New Toy!

I finally managed to find myself a cheap digital camera!

I got myself a Vivitar Vivicam 20

  • 640 x 480 Resolution
  • PC Video camera mode (13 fps CIF)
  • Focus Free
  • Auto Flash
  • 8 MB Internal Memory
  • LCD Status display
  • USB Connectivity
  • Optical viewfinder
  • Auto white balance and auto exposure
  • 10 second self-timer and tripod socket
  • Auto power-off (2 minutes)

The internal memory is Flash so it shouldn’t lose any pictures if the batteries fail, unlike some models in this price range. I’ve not played with it extensively yet, but I have had it working as a webcam. I’ll take it to work with me tomorrow and get some daylight pictures.

It claims it keeps the images as BMPs which means no compression. Not good for fitting many images on the internal memory, but as the quality is not that good to start with it’ll help. Whilst the supplied software, Arcsoft’s PhotoImpression 3, saves to disk as JPEG, I can transfer directly from the camera into Paintshop Pro, presumably uncompressed.

(click for larger image)
Vivicam 20

More when I’ve had a play.