Maybe you’re a collector of miniatures; maybe you’re a spy. Or maybe you’re just someone who would like a camera which you can have on your person for those moments which beg to be permanently recorded, but don’t want one which interferes with your activities in any way. Whatever your reasons may be, you’ve decided that you need to buy the world’s smallest digital camera.
Small, even very small, digital cameras abound. And with the slick advertising typical of all entrepreneurs, many camera makers have found ways to promote their efforts as the “smallest digital camera in the world”, or the slightly less absolute “smallest digital camera in its class.” Is there a way to determine the smallest digital camera?
Well, you can try an Internet search. Candidates for the title of the smallest digital camera are the Philips keychain digital camera, which measures 2" x .75" x 1.5" . It weights slightly over six and a half ounces, and retails for $19.95. Need I add, “You get what you pay for?”
But the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC U-20, at 3.38 “ x 1.63 “ x. 1.19 “, while it may tower over the Philips keychain digital camera, is actually, in terms of weight, a smaller digital camera. It tips the (diet) scales at a minuscule four ounces.
The Sony Qualia
Ridiculous, you say? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet, and the Sony Qualia 016 is a camera the substance of which, at about 1.7 ounces, is as close to nothin’ as the smallest digital camera is likely to become and still be a camera. The Qualia 016 managed to pack two megapixels into a box 2.7” x 0.9” x 0.7”. That is about the size of a tube of lipstick. When introduced in 2004, the Qualia 016 retailed at $4000. A keychain digital camera it definitely is not.
What the ads for the Sony Qualia failed to mention is that its accessories were not to scale, and its flash attachment was nearly the size of the Qualia itself. Having accessories of this size may be a logistic necessity, but rather defeats the point of having the world’s smallest digital camera.
Small Digital Camera Drawbacks
And any one of the so-called smallest digitals cameras will pose a challenge to those with even normally sized fingers. All of them require very careful finger placement to make sure there is no overlapping going on when the various buttons are being pressed.
As with any digital camera, smallest digital camera or not, you need to check the pixelation and battery life of your tiny camera purchase. You don’t want to be spending a fortune on batteries and only getting blurry tiny photo after blurry tiny photo in return.
http://www.articledashboard.com/Article/Finding-The-Smallest-Digital-Camera/268306
