I Spent $7 for the World's Worst Digital Camera

[@InferiorSerperior]

No matter how bad it is, the sole fact that you can have a full fledged camera that has a speaker, rechargable battery AND plays games/music for $7 is absolutely insane

[@AmirRazan]

*_child labour left the chat_*

[@jeromethiel4323]

@@AmirRazan Child labor for a child's toy, sounds legit!

[@johncate9541]

Absolutely. In 1999, you could buy a basic digital camera called JamCam that shot VGA only, could only hold a handful of shots, and cost $99. 24 years later, you can buy a vastly superior and more capable digital camera for kids for $7.

[@joonglegamer9898]

If that surprises you, I bought a 6$ "smartwatch" off ebay and it actually came, it was brand new, had two batteries (that lasted, oh some minutes), and the thing had a vga camera, sim card reader (yes it's even a phone, and that actually worked). And that was like 5-6 years ago.

[@MrJ0mmy]

In china 7usd is worth a lot more then it is in the usa and also the chinese government subsidizes shipping costs that is why its free that's why item from china are so cheap

[@robsquared2]

Imagine making a low budget found footage horror move with that. It'd be perfect.

[@klerpi]

my thoughts exactly

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

Total budget $21 for a high-quality 3-camera setup!

[@onepiecefan1459]

frlll

[@iaincowell9747]

probably only records about 20 seconds at a time, lol

[@f937r]

It definitely hits that 2004 era phone camera. It also seems like it's taking photos in a 4:3 aspect ratio and then stretching them to 16:9, which is weird because the video recording seems to be actually widescreen. Such a weird little device.

[@geeko321]

My daughter has this camera. I will also add that, as you fill up the SD card, the image capture speed gets slower and slower. My daughter has taken thousands of photos, and it now has a 3 second delay from pressing the shutter button to actual image capture.

[@Afsafs123]

I bet if you checked out the firmware whatever poor CPU is in it has to read the entire contents of the SD card to figure out what to make the filename.

[@HandFromCoffin]

Now your daughter needs a computer to dump the files and an online backup to archive them. :)

[@Aeduo]

3 seconds is pretty good compared to even high end digital cameras from just like 15-20 years ago.

[@jnharton]

I'd guess has to store the images to the SD before it can show you the result. And because of the way flash memory works, once it's gotten sort if full the card's controller may have shuffle some data around so it can erase enough blocks to have space.

[@suddenlyvlogs]

Still better than some security cameras. "Do you know this person?" "... I thought that was a head of lettuce TF"

[@joeconti2396]

The spirit of the 90s is alive in this $7 camera

[@Danjnap]

My kids have two of these cameras. The empty “viewfinder” space is actually for a selfie camera! Some models have two camera modules, one for each direction. Keeps little kids entertained for hours

[@yorgle]

Back in the day, (~2000 or so) i had a little "Intel Pocket PC Camera"... a webcam that could be disconnected from your pc, and it had battery and some memory for about 60 640x480 images that were HIGHLY jpeg compressed, and SUPER saturated. No controls or display on it. It took wonderfully horrible pictures. :D

[@mountainmanmcbeachfront5296]

I had a spy pen camera like that i think it took like 8 pictures and they always sucked lol

[@DeLorean58]

Yeah. Bought one of these a year or two ago for our daughter when she went to camp. I was totally ok if she broke it ir lost it as she is terrible with taking care of her stuff, somehow she still has it, and it still works.

[@ikemkrueger]

I think she loves it.

[@michaeldcullen]

That's a 24-pin camera module, and they come in a variety of spec levels and with a ton of different lens options, including things like C-mount. Perhaps a follow up video testing it out with an assortment of cheap lenses from Aliexpress?

[@yihanzhang2094]

Can you adapt it to an raspberry pi w 22pin?

[@Bleats_Sinodai]

I actually think the "viewfinder" hole is for a selfie camera, because it has the same screw posts as the camera.

[@Nox_Ludicro]

You're correct. I have a "premium" version of this camera, and there's a selfie camera in the viewfinder slot.

[@rickkarrer8370]

I think this is the same camera my mom bought my daughter for Christmas (she has early dementia, and did really think about the fact that it was 2022 and my daughter has an iPhone 8 and iPad Air 5). I think I spent 30 mins playing with it, and my kid played with it for maybe 5 mins lol. It’s really funny, and did remind me of a camera from the 90s / early 2000s.

[@lotto77102]

There's a whole photographic concept based around bad cameras like this called lomography, it's pretty fun! There's also a Lomography company that makes intentionally bad or just weird films that can be pretty sweet (and they're also basically the only place that remembers 110 film exists these days).

[@gabotron94]

As an owner of a 110 camera, let me tell you, there are dozens of us! Dozens!

[@lotto77102]

@@gabotron94 The rare 110 gang meeting in the wild! 🤝

[@Lucas_Lopez]

It actually looks like vhs which is a great thing nowadays. I saw this camera being sold in my local area supermarket in Poland and if this is the same model I’d love to grab one myself

[@jhynjhiruurekrap5725]

That 8-pin chip near the SoC looks like it's probably the ROM, and I would bet it's most likely an SPI ROM chip. That means you can dump it and find out a bit more about how it works, or even write a custom firmware.

[@BenyaminLimanto]

Seems it's old MTK Chip. As the GUI Is t he same as the MTK GUI..

[@Leurak]

Modding that thing could be fun

[@jasonblalock4429]

I have to imagine that you would LOVE the PXL2000 if you ever got your hands on one. (It's a toy video camera from the 1980s that uses compact cassette, and is (in)famous for its weird image quality.)

[@HandFromCoffin]

My friend had one when I was a kid. We made slasher video's with it. I remember making a straw dummy and throwing him out my bedroom window in one video.

[@BilisNegra]

The 8-bit guy reviewed something like that a long time ago. Is it the same model?

[@kylek6922]

To me its funny how so many folks are mentioning their old flip phone camera's. For me, this video makes me think back to our families first digital camera, a OG Apple Quicktake 100 we got new in late 94. I still have many fond memories of that old camera

[@OneKnifeYeHand]

Nah, the Quicktake took sharper and non-stretched photos. LGR has reviewed it, so you can put it side-by-side with the photos from this video.

[@Kennephone]

That was actually quite a revolutionary camera, being well under $1000 and color. The Computer Chronicles did an episode on digital cameras in '93 and a QVGA black and white camera was about $800 (it did have a built in printer though). 90s tech, am I right.

[@dionelr]

This looks like a great gift for a child. My toddler still throws things around, so maybe in a couple years they’ll have one with better specs 😅 (hopefully, but probably not).

[@yjk_ch]

My younger sister has Chinese camera with similar UI design overall. So I’m pretty sure it’s running similar firmware to this. And here’s some interesting things I found(which may or may not apply to this exact camera): - If you insert unformatted SD card, it will format it *without asking*. - If you plug in USB cable without SD card attached, it acts as crappy USB camera. - I tried filling SD card with random bytes, and startup/shutdown image was corrupted sometimes. Nice programming :D - Startup/shutdown image is user-replaceable.

[@jdmcs]

You should create a whole episode using this camera. 🤣

[@johnpetruna8888]

Yes please!

[@Aeduo]

it's an amusing idea but that audio is just unintelligible.

[@mountainmanmcbeachfront5296]

Keep good audio but use $7 camera..

[@BilisNegra]

Not really, not a full-fledged video, maybe a short?

[@chadmasta5]

Alternate reality where Action Retro started back in 2006 and that was just the camera he used.

[@dominicus9891]

These photos look like they were shot on the DSi or 3ds. A neat aesthetic.

[@KarlBaron]

What a cromulent nugget to play Scarlet Fire on!

[@Bleats_Sinodai]

I just got one of those and mine has a Spreadrum SC6531F chip, which is apparently a low-end smartphone processor. Right now I'm doing a mod to add a focus adjustment option to the camera (aka I drilled a channel on the plastic housing for the camera module, and added a rigid wire wound around and glued to the lens, so I have an "arm" to control the focus with).

[@lukemarvin]

I have been thinking the Raspberry Pi Foundation should make a kids camera. They make all the hardware. People could use it as a webcam, machine learning platform. Put Joycon rails on the side and people can play games on it.

[@АндрейЕлескин-л8с]

Action Dank Pods

[@evibes512]

I'm a sucker for old camera tech. Always on the lookout at second hand shops. The find this week was a Panasonic Lumix dmc-fs15 for 5 bucks. Compact, still works great and battery holds a good charge. Sometimes I forget my phone is a camera, but when I have a point and shoot camera with me, I tend to take more photos of fun random things.

[@Kennephone]

I found a 2002 cybershot pocket camera, with 64mb memory stick at a yard sale for $1 6 years ago. It was my main camera the rest of my teenage years, and it still works, but the plastic lens is foggy now, and cleaning it doesn't help, pictures are still decent though.

[@drewzero1]

Me too- though I tend toward film cameras and developing paraphernalia. On the digital side the Mavica is probably my favorite item in my collection.

[@esseferio]

6:04 "Yeah, can record some videos of my hands doing things": yeah, we've been watching those for years actually :)

[@mingyue1586]

I saw and read the comment at the same time he said so 😂

[@JeffPomaybo]

+1 for MST3K reference. Keep Circulating The tapes!

[@randomreviews9016]

I'd love to see a crazy modding community for this thing

[@reidfamilydroid]

Someone up above said they reckon the firmware could be dumped! I have one on the way...

[@GrimeyJr]

Wasn't expecting a DankPods reference but here we are.

[@reidfamilydroid]

Mine arrived today and it is glorious. AR completely glosssed over the frames and filters! I am super excited to see if someone can't get the firmware and modify it...

[@meetoo594]

I remember having a camera in the late 90s that took pics like that. No video or games though and it lost its memory if it got switched off or the (really odd and hard to find) non rechargeable battery ran out. Lost loads of photos by accidently switching the thing off before uploading them to pc via a horribly slow usb1 connection to a really basic proprietary photo importer thingy.

[@LTC_Tiger]

I bought one of these for my daughter last year. She completely loves it.

[@lemagreengreen]

I remember spending many hundreds of pounds on a Casio QV-10 digital camera in 94 or 95, can't quite remember. The quality of its pictures was about on par with this! maybe a little better from memory but that might be the years... I remember it took 320x240 images, was extremely slow and generally terrible to use with glacial serial cable uploads of the exciting terrible pictures I took to my Windows 3.1 PC.

[@Xsiondu]

Oh goodness!!! This post made me feel the impatient stress that I mistook for excitement back then 😅.

[@senilyDeluxe]

I have an Orion DigiSnap DS21 from 1994 but made in 1996 and sold in 1999 and from the looks of it never really used. It takes 320x240 images too, compresses them into jpeg (which was still called JIFF back then) at ca. 10% quality so the only purpose your photos have is to teach computer science students how JPEG compression works. You can barely make out what you shot. The image quality of this camera is abysmal, it's about as good as I imagine 100 line mechanical TV to look like (I've only seen 30 line mechanical TV, but I've read that up to 180 line mechanical TVs existed, but electronic TV was already out then and soon dominated the market). Even Long Play VHS recordings look High Def compared to that Orion... And yes, it also takes several hours to download 1 MB of photos through a serial cable on WIndows 3.11 (the manual says the software will NOT run on 95) (the camera has 2MB of internal flash memory, but an arbitrary 96 file limit which, at the fixed non-changeable compression, amounts to a maximum of around 1.2MB). Funnily, the photos look best on the internal screen, followed by the AV output, and by far the worst they look on the computer - and yes, I used the proprietary built-in JIFF viewer that came with the camera software and yes, I set the video card to 640x480 with 24 bits of color (usually I have it at 1024x768 with 256 colors because I love those palette cycling screensavers and the high resolution).

[@TedSeeber]

640x480 used to be the prime VGA native resolution...and was thus the target of online real estate listing from 1994-2000

[@Senax79]

Where's the brown sofa? 😉

[@ActionRetro]

Hahaha

[@MechaFenris]

Back when I bought my first $400 2MP camera at Comp USA, I never envisioned a camera could be $7. :) Time flies... Was it wrong that I kept hearing Wayne's World "extreme closeup!" when you were recording your cats? :P Nostalgia's great, isn't it?

[@pheflin526]

Being that they were both attached via ribbon cable, my thought was to see how they work with a raspberry pi

[@stamasd8500]

Assuming the interface has the correct pinout for a RPi. Many Chinese-made camera modules don't.

[@pheflin526]

@@stamasd8500 fair point

[@arlandi]

if they can work with a raspi, probably the result will be a 'better' ugly camera.

[@pheflin526]

@@arlandi I was initially thinking about it when he talked about how good the screen was. The camera would still be crappy likely. But a good mini screen for that cheap could be a good find

[@Javadamutt]

Wow...better than most windows laptop web cams

[@DJLizzHeadpats]

You can make vintage style ad parodies with that thing

[@clairekholin6935]

That camera would be great for taking pictures of cats or UFOs!

[@clairekholin6935]

Actually, it is too good for UFO videos or photos.

[@bhoju_]

You're right

[@tim4k435]

Had just been looking for this kind of low quality ultra compressed garbo for a while. Its nice that its quite modern and eliminates a ton of the quirks from actual turn of the millenium cameras

[@wintermute740]

I bought one of these for my daughter awhile back. It was great for her to get started.

[@simonro9168]

Is it just me or are the still pictures 4:3 but stretched into widescreen?

[@f937r]

That's what I was thinking. Which is even more weird because the video capture is actually widescreen lol

[@mar4kl]

Wow, this is reminiscent of the worst digital camera I ever owned, which was a DXG-308 purchased in 2004 or 2005. I actually got it bundled with an Epson inkjet printer. I don't know if I paid $75 for the printer and got a free camera, or if I paid $75 for the camera and got a free printer. At the time, either by itself normally cost more than that. The printer was actually pretty good; it printed well and lasted for about 5 years. The camera, on the other hand, was awful. It ate batteries for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and that was even before you turned it on. The feature set and controls looked pretty good, but the CCD and optics were so bad that the only way it could take pictures in anything approaching true color was outside on bright, sunny days, and nothing was focused all that well. My daughter used it to take a picture of a historic building, and the tower on the building came out bent 90 degrees to the left and then another 90 degrees back up. I mean, it was an interesting-looking building, but not quite THAT interesting in real life.

[@MegaManNeo]

I am actually impressed by this as it costs less than 10 bucks. As a kid I would have died for this and mom might actually have been able to get me this camera because it is so low priced.

[@sarowie]

similar thougths. As a camera to take videos outdoors, starting video editing - that thing would work. Sure, it is seriously limited, but this leads to a certain aesthetics and artistic limitations.

[@georgesenda1952]

I do not think the videos or pictures are that bad and I love your sweet & cute kitties. I may have to buy one of these and see how they do just for fun.

[@staggerwings]

I don’t think any of his sweet &cute kitties are for sale….

[@georgesenda1952]

@@staggerwings I meant the camera silly.

[@usodarou]

this is the camera they used to take photos of big foot and aliens

[@SergeiJonovich]

A handheld version of a Delorean time machine! Instantly transported back to just 1998 .

[@LBXComputers]

That shell screams that it’s been repurposed from something else having a viewfinder hole and speaker grille that is not aligned to anything.

[@yihanzhang2094]

I checked taobao (Aliexpress), $7 for standard version, $9.9 for "HD" version and $12.9for 9.6M version. Three years warranty. And you can add a very cute silicone case. For 3+ kids.

[@StrangelyIronic]

I still use a Lumix LC1 and L1 a lot, the former being a fixed lens 5mp CCD camera with an amazing lens and build quality, and the latter being a Four Thirds ILC at around 7mp with a live-mos sensor. You have to really understand proper lighting, but if you shoot properly they still put out some great images considering the age of the tech.

[@kinghezzy2]

My daughter received that camera for Christmas. It was fun to watch your video and have her pull her camera back out. FYI - the "view finder" on hers is actually a selfie camera. And, alas, hers does not include Tetris. :-(

[@bryans8656]

Seriously awful pictures, but I'm impressed with the amount of technology you get for seven bucks.

[@fasthippy]

My child has a similar camera with a black and white printer attached that prints picture via what seem to be the same technology as store receipts. She loves her camera, plays games, music, prints pictures and makes silly videos.

[@stephen1r2]

A nice multiplicity of Kitties at the end

[@Aeduo]

I didn't quite get vaporwave but I definitely got crusty mid-2000s real estate photo vibes, so it might make for some great liminal space photos.

[@cbigeagle]

Man, I bought a pair of these and a couple extra for my 5yr olds before we went on a cruise and they absolutely loved them. The ones I got look almost identical but were a couple bucks more and came with a waterproof shell so they could get some pictures underwater. Everything off of this is potato quality but it makes 'em happy.

[@frankwhite2072]

That looks like good value. You have an army of beautiful cats?

[@AerinRavage]

Wait... Not one, not two, but THREE KITTIES?!

[@teamredstudio7012]

The poor images and the no copyright music is a huge throwback. I'm watching this on a 2007 macbook. It feels weird like I've time traveled to have this familiar aesthetic I haven't seen in years.

[@darkhelmet169]

Much better than the cheapest Vivitar digital camera that I got for Christmas 2004, that had insane motion blur if anything moved at all, no screen, and stored photos on SRAM not flash so if the batteries died everything was lost.

[@Aeduo]

I had a Vivitar but it recorded to SD card if I remember correctly. But it would corrupt the image files if you tried to read them in another card reader instead of connecting the camera through usb.

[@georgesenda1952]

I would like to see how I could get my Apple external Isight camera that is connected to my 2006 Mac Mini. If anyone knows how let me know please.

[@AndrewErwin73]

+1 for MST3K reference... true story!

[@TheStarscouts]

I loved how you played Scarlet Fire on this

[@realitypoet]

In around 2005 I had a tiny digital camera that was on a keychain and it took images at either 640x480 or 320x240 resolution or something like that and I think it could only hold like 20 pictures on internal storage - but at the time that was amazing (my only other cameras were disposable 35mm ones)

[@crabdonkey6381]

Is clock set via computer?

[@rigues]

Now we know how Jeremy Parish records the intro for his videos!! 😂 I'm pretty sure that is about the same level of hardware I got for my kid during a business trip about 12 years ago. Only his was styled as the point and shoots of that time, without the "kid" coating. Also: are the pictures stretched to 16:9 straight from the camera, or was that an oversight during editing?

[@faenethlorhalien]

ASHENS NAME DROP. Ah, I love the internet.

[@faenethlorhalien]

AND SCARLET FIRE !!!!!! CRIKEY! WHAT A NUGGET!!!!!

[@iCaveDave]

I have one of those! And that shirt! 😂

[@tiagotiagot]

If you plug it into a computer, does it show up as anything? Maybe the IDs and stuff could help figure out what system it's running?

[@kylebaker1839]

My daughters both got the “upgraded” model and I can confirm that is hole is not for a viewfinder but is in fact a hole for a front facing camera… or rear depending on what your definition of front is for a camera.

[@LemSportsinterviews]

4:40 hey, isn't that the windows CE/pocket PC activesync sound?

[@coondogtheman]

My first toy camera was a 20 dollar clip on camera and it ran on 2 AA batteries and used SDRAM which means if the batteries are removed the pictures go bye bye. The quality of pictures was worse than this camera, super compressed. This toy camera barely even had a half megapixel but it was my first digital camera and I took a lot of grainy pics on it. My next one was a credit card sized camera and took better pictures but only pictures. Both of these used the download to PC type interface and not mass storage. The one after that was the Aiptek DV-4500 which was my first real digital camera and video camera and I shot all of my oldest youtube vids on plus family videos and all. I still have it and it still works. The other two cameras I have no idea where they are at the moment.

[@KatouMegumiosu]

I want magic lantern port of all that software unironically

[@alextirrellRI]

Oddly, it looks as if it's actually trying to upscale the images. I guess it's also pushing them out from 4x3 to 16x9?

[@JB-wi7kr]

Interesting! I bought this for my 2 year old daughter about a month ago for her birthday!

[@megatronskneecap]

That looks like a hidden camera from 2001 or something. You can literally count the pixels on a 4k monitor like squared paper.

[@esseferio]

Actually, the picture quality is not much worse than my old Casio QV-10A...

[@ReclaimerTyphoon]

My kid got something like this for Christmas from a family member - it's not half bad. There are some really neat borders and filters you can apply to the camera for some silly fun, and it's an inexpensive way to get your kid taking photos, making movies, etc. Put your kid in a laundry basket and push them around a room with a bunch of stuffed animals set up, some trigger-able "events", etc. and play make-believe "Pokemon Snap" (that's on our to-do list). You could also use the movie function to help them learn/grasp how a movie is planned, written, and captured. And then you've got games on top of all of that? Pretty dang cool, if you ask me. I wasn't thrilled about the idea of plugging this thing into my computer (who knows what's hiding in that firmware/software), but I've got a throw-away Linux laptop we can use. Could be a lot of fun if you're not obsessed with high-quality cameras/if being a grown-up hasn't blinded you to the truth about diminishing returns, making you think you need to spend hundreds of dollars to have a good time (you don't).

[@sheik124]

"man, this really hits like a dankpods video, what a nugget this camera i....is...is that scarlet fire?!" nice

[@carltonleboss]

I would loved this as a child.

[@tbsq1114]

"200 years of evolution and we've barely even tapped the vastness of photography potential."

[@TransbianKitty]

I've heard scarlet fire so many times now, it's like the unofficial theme of youtube! Thanks for showing us this nugget!

[@stepanrumyantsev6098]

You should definitely use this camera to film some of your future videos for the channel, it brings these sweet 90s vibes, very appropriate. At least for the 1st of April video next year.

[@crabdonkey6381]

How big a micro SD card will it read/write?

[@AndersHintion]

I have an older version of that camera that doesn't have the same version of the OS it can only take videos and record

[@nysaea]

cat videos like it's 2004 again

[@TheSaltyExplorer]

It HAD to be Scarlet Fire . No other song would demonstrate the fidelity of this little nugget.

[@RichsRandomRetroReviews]

The start up tone of the camera sounds very much like the ActiveSync Windows CE desktop PC synchronisation software making contact with a PDA.

[@RobReynolds]

It's like someone's high school project they've put into production

[@parasquared]

i'm sorry, but does that thing play the activesync connect sound on startup?? got genuine whiplash there

[@James_T_Quirk]

Nice, I looking inside gizmo's as well, I wonder if that Camera Lens will work with MIPI-CSI interface on a Raspberry PI ...

[@jeff.fredrickson]

Those photos remind me so much of the ones I took with my Treo in the early 2000s!

[@TheGamingKamikaze]

Oh my god I never thought something I bought from H&M (a clothing brand) would be reviewed. I bought this solely for wanting a camera that takes photos like in the 90s for my kids to see as if I lived in the old days. I love this toy so much.

[@tOSdude]

2 things when you were in the menus: The date/time settings were _right there_ for the timestamp, and you skipped over it. No wonder you couldn't find it. Also, you can set the resolution to "1080p" while the camera is set to VGA because the photo and video modes are completely separate.

[@RonLaws]

I see hacker space potential

[@gregorysm-az]

The code on the chip has gotta mean week 46 of year 22 (or whatever it was)

[@Reaperman4711]

I fell in love with the cheap thermal printer digital cameras a while back, and wound up with more of those than I'd care to admit. 📷 They take me back to the gameboy-camera days, and are so cheap to run, that they actually see use--unlike expensive instant/zink options.

[@HandFromCoffin]

If any of you ever had small kids they would LOVE this! Even if they are too young to know how to work it. Parents... you know. It really is bad though.. wonder what you could have gotten for like $2 more on that sensor.