Hi.

Does anyone know of any digital camera that meets the following specifications:

light, no more than 100-120g (4-4.5 oz)
decent resolution, at least 2.1 megapixel
good image quality, ie decent lens
video output, preferably PAL, preferably full frame rate (this isn't absolutely necessary)
SD/MMC card
relatively low cost, no more than about $150 US or £80-90
and most critical of all, has a power save mode that can be turned off completely.

I have found that most small pocket sized cameras fail on one or more of these points, usually the first and last ones. I thought I'd found a decent one cheap last year (a Sipix), but even when disabled the power save facility still turned the damn thing off after 5 minutes. I just got a Vivitar 3740 which meets all the requirements except the third one, unfortunately, so it has to go back tomorrow.

Do any of you Canon Ixus owners know if the auto-shutdown can be over-ridden? I can't find out from the Canon website, as they want to charge for manuals and don't have them available for download.

pca

Outpost.com had this camera for $177 most of this week. I picked one up and I'm fairly certain (without having it in front of me at work) that it satisfies all of your requirements including the last.

Videos are only recorded at 10FPS though. Too bad I didn't post the deal to the board. I recommend it if you can find it around that price again.

PS- The Panasonic is identical (except for the case) to the Leica D-Lux which sells for about $800.

Don't the ixus units fail on the cost parameter?

Videos are only recorded at 10FPS though

I don't think he needs it to record video, I think he needs it to have an NTSC/PAL continuous output of whatever the lens is pointed at. Essentially he wants a 2.1 megapixel webcam. (Correct me if I'm wrong, Patrick?)

I'm guessing he wants a nicer 3D stereo image for his remote control plane?

Oh. I can test that later. The camera will definitely output PAL though.

Here are some sample pics.

It's actually for still photography. The limitation on resolution of the video system is more one of bandwidth, both of composite video and of the microwave transmission system itself. There's only really 10MHz available at the frequency I intend to use for the big system, and although the 2.4GHz units have perhaps twice that, it all turns to poo when you try using a composite video source. Plus the available power is much lower, and the range suffers both from that and the fact that 2.4GHz has an enormous affinity for vegetation and takes every opportunity to lurk in it and never come out the other side.

Most of the digital still cameras output quite low frame rates on the video output, usually a maximum of around 15 FPS. It would be nice to have genuine video rates so I could combine the funtionality of the video and still cameras for one system I'm designing, but it's not critical as a separate video camera is very small and light.

I have used an Aiptek pen camera in the past for aerial photos, but the resolution simply isn't high enough for decent results, and higher res cameras all seem to be too big, or too expensive, or too slow, or just crap. The Ritz disposable camera was fairly close in many respects, but is really too slow to be used from a moving vehicle, a common problem with CMOS sensors. I really need a CCD one.

pca

Ah, that's more what I'm looking for. Much better than the vivitar output. The camera is rather heavier than I want, though.

pca

I'd look at the Pentax Optio S4i. I think its everything you want, except full speed video (15fps). It's slightly more than you wanted to spend, but you might be able to find a previous 3.3MP version on ebay or something. The Optio is really tiny, about the size of an altoids tin. Weight is about 120g with battery and SD card loaded.

My GF got one of these and its really nice.

I believe that the Konica Minolta Xg has 30fps video out (don't know which resolutions), and the Sony DSC-T1 supposedly does 30fps at 640x480. I haven't played with either of those. They are both larger than the Optio.

Also, the Optio S40 (I think) is a version of the Optio that uses regular batteries. Its slightly larger, but doesn't rely on a proprietary battery.

FWIW,
Jim

NTSC and PAL output are supported

You can set powersave to off

VIdeo output is relatively high FPS. I don't know exactly how to measure that.

Do any of you Canon Ixus owners know if the auto-shutdown can be over-ridden?

The Ixus i does allow you to turn off the power save feature, however it doesn't appear that you can stop the display turning itself off. The max time is 3 minutes.

It weighs 125g and supports PAL output, but I'm not sure about the frame rate. Cheapest I've seen it is at ebuyer.com for £150 ex VAT, but it is more than worth that considering it's a 4 megapixel camera.

I think most of the Canon cameras allow themselves to be remote-controlled over USB (or, I assume that's what the "RemoteCapture" tool is that Canon installed on my computer). If the camera is shutting down on you, or just blanking its screen, you may be able to kick it somehow over the USB port.

Is this going into a model vehicle of some kind? First I thought you were intending an airplane except for the remark about being in amoungst vegitation.