Home > Consumer Reviews > Aiptek PocketCam X PC Camera (POCKETCAMXCCS) (POCKETCAMX)

True, this digital camera is not the best quality as those 4mp and 5mp cameras coming out, but if you spend a little time reading the directions (why don't people do this?), you can get great photos, even as large as 8x10. If you are a photography expert and cannot stand to have anything less than the best, then you should probably look elsewhere and spend more money. However, for quick and fun photos that sometimes come out spectacular, this little camera (and I mean little!) is for you. Now for the pros and cons.

Pros:
-Lightweight and tiny (don't know the exact dimensions and weight, but it is almost like holding a feather...no really, it is)
-Pretty decent strobe flash (not great for over 20 ft or so)
-Great sunny photos
-Pretty decent 3x5, 4x6, 5x7 prints and even 8x10 at times (high resolution 2mp, right settings, no camera shake) for a camera with this megapixel (real 2.0mp and not 3.1mp as advertised) and price range
-Great photo editing software included (even so-so pics can become great with this software)
-Easy download
-Video! (pretty simple with low resolution, so you're not going to win an Academy Award with it, but great for the kid in you!)
-Pretty decent internal memory capacity, but I bought a 64mb SD card since I ended up using this camera a lot

Cons:
-Not so great at flourescent lighting photos (even though there is a setting for flourescent, pictures still come out yellow with or without the flash)
-Strobe flash not recommended for less than 12in. unless you like the bright white effect on your pics (which I do sometimes)
-When strobe flash is on, camera takes awhile to get ready (is teaching me patience)
-Mediocre at best battery life (highly recommend getting rechargable AAA batteries, which I thought was ludicrous until I used them, and they worked better than regular batteries)
-If camera shakes a little, photo is fuzzy (you must have a steady hand to use this camera, which is why it comes with a tripod, however if you follow the rules of holding a regular camera--elbows tucked in next to your side to steady your arm, then most pics will come out decent)
-Settings are hard to get to, but not impossible to master
-NO OPTICAL ZOOM (well, you can't have everything)
-Digital zoom is just for playing, not a serious function at all

While I am not ready to get rid of my beloved 35mm zoom Olympus just yet, this little camera is great for when you want fun photos, fun video or a web cam to talk to someone across the miles. I recommend a photo lab that has high quality standards for developing such as Wolf, Ritz or a local developer. It costs a bit more, but is worth it. If you just can't spend that much, I recommend Walgreens. If I could figure out a way to share some photos with you, I would, because some of them are really great. With the rechargeable batteries, you can get about 25-30 shots in without the flash (compared to about 10-15 with regular batteries). You can get in about 10-15 shots with the flash on continuously with rechargeables (compared to about 3 with regular batteries). I don't think this coincides with what they print in the manual at all, but oh well. About the battery/SD Card chamber. I haven't had a problem with it. I keep my camera in a fairly small hard case--not much bigger than the camera.

If you don't mind reading directions, then get this camera and use it to your advantage. The money you spend will be worth that one great picture that everyone oohs and aaahs over. I am giving it four stars because of the cons mentioned (especially for the no optical zoom).

I got this from AIPTEK in the summer of 2003, mostly because it was small enough that I could just slip it in my pocket. It's light, small, not as horribly draining on the batteries as my Kodak was, and I love it. Granted, I have since broken the shiny button cover off the button you press to take pictures, scratched up a lot of the paint on the case, and broken a bit of the battery enclosure off so it's hard to keep it shut... but this thing has stood up admirably against everything I've thrown at it, and made some awesome shots in the deal too. Definately Highly rated this for the price for the quality. You don't need more than 3-4 MP unless you're doing professional photography. The average person is fine in this range.

First of all, the sensor resolution on this camera is actually 2.0 megapixels. It is 3.1 MP using interpolation, but it doesn't explicitly say this anywhere on the package. The picture quality ranges from okay to sub-standard. They are all a bit fuzzy around the edges and any movement will cause them to blur. The flash on this camera is very weak. It takes a while for the flash to energize (about 10 seconds) and it is only good for about 3 to 5 feet. At 10 feet, the pictures seemed like the flash was off. Another quirk is the battery/SD card compartment. Opening the door to remove the SD card is also the door holds the batteries in. It uses 2 AAA batteries and it goes through them fairly quickly as well. The menu system is a bit complicated to navigate through and requires a lot of button pressing in order to do something like turning off the flash (9 button presses). The camera comes with a soft pouch to store it in and a tiny little tripod. One thing I liked about the camera is that it records the image as a (jpg) directly onto the SD card. This is very convenient as you can just remove the card and insert it into any SD card slot and read the images. Some other cameras require that you connect the camera via USB and use their special software to convert and download the pictures. In the end, I tried to like this camera, but I'm just not happy with it. If taking video clips is not important to you, I would recommend a Che-ez Foxz2 which is slimmer and takes clearer pictures.

I love: the crispy ,clear, bright pictures from this digital cam. The size is perfect. It's easy to use,and the fact that it comes with a case, tripod, usb cable, detachable carry strap, all included for under $80 bucks still impresses me.
I Don't love: that the camcorder does not play back with voice (how freaky is that)you should not have to turn on the computer, plug in the usb cable just to hear the voices on the video camera. The manufacter should work on improving that and the switch to choose camera or video is way to tuff on the finger.

I found this to be a great little 3MP camera; its 1MP more than the sony thats the same size. Fits in a pocket, and take decent videos too. For a 3MP thats under $100, its just fine; I personally didnt expect it to compare to my Nikon D1X 6/10MP or my Kodak DCS pro SLR/n 14MP. I bought this pocket/key chain category camera so I could always take quik pic; without having to get out one of my DSLR's!