There is another model, one that actually looks like a camera, but same company. I got it for X-mas.

www.sharkcamera.com

For poor people like me, who likely would never afford a real digital camera, it's pretty cool.

(I think it basically is a web cam, with some memory added to take screen shots).

Hell, it's better'n the coal oil powered camera I have!

But it doesn't come close to the image quality of the 35mm Pentax I got at Goodwill for $9.95. Latest pictures I posted of our canine were resampled down to 640 wide after cropping and still look better than that.

Hey for $20 bucks beggars can't be choosers. But the picture quality was completely horrible.

This truly is a camera for the masses. Screw high resolution and any other sort of fancy stuff. This is all you need to send a snap shot.

The old photog's saying is, "the best camera is the one you have with you." It may not be Glenn's prized D70, but it does take pix, and is right for the price.

hehe - great review! Where do i get one!?

The sub-VGA resolution and lack of true USB is a show-stopper for me. OTOH, competing products are above the $20 impulse buy price point:
Transcend JetFlash (VGA, true USB flash, $60 and up)
Philips KEY0010/17 128MB 2MP USB Key Ring Camera ($125)

The VuPoint I review is definitely a toy, and they make no bones about it. Even the ArcSoft driver is called "Toy Camera".

It would probably make a nice gift for a young child since you wouldn't really care if they broke it or lost it, etc., and maybe it would plant the seeds for a future shutter-bug.

There are some $39.95 cameras but not "steady stock" so to speak. See, for example, http://www.softwareandstuff.com/CES10529.html which is a Vivitar 1.3MP deal. It's OK for horsing around... certainly better than the 19.95 toy. While it's got a 1.8" LCD, "Fixed focus f/2.8 lens" says it all :-) They do take Compact Flash memory cards, though.

:Cheers.

I have a similar cheapass camera, and looking at the specs, there's one GLARING problem they share.

The 16 megs of RAM here? They're SDRAM, not flash.

Which means if your battery dies, you lose your pictures. And also it's continually draining battery life, keeping the RAM refreshed.

This is why my cheapass SiPix camera has never gotten used. If I'd know it wasn't flash, I never would have bought it.

The old photog's saying is, 'the best camera is the one you have with you.'

That's pretty much what I was thinking (a .380 in the pocket is better than a .45 in the safe).

I've been shopping for a decent camera phone and, admittedly, the indoor shot of the cat appears to have come out clearer than what most camera phones will produce.