Keychain Camera

Requires a Micro SD

I don't usually buy myself toys - and by "toys" I mean items that I didn't even bother convincing myself that I need before buying them. It's not often that I make such frivolous purchases, but I thought for $10.00, why not?

I'm actually  impressed. I didn't expect HD quality, but it certainly was better than I had anticipated. I think it's about the same quality of the current lower quality webcams. Unfortunately, it also has the stability as most webcams. You try to move the camera, and you are in for a serious whiplash.

SD card slot, reset, and USB

It looks like a Key FOB for some generic car, but if you aren't paying attention, you won't notice the USB port and the SD card slot on one side, or the two holes (one is the camera, the other is the mic). If you look really close, you can also see that there are only two working buttons. The other two are just molded in the plastic. After all, it's rare that a Key FOB has less than 3 buttons.

The larger button is the power button. You hold it down until a light turns on, then you press the smaller button quickly for a photo and the light will blink. If you want a video, you hold smaller the button down until the light turns off. Don't be fooled, it is recording. The light is off so it doesn't look suspicious. To stop it, you need to hold down the smaller button and the light will flash on.

Camera and Mic

Okay, now for the bad news. I've already told you about the stability issues, but there's a problem with aiming it. On a regular point-and-shoot camera where the display is on the back, it's still relatively easy to figure out how to hold the camera so that you are in the center of the frame. However, when you record a video, you have to upload it to your computer first, since longer files take forever to load. Then you check the video, and it turns out that it isn't aimed right. So you have to try again.

I didn't have the time to get everything perfect, but I was able to get a few good clips on the few videos I was able to take since it came in the mail a few weeks ago. It was only a few since the last few weeks we have also been doing a lot of cleaning. So it was difficult to remember to dig for my keys to record a video when I'm snarled in cobwebs and dust as I try to clean some areas that haven't seen the light of day for a few years.

I manage to get the video finished in record time. So you can see for yourself what it looks like:

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