SiPix Stylecam Blink II Digital Camera

Need a pick-me-up? Buy this! (15 of 16 Found this Helpful)   April 23, 2003
This is the coolest,cutest, most awesome toy. I've got my whole camera kit packed in an Altoids tin to carry in my purse. I'll always have a camera when I need one. This is limited, but you can take a lot of pictures with no cost. The cam wizard lets you deselect the bad shots before saving them as files. The file sizes are small but look big enough online. Pics are automatically enhanced. I put six unedited photos at Grove Street in an album. Search albums for SiPix. You will see a bit of blur on two pictures but the others are fine. Who cares how many pictures get tossed. Some will turn out just right. This is amazing for the cost. I remove the battery for storage. After shooting pictures wear it on the neckchain until you get them on the PC so the power button doesn't get turned on and run out the battery. This is perfect to carry all the time. Everyone who sees it is amazed. Great gift for kids from 10 to 90! --T

Absolutely amazing (9 of 9 Found this Helpful)   April 22, 2003
This little camera is amazing.It has an incredibly small size and it take an awful lot of pictures.It takes pictures and u can use it as a webcam.Im impressed the definition is incredible,it might not be as good as professionals but it easily does the job.It is so small it fits anywhere.The only flaw it has is that if the battery runs out ur pictures will get deleted but when its running out of power all u have to do is change the battry in like 5 seconds which gives u enough time to do it.I would say its perfect or near perfect and at the price and all of us who are in a budget can afford it.

Excellence. (12 of 13 Found this Helpful)   August 30, 2003
So my Blink II cam arrives today in the mail and immediatly my mind is flooded with questions.. will this little toy live up to my expectations? Will it be worth even the [money] i spent on it? how big is this 'mini cam' in reality? how will it handle color?

After briefly looking over the camera i returned to the product's box and continued to dig through its contents. I was of course looking for the manual and drivers for the camera but i found something more entertaining first...

The camera comes with a *HIP* *IN STYLE* necklace which can be used to hang your awesome miniature camera around your neck! Being the hipster that i am, i immediatly decided to vogue with the camera as a necklace in the mirror. Okay so the necklace thing is just funny. The necklace does make a great cat toy though, more on this later..

I've had several bad experiences with low end digital cameras in the past, to be honest i did not expect this product to be any different from the low end 'toy cameras' i'd messed with in the past. Previous 640x480 resolution 'toy cameras' i've had have ALWAYS had terrible color balancing issues, problems with movement, terrible software, and low storage capacities. Fortunatly this camera has none of the problems those older cameras had!

The camera can shoot in two resolutions, 640x480 and 320x240. It has an 8 (eight) megabyte internal SDRAM memory, which is HUGE for storage of pictures at this resolution. The huge memory translates into a large capacity of 70 images at a time in 640x480 and 300 in 320x240. Previous low end cameras i've paid twice as much for had maximum capacities of 12 images at 640x480, a capacity of 70 on internal memory is out of this world to me. Unfortunatly this camera does NOT come with an external memory slot, so the capacity of the camera is stuck at what it comes with.. still, 70 images is NOT bad.

The software is a GOD SEND. Both cameras i've had bad experiences with in the past had TERRIBLE problems with software, the software was twain driven (meaning you use a photo program to pull images in) in the past and just generally [stinks].
The software included with this package works VERY well and it's easy to use! When you plug the camera into the USB cable provided a window immediatly pops up with options. Now don't be fooled, just because the software actually pops up, that is not necessarily a sign everything is working okay. Both of my past low-end cameras popped up similar windows beautifully.. the [bad] part always came when the camera was actually transferring pictures to the computer. As i mentioned before, this software is a god send, it works beautifully. The camera is so small that it can derive all of its power from the USB cable when it is plugged into the computer, this is a VERY good thing. nine times out of ten with the older generation cameras, picture download problems were the result of low battery power... since this sucker is powered by the USB cable while connected, it downloads all pictures reliably every time. It should be noted that the software provided only works on windows, if you do not use windows, you may need to see if there are drivers/software options out there to help support this camera.

The camera suprisingly handles COLOR excellent. Personally, my jaw dropped when i saw how perfect the colors looked in tungsent/flourescent lighting, perhaps i am just used to and frustrated with my 1 megapixel camera, but i think handling these lighting situations so well is amazing in such a low-end product.

of course the blink camera does not defy digital camera limitations, shooting into light or in the dark results in [bad] pictures, however the camera does have an AWESOME feature where it will not take a picture and beeps if there is not enough lighting.
the camera can capture 'avi' movies (allegedly)... unfortunatly the camera doesnt capture into a format of avi that my windows media player recognizes very well.
so the video capture thing is kind of funky, however the camera dupes as a webcam! i didn't notice that it was a webcam on the description i read of the product on amazon.com, but i don't have a webcam so i tried it out and i like it!

as i mentioned earlier, the provided 'hip, in style camera necklace' that came with the camera makes an excellent cat toy, when testing the webcam i first tried to film my cat samwise playing with the necklace.. i explained to samwise in great length that the camera does not capture at a very high framerate so he should not move very quickly.. of course samwise did not listen, so much of the video is just a blur..

of course, for those of us HUMANS who understand the concept of framerate and motion blurring low frame rate video.. the webcam feature works much better..

the only down side of the webcam feature is that it came with a cradle which is meant to snap onto a flat panel moniter, so my bulky retro normal size moniter cannot hold the cradle correctly.

In conclusion, i am VERY happy with this product, the camera is cheap, it runs on ONE AAA battery, it doubles as a webcam, it stores 70 pictures, it has excellent color balancing, it lets you know when you are a being a dumb photographer shooting in the dark, it is TINY, it comes with a cool complimentary cat toy, the software provided is great (though it is windows only!), and it just generally rocks.

i think this little thing would make an EXCELLENT intro camera for people interested in a cheap digital camera!

Best Camera Ever (29 of 36 Found this Helpful)   April 12, 2003
-SiPix Stylecam Blink II Digital Camera-
The SiPix Stlylecam Blink II DC, is my first Digital Camera. I got mine today and was surprised on how small it was and for the price $..., my hand wrapped around it and is so discrete nobody knows you have it! I Popped in the included Panasonic AAA Battery turned on the camera and started taking pictures I ended up taking 40pictures. The Drivers are easy to install 5minutes, than upgraded the Driver for the ALIVE feature (RECOMMENDED!) Well it took 5minutes less the Driver Update. The SIPIX software is easier than the ARC-Soft and Easier. Uploaded the images and, Images taken outside on a gray rainy day came out Beautiful! The ones taken inside came out a bit disturbed. Overall if you plan to use the camera outside or in Bright areas (since camera has no flash) and want an easy camera to use GET THE BLINK II, if you want in and out you can buy it but you may not be pleased. In my opinion This camera should be #1 and sold nationwide!

too cute ! (1 of 1 Found this Helpful)   July 17, 2003
not the best pictures but what do you expect from such a tiny trendy toy. it's easy to use. fun to own and the pix aren't half bad. wish it had a flash. i guess that's asking too much for thirty bucks. get it have fun !