Here are some pics I took at about 4:30 this afternoon while Tom was testing his new glider at Redwood. Light level was really low and had a big impact on the pics. I'm including one pic I shot in my office after looking at these just so you wouldn't get discouraged. I still think this is going to look great when I can find the sun. These pics were 1600x1200. I reduced them to 800x600 with quality set to 85% for posting here. I'm thinking this camera might actually be interpolated to get the 1600x. More to come... ...Tiger Oops! I just ran into the "4 per post" limit so I'll post the other two in just a minute. BTW - Notice that one of these was shot with the sun to the side intentionally. There seems to be all kinds of reflections inside the optics. Saw this on several of the shots actually.
I see what you mean with some reflections in a couple photos, but in general the quality is quite impressive. Especially considering the cost. Looks like a real winner camera and the one to have.
Sorry Tiger, I have so many questions and thoughts on the go I had forgotten I had asked to see the stills thus the late response ... ... Yes your work is worthy of a response ... Thanks for the photo's Curious it seems to me the camera does very well in good lighting conditions (sunny days) but not so well in poor lighting (dusk/dawn and poorly lit rooms). Probably this is true for ALL the cams in this size range anyway. In any case is this what you notice too? Other than that given the size of the lens and it's the lens I was really curious about the picture clarity and quality is pretty good. Only going by the photos you gave me verses "hand-on" so given YOU HAVE hands-on I was wondering if you see the same as what I'm seeing or even what I think I'm seeing. With the camera's compact size it's doing remarkably well IMO. Certainly far ahead of the Key-Chain Cam ... Although with respects to the Key-Chain Cam I could be biased as I didn't think much of that camera. The good that could be said of that camera and I'm sure we ALL agree so I'm just repeating here, it's cheap and more importantly to the flyer's especial w/ those who fly smallish platforms it's very lightweight ... HeHe and we're NOT forgetting the DATE annoyance either and the crazy designer(s) that thought keeping it turned ON would be a good idea. Nor are we forgetting it's vibration issues either which in fixing would negate it's weight benefit Comparatively speaking it is or should be an easy choice which to choose Thanks again Tiger as I appreciate your effort in giving us the photo's and teh user-review [shadow=Orange,left]w00d[/shadow]
wOOd - As with any camera large or small, the lens is everything. These things are more or less pin hole cameras so they have no ability to gather light. The other consideration with these is the CMOS sensor (not CCD). They are not terribly sensitive, but they are really cheap. I guess when you're trying to make a camera for $5 or $10 you don't have a lot of options. I think we just have to accept their limitations in return for the super low price. As for the keychain camera, I don't think anyone had great expectations and again for what it is, it does a pretty darn good job. Up until this new offering, it was the only game in town and I was glad to have it. I for one have had a great time with my mine and have taken some pretty respectable videos on it. Like the new one, the key is good lighting. I still have not flown the new cam so I don't know how it compares with the vibration. The new one is so much more mounting friendly, I think it's going to be easier to tame. I'm working on a mount for it now so we'll see soon enough. I'm also thinking seriously of attempting to put a real lens in front of it. How to get it focused is the real challenge there since it has no realtime output to view while adjusting. One thing I'm exploring is the possibility it can be used as a webcam. I think that's a possibility because Win7 registers it as a camera and not just a storage device. More things to explore! I'll keep posting as I move along (or don't move along as the case may be). ...Tiger
Just to brag, I can agree when dealing w/ a camera of this size it's certainly wise to keep the expectations LOW and more importantly be certain the limitations they exhibit are NOT going to limit you the photographer. Often many get fixated on a products limitations and what it can't do THEN forgetting what it CAN and DOES do WELL. Regrettably this point can get lost within the reviewers tunnel vision where they miss out on what could have been a very good product. If a camera does what we NEED then it then falls into the "usable" bracket and then we're golden. Then any issue a camera may have demonstrated becomes secondary. But my friends we certainly ARE digressing and yes I agree teh "Lens is the great producer" other than the photographer him/her self. I was interested to see what the Cube Cam LENS could and not do and not so much the CCD thus why I asked for the photo's. Here I thought the camera and it's LENS did well, VERY WELL in comparison to the Key-Chain camera! As to my expectation it wasn't my intention to compare against my NIKON or any other HIGH end camera only the Key-Cain cam because as you suggest Tiger it was the only player not too long ago, certainly until the CUBE came into the picture. To close there is allot we seem to agree upon ... and sorry for the PUN and the later EDITS (it does take me some time to get my thoughts in order) and for the generally poor grammar. BEST I can say is I DO TRY my best as in more cases than not when I talking photography I usually let my work, my photo's do the talking EDIT: Original posting has been heavily edited (hopefully) for clarity, only keeping my original thoughts as intended
One thing I'm reminded of in watching this video is that I never commented on the night vision. For the most part, it's totally worthless. In my tests, I had to be about a foot from the target to be able to see anything and then that was a very poor quality (dark and grainy) picture. For my purpose, the night vision doesn't really matter, but I thought I'd comment for the sake of someone that might expect it to work. I have in fact replaced my IR LEDs with some super bright red ones so when the light is low I can see the front of the helicopter in flight. The red LEDs were an interesting experiment, but now I'll probably just be disconnecting them to save power. There is a connector on the LED board you can pull to disconnect it completely. That's probably the best plan. ...Tiger
Didn't seem to. If you were doing a close up, naturally you'd see the red illumination on the object. ...Tiger
