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Like polar icecaps and rainforests, digital cameras are shrinking. There have been several pocket-sized cameras and none smaller that the Digital Dream l'espion, the tiny camera on a key chain that was launched in 2001.
Since then though, others have entered the market and made the l'espion look very ordinary. Consequently, it's been reworked and launched as the l'espion Xtra.
One thing that hasn't changed is the seriously small size. Measuring 6 x 4cm and being less than 1.5cm deep, it can be easily slipped into a pocket when venturing out.
The new metal case feels robust and certainly looks nicer than the outgoing model.
One of the criticisms of the old l'espion was the 2MB of memory. Due to the low resolution of captured images, this was sufficient for 80 images but there was no way of expanding it.
To solve this, the Xtra has 8MB of memory. While that still doesn't sound like a vast amount, it's sufficient for 279 images at the highest quality setting.
'Quality' is a term to use relatively here. This is a fun camera with a resolution of 300 x 400 pixels, although it can interpolate to produce images equivalent to 800 x 600 pixels.
Providing you aren't expecting studio quality, you won't be disappointed.
The bundled software includes Ulead PhotoExpress, a very competent image-manipulation package for beginners, which is more than capable of scrubbing the ugly bits out of your snaps.
The l'espion can also function as a webcam and the software to support this is also included.
The only other thing on the CD-Rom is the user manual. You may think that a camera with only three buttons doesn't need instructions but they are not clearly labelled so having a flick through the manual is a must.
The camera has four quality-control settings to master and an option to record up to 27 seconds of video.
The lowest quality settings really aren't worth bothering with unless you need hundreds of very poor-quality images but the video mode can provide a bit of fun, although it will leave no room for photos.
DETAILS
Price: £50
Contact: Digital Dream 0800 389 7404
www.digitaldreamco.com
See also:
The cheapest 1.3megapixel camera around - perfect for digital novices. 29 Nov 2002
All Digital Cameras
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