Focus on the Incredible Shrinking Digital Camera

When the James Bond of old suavely produced his silver cigarette lighter, you knew he was doing more than lighting up--he was taking a photograph with a tiny concealed camera. Then he dropped the film at the drugstore for developing.

Of course, today's Bond would avoid the drugstore by using a digital camera, and he wouldn't need his gadget master Q to build it, either. Cameras are shrinking with nearly every release (Casio appears to hold title as having the smallest) and several companies are planning to release compact, pocket-size cameras in time for the holidays.

Casio's forthcoming 2-megapixel Exilim EX-S2 and EX-M2 are, according to Business Director Gary Schultz, "literally the size of a credit card." Well, not quite. While the 3.46-inch width and 2.16-inch height are indeed credit card-like, the nearly half-inch thickness will keep the Exilims out of ATMs--but they'll still fit nicely in your shirt pocket. Both are scheduled to ship in October, priced in the $300 range. That's about the same as the 1.2-megapixel minicameras Casio unveiled last June.

On the Horizon

Other new pocket-size cameras are on the way. Sony expects to ship in November the 2-megapixel DSC-U20 (measuring 3.4 by 1.6 by 1.1 inches), priced at $270. It's the same size as Sony's first venture into the minicam market, the 1.3-megapixel U10, which shipped in July.

Minolta's 3.2-megapixel DiMage Xi (3.3 by 2.8 by 0.8 inches) is also scheduled to ship in November, priced at $450. And Olympus will announce pricing of its Camedia C50 Zoom, which packs 5 megapixels of resolution into a 3.9-by-2.3-by-1.6-inch package, upon that camera's release in November.

These newer models offer fewer trade-offs than do older pint-size cameras such as Logitech's Pocket Digital, which shipped last spring. Very similar in size to the Casio, the 1.3-megapixel Pocket Digital has no optical zoom and no flash, limiting its usability. On the other hand, its $130 list price is less than half that of the cheapest next-generation minicam, the Sony.

Price is especially important because, as Gartner Group analyst Andrew Johnson points out, "These are going to be the second and third cameras for households that already have digital cameras." The idea is that if you own a sufficiently small camera, you'll take it everywhere--and thus be ready for the photogenic but unexpected. But that doesn't mean it will replace your larger, more-versatile camera for those occasions where you think to take it.

Trade-offs of Size

But even with newer cameras, you'll encounter trade-offs inherent to the smaller size. Neither the Sony nor the Casio, for instance, has an optical zoom lens--a tricky piece of engineering to put into a small package, though both Minolta and Olympus have done so.

To keep the packages small, most pocket-size digital cameras use proprietary batteries (and come with their own charger). This is arguably an advantage--a battery designed for just that camera can be smaller and lighter, and it can run longer than anything you buy off the shelf. But it also means that if your camera suddenly runs out of juice, you can't dash into a drugstore and buy batteries. The exception to this rule is Sony's line of DSU cameras, which use AAAs.

Finally, compact cameras have ergonomic problems. Buttons are often smaller and closer together, making operation difficult for people with large hands. Vendors sometimes get around this issue by reducing the number of options (and buttons). As a result, pocket-size cameras often make it easier to point and shoot, but they offer fewer manual overrides for controlling the look of your pictures.

As cameras shrink, they become even more portable--and make their way into other devices. A few camera-cell phone combo devices have emerged. Some cameras are built in to the phone unit, while others are plug-in devices. The idea is that you can snap a picture and then transmit it via your cell phone's built-in e-mail functions.

Some of those tiny cameras are very limited. For a real James Bond feel, check out the OPCOM Group's 1.3-megapixel Digi Pen 1301, which measures 4.7 by 1.14 by 0.8 inches and looks more like a fat pen than a camera. It has no flash, no zoom lens, and not even an LCD panel, but it does have an optional laser viewpointer. Q would be proud.