Nice

Author's Rating:

Pros: 16MB internal memory plus expandable slot, audio video capability, compact, flash (see edit on flash)

Cons: digital (not optical) zoom

The Bottom Line: 
For many cameras this price and size, the PocketCam X offers a lot. It's very simple to use, and a cute thing to carry around.

Author's Review
After reading the first two reviews on this camera (given 2 stars each), I was quite surprised, because here I am, about to give the camera 4 stars; but of course, I'm no professional photographer or anything close to an expert regarding cameras and photos.

However, I find this camera a lot more convenient than many other cameras I've gotten. Shortly after I wrote an average review on the Che-ez! Tinio camera, I returned it (I'll have to fix that review).

Size is very appealing to me, thus this camera caught my attention (plus it was the last one on the shelf the night I went to Target). The dimensions are more or less 1 x 1 x 3 (very cute, in my opinion); and it has a more durable look than the Che-ez! Tinio camera (which is very cheap feeling). Though I've only had it for 3 days, I'm feeling pretty good about my purchase. On my first set of batteries (which were already half-lived from my previous camera), I was able to capture around 40 pictures and several movie clips (around a minute each, plus a longer 3-min clip here and there).

I'm always anxious about new gadgets I buy, and I didn't have to read the manual to get started; this camera is very easy to manipulate. The settings are easily accessed. Speaking of settings...

Though I only use the default resolution, the options include:
1. 2048 x 1536
2. 1600 x 1200 (default)
3. 1280 x 960
Plus, there's the choice of flash (though I will agree with other reviews that the strobe is overpowering up-close and weak for subjects more than 4 or 5 feet), self-timer (10 seconds), auto or back light exposure, auto, sunny, cloudy, fluorescent, and tungsten white balance, normal, B&W, classic, or solarized effects, and other simple options like a time/date stamp. And I must add, you can turn the beeping sound off!

The ability to take audio videos is even more appealing to me; the video ride is smooth and very responsive, though a delay with the coordination of audio and video when viewing might be a little weird. Though you can't view the clip with sound on the camera, the feature of even taking audio videos is great.

There is 4x zoom, but it's digital zoom. Quite deceivingly, you can see the lack of quality when you start to zoom in on the LCD, but when you snap the picture, it appears much more clearer on the LCD. This may very well be the fact that the view is a lot smaller, but once transferred to the computer the quality is horrible and dotted and grainy. Yuck. But it can still serve conveniently if you're looking for a general picture with no clear establishment (if you know what I mean).

The lens cover that slides is cute, but where it says that it serves as a shortcut to turning the camera on and off is a half-lie. Sometimes it works to slide it open and see the camera turn on,and sometimes it doesn't; but that's ok, what's the labor in lightly pressing the on/off button? =)

This camera does serve as a good webcam, too.

And it comes with a cute little tripod and soft bag (and strap).

EDIT: [update, July 2006] Now that I've had this camera for almost 2 years, it's still very usable, and I STILL recommend it! Though some of the paint has worn off on the corners, despite its cheap plastic feel, its lightweight has proved convenient as well as its compact size (so cute!). I have had no problems with the camera (problems have been caused by a certain memory card, which screwed around with other cameras I inserted it into), except for one slight flaw. Although the camera says it has built-in flash, I remember only being able to use the flash less than 10 times (which didn't work very well, in the first place; too close proves overexposure and being too far, the flash won't help at all). So, the flash on mine no longer works, even though I have purchased a set of rechargeable AAA batteries, with the battery power of the rechargeables, the flash still fails to work. =( Anyone else had this problem?

Nevertheless, I still love the lil' thing! =)