So, here’s my first hardware review.  I was in town taking pictures with a digital camera (my good one), when I ran across this one.  It was cute, albeit in a rather bland fashion.  It was $10, so it found itself in my possession.  I was going to take pictures of it, but I was sorely disappointed at what was included.  It comes with an install mini-CD, a USB cable, camera and instruction manual.  That was it.  The CD comes with software and the driver.  I chose only to install the driver.  After a few tries it finally succeeded (hardware issue on my end, don’t ask) with the install and I rebooted.  Now, when I use IrfanView to acquire the images off of the camera, it pulled through all of them at once.  That was not cool.  Each time I would acquire it would do this.  Okay, so it definitely needs the system software to work.  I, however, will not install third party software that I don’t need onto my live system.  You’re on your own if you test this out.

The photo that did come through, the last one, was of halfway decent quality.  But it could have been much better.  After checking in My Computer, the webcam portion of the camera comes up as Dual Mode Camera.  The camera comes with an auto adjust feature while the camera is active.  No idea if this works for the actual snapshot portion.  The webcam is weak, very weak.  It displays a picture, but it is grainy and choppy.  I imagine the supposed video mode included with this camera is the same.  The camera does have a few different modes, the major ones I have just listed.  The others include settings for the different style of lighting.

This thing runs on two AAA batteries.  The number of pictures that can be taken is listed in a small two digit window.  Depending on the batteries, I’ve had various numbers, 18 and 52.  If this is dependent on the batteries, or total storage space I’m not sure.  I finally decided to tear this thing apart and see what makes it tick.  There are several screws holding it into place.  They are hidden into the same bezel that holds the batteries.  I said to heck with it, pulled out a flathead and started prying.  I eventualy did find the screws and moved them.  They aren’t magnetic, I lost one promptly.  There isn’t much under the hood.  There is a small speaker, button for snapping photoes, the wiring for the batteries, a memory chip, and the actual lens mechanism.  The lens can be unscrewed to reveal the assembly underneath, which is in turn mounted to another chip.  The actual memory chip bares the label MT 48LC8M8A2.  This is a memory chip made by Micron, often included on 64MB memory sticks.  However, this one is only 16MB.  A far cry from a space saver.  This circuit appears to be a motherboard if anything (bears the model number st606a-mb-01 08.3.5), it has all of the right parts, save for maybe a bios, but I figure it is hidden.  I tried to disassemble more, but a screw was stripped and I was forced to put it back together.  It didn’t work right after I reassembled it, so I don’t know what’s up.

Now, this camera makes a claim it can hold over 200 photoes.  Any decent sized camera will make a 350k jpeg.  This camera only has 16MB, so at most it will hold… wait for it, near the same number the camera listed.  It’s dependent on the memory size, not necessarily the battery.  However, what disappointed me, and the main reason I ripped this thing apart, was the hope of finding a flash memory card of sorts.  Nadda.  The battery keeps the pictures going.  They will d-r-a-i-n.  What is the point of the 200 photo claim?  Do they mean the compression option mentioned?  That’s weak at best.  What about that covered slot that looked like it could be used for other models?  Why make it purely cosmetic?  The screws are also in weird locations.  The lens is horrendously blurry, with a fish eye style lens towards the center.  The neckstrap also is dodgy.  It is hard to strap through the camera’s plug, restring through the clip, and assemble it.  It would have been easier to pull it apart, but the screws aren’t readily seen.  Another complaint is the resolution, it’s in the 300-200 range.  There are two resolutions, but they are… non-standard.  WHY?!

More importantly, there isn’t much information for this model of camera on the Internet.  It is simply a 91379 Digital Camera.  Very generic.  The instruction manual says Sakar, but the actual packaging said CyberPix.

Now, what about the actual durability?  The case will move from pressure, just from my fingers.  The plastic is very flimsy.  However, it also appears to be rock solid in the construction.  I had a hell of a time ripping this thing apart.  The screws hold the case together snuggly.  There is no moving parts.  The only thing that could break is a soldered wire, the batteries might come loose, or in the unlikely case, the circuitboard might crack.  It feels strong enough where the screws bolt in, to the point it could probably be thrown at the wall and it would absorb the impact quite well.  It doesn’t look like it wants to be taken apart though.  It didn’t work right when I reassembled it.

For a simple digital camera for $10, you can’t go wrong.  Keep in mind, you are getting what you pay for.