Review on 🎥 Aiptek DV3100 3.1MP AVI Digital Camcorder (No Longer Produced) by Greg Princeking

I'm a fan of budget devices and by those standards this nifty little 4-in-1 stands up to the best. First off, you get a 3.1 megapixel digital camera for a third of the price of most other products in this category. If it stopped right here it would still be an amazing deal. However, you also get a palm-sized digital video camera, digital voice recorder, USB webcam, and USB removable storage device. All for $$$. Here's a deal I just couldn't turn down. However, approach this product with your eyes wide open and don't expect it to be the best in all its specifics. For example, a digital camera is not very tolerant of low light conditions. Sufficiently lit photos turn out well, but indoor or overcast outdoor shots tend to produce muddy tones with a red cast. A built-in flash would solve this problem, but unfortunately it doesn't. So take photos in well-lit places and situations and you will be fine. Also, the fact that the native image format is a lossy JPEG and not a lossless format like TIFF is an issue, but probably only for fans like me. Most regular digital authors don't care. You can capture and store approximately 60 full quality (2048 x 1536, high quality) digital photos on a 64MB CompactFlash card (not included, sold separately. Built-in memory: 16MB). to meet all your home theater needs. At 10fps and 320x240 video resolution, this is hardly broadcast quality. However, I find this limited quality perfect for recording, editing, and sharing fast, low-bandwidth web movies. The camera natively saves movies in .AVI format, so no conversions or extra steps are usually required to transfer movies from the camera to the internet. As a Mac user, I prefer QuickTime .AVI, but I've found converting to .MOV format to be quick and easy. You can record up to 20 minutes of compressed video on a 64MB CompactFlash card (not included, sold separately - only 16MB onboard memory). The duration of your videos is only limited by the amount of storage space and batteries you have. Because it's a digital voice recorder, it doesn't have cue or review buttons, so going back and forth through the day's notes can be a chore. The workaround is to keep your notes short. The camera creates a new audio file for each new shot you record. As a webcam, it works just like most inexpensive USB webcams. There are no special claims in this regard. The 1.5 inch LCD screen does its job well enough. The fact that it's even present in such a cheap product is a pleasant surprise. However, it drains two AA batteries fairly quickly. You can get around this problem by using rechargeable batteries like I did. PROS: Small, light, portable, combines an amazing amount of features and value at an incredibly affordable price. CONS: Picture quality suffers in low light, no flash, digital video is web quality only, digital voice recorder has no cue/review buttons. CONCLUSION: This nifty little device is a jack of all trades, but a jack of all trades. However, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts - a device that can do it all makes a great little toy for the big boys in your family. It won't replace your main digital camera or digital camcorder, but it's a great backup device for them in situations where you don't need to carry around the first team. Buy it - you know you want it.