Logitech Pocket Digital Camera ReviewJune 18th, 2002
Pros: Great look & size; great price; easy to use.
Cons: Sub-par still quality; totally bare-bones.
Verdict: For under $100, the Logitech Pocket Digital offers a good price and big cool factor; but still quality is quite unacceptable.
With the apparent success of the ClickSmart camera line, Logitech opted to continue the trend of low-priced 'fun' cameras and recently announced their new Pocket Digital. Unlike the web/video/still camera combo of the ClickSmart line, the Pocket Digital is just as the name states; a pocket-sized digital camera.
The Basics Even a quick glance at the specs will reveal the bare bones nature of the Pocket Digital. No flash, no zoom, no video features, and a 640x480 capture resolution (1280x960 via interpolation) makes for a very simple camera. Storage is provided from 16MB of on-board memory and allows for 53 pictures; there is no expansion slot.
What the Pocket Digital lacks in features it makes up for in cool factor, and does it ever. The Pocket Digital truly is 'pocket', as it's no larger than a credit card, very thin and very attractive with the brushed aluminum looking casing. Take the Pocket Digital to a public place, start snapping pictures and be ready for a slough of wows & questions.
Installation Installation of the Pocket Digital is as simple as popping in the provided mini CD-R and plugging in the camera. Once installed, a dialogue pops up whenever the camera is plugged in and prompts you to transfer the pictures to the PC. Also, while the camera is plugged in, the lithium polymer battery is dually recharged. Turning on the camera is done by sliding off a side part of the casing and exposing the lens & viewfinder.
Mediocre Quality While the Pocket Digital may be portable and cool, the still quality is second-rate. The overall image is very grainy in most shots, and often doesn't reproduce colours correctly at all. Although it features an on-chip automatic bright/contrast adjuster called Autobrite, both low light and bright light situations produce bad results. In fact, the only time this camera will produce acceptable results is if the conditions are perfect; and even then it's not so great.
The Bottom Line With a street price of under $100, the Pocket Digital may be sufficient as a replacement for the cheap disposable film cameras you can pick up at the store, but anyone expecting anything more than mediocre quality will be disappointed.
"sucky!" this thing is freaking crap! i tried the reset thing for error 9 and it worked.but then i took more pics and it wouldnt download to computer. then the whole screen just lights up 88 and all the other icons and it still wont download even if u hold the button down. and it wont take pics. when u reset it it just goes back to 88. and then u reset it in the pc and it goes to pc but messes up and wont even connect to your computer. and then it just starts all over again. it sucks and no flash or zoom or anything i just wanna take pics. it just fucks up every damn time u mess with it. and lots of help from the hottline they just said hit the reset and i do and it doesnt work . piece of shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! From himo deblo, June 01, 2005
"my error 9" the pocket digital camera has no flash no zoom and no, just pop in battery. i love this camera because its easy to just take it along wherever you go. and if you lose it its not such a big deal. you can get one for about 50.00 , well i got mine about a month ago and its worked perfect. it doesnt take inside photos well at all but me and friends use it at the lake and silver dollar city and stuff so its great for that. and plus im a teenager so sure ittle get banged around a bit. but it doesnt seem to phase it. its very well constructed to take a beating. anyways, about a few days ago a big E9 popped up on the screen and nothing would function. no buttons, it didnt even respond to being plugged in. so i talked to some people. and this problem is very easily fixed. just hold down the button that takes pics for about 45 seconds. it takes so long you wont think it will work but hey it does. good luck to you troublesome people From jonathon, June 01, 2005
"LCD" i bought a pocket digital camera a few months ago, the 3rd time I had transferred the pictures to my pc, the lcd display would show all the icons and shut off after a few seconds. is there anyway to fix this? its disappointing for any consumer. please help! From Anna Pangelinan, March 15, 2005
"Can't get this camera to work" I bought a logitech pocket digital camera a few days ago but I still can't get it to work...
1)The battery is dead so naturally I plug in the USB cable and recharge the camera, everything seems to be fine but the thing is after 10+ hours charging the camera, it still won't take pictures! The LCD shows all the icons and the number "88", no response to any buttons no matter what I press and about 10 seconds later the low battery icon flashes dispite the fact that I've been feeding battery to it for 10+ hours...HELP PLEASE! By the way what should be showing on the LCD screen when I am charging the battery? Should it show "PC" and the flashing battery icon or should it show something else, please help! Thanks in advance! From AH, February 27, 2005
"Re: on" Thank you for Posting that! Mine had the E9 error code, I tried your tip and it's now working fine!
Good one!
(I mainly use my Logitech camera for taking pics of items for putting on online auctions - plenty of light needed, it usualy does the job) From vic, February 24, 2005
"Was great until Error Code E9" Its a nice little camera to have with you to take cute little OUTDOOR only shots for your web site. Picture quality is barely 640x480 and a bit fuzzy in general. Its compact size is what sold me.
The problems began when the camera's LED panel lit up with error code E9 and refuses to charge or take pictures anymore. Its a shiny useless paperweight now. Rather dissapointing considering I bought it when it was first release for about $200 canadian (yes.. I love toys).
Logitechs website has no comment on the matter. Shame on them. From Scott, November 23, 2004
"A great little camera!" A friend let me use his logitech pocket digital camera for a couple of weeks this summer. I was VERY pleased with it! Outdoor shots were very good. In door shots had to have extremely good lighting, but if I wanted a good picture that bad, I would bring my HP 935 (5.3mp). It was tiny enough for my jeans pocket! I was ready to take a picture at a moment's notice. Then Zeller's had a very similar one on sale..only with streaming video and up to 209 pics for 39.99. I am VERY happy with it. Like I said, for the professional looking pics, get an expensive camera. But for your everyday, candid shots, you cannot beat the price, etc. of this pocket cam. Have fun with it! From Hildagh22, November 12, 2004
"A great little camera!" A friend let me use his logitech pocket digital camera for a couple of weeks this summer. I was VERY pleased with it! Outdoor shots were very good. In door shots had to have extremely good lighting, but if I wanted a good picture that bad, I would bring my HP 935 (5.3mp). It was tiny enough for my jeans pocket! I was ready to take a picture at a moment's notice. Then Zeller's had a very similar one on sale..only with streaming video and up to 209 pics for 39.99. I am VERY happy with it. Like I said, for the professional looking pics, get an expensive camera. But for your everyday, candid shots, you cannot beat the price, etc. of this pocket cam. Have fun with it! But I bet you won't post my comments lol. From Hildagh22, November 12, 2004
"Keep ur Cash guys!" I can honestly say this camera has got to be one of the worst purchases anybody including the blind could make! Hell, once you have taken a few pics and seen how they come out you may as well be blind. The quality is really shocking!!!
To add to my dissatifaction when i plugged it in if found the sales staff had been playing with it! But honestly it looks really spiffy but this by no means makes up for the terrible picture quality! If it has to be on the market it should cost about a quater of what it retails for! In the end you are only paying for a fancy, useless piece of plastic! From Tim de Taranto, October 04, 2004
"Small, cheap, fun" I dont know whats with some of u.In slovenia this camera is mighty cheap, u cant get anything for this money, exept for 1 kg plastic things that gives u even worst pics than this one.Indead, when u are inside of house, u can take no good pics, at least i cant, but when u step on the balcony, or point it to window, u get exelent pics.And afterall, this camera is very small, u cant exept to get 5 mp out of it.The idea of it is not to make pics in high resolution but to make them where u would otherwise not.Lets say u go out with friends.Will u take the normal foto with u? Yeah right, and when u are drunk u lose it.This one is small enough to easyly be carryed in ur wallet.Now just wait for the moment when u will say, gush, what would i give to have a camera with me.....Wait, i have it in my wallet! From Goblin, July 02, 2004
"Good camera" I bought this camera to use for those moments where you say to yourself, "I wish I had a camera!" I like the compact size and durable metal case. It does have its limitations in low-light situations, but the images can be tweaked with most any photo software. It's primary value to me is its size and simplicity of use. From Lewis, May 26, 2004
"Bad Purchase" Bought camera from Safeway. I have taken less than two dozen pictures. Now shows error code E9. Camera will not charge just beeps. Find very little support on site. Booklet is a joke. I do not recomend the purchase of this camera. This will cost Logitech as I will buy no further products. I bet that if Logitech suffers less sales on the other items they will pay closer attention. A hit in the pocket book always gets attention but it takes more than one person. From Michael Sohm, January 24, 2004
"China Quality" Paid 39.95 at Safeway. Hope they haven't cashed the check. This thing is pure junk. Purchased yesterday as a gift for my 12 year old childs birthday. Today it goes back and we order a real camera from BestBuy. Living in Kenai Alaska, we are very limited to outlets of any type. Thank God for the internet and Federal Express. From R Jameson, January 20, 2004
"One of the better tiny cams" Compared to other tiny cams like to Sixpix Blink 2 it is the better product. PROS: excellent battery life, flawless WinXP connection, sturdy housing, no lens distortion, good colour balance, 16 meg memory. CONS: bad low light perf, lots of noise under low light, Autobrite feature sometimes creates strange results, lack web cam, continuous mode. From Derek H, October 27, 2003
"Blurry camera / poor customer service" VERY blurry pictures that are nothing like the ones displayed on Logitech's website. Customer Service email representative didn't believe that there was any problem with the camera, which makes me wonder two things: why would ANYONE buy this camera (I used it in excellent lighting conditions with terribly blurry results), and did the representative understand English well enough? From Anonymous, July 29, 2003
We're currently upgrading our user review system; so we won't be accepting new reviews for now. Pocket Digital Camera Specs
Interface(s)
Original USB
Released date
September 2003
Platforms
Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP
