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Review of the Aiptek DV3100

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  • Review of the Aiptek DV3100

    I purchased the Aiptek DV3100 in Feburary 2004. At the time of this writing it is my newest digital camera being the 11th I had since 1999, the 4th from Aiptek and the 4th using removable media.

    I should mention that I tend to buy digital cameras that are under $100, a self made rule that I broke only once. The major reason behind this rule is that one of things that I do is flying model rockets, with the idea of placing a camera on the model rocket itself. The last thing I wanted to do was either lose or break beyond repair an expensive camera. The exploits and the mis-adventures of that endeavor might be a subject of a future thread.

    The DV3100 originally came out in the late summer of 2003 and was selling at $149. That price dropped to $129 in Janurary 2004 and dropped down to $99 a month later. At which point I purchased it from CompUSA.

    The major reason why I purchased this camera was to have the capabilty of recording video with sound and have it stored on removable media for the purpose of recording model rocket launches from the ground. The other cameras that could record video with sound which were the Aiptek DV and the SiPix Stylecam Deluxe stored it's images in internal memory and that limited the length of time to about 1-1/2 to 2 minutes of video depending on the camera used. This was okay since an average flight time is around 15 to 20 seconds and if I ran out of space on one camera I would use the other camera. I even purchased a second SiPix Stylecam Deluxe for this reason.

    The SiPix SC3300 which also records video to a removable media but does not record sound which is acceptable for model rocket launches because more than likey the sound it would be picking up is the wind, but if I need to record things other model rocket launches I would be stuck.

    Also the Aiptek DV suffered other problems which include the inability to turn off the camera manually and there were times that camera got stuck and it went past it's automatic turn off time. The only way to reset the camera was to remove the batteries and if you do that you lose the images. So I was on the lookout for a better camera.

    My experience with other Aiptek products which include the Pencam 2, Pocket DV and the Mini PenCam 1.3 overall have been good, not perfect but for the price you pay for it, the product works if you can put up with it shortcomings. The two shortcomings that these three products have in common are:

    1) The inability to turn off the camera manually. The auto shut down time is around 30 seconds, for the Pencam 2 and the Mini PenCam 1.3 this is not a problem but for the Pocket DV it was a problem because if I placed the camera in my pocket before it auto shutoff another switch which was on the side of the body that activates the sound recorder would kick in, causing it take up available memory on the camera and still not turning off the camera.

    2) Typically after taking an image the camera would display what image number it took as opposed to saying how much more you can take. I should point out the Pencam 2 was the exception it counted down saying how many more it could take.

    For the DV3100 they actually fixed the first shortcoming, there are two ways to turn on the DV3100 and three ways to turn it off (auto shut down being one of the three). They also fix the problem of accidently turnning on the sound recorder by having it as a menu option verus having it's own button on the body of the camera. The minor drawback to the power up and power down sequence is that it makes a noticable sound.

    As far as addressing the second shortcoming, the fine folks at Aiptek didn't do anything at all. In fact it does not tell how many images were taken or how much space is left to take more. The only feedback you get is on it's LCD screen saying "Out of Memory", otherwise it accepts the image.

    While the DV3100 has it's own internal memory to hold images I tend to use it's capabilty to store it on a CompactFlash card instead. For me this is alright because the other three cameras that I got also uses CompactFlash so for the time being CompactFlash is my personal standard even through my card readers can handle other types of cards.

    The DV3100 can use a CompactFlash card up to 512MBytes, which is kind of an irony there since the non sale price of a 512MByte card is around $150, which is more than the cost of the camera! I tend to use the SanDisk 256MByte card which is available from CostCo for around the $40-45 price range.

    While one can find a better techinical specifications at:

    http://www.aiptek.com/products/digital/dv3100.htm

    I can say it's small, light, powered by 2 AA alkaline batteries, great for taking outdoor shots, since it has no flash you take your chances in low light conditions. Has a 2x digitial zoom which can range in increments of .1x. So far I only used either the 1x or the 2x and never tried using 1.5x. Also the zoom only works while taking stills, it does not work if you are taking a video.

    You can turn off the LCD screen but the manual recommends you use the LCD to frame your shot and while it has a viewfinder it's next to useless because the manual also recommends you don't hold the camera close to your body. Also if you have sunlight behind of you it washes out the LCD screen. Then again since it can handle a lot of memory, just take extra shots and hope one of them comes out.

    Auto turn off is 60 seconds, seperate buttons for taking stills and video, has a tripod mount and a small tripod comes with the camera. Also comes with a USB cable with a mini plug, CD-ROM with drivers and other applications program which I didn't use since I use the CompactFlash to transfer the images to the PC.

    Another feature that it has that I wasn't expecting is that it can be connected to a TV/VCR and you can playback the images. For the stills it's great but when you play back the video it displays the running time of the video and the battery indicator. Doesn't seem to be a way to supress it.

    When taking stills it takes about 4 seconds before it can take another still. This is when it is set to Standard and at 2048x1536. I never tried the other settings to see the cycle time changes or not. Sample photos at those settings can be found at:

    http://www.hawaiistories.com/gallery/album35

    To sum up this is good camera for taking outdoor shots, it's reasonable priced for a 3 Mega Pixel camera. Not much on bells and whistles but it's a simple camera to operate. With the ability to use external cards you take as many photos that you want. Not a perfect camera but pretty darn close to one.

  • #2
    Re: Review of the Aiptek DV3100

    Was reading through this note and noticed that the link to Aiptek web site about the DV3100 is no longer valid. This link should work now for the DV3100. Of course you can always go tohttp://www.aiptek.com for the rest of the products that they sell.

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