OxHipSpot Digital Camera Review

 

Today we kick off our Digital Camera segment with a small 3-in-1 digital camera offered by Oxygenergy Electronics. It’s a small digital camera capable of taking pictures, small movie clips (10 seconds) and being a web cam solution. It’s really small too! Let’s take a look shall we?

The box

The OxHipSpot Digital Camera arrived to us in perfect condition without any damage. The box has information about the OxHipSpot and is very basic in design.  Opening the box presented me with the small digital camera and USB cable. I was actually very surprised to see it that small. It measures in at 2" x 1.5" x 0.4".  This could be the smallest digital camera ever, literally. The OxHipSpot is made out of plastic construction and was not flimsy. It was built solid.

What you get bundled with the OxHipSpot are the following:

  • Driver CD w/software
  • Manual
  • One year warranty card
  • USB cable
  • Key chain
  • OxHipSpot Digital Camera

The key chain that is included is a bonus but I can’t and I don’t know how to install it.  It’s really weird.

The bundle

USB cable

The OxHipSpot

Smaller than my eraser

Same here

The shutter button and the rear

The OxHipSpot is small. It’s the size of a paper clip. It’s very portable, and has rubber on the left side below the shutter button to give you a good grip preventing any shaking. There is a small basic LCD display that lets you go through the different modes of the camera.

Viewfinder lever

On the right side of the camera you will see the lever that raises the viewfinder. The lens is very small and is rated at f=3.6mm, F 2.4 (54). The OxHipSpot uses 1 AAA battery that is not included to operate the camera.

Viewfinder in use

The OxHipSpot sports 8MB of memory and can take up to 26 pictures of high quality mode and 104 pictures of low quality shots. This unit's memory cannot be upgraded.

Specifications

  • Resolution: 640 x 480 pixels (High)352 x 288 pixels (Low)
  • Image sensor: 300k pixels CMOS sensor
  • Memory: 8MB SDRAMHigh: 26 picturesLow: 104 pictures
  • Video clip: 352 x 288; 10 second/clip
  • Lens: f=3.6mm, F 2.4 (54)
  • Interface: USB 1.1 connection
  • Self timer : 10 seconds delay
  • Shutter speed: 1/6 second
  • Battery: 1 X AAA battery required (not included)
  • Dimension: 2" x 1.5" x 0.4"
  • Weight: 0.04 lbs

As we can see by the specs, the camera uses the old CMOS sensor that is capable of pushing a 300K pixel resolution.  The movie mode size is 352x288. 

Using the camera

To use this camera, you will need to install the necessary drivers and software.  Without this, you cannot transfer or use the camera on your computer.  The included Arcsoft Photo Impression is a useful software to use and there is the transfer program that is very basic and is simple to use.

The camera is easy to use. The quick start guide helps you know what modes are in this camera such as “CA” which is used to clear the memory. Point and click is the method with this camera. Once you press the shutter, there is about a second where the photo is stored on the onboard memory.

Sample shots/Image Quality

Here are some sample shots I took with the OxHipSpot and are not compressed in any way.  These are the files right from the camera. 

Observations

As you can see the pictures on Low Quality aren’t really exciting and the High Quality mode is better. The color is good but could be better. On High Quality mode, I noticed the there is a blur that is circular. For optimum quality shots, you will need good lighting. The OxHipSpot doesn’t take pictures without good light. If there isn’t enough light it will beep two times without taking the photo. There are time when bright becomes too bright for the photo to come out. Taking a shot of the sun directly shows that.

Some other images captioned

The installation CD menu

The PCCAM software for using the web cam function

The transfer software that is pretty basic

Conclusion

The OxHipSpot is a basic point and shoot camera. What makes it cool is the fact that it is literally small and portable. You can take it anywhere and have some fun with it. The camera can be used also to take movie clips and use as a web camera. The quality solely depended on the lenses and was good for the most part. The color reproduction could have been better and there was a blur effect on the high quality pictures. For how small this camera is, it’s pretty darn good. I can visualize that kids would love this camera to take pictures of their friends, etc.

I rate the OxHipSpot Digital Camera a…

7/10!

Pros and Cons

+ Good pictures at high quality for a small camera
+ Small
+ Easy to use
+ 3-in-1
- No included battery
- Some quality issues
- Not upgradeable memory
- Key chain installation

I would like to thank Oxygenergy Electronics for making this review possible. The OxHipSpot goes for $49.99U.S. and around $70.99 Canadian. If you are on the look out for a small, fun digital camera, then give the OxHipSpot a look.

fb

Custom Search