Digicams Shrink to Credit Card Size

Holiday shoppers can get their hands on a new digital camera this season that not only is easy on the wallet, but fits inside one, too.

Three more partners have signed up to produce and distribute credit card-sized digital cameras with technology from hardware manufacturer Smal Camera Technologies. The new partners, being announced Tuesday, are RadioShack, Oregon Scientific, and a division of Singapore-based Creative Technologies.

RadioShack's version is being marketed as the FlatFoto and is priced at $79.99. Oregon cientific also has announced its version, a $99 camera with model number DS6618. Creative is elling the camera for $99 under the name CardCam.

Smal's design was also used by Logitech, which released in April a version called the Pocket Digital camera and priced at $129.

Not Small on Capacity

Measuring the size of a standard credit card and slightly less than a quarter-inch thick and weighing in at 1.3 ounces, Smal's digital camera is one of the smallest devices of its kind vailable to consumers.

The company says its camera design can snap between 500 and 1000 pictures on a single battery harge, and charging occurs when the camera is plugged into a computer via a USB cable. Images are downloaded to a PC through the USB cable.

Cameras from each of the three vendors detailed Tuesday hold 26 images with 8MB of internal storage. RadioShack and Oregon Scientific are marketing their cameras with the capability to snap photos at 640-by-480 VGA. Creative Technologies, meanwhile, is marketing its CardCam as a 1.3-megapixel camera.

The size and quality of the photos captured with the ultra-portable camera are ideal for e-mail and Web use, said Romney Williams, director of business development at Smal Camera Technologies.

Unlike most digital cameras, the Smal design lacks the miniature display that allows users to view images before they are downloaded to a PC.

Tiny Competitors

Versions of the Smal camera have been released by other manufacturers since a prototype camera was first unveiled at the 2001 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Logitech markets its Pocket Digital in both the U.S. and Europe. Also, Fujifilm Axia, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Fuji Photo Film, licensed the Smal model for its EyePlate, which is sold only in Japan and the U.K. for roughly $82.

A number of other vendors have released ever-smaller digital cameras based on other designs. Most of them, while small, are not as compact as the credit card-sized models.

Smal Camera Technologies designed the prototype, reference designs, and the key hardware omponents, Williams said. The company licenses that technology to partners such as those announced Tuesday.