VR-Zone.com — DigiLife All-in-One DDV-C330 Camcorder
| Filed Under: | Archives, Reviews |
| Posted By: | VRArchiver |
| Date Posted: | Fri April 28 2006 9:04 am |
Introduction
The world is evolving and we have seen so many improvements in technology in the past year. From the era of bulky and heavy cameras to sleek slim cameras. Now we even have cameras with built-in video capture mode plus MP3 player functions.
This week, we bring to you one of these devices which come with built-in video capture, picture-taking and MP3 player functions all rolled into one. Ladies and gentlemen, the DigiLife’s DDV-C330...
Here's a bit of information about the maker, DigiLife and Life Technologies Co. Ltd, for those who are unfamiliar.
DigiLife is the" flagship" brand name of Life Technologies Co. Ltd (Life Technologies). Making it's mark in the consumer electronic products market, it offers a full menu of digital cameras, mini digital video cameras, camcorders, PMP (Portable Media Players), MP3 players. DigiLife is focused on bring these products to the end-users at affordable prices without compromising on other important factors such as aesthetics.
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DDV-C330 Specification |
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Image Sensor |
3.2 Mega Pixel Sensor |
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Operation Modes |
Movie Record, Picture Record, Voice Record, MP3 Player, PC Camera, Mass Storage Device |
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Lens |
F3.0 (f = 8.54 mm) |
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Focus Range |
100cm~infinite (Normal Mode), 60cm ~ 100cm (Portrait Mode), Center: 20 cm (Macro Mode) |
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Digital Zoom |
8X |
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LCD Monitor |
2.4" TFT LCD |
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Internal Memory |
32MB Flash Memory |
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External Memory |
Support SD/MMC Card Slot (up to 2GB) |
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Image Resolution |
3720x2790 (10 Mega Pixels)¡F2048x1536 (3 Mega Pixels)¡F1024x768 (0.8 Mega Pixels) |
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Movie Resolution |
VGA 640x480 pixels 30 fps, QVGA 320X240 pixels 30 fps |
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White Balance |
Auto/Manual (Daylight, Fluorescent, Tungsten) |
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Self-Timer |
10 second delay |
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Flash |
Auto/Off |
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PC Interface |
Mini USB 2.0 Port |
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TV Out |
NTSC/PAL Selectable |
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Battery |
Two AA (Alkaline) Batteries |
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Dimension |
95mm*71mm*34mm |
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Weight |
135 ( without battery ) |
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System Requirement |
Windows 98SE/2000/ME/XP,Pentium MMX, Celeron or AMD Athlon(r) CPU, 64MB RAM, CD ROM, 500MB free HDD space, Available USB port, 16-bit Color Display |
The Packaging
The Digital All-in-one comes in a sleek black package:
The back of the box where the specifications and requirements are mentioned in different languages:
Functions of the VideoCam in brief
Thumbs up for the clear illustration on the individual camera parts on the side of the box actually. This is rarely seen.
Removing the outer packaging reveals a dark colored chest:
The Accessories
As we lift the lid up, we finally see the camera itself:
The Accessories
The box itself is divided into 2 segments. The top layer holds the camera while the lower layer contains all the accessories that come with the camera. I have to say DigiLife really packed a bunch of goodies inside. A black pouch, audio video cable, USB 2.0 cable, manual & application CD, earphones, lanyard and a remote controller. What did I just mention a remote controller??
Our choice of weapon for today: the DDV-C330
The left side of the videocam is where the 2.4” TFT LCD is located.
We flip open the LCD screen, a common design implementation employed by DigiLife here.
Beside the serial number you see above is where the SD card slot is located.
A shot from the back of the camera:
The top part consist of the Directional buttons and the centre of it is actually the Enter button. Just located slightly below the Directional buttons is where the Picture Shutter Button (on the left side, pressing it will activate picture-taking) and the Movie Shutter Button (on the right side, to activate video recording/preview mode) is located. The Tele-Wide button is well placed in the middle for easy access while taking pictures as it is easy to reach. From top to bottom, the REC/PLAY button followed by the Audio Video In and USB 2.0 Port.
Battery & Ease of Use
The videocam actually uses 2 x AA battery to operate. This can be a good point as you can easily pop into any 7-11 stores to refill your pack when you run out of power. The speakers are actually located slightly above the battery house.
At the front is where you can locate the lens. Directly underneath the lens is the flash and the infra red port where it communicates with the remote controller I mentioned earlier. More on this in a bit.
A top-down view of the slim camera
The Microphone and Macro switches are loacted here. Turning the lens from left to right will switch the mode from Macro to Portrait to Normal mode.
Enough of talk about the looks. Let’s start exploring
this videocam.
Installation of the videocam was a breeze as it uses USB. Just hook one side
of the USB cable to the videocam and the other end of the cable to your computer
or laptop. Most computers will be able to recognize the camera automatically.
Drivers are provided in the CD if you have problems using the default drivers
in Windows Operating System driver database.
One can easily retrieve videos, pictures or MP3s directly without the need
to for additional software since it is recognized as an internal drive. The
folders are easily identified with titles such as My Computer\Removable
Disk0MOVIE or Computer\Removable Disk\MP3, etc.
Device is shown as Digital Video VIII USB Device under Windows Device Manager
Pictures: Normal & Portrait Modes
There are altogether 3 basic functions for the camera: Macro,
Portrait and Normal mode.
Using the camera is simple. Choose the mode desired and press the Picture
Shutter button with a picture of a camera on it. There are various settings
that you can choose from- Sharpness, Flash and even Motion Stabilization.
I am not a professional camera-man, but from the comparison of the pictures
below, one can tell whether this videocam is justified for the price it goes
for:
Picture taken from my apartment using Normal mode. Click to see picture before resize.
The same scene taken with Portrait mode. Click to see picture before resize.
Another picture taken with the Normal Mode. Click to see picture before resize.
Same scene in Portrait Mode. Click to see picture before resize.
From the pictures above, there is apparently not much differences except that the pictures taken in Portrait mode looks less sharp compared to Normal mode.
Pictures: Macro & 8x Digital Zoom
Let’s test the Macro mode now. I am actually quite impressed with the output of the pictures.
Click to see picture before resize
Well, pictures taken in ample lighting looks good, but almost any camera can manage this. To really evaluate it's picture quality, I did some tests in the dark where lighting is not abundant.
Click to see picture before resize
Using Normal mode, the picture quality seems quite good even without much lighting except from the lamp located at the top right of the picture which is yellowish.
Click to see picture before resize
The above picture taken in Portrait mode seems abit lacking in clarity when there is little light.
Next we take a look at the Zoom capability. This videocam is capable of 8x digital zoom on paper but let's let the picture speak for itself.
Without Zoom. Click to see picture before resize.
Zoomed to the max. Click to see picture before resize.
Video & Audio
Wait… since it IS a videocam, isn’t it supposed to be able to capture video as well?
With shake-a-boom-boom
Without any hand rocking/shaking
Is that all there is to this all-in-oner? Remember that I mentioned the remote controller and audio video cable supplied?
You can the hook up the audio and video cables to your television. Choosing the option TV will actually initiatlize the transmission of the signal from the videocam to the television. Subsequently, you can just use the remote controller to control the functions of the video-camera and even take a picture of yourself hassle and hands-free.
The menu screen
Look Ma! Same Menu on our TV!
My own broadcast station!
I took the chance to try out a short realization of my movie director dream.
Live broadcast on my TV
From the picture above, you can also have an idea how big/small the camera is. I have average-sized hands so picture your own hands on it.
I don't call this an All-in-oner for nothing. I tested out the MP3 player function of it. Sadly, the bass felt abit too flat and the music sounded too analogue. Let's just say the strength of it lies more towards the video/picture polar than the audio.
Final Round-up
| Pros | Cons |
| Light | Feels too Plastic |
| Comes with MP3 Player Function | Music playback sounds flat and analogue |
| Easily available power source (AA battery) | Video would be better if it’s encoded using MPEG or MP4 rather than AVI. A 21 second high resolution video and audio is around 4MB of file size |
| Cheap | Enlarging picture will compromise on the sharpness |
| Doesn’t require wait-time to do self portraits. The remote controller can be used to do instant picture taking | |
| User friendly menu. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how to use | |
| Big TFT LCD for preview (2.4”) | |
| Small. About the same size as an adult’s palm |
The DigiLife DDV-C330 is a jack-of-all-trade product, especially suited for the convenience of travellers and during your leisure excursions, particularly when you want to travel really light. Being a master-of-none, one may want to reconsider using it for specialized tasks. Music playback is not fantastic, so if this area is really important to a user, he/she may be better-off with a simple MP3 player. However, the appeal it exudes is the fact that all these functions are thrown into a small device with a small price tag of USD$ 120 (SGD$ 200). This is the beauty of the product and it cores really high when you talk about bang-for-buck. Even for one such as myself who has specialized products for each functions, I would really be attracted to add this to my list because I believe there will be times when I just want to travel light and focus on enjoying myself rather than my bulky and heavy equipment slung over my back
