Posted on: Tuesday, November 11, 2003
REVIEW
D-Snap's cool factor makes up for shortcomings
By Deborah Porterfield
Gannett News Service
Want to draw attention to yourself? Try wearing Panasonic's D-Snap Super-Slim Digital Camera around your neck. Even in this tech-saturated world, you'll be surprised by how many folks will want a closer look. And once you show off this gadget's multiple features, many will be downright jealous.
That's because the D-Snap is really four gadgets in one. In addition to being a 2-megapixel digital camera, it's also a QuickTime video recorder, a digital music player and a digital voice recorder. That's a lot of features to pack in a slender gadget that's only 4 inches long, 2 inches wide and a third of an inch thick.
Available in silver, blue or copper, the $300 D-Snap has an automatic flash, a macro-switch for close-ups, a 1.5-inch liquid crystal display, a rotating viewfinder and a self-timer. Accessories include a lithium-ion battery pack, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) cradle that doubles as a charger, stereo earphones with a remote control, a neck strap and an 8-megabyte Secure Digital memory card.
Unfortunately, the included card doesn't have enough memory to do the job: It can't even hold seven photos at a maximum resolution of 1,600-by-1,200 pixels, much less additional MP3 tunes, video clips and recorded audio. To truly appreciate the D-Snap's multimedia offerings, you'll need a beefier card. (A 128-megabyte card, which is big enough to handle a mix of photos, video and music, costs $60 to $80.)
Unlike many complicated do-it-all gadgets with steep learning curves, the D-Snap is easy to operate. Thanks to a smart design, the device isn't cluttered with extra buttons, and the few controls it does have are clearly labeled and conveniently located. For example, because recording is the D-Snap's main job, the designers included two easy-to-reach "record" buttons. One red button is located just underneath the LCD; the other is positioned below the power button on its right side.
The device also has intuitive menu settings on the LCD screen and an easy-to-work orange toggle button, making it a snap to change settings on the fly. Switching from a still picture mode to a video mode and then to music playback is simple. Deleting files, adjusting photo settings and performing other tasks also is straightforward.
Unlike some multipurpose devices that do lots of things but not very well, the D-Snap delivered a respectable performance. It captured photos, even at night, that were good enough to print. It recorded short, albeit somewhat grainy, video clips (at 320-by-240-pixel resolution) that were nonetheless entertaining. It successfully recorded a speech delivered in a crowded auditorium. And it played sharp-sounding MP3 tunes downloaded from a computer.
That's not to say that the D-Snap is a viable substitute for a dedicated digital camera or camcorder. It doesn't, for example, have an optical zoom for close-ups. And its 4X digital zoom, which provides close-ups while also reducing the image quality, can't be used in the video mode.
If you need to shoot an important event such as a graduation or capture a faraway scene, use a better camera. If, however, you're headed to a party, go ahead and put on the D-Snap. It's fun for capturing impromptu sights and sounds as well as a great conversation piece.
