tiny cam

Ali

NEW! The latest news: tiny cam, Jr. has died. tiny cam, Jr. was a Pocket DV2. And it is no longer. I still have tiny cam, Sr. but it takes pretty crappy pictures - tiny cam, Jr. took 1.3 mp and used a compactflash card. We mourn the demise of tiny cam, Jr. and now tiny cam, Sr. is once again put back into service.
February 23 2004 poppy aiptek
February 15 2004 dollop aiptek
February 13 2004 Susie aiptek
January 28 2004 saké aiptek and
the red shoe dance

Gayla's apitek pics - check out the blinking lights .avi!
I love my tiny cam, but I'm thinking about getting this even tinier cam!

I was looking for a tiny cam. I have an Olympus C-3000z that takes great pics, but I wanted something that I could stick in my purse to grab candid and spontaneous shots. I came across the aiptek pen cam, but when I saw this aiptek pocket dv, I just had to have it. I was completely taken by its size; and then, there's the cool blue color. I wanted it, I ordered it from BestBuy.com and I waited impatiently for about a week. The tiny cam finally arrived.

I am having so much fun with this good tiny cam that I've decided to devote an entire section of my site to it.

This isn't an easy cam. It gets quite finicky. But there's a certain allure to the challenge. I'll learn its way some day. Here, I'll post galleries of my aiptek pocket dv photos and my thoughts about this tiny cam.

Although this tiny cam has its unique idiosyncrasies, it's a versatile little thing. It comes with the cutest little tripod so it can be used as a web cam, and records audio and video and even has a timer. I don't have mine hooked up as a web cam because I have an Intel web cam that I love. I have used the audio and video but not the timer. Cool stuff!

Ali has an aiptek pocket dv and we've been sharing pics and thoughts. I have been delighted with her work and I know you'll enjoy it, too.

If you speak aiptek, give me a holler.

tiny cam

june 16 2002
I've had several emails asking about the video capabilities of this tiny cam. I don't have this tiny cam set up as a web cam, but I have taken several short videos. First of all, this tiny cam can take only about 2 or 3 minutes of video, so don't think that you'll be able to use it as a video cam; plus the resolution is 320 x 240. The video that I've used for a demonstration was taken outside at night with only available light, which was pretty bright. It's a little blurry because I was moving pretty fast when I was taking the video. The sound isn't bad, so you can pretty much use this tiny video cam for just fun little snippets of life. I imagine that the quality of this video is the same as if this tiny cam is used as a web cam. Have fun!

april 11 2002
Stubborn little cam! my tiny cam can be so obstinate! A picture that the Olympus would jump at is rebuffed by the tiny cam. grrrr!!!! The tiny cam has a light sensor. Very often I'll be allowed to take the photo even if the lighting is less than perfect. But there are times that I'll push and push and push the shutter button and nothing. nada. Even when the lighting is optimal. In disgust, I'll lay the camera at rest and it's at that point that the shutter is released. Certainly not the picture I intended. This tiny cam has a mind of its own.

I was wrong about “Saving As....” The file size is the same whether you save as a .jpg or any other format. The only advantage to saving as a .bmp or .tif or whatever is that you won't lose any data when you resave the image.

april 1 2002
I had a little fun with my little aiptek. I'm still learning how to get great shots with it. The biggest factor is getting the light and the focus “setting” right. Fortunately, a little tweaking with PhotoImpact 7 and I'm good to go!

Here's a little tip if you use the included software (Digital Video Camera Manager -- I often just use PI7 to acquire). When saving the pictures to disk, the only choice on the drop down menu is to save as a .jpg. However, you have to type in the extension, so you can save as a .tif, .bmp, or even .ufo. I don't know enough about this type of thing, but I do notice that the images saved as a .tif are larger than when saved as a .jpg.

march 31 2002
One last little thought on this tiny cam. In addition to being portable, I was hoping that the size would make it very unobtrusive so I could get some really candid shots. Well, yes, it is unobtrusive because of its size, but it has an extremely loud BEEP for every function. Mind you, it's not just an audible BEEP, but a rather loud obtrusive BEEP!!!!

march 29 2002
I had a lot of fun experimenting with my Aiptek Pocket DV. Melissa and Molly were annoyed. “Mom, stop taking pictures!!!!!” hehe!
my quick thoughts (more later): The lighting has to be perfect. The results are great when the lighting is good (since there's no flash); if not, PI does a great job of tweaking. I'm not happy with the white balance. The viewfinder isn't true WYSIWYG. The lens has limited focus (three preset settings - I'm still experimenting with this). I'm going to keep it because it's fun and captures decent images for the web. It's nice to be able to leave my Olympus at home, but if getting the perfect shot every time is really important, stick with your MEGApixel cameras.

tiny cam

aiptek gallery

poppy aiptek
dollop aiptek
susie aiptek
the red shoe dance
saké aiptek
falula aiptek
farmer aiptek
kissmobile aiptek
rose aiptek
bloomin' aiptek
whatever aiptek
blue aiptek
desert aiptek
more aiptek
some aiptek
weird aiptek
surprise aiptek
huh? aiptek
lucky aiptek
outdoor aiptek
m & m aiptek
prickly aiptek
bolting aiptek
giant aiptek
tazo aiptek
bouquet aiptek
light aiptek
glass aiptek
vivid aiptek
chair aiptek
flower/feet/knit aiptek
drink of choice aiptek
pumpkin aiptek

video samples
video
another video

tiny cam