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Photographs courtesy of Logitech
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By WILSON ROTHMAN
Last week, I showed you a decidedly grown-up camera: 4-megapixel resolution, 10x optical zoom lens and lithium-ion battery. It had a decidedly grown-up price: $499. This week, I played with Logitech's ClickSmart 820, a rugged, kid-ready 2-megapixel camera with a unique photo sharing program.
ClickSmart is Logitech's "dual cam" line — they do double duty as still cameras and as USB-tethered web cams. Earlier models were fairly primitive, with informational monochrome LCD screens. The 820 is the first with a full-color LCD for reviewing shots, and the first with QuickSend picture sharing.
The formula is simple (though not entirely original): find a picture on the camera and "tag" it with a previously stored e-mail address. When you connect the camera to the computer, the software automatically downloads the picture, then sends it to the addressee.
Very often this sort of software takes for granted that users have POP3 e-mail accounts — that is, e-mail that can be easily accessed from third-party programs. The trouble is, this excludes AOL Mail users, and often devotees of Hotmail and Yahoo Mail as well. Logitech sidesteps that mess by using its own server to send pictures. The result is that people quickly get pictures from you, complete with your return e-mail address, and all you needed was a dial-up or broadband connection to the Internet.
QuickSend aside, I was quite taken aback by the quality of the photos themselves. I went in with low expectations, and when I reviewed my first shots on camera, they looked off color and grainy. It turns out, the problem was simply the low-quality LCD screen. Once I dumped the images to the computer and printed them out, I realized that this camera is capable of taking frame-worthy 5x7s.
The bottom line is that this is a camera for parents who want their kids to be able to share pics with their friends — and have some degree of control over who can receive the pictures. It's also a great web cam, and includes MSN Messenger's video instant-messaging software that we reviewed in Cool for School. Photography-wise, it's still more primitive than the stuff coming from the big camera makers, but as a nice household toy, it's worth it.
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