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Argus Bean 5MP 16MB 1.5IN LCD USB Li-on Battery Blue
See it at Amazon.com for $59.99Average Customer Rating
(4.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First | + Share10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
A Great Little Camera
(5 out of 5) by J. Gower on Nov 26, 2008We bought this camera for our 6 year old son after being disappointed with the quality of the Fisher-Price Digital Camera. We are very happy with our purchase. The resolution of the photos is very good and my son loves that he can shoot video, too. I would definitely recommend this camera to others.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Good camera, Great price!
(4 out of 5) by Flash 357 on Jun 28, 2008 (USA)More than I expected. This camera is perfect as my 2yr. old is constantly wanting to play and hang on daddy I can clip this thing to my belt when holding him and it takes great pictures and video. Up to 2gig sd card. I love it so far . Feels like a toy but is super cool. Great Buy!!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Not bad for a bean...
(4 out of 5) by L. Thomas on Aug 3, 2008 (Moravia, San Jose, Costa Rica)Overall, I am pleased with the bean camera. It is very lightweight, and the clip is great for keeping it close at hand when you want it. It has just enough picture options to make it enjoyable, and even the video mode is good. I think it's a good camera for the price, and will probably buy another one for my daughter.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
good camera for kids, not for adults
(4 out of 5) by Angus on Jan 14, 2009 (PA)I bought this camera as a gift for my six year old son. It is rather small which is good in this case since it fits his hands. Its LCD screen is also small, but good enough for a child to see the pics. It tends to take overexposed pics when the flash is in use. The controllers for the flash and camera settings have to be set by an adult, and the covers for the SD card and battery are flimsy. This one did not come with an SD card, so pick one up separately. Overall, this camera is good for use by young children with some assistance from adults, and it has been used far more than similarly priced toys which he received. Since this model does have an LCD screen, my son looks at the pics immediately then forgets about them (no downloading files to computer for viewing).
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Great for capturing outdoor adventures
(4 out of 5) by Mikey Cooper on Jan 1, 2009 (Orlando, FL USA)My wife bought me this camera for a cruise we're taking next year. Since we'll be kayaking, hiking, sea-planing, etc. on our excursions, I wanted a rugged camera that would take decent pictures and not fall apart.
Construction on the Bean seems to be very solid. I thunked it around several times with no ill effect. The camera is a good bit bulkier than I was expecting, so plan to use the belt clip to carry it around. It does not sit comfortably in pants pockets.
Picture quality for outdoor photos is fantastic! Much better than anything my 1.3MP camera phone (or my wife's 3MP camera phone) can take. At the highest quality/resolution settings (not the default, so make sure to change it first thing), the pictures are 2592x1944 so very nice 5x7s can be printed. 8x11s are doable, though not as good of quality. Hard to notice unless you're up close though.
Indoor though, the Bean completely fails unless the room is VERY well lit. I'm not sure if the rubberized lens hood is not letting enough light or just poor AWB software, but indoor pics that normally come out decent on my 1.3MP camera phone come out very, very dark on the Bean. Turning the flash on is no better, as the pictures just end up washed out. I mainly care about outdoor photos, so this doesn't bother me much, but I would be very disappointed had I bought this camera to take family pictures around the house.
Without a memory card, the camera can only hold about 15 pictures at the highest quality/resolution settings. Adding a 2GB SD card (the biggest it supports) gives you room for about 1200 pictures, though. One of the other reviews mentioned no Mac support, but iPhoto had no problems downloading my files.
The UI is a little unpolished, but easy enough to work with once you learn the quirks. The only major complaint I have about usability is the lack of on-the-fly picture review. After you've taken a picture, most digital cameras will show you the picture for 5-10 seconds and let you decide if you want to keep or delete it before switching back to the live viewfinder. This feature is absent from the Bean. Pictures you take are shown for what seems like only half a second and then the viewfinder switches back to the live view. Switching to review mode to find the picture, then delete it, then cycling through video mode to finally get back to picture mode becomes tedious. I don't bother reviewing anymore and just snap 3 or 4 of the same shot and hope one was good when I download later.
So for what I want, something to take pictures of Alaskan wildlife while kayaking, it's a great buy. If you want to capture your New Year's Eve party memories with it, you're better off with a different camera.
Construction on the Bean seems to be very solid. I thunked it around several times with no ill effect. The camera is a good bit bulkier than I was expecting, so plan to use the belt clip to carry it around. It does not sit comfortably in pants pockets.
Picture quality for outdoor photos is fantastic! Much better than anything my 1.3MP camera phone (or my wife's 3MP camera phone) can take. At the highest quality/resolution settings (not the default, so make sure to change it first thing), the pictures are 2592x1944 so very nice 5x7s can be printed. 8x11s are doable, though not as good of quality. Hard to notice unless you're up close though.
Indoor though, the Bean completely fails unless the room is VERY well lit. I'm not sure if the rubberized lens hood is not letting enough light or just poor AWB software, but indoor pics that normally come out decent on my 1.3MP camera phone come out very, very dark on the Bean. Turning the flash on is no better, as the pictures just end up washed out. I mainly care about outdoor photos, so this doesn't bother me much, but I would be very disappointed had I bought this camera to take family pictures around the house.
Without a memory card, the camera can only hold about 15 pictures at the highest quality/resolution settings. Adding a 2GB SD card (the biggest it supports) gives you room for about 1200 pictures, though. One of the other reviews mentioned no Mac support, but iPhoto had no problems downloading my files.
The UI is a little unpolished, but easy enough to work with once you learn the quirks. The only major complaint I have about usability is the lack of on-the-fly picture review. After you've taken a picture, most digital cameras will show you the picture for 5-10 seconds and let you decide if you want to keep or delete it before switching back to the live viewfinder. This feature is absent from the Bean. Pictures you take are shown for what seems like only half a second and then the viewfinder switches back to the live view. Switching to review mode to find the picture, then delete it, then cycling through video mode to finally get back to picture mode becomes tedious. I don't bother reviewing anymore and just snap 3 or 4 of the same shot and hope one was good when I download later.
So for what I want, something to take pictures of Alaskan wildlife while kayaking, it's a great buy. If you want to capture your New Year's Eve party memories with it, you're better off with a different camera.