too long afterwards that I got onto Google and found that their is a strong interests in collecting these cameras. Some links:

1. Collecting Hit type cameras
2. Marcy's HIT story and pics (Wayback and link to more )
3. Tim Edsel's pics ( Wayback and 2011 aricle )
4. HIT's comic ads
5. More HIT collection

5 Photo Editing

Photo Editing can enhance and even alter the content of the orignal shot. Below we have on the left the orginal photo of a traffic sign framed against a blue sky. It was a bright brisk fall day and I had just came home from a walk around the neighbourhood. With the vibrant sky still in my mind's eye, I download the photos to get the photo below:

original-> edited version=> (Click to enlarge )