Philips Key019 Key Ring Camcorder

Rating:
Summary: Definitely better than I thought
Review: I just got this today, and quickly went out to test it with a few friends. I'll just give a quick review of the product.

Pro:
- The video and Audio quality was way better than I thought it would be coming from a little gadget like this.
- Very easy to use. Just plug it into your computer and drag and drop
- I was surprised that it came with a external battery source where you can use 2 AA battery in case your internal battery runs out.
- Headphones and mp3 files played the music beautifully.
- Came with an USB extension cord, which was very useful.

CONS:
- Slightly bigger than I thought it would be.
- When I first tested it without charging it up, it looks like there was battery left as indicated by the LCD, but in reality there wasn't any.. The camera would auto shutdown while taking a movie. After charging it up, it worked fine.
- 3 hours to fully charge it.
- Not to be use at night or in dark places. IF it's dark, forget it.
- Can't view or playback files unless remote control is attached to it.


Overall I thought that this is a great ultra portable combination of camera, camcorder, mp3 player, and flash drive. It's well worth the wait. Hopefully the future version can fix some of the Cons above, especially allowing us to view playback without the remote control, and perhaps add a FM radio to it.

Rating:
Summary: Great little camera
Review: I often work with other people by writing stuff on whiteboards, and I purchased this little camera for two purposes: to take pictures of the whiteboard, to remember the details of the discussion, and to take quick sound recordings when needed.
I could not be more satisfied, for the above purposes. The camera is small, light, works very well, and transfering photos/videos to laptops and PCs is a breeze. No adaptors to lose, no software to install (between work and home, I have various PCs and laptops, it would be a hassle to install software on them all).
In fact, it even works decently as a low-quality camera. The camea has 2MP, but the image is blurred, so I believe that there are at most 0.5MP that contain actual information; still, the quality of the photos is better than I expected for such a small camera.
The video quality is very good, roughly comparable to that of my Canon G2 - and it can take recordings that last longer than those of the G2!
All in all, a very useful and practical product.
The two only CONS are:
- It would have been nice to have some kind of lens cover. I put the key in a small plastic envelope to protect it from dust and scratches to the lens.
- I wish, given my intended purpose, that the optimal focus distance were shorter. The camera focuses from 1.5m onwards; I would have preferred a range 0.8-2.5m or so, but I know I am probably alone in wishing this.

Rating:
Summary: Key Ring Camcorder Is One Cool Gadget!
Review: I'm no expert photographer and I'm not expecting 5-MP photos from something this small. Given all that, I'm quite impressed with this camera/camcorder from Philips. It's small, cute, and does more in a well-lit room and in overcast conditions than I would have ever expected. True, it doesn't function great in poorly lit areas, but it can produce very good pictures where there's good light. The camcorder aspect seems good, too (I've never used another camcorder, so who am I to compare?), and the photo quality is quite good as long as I hold the camera steady. The only negative thing I've found thus far (after just a little bit of use in a couple of days) is that the button to delete files is very hard to push; of course, that may be intentional so that I don't accidentally delete files I really want to keep. I found the best price on the store.philips.com site ($179.99 plus tax). If you want a tiny camera/camcorder/flash drive/MP3 player, this is the one to get!

Rating:
Summary: Not bad for such a little camera
Review: Let me just say at the start that I am not looking at this device to replace a normal sized video or still camera. I am looking at this to be on the same level as a cell phone or PDA camera, not your new digital SLR.

First, some good points:
- It's really tiny for such a functional camera. It's a little wider than and twice as thick as your average USB drive.

- The color LCD viewfinder works well. It's really a miniature LCD and some optics in there - just like a bigger camcorder would have in the eyepiece. You can't really tell focus from it, but it's good for status info, exposure and framing.

- The device works in windows XP without a driver - it just shows up as a USB drive and you can copy your video clips/pictures from that. Point being that I had no software problems getting the thing to work, which is a first for me.

Picture Quality:
- Resolution is apparently really 2MP this time ( unlike the previous 1.3MP model which was actually interpolated. )
- Contrast is average. t's a CMOS sensor. The lens is okay. Nothing to write home about, but not really objectionable for snapshots.
- Compression is not so good. JPEG compression artifacts are pretty obvious in some pictures, especially in areas of high contrast.
- Low light performance is marginal ( This includes pretty much everything indoors. It is hard to take a picture with the camera without blurring a bit unless you're outdoors or you hold it against a stable object )
- Video quality is reasonable. Basically, it's 320x240 resolution MPEG4, about the same quality as your VCR was. The audio quality is acceptable, but not great. It suffers from many of the same low light/contrast problems as the rest of the pictures.

Operation:
- Operation is really really simple. There's two buttons and a three position dial. Very easy to use. Feedback is through beeps and the LCD.
- Unfortunately, there are really no settings you can set. You can't change the JPEG quality or photo size. You can't set the video or audio recording quality or framerate. You can't turn on or off the beeps the device makes. You can't turn off the LCD to save power. You can't adjust the fact that it shuts down one minute after the last thing you did. There are no settings that you can change on this device. Period. Perhaps this is something that Philips could work on as a firmware update.

NOTE: There already appears to be a firware update for this camera. Don't know what it does, but I went to http://www.philips.com/support and I downloaded and installed it.

Overall, I am pleased with my purchase. It won't replace my camcorder, my SLR, or my point and shoot. It will, however, allow me to have a semi decent camera for snapshots with me wherever I go.

Rating:
Summary: Better than I thought
Review: My main purpose when I bought the Philips Key019 Ring Camcorder was to use it as a thumb drive and secondly as a camcorder for quick videos on the go. I also intended to take quick pictures here and there that I normally would not bring my bigger, bulkier and more expensive 5MP digital camera; for fear of losing it or breaking it. Like many MFDs out there don't expect this device to be a great mp3 player, USB drive, digital camera or a camcorder. But I was impressed with each aspect on this particular unit. I've read a few reviews out there already and I would agree with most of them. Here are my thoughts on each:

Thumb Drive
Great USB drive. Detected without problems on Win 2000 and XP. Transfer files at a reasonable rate. 124MB useable space.

Camera
Picture quality was surprisingly good. Not the best but good for its size. Lighting is very important! Some photos seem washed out in bright conditions and it didn't capture pictures well in low light.
Color LCD viewfinder was added plus I thought. *You can review pictures and videos when the supplied remote is attached.

MP3 Player
Nice mp3 playback (sound) but no play list option.

Camcorder
Video will be shaky because of its small size but worked well. And again lighting is important here too.
*You can review pictures and videos when the supplied remote is attached.

Although this device was a lot bigger than I had hoped for(about the size of one and a half lighter), it worked fairly well overall. It was easy to use and had a "cool" factor. On the bad side, the power indicator didn't work well and the charging time was a bit long for me. If you are a gadget lover, get this item. It is a well rounded unit but it will never replace any of the 4 devices mentioned.