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Tiny Friday: Keychain Digital Camera

Prompted by a brief mention on this site, I went to Firebox.com to see what all the fuss was about the Digitaldream L’espion camera. Okay, this thing is small. REALLY small…2.25″x1.5″x~.5″. Runs for ~1000 pictures on a single AAA according to the docs. It comes with a battery, a USB cable, a pleather belt pouch, and driver software. firebox even threw in some gummy candy! This camera is so small, there’s no reason for me to ever leave the house without it. Click ‘read more’ for the full review.


Let me state up front that I have no affiliation with any of the companies mentioned…I just thought this was a great product. Prompted by a brief mention on this site, I went to firebox.com to see what all the fuss was about the digitaldream l’espion camera. I ordereded one on the spot that very day. It arrived from England today via USPS (9 days total).

Okay, this thing is small. REALLY small…2.25″x1.5″x~.5″. Runs for ~1000 pictures on a single AAA according to the docs. It comes with a battery, a USB cable, a pleather belt pouch, and driver software. firebox even threw in some gummy candy! This camera is so small, there’s no reason for me to ever leave the house without it.

The camera comes with OS 9 drivers on CD as well as a Photoshop plug-in (Import…), and CoolCam 2.0 trial-ware. I was disappointed to that iPhoto doesn’t work with this camera, in fact I couldn’t find any X-native apps that would recognise the camera. But it seems to work fine under Classic. CoolCam Classic 2.0 and 2.2 work fine with it, as do the Classic versions of BTV.

It holds 20 high-res images (352×288) or 80 low-res images (176×44). You can mix different resolutions. It can capture video too at either resolution…1.5sec max at high-res and 6.5sec at low-res. Video can be interspersed with stills. The camera has a 10 second self-timer too. Though you can’t review your images and selectively delete them, deleting is instantaneous.

The driver software consists of an extension and control panel. The control panel launches automatically when you plug the camera into the Mac’s USB port. You can select a location for the images and a filenaming scheme. Video captures are automatically converted to QuickTime movies.

Here’s a sample of the quality of images. It reminds me very much of the Color QuickCams before Logitech buried them.

I few things to note: a) it doesn’t have a tripod mount. b) restart after installing the drivers or else you’ll have to force quit the control panel every time…the installer didn’t require a restart. c) perhaps with some practice, the viewfinder may be of use, but I’m finding it easier to target subjects without it.

By Jason O'Grady

Founded the PowerPage in 1995.