Aiptek PenCam SD Digital Camera

Pros: Hi resolution in a low-priced package
Cons: Doesn't remember picture quality settings. Insecure battery bay.

I'll try to avoid repeating information that is easily available elsewhere. I'm giving my persona ...

Pros: Inexpensive, small, and uses removable media.
Cons: No flash, not very sturdy, loud.

I purchased the Aiptek Pencam 1.3 SD at WalMart for 29.88. I don't know if it was a pricing mistake ...

Pros: Excellent Res for the price, Very Small and Easy to use.
Cons: Annoying Focus ring easily goofed resulting in blury pictures.

I Have a Love Hate relationship with this camera. I got a GREAT deal on it. $30 at walmart (bought a ...

Pros: small, good webcam, decent pics, good strap
Cons: no flash, battery life is short, lose pics if batt dies

I got this camera as a gift for my birthday and have had fun with it. First of all the current price that they have listed (80-some bucks) is too much in my opinion. My sister picked mine up at wal-mart for somewhere in teh 40 dollar range. I have no ...

I was going to move up to the SD from the VGA pencam but I don't think the product is quite ready. I just bought the camera yesterday. It was broken out of the box. It can focus as close as 12 inches but not out past about 6 feet. It gathers light pretty well - probably due to the lens which is larger than normal for this price range. It's also much more stable managing brightness, color balance, and contrast when used as a PC camera than it's predecessor, the APITEK VGA Pencam Trio (fixed focus and looks like a spy camera). The SD has a nice set of features and can fit in a standard generic cell phone case for added protection. It seems a bit fragile, but what should you expect from a camera that costs less than the price of the 128 MB SD chip it uses. Still it's a bit more than I need to make auction item pictures. I'll stick with the APITEK VGA pencam for now. It does everything I need and no focus hassles.

Bottom line: okay functionality (just okay), good picture quality, questionable construction quality. Took some good pics of my kids in full sunlight ... balanced red hair against orange and blue jackets, white snow and grey siding well. Didn't do too well in anything less than full daylight however. It's not fixed focus. You have to focus it, but there's no way of telling if you're focused or not because there's no LCD screen and the viewfinder is just a hole in the camera ... can't preview. More than half our shots came out totally blurry. Also, since the "shutter speed" is kind of slow, in less than full light you have to stand still or it will blur. Very tough with kids. Mine broke the first day (yesterday). The strip of metal that makes contact with the battery collapsed in, so it will only run on the USB cable now. I'm worried about the quality of this line, so I may not just swap it out .. will probably get something altogether different instead.

I have to ditto the comments here about poor quality. I wanted a second camera for informal shooting plus something that doubled as a webcam. This product seemed like it was perfect, at a great price. I took three test photos and viewed them. OK they were indoors and sort of pixilated, but they were fine for what I needed. So I went out to take an outdoor shot and boom!, the button to take pics collapsed in and broke -- no more taking pics. So I returned it to where I purchased. The only other one on the shelf had been previously returned and its button was broken as well. Both are on their way back to the vendor. Aiptek, you've got a great product here...just go build them so that the last a few more months or even days.

I own several CCD based digital cameras (9 to be exact). Ranging from Canon G1, Canon Powershot S100 Elph, Sony DSC-P50, Fujifilm MX-2700, Canon Powershot 350, Mustek Gsmart Mini2 (CMOS based), Casio QV-300, and etc...I must tell you I was very surprised that the Pencam SD takes very good pictures...I even believe that the pictures taken with Pencam SD are sharper and are more natural in colors compared to my Sony DSC-P50!!! In comparison to other CMOS based digicam such as the Mustek Gsmart Mini2, Pencam SD yields much better pictures. Edges of objects are not pixelated like pictures taken with the Mustek, eventhough they are both 1.3MP digicam. Kudos to Aiptek for Pencam SD. I hope in the future Aiptek would design a smaller digicam with a more rugged body (and a lens cap would'nt hurt either).

I shoot with a Canon G1. This is what I use for my exebition shooting. I wanted a toy to carry with me that would provide an acceptable photo. This camera exceded my expectations. Even in low light with out a flash it did well. This is not to say that the photos are excelent. But, they are good. I would say about as good as shooting with a $20-$40 reloadable point and shoot using either cheap iso 400 film or kodak iso 800 film. In medium to full light the camera did fine for 4x6 photos. Again not 8x10s or larger not dull indoor light. I try not to go anywhere without a camera, now I know I won't. I'll take this one everywhere. Sony has a new 1.3 mp camera available for two hundred. It's large and more expensive. It may be as good or better than this camera but I'll still take this for $79 bucks.

Great little second camera to keep with you wherever you go! Be nicer if it came with a carrying case too. Only used in High Resolution mode so far with nice results. Great value ($79 less $20 rebate from Best Buy). I was impressed with the photos and ease of use.