Digital Camera Test: $10 Walgreens Innovage Mini
Tiny! Posing with the removable memory chip from a professional camera.
[Please see the note added to the end of this post for info about software drivers.]
This straight outta Shanghai drugstore special advertises itself an eight-frame-per-second sports digicam. It's complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor uses the same technology as industry-standard professional cams. Can this miniature marvel compare with cameras costing hundred or thousands of dollars? Does it deserve a place under your holiday tree?
"Cherish your happiness memoeries" after the jump!
The professional Canon 1DII takes a shot of the $10 Innovage
An identical model is available at Amazon.
First off, this cute-as-a-bug camera is extremely small. Most of its heft comes from the included AAA battery. It lacks a conventional display screen, so the interface is simply two buttons and a two-digit LCD screen that cleverly displays codes for various functions. So, yes, this camera works, but the images it produces are very small. You can take 20 "high quality" images before the 16mb internal memory gets filled. After you port them to your PC with the included USB cable, you end up with fuzzy 352x288 images.
The f/2.8 fixed focus prime lens appears to have the same angle of view as a 60mm lens on a conventional 35mm film camera. The Innovage automatically varies its exposure time from 1/60th to 1/1500th of a second, depending upon scene brightness. Its tiny quarter-inch sensor seems to like well-lit landscapes as opposed to nearby subjects.
It can only take about 3 frames per second in high speed mode at its highest quality setting, so this fight is over before it begins. This camera is a novelty. It is essentially a cellphone cam without the cellphone. The kind of people who might like a simple camera to hang on their key chains might need a $99 call to the Geek Squad in order to properly install the software.
The Innovage tries to return the favor with a portrait of the Canon.
A $140 Canon 500D close-up lens can help the Innovage focus on close objects.
Compare these poor results with the high quality 3000x 2000 images produced by the industry-standard Canon 1D Mark II sports/nature/photojournalist/paparazzo camera. There's quite a difference, as one might expect. But nowadays even cameras costing $160 or so, such as the Fuji V10, sport big bright 3" display screens and take beautiful photos. So the lesson learned is that once you get past a certain threshold, Megapixels Don't Matter For Most People. Any kind of modern $100-something digital camera would make a great present for the holidays. But this $10 Innovage camera is more trouble than it's worth. Highly not recommended.
Update: People, what's up? You still want the software to make this cam work? We think it's an exercise in frustration, but try here if you want