Rating: 
Summary: Nifty little gadget!
Review: For the price you pay, this is a pretty good camera! It's handily pocket-sized, takes decent screen-resolution pictures, and stores more than 40 of them at high quality. Macro focus makes for excellent closeup shots. the Pencam 1.3 is excellent for web or non-professional-level digital photography.On the down side, however, it's only good for bright light conditions, high-contrast photos sometimes suffer from aliasing (pixelated edges), the video feature is near-useless, 2 AAA batteries rarely last more than a week, and worst of all, there are no Apple drivers, so I need to do my photo transfers through VirtualPC on my iBook. this is a sweet deal on a fairly good mini-camera. I've been using it for art photos on my photolog, and I'm quite happy with the output, and the fact that I can take quick, discreet pictures without attracting too much notice is icing on the cake. :)
Rating: 
Summary: Bigger is sometimes better....
Review: I purchased this camera during a vacation and quickly found that as long as you are outside, in direct sunlight, the camera works fine. However, if you try to take pictures indoor or in the evening, the quality is lacking. The pictures come out dark if at all. Would recommend a different digital camera.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing!!!
Review: Portable, versatile, efficient and, at last but not least, cheap. This little camera is very lite, what makes it easy to use it not only at home, but at work also. It's great to take pix and no one even notice what's going on. I recommend!
Rating:
Summary: Good little camera
Review: A couple of years ago I bought a digital camera (640 X 320) to see if I would really use it. Several hundred photos later I knew I needed something better. My digital did very nice landscapes but nothing close up and people looked "boxy". I was hesitant about buying an expensive camera because you never get to see the pictures the camera is capable of taking and I didn't want to spend a lot of money and have the same problems. We saw this little one advertised as a 1 Megapixel and I said "no way". Later I saw the same camera in [local store] with a copy of a picture attached saying "actual picture taken with camera". It was great. I bought the camera and have been very happy. I did not expect it to perform like a more expensive one with lots of features but it has really surprised and pleased me. It takes worse pictures in low light than my 640 x 320 but I am more than happy with its real features. The close up works GREAT! I can take pictures of documents and they are clear and readable. And I can take it to the beach and take shots of the kids playing in the sand and salt without worrying about ruining an expensive camera. And no one is "boxy"! For the price I didn't expect a lot of features but it has performed well above my expectations. I would gladly recommend it to someone who wants a snapshot camera that will take nice "people" pictures without a big investment in funds. My first day at the beach, I took 59 pictures at High definition and was totally blown away by the improvement over my 640 X 320. Now I can take my time and decide which digital camera has the features I want instead of settling because I want to be able to see faces!
Rating:
Summary: If you want a teeny camera
Review: This camera may be good for someone wanting a small camera. It's size is basically little bigger than the 2 AAA batteries it holds. It actually has a real camera lens rather than those little purple specks you see posing as a lens on most of these cheaper cameras. I was impressed with the softwear especially the panoramic stitching softwear which can produce a 360* effect and I have used it with photos taken with other cameras. The image quality is on par with a 110 film camera, a bit soft but clear. As others have mentioned, it is a bright light only camera. For about $20 more you can get a normal size camera with a real flash which can take much better photos, but hey! it's huge compared to this. About the only gripe I have with this camera is that it needs a battery cut-off switch. You need to remove the batteries after use, or they drain in a few days, so then you need a case which holds the camera and extra batteries which negates the small size!
Rating: 
Summary: Decent camera, lousy customer service
Review: I purchased the PocketCam 1.3 for my kids over the holidays. All was right in the world when it worked. To begin, the company hasn't done the necessary paperwork with Microsoft to ensure that when loading the software on Windows XP you don't get the error messages telling you you could really mess up your computer by loading this piece of software. After assurances by the tech support team, I went ahead and loaded the software with no problems. But it doesn't end there. The camera just died in early February. It took the company almost 2 months to get back to me (after more than 5 emails and phone calls to their tech support team). It's now April 2 and they still haven't resolved my issue. When the camera worked, it was a great starter digital camera and my kids loved it because it was easy to use and it took decent pictures. I've since purchased a Canon Elph and I stand in awe of that piece of machinery. I would stick with a reputable company when making any electronics purchases. This company is not one of those.
Rating:
Summary: A BMW In Lexus clothing
Review: Appearance wise ,this little camera is a winner. Underneath the pretty skin however ,one comes to the reason of the price. Manual focusing borders on the lottery in finding a sharp image. The viewfinder is not respresentative of the picture.
Controls are slow.
But the BMW of it all, it broke down the 2nd day. No power. No nothing. I returned the unit immediately.
Rating:
Summary: Revision: VirtualPC on Mac not an option!
Review: I need to revise my review directly below: unfortunately, I've just found that VirtualPC on Mac OS X does NOT work with the Aiptek Mini Pencam 1.3 in a virtual Windows 98 or 2000 environment. It hangs while downloading images, whether from the Camera Manager or the TWAIN interface in Photoshop. The good news is that Mac-users can still use the MP1.3 with a piece of open-source software called Macam, which even Aiptek's own customer support rep suggested. It's at http://webcam-osx.sourceforge.net. Macam is technically a video webcam app, but hooked up to the MP1.3, it will instead function as an image downloader. Hope this helps.
Rating:
Summary: Great concept, poor execution
Review: This camera caught my eye because of the small size. Unfortunately, that's about all it has going for it. In bright sunlight, the pictures it takes are bright and vivid. However, in overcast or even brightly lit indoor conditions, it just doesn't perform. The poor medium and low lux performance of this camera makes shots under these conditions too dark to be useable, and no amount of digital adjustment will fix them. Because of the need for extremely bright light, its' utility as a web cam is nearly useless. The manufacturer chose to use a manual focusing knob as an alternative to fixed focus, but since you can't see the focused image, it is all too easy to wind up with blurry shots. Battery life is advertised as 10 days. Even with no photos or video stored, my battery life averages only 2-3 days. This camera is being returned tomorrow. Even as a low priced camera, it just doesn't do the job.
Rating:
Summary: Limited but extremely useful
Review: The Aiptek comes with batteries, USB cable, a mount for desktop/computer top mounting for use as a web cam, an adjustable neck loop and software which includes 'Mega Manager' and Ulead 'Video Studio' and 'Cool 360' (for making a 360 degree spread). It is so light to carry; I use the neck loop and place the camera in my top pocket where it is more secure and readily available.
When turned on one can cycle through a small list on the menu for a short video, single shots or erasing selected files or all contents. The lens focuses for normal portrait/landscape or up close; a very simple utility. Shooting is a breeze: literally, point and shoot using the eyepiece but KEEP THAT CAMERA STEADY. With no zoom one may have to get rather close to the subject and it prefers good sunlight. The camera turns itself off after a short period of inactivity. Picture quality is only average, but then this is not a mega-pixel camera: personally I find it more than adequate for quick snaps, email and for fun things. The web cam feature is fun as I work in an office with 6-foot high cubicles and I just raise the camera arm height and literally 'have a look around' to see who is nearby!
Getting files onto a PC and emailing is a breeze but I haven't tried the "Cool 360" yet.
One problem which caught me napping several times is that the batteries run down for a pastime. It uses two AAA batteries but you MUST carry spares if you want to shoot more than, say thirty shots, even though it will hold many more. When the batteries get low, it just refuses to take any more pics, not even a "low battery" warning.
So, in brief, a great useful and fun camera for the money; grainy but good-enough pics; bad battery duration., don't go out without spares.
Would I recommend it: Most positively but remember it's limitations. It suits me real fine.
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