Home Robotics - Munroe - Quicksilver Electronics - Tubes vs. Solid State - Picaxe-powered bike timer Computers - Jaycar 1.3mp digital camera - Building a silent PC Forums - BuzzBoard - Register - Login - News - Topics About this site - Contact me - Site credits Design@CBuzz - Go to Design@Cbuzz site...

Related Links:
Jaycar Website

1st March 2003 - Jaycar QC3194 1.3 Megapixel Digital Camera

"Happy snap" digital cameras have not been around for long. Usually, digital cameras came with an impressive range of features that needed an LCD graphical display, navigation controls and all that pushes the (formerly) high price even higher. But when digital cameras "took off" prices were still too high for the happy snapper or occasional picture.
B ut there were a new breed of digital camera formed - they had low resolution, a small feature set and lacked quality and usability. They were also still out of reach for the average joe wanting to get a digital camera.

This is where the Jaycar QC3194 saves the day. with a big 1.3 megapixels, which is quite adequate, small size, big on features and low on price.
The main reason for my purchase was a camera for website photos. I didn't have access to a digital camera (but especially it's associated software for my laptop.) See the sample photos below for a rough idea of image quality.

A photo taken in a shopping centre the day I got the camera. It is fairly sharp and very bright.

A Holden Monaro in the mall. the red is fairly strong but again is fairly sharp. (click to enlarge)

As you can see it works fairly well. The red is very strong in most pictures, but overall the colour balance is amazing for such a low cost camera.
I have found that sometimes it is so small that I often take pictures of my finger over the lens! it also needs a fairly steady hand, but overall it works well.

The Facts
The camera has a resolution of 1.3 megapixels, and has three modes. high resolution (1280x1024 approx.) can store 26 images in memory (that's an average film) or in high compression it can store approximately 50 photos. in low-resolution mode, it can store 99 photos. it can also record 15-second movie clips (AVI) in inbuilt memory. it has a 10 second self timer so the photographer can also be part of the action! PC download is via a standard USB cable, and software is included.
When tethered to the PC, it also fuctions as a webcam for MSN or netmeeting, and the software also lets you record AVI movies on to the hard drive.

It comes with a small tripod (which uses a standard tripod thread size), USB cable for download, software CD and neck strap(!)
The only thing you miss on this camera is an LCD screen, but for the average happy-snapper this isn't a big problem. Now for the most important thing: the price! please believe me, this retails at all Jaycar stores for only $79!