Che-ez! Snap Ultra-compact Digital Camera [0.3MP] - Silver

The image quality is surprisingly good, especially given that the lens is about the size of a match head. The camera seems to apply something similar to Photoshop's 'Smart Blur' to the pictures to make them look better than they are (it gets rid of digital noise in low-light photographs, but makes large mono-coloured surfaces look artificial). Nonetheless the pictures look good in 640x480, but much less so in 320x240, where the compression is too extreme and everything looks blocky. Certainly it's better than the Casio Wristwatch camera, which is three times the price (although it has an LCD screen; the Snap does not). When downloaded from the camera the full-sized images are stored as .bmps at 901kb each, although once you convert them to JPGs (with Paint Shop Pro or something) they squash down to anything from 20-80kb depending on the fine detail present in the scene.

In the box you get various chains and hooks which you will probably never use, and an amusing cradle/stand thing which can be used as a mini tripod if you want to take photographs of yourself naked. The camera itself does not have a tripod socket or a hot shoe or any controls over than a 'mode' button, which cycles through the options, and the shutter. The LCD screen has two digits; 'off' is displayed as 'oF'. It has an internal battery that is recharged via the USB port. Alarmingly the manual states that it can only be recharged 300-500 times and that you have to download the pictures without six hours; in reality I've had it on me for over a day without it losing data, although it's probably no use for a long holiday, unless you carry a laptop with you, in which case you probably already have a more expensive camera.

When it takes a photograph the camera makes a beep and flashes a red light, so you can't take clandestine photographs of attractive ladies on the beach, unless there's lots of noise and you put your finger over the light. The field of view is quite wide - I'd guess that in 35mm SLR terms its about 28-33mm, and the minimum focus distance is roughly a metre, so it's good for crowds of people and landscapes. There isn't a lens cap, which is a shame as the lens bezel - which is purely cosmetic, it doesn't zoom in or out - could have been designed to accomodate one.

As for taking pictures in low light, it refuses to take pictures under street lighting, unless there's lots of it, and thus would not be very useful in a club unless you point it directly at a light source. Leicester Square at night comes out okay, but not the various dark alleyways thereabouts. For darkness you'd need a film camera with a tripod a release cable.

My wife has been getting to grips with technology and has progressed beyond simple e-mail. So I bought her a Che-ez! Snap so that she could send pictures with her messages.

The Che-ez! Snap is an amazingly capable camera in a tiny package. It takes up to 26 640x480 pictures or 106 320x240 low-resolution snaps, with the number of remaining pictures displayed on a small LCD. Being the size of a matchbox it can be taken anywhere and can take photos almost anywhere. I was impressed at the quality of the pictures taken indoors with only normal levels of artificial light. By today's standards the high-resolution option is pretty low. But 640x480 is more than adequate for sending pictures in e-mail or embedding a small picture in a letter. Snap also records short video clips although I have yet to succeed in playing one, but the software provided to allow Snap to be used as a Webcam does work.

The image software supplied is again basic but easy to use and quite capable. The ArcSoft PotoStudio 2000 software provides basic image manipulation and allows the picture to be saved in all the major formats.

I chose this camera, rather than some of the other small models on the market, because it has a rechargeable battery, charged through the USB connection from the PC. I was a little surprised to find that the memory is supported by the battery, which will finally discharge and loose any pictures still in the camera. I was then even more surprised to find that the instructions said that pictures should be loaded to a PC within six hours! In practice I have found that a full complement of 26 pictures are retained for at least 20 hours, making it practical to take the camera out for the day. It automatically turns itself off after a short period so there is no fear of leaving it on and draining the battery.