Camera Review: Innovage Mini Digital Camera

Last month I went on a shopping mission, to find a cheap but good digital camera. I ended up at Overstock.com, browsing their cameras. They have a section of mini cameras that average about $20.00. I wanted a $200.00 dollar camera but could not get credit at any store (no credit sucks). That is why the mini ones were looking good, it not like I am going to take professional pictures. I just wanted to be able to email pictures and put some on my online profiles. I compared the ones that I like at first glance. They all seemed the same, none standing out feature wise or anything like that. I was not expecting many features in a mini camera. The one I ended up picking was an Innovage mini digital camera, in takes still pictures, something like 15 seconds of video (no audio), and it can be used as a web cam.

In the description, it said smaller than a credit card. No, that is not a real credit or debt card. That one came in a Pre-approved mailing. However, it is the perfect size comparison. How do you use something so small? I expected small but you cannot grasp the tiny-ness of it until you hold it. I was worried about the small size, but that is why they call it a mini. After using it a few times, I got over the whole "it's so small" excitement. Unless you have big hands, you should be able to function it properly.

The viewfinder, now that is crazy. It slides up out of the top, and you look through the little box. You cannot hold it up to your face like a full-size camera, more like seven to eight inches from your face. I find that it is not a very accurate viewfinder. Until you get used to the "off-ness" of it, you are going to have a lot of chopped heads. It comes in a variety of colors, Teal, Green, and Pink. I got the Teal color.

It uses one AAA battery and it eats them up. I went through one in three hours while I was learning how to uses the thing. I hate that you lose the pictures when the battery dies. I lost many good ones. It drained fast for not having a flash, which is what usually kills batteries. That brings me to the picture quality. I wouldn't say it was bad, but it's not great. You have to have natural light or your picture will have a yellow tinged to it. I have not tried it under Florissant light, which should not produce that yellow tint (I think). You can change the resolution from high to low. When on low it can store up to 200 pictures, and on high only 20. For twenty bucks it takes ok pictures, I wasn't unhappy with it.

It comes with a Photoshop program; Arcsoft, Photo Impression4.0, this alone is worth the $20.00. It is easy to use and has a lot of fun stuff to do with your photos, calendars, cards, post cards and a bunch of cool effects. You can add it to the "send to" list of programs for your scanner and use it on more then just pictures from the mini camera.

Just when I was getting the hang of this mini camera, it decides not to work anymore. I only had it for a month. In addition, it is just pasted the time limit to return it so I am stuck with a broken piece of junk. I have no idea why it will not work; I did not drop it or do anything that might have broken it. It is covenant (for overstock) that it broke right after the time limit to return it had passed. I do feel ripped off by overstock.com, I will never buy from there again. What if this had happened and it was a $200.00 camera? I would be really mad. I have seen the exact same camera under different brand names, I would buy one like it even if the brand name were different. I will keep this one for a little while, every now and then outing a battery in it so see if it might work again. You never know crazier stuff has happened to me!