Digital Dream ships digicam 'keychain'!
By
Mike Tomkins
(Thursday, December 27, 2001 - 00:02 EST)
Dubbed the "l'Espion", new digicam offers tiny size and a price to match...
European camera company Digital Dream Co., which sells its products in Germany, France, the Netherlands, England and Spain, is now shipping a digital camera 'keychain' which looks like it could win awards for a remarkably tiny size - although not surprisingly the specifications are fairly low-end. The l'Espion digital camera, described in an item on the Telegraph website discovered by reader Jerry Whiting, has a 352 x 288 pixel (0.1 megapixel) CMOS imager coupled with a F2.8 3.9mm fixed focal-length, fixed focus (0.8 meters - infinity) lens and a retractable optical viewfinder. The camera features resolutions of 352 x 288 pixels and 176 x 144 pixels, and stores up to 20 shots at the former or 80 shots at the latter resolution on its built-in 2MB of memory.
Exposure is completely automatic, and a 10 second self-timer is included. The unit also features a small LCD panel (rather curiously located on the front, presumably due to space limitations) on which it can show resolution, self-timer and movie settings, as well as show storage space remaining and confirm deletion of images - although this latter function is only for deleting all images at once, and doesn't offer single image deletion. USB connectivity is provided, and the camera can also function as a 16 frame-per-second tethered video camera, as well as being able to capture brief video clips for later downloading.
The l'Espion camera weighs just 40 grams, has dimensions of 58 x 40 x 15mm, with power supplied by a single AAA battery, and is available in Europe at a cost of £39.99 (US$58). We're not currently aware of any company in the US with the rights to the product. While the size is pretty cool, using it as a keychain would probably not be a great idea since no cover is provided to protect the lens, as the Telegraph mentions in their piece. We'd have to disagree with them on one point though - we doubt anybody running a corporate website will find the low-res images from the camera 'perfectly adequate'! As gadgets go, this is certainly going to get attention though - and it would be nice to see the l'Espion on the American market...
 | Digital Dream Co.'s l'Espion digital camera.
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