Digital Dream L'Espion [0.1MP]

This camera still makes me smile now, over 5 years from buying it. The fact that you can still buy it online just shows how popular this little L'espion is. It is probably the most basic and smallest digital camera out there, but its still great fun. Your never going to buy one to take serious shots with but its certainly fair quality considering the low resolution.

The size of it is tiny. At only 5.5x1.5x4cm finding a pocket to carry it in is never a problem. The idea of a pop-up viewfinder is also a good one. You would think that a camera this small would produce really bad photos but they are surprisingly good with only slight blurring around the corners of the picture. I always used the hi-res 352x288 format as the low 176x144 resolution is only good for webcam use. Getting the pictures onto a pc is easy too.

There are very few features with this camera but one is to use it as a webcam. This can be a little tricky at times though as the camera doesn't have a completely flat bottom to it and tends to fall over if not stuck down with something. Chewing gum anyone?

The battery life is also pretty good with the l'espion although I would recommend uploading your photos to your computer before changing the battery as if you dont change it within a minute or so the pictures can be wiped from its memory, as ive found out.

Overall its not the best build quality and the resolution is tiny compared to todays cameras but the menu is really easy to use, having only one button. For the price its quite cheap too although it is becoming rarer by the day so 'snap' one up while you can.

I'd recommend one anyday and I would score it 3/5 only because the resolution is a little too small for me.

The Digital Dream L'Espion [0.1MP] Digital camera in itself is very nice looking and only costs £30. but there is a reason it is only £30- its dreadfull. the pic quality is bad,battery life is stupidly short and its faulty- i had to send 3 back before i got one that works. not reccomended at all. Spend another £30 and get something half decent.

I got my l'espion for Christmas 2002 (it cost £30), I already have a Casio QV5500SV (1.3 Megapixel), so I knew what to expect with this little camera. The picture quality (in good outdoor light) is acceptable. The camera won't let you take a photo in poor light (unless you fool it by putting it into AVI mode. 352x288 is not the sort of resolution you could print, it's ideal for email though. If you want usable photos, buy at least a 640x480 digicam. But, for fun use, I have to rate this camera quite highly.

Brilliant camera, well worth the 40 quid

I brought this Digital Dream L'Espion digital camera on a whim just before Xmas 2001 as I liked the idea of having a small, no film camera. This was my first digital camera. I did download an updated driver from the Digital Dreams site but then had problems recognising the camera via the USB port but when I reverted to the drivers on the disc supplied no problems. A friend of mine who also brought one of these had problems using USB via a PCI card but using the onboard USB no problems?

What can I say about about using the camera, you point looking through the little pop up viewer, which takes some practice to get what you want to shoot in the frame and take a picture, or just ignoring the pop up viewer works just as well with a little practice. The count down of shots from 20 to 0 is nice as is the affirming bleep to indicate a shot has been taken or a buzz to indicate the light level is too low.

The quality of the shots is what you would expect for the resolution but still surprisingly good and that is how I've rated the image quality. The cam mode works regardless of light levels.

Downloading using the supplied software, and others, was flawless and a picture taken in good light can be resized somewhat and still look reasonable with a little work in the Ulead photo Express 3 packaged that was supplied with the camera.

Am I glad I bought it...yes. It takes quick snaps of where I've been or want to remember without paying for developing costs or having to carry a bulky or expensive alternative. If you accept the quality limitation set by the cameras resolution and take your pictures in good light then this is more than a fun toy to play with and impress your friends.