16GB capacity pen with a 4GB card included (Supporting System: Windows me/2000/xp/2003/vista, Mac 10.4, Linux)

This pen is pretty good for the price. Its image sensor has a native resolution of 640 by 480 which is scaled up to 1280 by 960. The video frame rate is around 10 frames per second because of this. When you resize the video back to 640 by 480, the quality is really good. If you have a steady hand, you can remove the infrared blocking filter inside the camera module to significantly increase light sensitivity. The audio is slightly hissy, but still good. It uses a 16000 Hz sampling rate at 65 kb/s. The pictures are scaled up to 3840 by 2880. When you resize these back to 640 by 480, the quality is great.

I bought this for the advertised HD capabilities, only to find that the 1280x1024 pixel frame size video is software interpolated and therefore, not only you do not get extra HD detail you get larger files which subsequently reduce recording time (approx 1 MB/sec, so you will get just over one hour of video on a 4Gig card as opposed to 2 hours).

In addition, although this records higher frequency sound (apparenly 24KHz), the compression employed is very high (low bit rate) which results in artefacts - sounding like hiss and inteference (not usable for any concert recordings).

The pen looks nice, works, it arrived fast (included a 4 MB microSD card!) but the quality is NO better than those pens recording in standard definition video of VGA resolution (640x480 pixels).

Finally, in my experience, cameras like this one that use microSD cards are more reliable and last longer that those that work like a USB stick.

I wanted to write a review because the reviews I read seemed a little confusing when deciding whether or not this product was any good. Simple answer is it works and it is good!

I have bought a few different mini cams because I am a collector and like the technology. I tend to buy from a few limited companies because there are some bad companies out there selling junk!

The good company I used in this case was Discountedforyou - I mention the company I bought from because it makes a difference when you're buying these kinds of products. To give you a good example: one reviewer mentions that the original instructions aren't well translated, and that is true, but Discountedforyou actually went the extra mile and added their own instructions which were great. And you can see from my other reviews that I am a real buyer and not simply plugging one company for the sake of it.

Ok now to the product:

The product I received came in a jiffy bag, saving packaging, and contained a 4gb memory card, a usb lead, extra instructions and the actual pen itself.

I charged the pen over night, and then the following day I put it on record until the battery ran down. I did this a few times in order to get the full potential of the battery. (fully charge, rundown, fullly charge etc about four times. I always do this with any of these types of cams - although the cam should work fine after a normal charge.)

The quality of the video and sound is very good. You can view the videos by connecting the pen to a PC via the provided usb lead. You just plug it in and the folder pops up. I use VLC player to view the files.

On testing I recorded well over an hour of video. The cam also takes still photos too.

The lense is just about the pen's clip, so you could wear it facing outward without anyone noticing. The function light are positioned at the back of the product, and would be facing you if you were using it.

To make this review even more helpful, here is a video clip of the pen. (Note that mine didn't come with a plug charger, but that is not needed anyway as it can be charged via the provided usb lead. The pen in the video appears to be the same one I received though)

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(this video is NOT mine by the way, but thought it was useful because it showed the pen.)

I hope this review helps you in someway