Debbie bought me a SiPix Stylecam Blink camera for my birthday. I wasn't the first in my circle to have one, Ajay had one first for a start.
This page exists to record some of my observations about it. You can add your own comments using the comments link at the bottom of the page
I think the best way to give an indication of the image quality is to give examples. I've published a few here and here.
"HI" image size is 640x480; adequate for web use. "LO" size is 320x240, frankly too low for anything I do.
Colour reproduction is OK, although bright areas tend to get saturated easily. My colour vision isn't all it could be, so don't listen to me...
You'll notice that the focus deteriorates quite rapidly as you move away from the centre of the image. I'm sure the lens is a cheap blob of plastic, and I've seen sample pictures on the Web with far less blurring, so the lens quality must vary between batches.
The cheap lens also means that shapes distort at the edge of the picture; you wouldn't want to try and stitch Blink images into a panoramic picture...
This takes 320x240 pictures as fast as it can (about 3 per second) for 100 frames. Software is provided to convert this into a jerky video file.
I can't really see a situation where with such a low frame rate is going to be of any use. I remember when 80s TV producers shooting live bands thought it would look good to strobe the video down to 3FPS, and it looked as rubbish then as it does now.
You could use this feature to try and get that elusive action shot, as long as you didn't mind it being low resolution.
When hooked up to your computer, you can use the Blink for videconferencing or for recording video with a higher frame rate than Streaming Snapshot. On my laptop I can grab about 30 seconds of video before it stops recording. I assume this isn't working as designed.
I've a few observations here that might be useful to other Blink owners
The Blink's only image memory is powered by its AAA battery, so don't let your battery run out while you have pictures on it, and remember that the camera is consuming power even when it is turned off.
If the battery is low when you turn on the camera, it will immediately turn itself off. This is a signal to get your pictures transferred to a PC as soon as possible.
I've tried removing the battery for a few seconds then replacing it, and no pictures were lost, indicating that it is possible to replace a low battery without losing pictures. I'd want to experiment with this a bit more before relying on it.
I have to assume that even if you have no pictures in the camera, it will be using some battery power all the time. Hence, if you have no pictures, disconnect the battery. I keep a slip of paper in the battery compartment. When the memory is empty, I use the paper to break the battery's contact. Before taking the first picture, I pull out the paper, and stow it on top of the battery.
I don't think the viewfinder is all that accurate. When I took this picture, for example, I'm sure I thought the circle was central (this picture also ably demonstrates how the Blink can bleach out bright areas).
I imagine that with some trial and error, one could learn to compensate for this.
Blink won't take pictures in low light. This is a great shame (or maybe a blessing), because you can't use it to record nights in the pub... or at parties... or, well, lots of places. Down to a certain light level, you'll just get a long exposure, with all the motion blur you'd expect; below that, the LCD will just say "ERR".
To be completely clear: there is no point in taking a Blink to pubs, bars or clubs to capture your antics. It won't work in those sort of light levels.
I'd rather they'd made it so it would take the picture, and let you live with the poor results. Sometimes motion blur looks good! The camera in a Nokia 7650 phone does this, and works in nightclub light conditions...
The Blink comes with a USB cable, and this is how it communicates with a PC. A TWAIN interface allows you to "aquire" Blink images in any TWAIN compliant graphics program, and also to save all pictures, or a selection of pictures as a batch of JPEG files.
The TWAIN driver is an ugly thing that makes unnecessary "boing" and "crash" noises.
When I first wrote this page I noted that nobody had managed to write a non-Windows driver for the Blink yet. Now I notice that gPhoto claims to support the Blink. It's marked "EXPERIMENTAL", and I don't know what limitations that implies.
I also said it was unfortunate that USB is the only practical way for external devices to talk to the camera, since I thought it meant it wasn't likely that you'd be able to easily operate the camera using a cheap circuit (whereas with older cameras with serial ports a knowledgeable person could program a PIC microcontroller to operate the camera). I'm now aware that PIC chips can be programmed to do USB communications, and free sample code to do this is out there. Combine this with protocol information gleaned from looking at the gPhoto source, and you could build a very small circuit for time-lapse, radio control, etc.
I have to assume that in miniaturising the Blink, any software hacks on the machine itself have been made very difficult indeed. This is a shame, because slowing down Streaming Snapshot mode to take time-lapse sequences might be very nice.
My humble proposed hack, which I'll get around to eventually, is to open the camera up, and attach an extra shutter connection. This would allow an external timer circuit to operate the shutter. My application would be kite aeriel photography... but I'm sure there are other applications.
Given the low price of failure, you could do all sorts of fun things by chopping up the Blink: experiment with waterproofing, replace the lens with a better or more interesting one (macro, telephoto, distorting, fisheye, etc.); the possibilities are all there for those with the imagination.
I've said a lot of negative things about the Blink in this page: the low quality lens, the inability to take pictures in low light, the various faults in the image quality. It would be easy to miss the fact that I love the little fella!
The Blink does as good job of what it's meant to do as you could expect, given the price point and its size -- which is to take snapshots which resemble the scene it was pointed at. If that's not enough for you, spend more money.
Your comments, criticisms, hints and tips are welcome; click on the link below (comments will immediately be viewable by other people using the same link).