Swann Communications Digital Private Eye

Jumping on the ever growing bandwagon of do-it-yourself home security devices, Swann's Digital Private Eye is a nifty device for those after a slightly more covert surveillance system. We were disappointed that it didn't record video footage, but the still image capture worked well, and should satisfy most users.

The thing to note about this particular device is that it looks a lot like an alarm scanner, rather than a camera. The camera itself is a pinhole unit that peaks out of a tiny space in the chassis. Whenever the sensor detects movement the camera jumps into action, snapping a shot every three seconds until the motion stops. These photos are recorded onto an SD card.

The sensor itself is housed in a curved, plastic section towards the bottom and it operated really well in our testing. It has a viewing angle of about 60 degrees, and a range of about 4.5 metres. It continually picked up any hints of movement within this space, impressing us with its accuracy. Our only complaint is that whenever the Digital Private Eye detected anything, its small LED would light up, revealing to any potential suspects that they've been caught. We'd much rather no warning was given.

We felt the quality of the pictures captured was satisfactory, if not outstanding. The Digital Private Eye has a maximum resolution of 640x480, which is fairly standard for cameras of this type. The pictures won't win any photography competitions, but they are more than adequate for identifying people.

In addition to the security features, the Digital Private Eye also operates as a traditional webcam. Bizarrely however, in the default software we found no options to record video files. You can capture still images in JPEG format, but there is no option for video mode at all. This is particularly strange, considering there are options to change the speed, resolution and colour space of the footage. We tested in with an MSN webcam conversation and everything operated flawlessly. The image quality wasn't the best, with some noticeable pixilation and extremely bloated colours, but again, it was more than adequate for basic conversation. We'd recommend finding a piece of third party software if you're looking to record video files.

The Digital Private Eye connects to your computer via a standard mini-USB cable, although the process is a little strange. If the unit is switched off, connecting it will open the SD card as a removable storage device, but if device is on, it will function as regular webcam. We found this a little irritating at first, as you have to disconnect and reconnect the rather stiff cable to switch between the two modes. The device runs off AC power, although an adapter to externally connect a 9V battery is also provided.

All in all, this is a fairly useful device. Those purely after a webcam will be disappointed by the combination of pixilated video and no default video mode, but people wanting a cheap security solution will find everything they need in the Digital Private Eye.

General

Available Colours

White

Video speed (fps)

30

Wireless?

No

Software Features

Motion Detection

Number of Alarm Inputs

0

Swann Communications NightHawk 3

The NightHawk 3 is another security camera system from Swann. This package comes with three wireless cameras, a receiver and remote control. We were a little disappointed that it came with no option to record video footage, but purely as a surveillance device it operated admirably, and should satisfy home or shop owners who are looking for a little extra piece of mind.

The NightHawk package is extremely simple to set up. Each camera has the option to run from either a nine volt battery or AC power. Battery life is rather limited though, and should only be used for emergencies (assuming one can have emergency surveillance situations). This is where setup ends; there aren't any switches to flick or software to install. As soon as the cameras are powered on they connect to the receiver and the whole process is automated, taking a lot of the headache out of what should be a fairly simple task.

Offering four different connection frequencies, the receiver is well specified to fit in, even in a modern household that already contains multiple wireless signals. It transmits over a now standard 2.4Ghz connection, and the signal was strong throughout testing.

When the unit was in direct line of site of the cameras, the image was perfect, with no skipping or stuttering. The further away we moved, and the more objects or walls between, resulted in some deterioration in quality. Despite this issue, with the cameras in another room about 20 metres away, the picture was still clear, and was more than adequate for basic security purposes. It wasn't until we moved the cameras about thirty or forty metres away that the picture began to degrade to a point almost unusable. For a regular sized house or shop the range of the NightHawk will be fine. As long as the receiver is centralised, users should be able to cover a few different rooms at once.

The receiver is connected to a display using standard a standard RCA connection. The image was, for most part, quite high quality. It outputs at a resolution of 628 x 582 and offers clear, sharp edges with good detail. The colour balance was a little inaccurate, but as this is a security device rather than an entertainment product, clarity is more important than colour. On a moderate size CRT television we had no problems identify passers-by or objects.

Also included in the package is night vision capabilities, hence the name NightHawk. These activate automatically when the scene becomes too dark. The picture wasn't quite as impressive here as in full light, with a distinct lack of clarity and a noticeable darkness that obscured many details. The NightHawk has a listed range of about five metres in this mode, and this was consistent with our testing. Any more than this and users will struggle to identify the image.

The included remote control is quite nifty. It allows users to switch between the cameras easily, as well as offering loop and lock functions. Loop will automatically cycle through each of the connected cameras, displaying each for a small amount of time before moving on, whereas lock will keep it on one channel. That's really all there is too the NightHawk 3's functionality, which was a little disappointing. For a more thorough security tool, we really think recording functionality needs to be built in, or at least PC connectivity needs to be offered with software to support it. Still, at this price point it is hard to complain too much.

The system itself is fairly plain looking. The receiver is a combination of grey and silver plastic, with a rotating antenna, and it looks like a standard wireless router. The cameras have a hefty, metal body, so they are tough enough to survive outdoor mounting. Do note though that they aren't waterproof. The cameras are clearly designed to be mounted, rather than placed. Although you can swivel them to face different angles, they don't balance very well, so we'd advise that they be mounted.

General

Warranty (Months)

12

Focus Type

Autofocus

Microphone

Yes

Wireless?

Yes

Base type

Fixed

Number of Alarm Inputs

0

Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-G1S

Not your every day camera, Sony's Cyber-Shot DSC-G1S offers a bevy of interesting features that definitely make it stand out from the crowd. These include 2GB of onboard memory, Wi-Fi connectivity, a gigantic 3.5in LCD display, and a music player. It also captures quite good pictures, but the interface is sluggish and somewhat problematic, which at times makes the user experience a little irritating.

The really funky thing about this unit is the onboard memory. 2GB is an absolutely huge quantity in a sea of cameras that struggle to barely break 30MB. Any unit with under 500MB really requires a flash memory card to make proper use of it, and so the G1S is the first unit we can genuinely say doesn't require you to purchase extra storage. 2GB is more than enough to store several hundred photos at the highest resolution, with plenty of room left over.

And you may well need it, because the G1S also packs in music playback; a feature rarely found on digital cameras. A few companies have tried to pack it in with their models, but none have really stood out and the same can be said of Sony's effort here. Don't get us wrong, the music player works fine and Sony did the smart thing by including a 3.5mm headphone jack, allowing third party headphones to be used, however the sound quality isn't as good as you'll hear from a dedicated music device and the number of options available is also quite minimal. Shuffle and loop modes are included and there is a bass boost option, but no equaliser is present. It is also difficult to sort your tracks when a large number of songs are present on the device. The audio player is fine for those who want to save a little cash and have an MP3 player on hand for occasional use. But those that listen to music daily on public transport or while exercising will want to invest in a dedicated digital media player.

The other noteworthy aspect of the G1S is its Wi-Fi connectivity, even if it isn't as robust as we'd like it to be. When we heard 'Wi-Fi compatible' our first thoughts were of past Nikon units that allowed file transfer and other goodies via a wireless network. However none of that is present here. The G1S' wireless connectivity has two uses. First, it can connect to other G1S units in the area and share pictures amongst them and secondly, it can connect to a wireless access point and others can view its photos on the network. Both of these features are handy and the first one could offer some cool potential if you organise to have the same camera with some friends, but overall they are mainly for novelty value.

Of course the G1S could have all the features in the world, but if it didn't capture decent pictures there would be little reason to buy it. Fortunately this model did well in our tests, although keep in mind it only has a 6.1 megapixel sensor, which puts it slightly behind some of the competition, with 7.1 megapixel models becoming increasingly popular. As usual we assessed the camera's pictures using our combination of subjective test shots and Imatest test software.

The G1S achieved a score of 1327 for sharpness, which is a fairly good result, and falls in line with our expectations of the 6.1 megapixel sensor. There was little in the way of colour fringing, however the pictures were, in general, somewhat less clear than those captured by the many 7.1 megapixel units we've looked at recently.

Unfortunately in our chromatic aberration test, the G1S achieved mixed results. Chromatic aberration is most noticeable in areas of high contrast, where haloing can be seen at the point the two shades meet. On the vertical axis, chromatic aberration didn't have much of an impact with minimal haloing visible, and Imatest corroborated this giving a score of 0.101%, which is a fairly good result. However the horizontal axis was another story. Along here, there was extremely prominent red haloing that really detracted from the quality of the picture. When this edge was tested, Imatest gave the camera a score of 0.364% - extremely poor performance.

Thankfully. in our noise test the G1S performed much better. Imatest gave it a score of 0.48% at ISO 100, which is a great result and better than that achieved by most other compact cameras. Our shots were smooth and clean with no visible noise at this sensitivity. However the pictures also scaled well with higher ISO settings, with everything up to ISO 400 being usable for medium sized prints, and even ISO 800 produced shots can be printed at small magnifications.

Colour response is generally quite good, with a slight oversaturation in the red spectrum being the only notable issue. This is to be expected from a consumer camera however, and overall the G1S impressed in this regard, with accurate flesh tones and rich primaries.

It also has a relatively impressive feature set, including white balance presets (but no custom mode), ISO sensitivities up to 1000, a variety of metering and focus options as well as exposure bracketing, which is a feature often omitted from digital cameras. There is also an impressive 3.5 frame per second burst mode, which is great for fast paced photography at things such as sporting events.

One of the things bound to stand out when you first get your hands on this unit is the display. The massive 3.5in LCD is the biggest camera display we've ever seen. It dwarfs the screens on most other units. While it feels like somewhat of a gimmick, after a few minutes use it became clear that shots are definitely easier to frame with a larger display. Photography purists will be put off by the lack of a viewfinder, but most users will love the large display. It is of a good quality too, with minimal ghosting and clear, sharp edges.

To accommodate such a large display, the G1S does sacrifice size and portability. It definitely isn't a small camera. While Sony has made an effort to reduce the travel size by making the unit slide apart to reveal the lens (which obviously makes it larger), even when it is folded inwards for transport, it is a chunky device. Measuring 93.3mm x 71.7mm x 25.3mm and weighing 204g, it isn't the sort of thing you can throw in your pocket and forget about. Aesthetically its fairly plain, with a standard bushed silver colour scheme. Some people will enjoy the unique slide design, but for others it will simply be an irritation.

Our main complaint with the unit is the controls and interface. On their latest batch of cameras, Sony has attempted to implement a stylish, colourful menu system, similar to what is found on their PlayStation line of products. However their cameras appear to not have the processing power to adequately handle such an interface, and the G1S highlights this very well. Often when navigating the menu, we'd have to wait up to a second before our button presses registered, which constantly resulted in selecting the wrong settings and having to backtrack. Furthermore there were multiple instances where we'd have a menu popup that would remain on the screen, overlaid on top of whatever part of the menu we were trying to navigate, even after we'd left the screen it was related to. Bugs such as this really need to be ironed out to give a smoother user experience, because as it stands the interface on the G1S is frustrating.

It isn't helped by the controls, which could be arranged better. There is a thumb stick on the right hand side, along with the main menu and navigation keys. More controls are revealed by sliding the unit into photography mode; things such as the flash, playback and timer buttons. We understand why the controls are configured in such a fashion, allowing you to use the music player without opening the lens, however the orientation of the thumb stick makes it quite difficult to use, and we'd really have preferred if the navigation controls were flat on the back of the unit, as with the majority of other cameras. This isn't a big gripe, but does slow the process of navigation down even further.

Audio & Speakers

Number of speakers

1

Built-in Microphone

Yes

Digital Camera Features

Optical Zoom

3x

LCD screen size

3.5 in

Digital Zoom

6x

Video capture

Yes

Focus Type

Autofocus

Focus Length Telephoto (cm)

50cm-Infinity

FlashType

Built-in

Flash Range Telephoto (cm)

0.25-2.2m 4.0m

Flash Functions

Forced Flash, Auto Flash, Flash Off, Slow Sync

ISO Speeds

800, 80, 1000, 100, 200, 400

Max Shutter Speed

1/1000 sec

Min Shutter Speed

1/4 sec

White balance

Auto, Cloudy, Daylight, Flash, Fluorescent, Incandescent

Image Sensor Type

CCD

Internal memory

2 GB

Focal Range Wide (cm)

25cm-Infinity

Macro Focus Range Wide (cm)

8cm-Infinity

Focus Length Wide (cm)

50cm-Infinity

Flash Range Wide (cm)

ISO Auto:0.10-2.8m ISO1000: up to 4.9m

Lens Aperture Wide (cm)

Auto (F3.5-F8) Program auto (F3.5-F8)

Digital Video

Digital video format

MPEG

Video speed (fps)

30

General

Length (mm)

25.3

Width (mm)

93.3

Height (mm)

71.7

Weight (g)

204

Media

Supported Memory Media

Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo

Supported Picture File Formats

JPEG

Power

Power Supply

Battery

Battery Type

Rechargeable - (Li-Ion)

Wired Connections

Wired Terminals / Ports

USB 2.0

Nikon D40x

In the increasingly popular digital SLR market, two companies reign supreme. Canon has the lion's share of the market, with Nikon hot on their tail. At the low end, Canon's EOS 400D has been a dominating presence and while Nikon's D40 competitor has made up some solid ground, in an area driven by megapixel counts, the 6 mega pixel Nikon hasn't quite been able to take first place.

Enter the D40x, an updated D40 with a 10 megapixel sensor, clearly designed to compete directly with the EOS 400D. It offers the same smooth, speedy operation as the D40 and packs in great image quality along with all the usual SLR features. While it is hard to be certain which model comes out on top as the competition is so close, you can be certain that the D40x is an excellent entry level SLR.

The most noticeable impact of the increased pixel count is in the image sharpness. As usual we ran our suite of Imatest tests as well as some subjective analysis on the shots. In the sharpness test, the D40x scored a massive 1896, which is ahead of both the EOS 400D and D40 by a reasonable margin. Our test shots reflected this, with stunningly clear edges and no visible fringing at all. The pictures definitely lived up to our expectations and are perhaps very slightly crisper than those produced by the competition.

In our chromatic aberration test the results were less impressive, but still far from average. Imatest gave the D40x a score of .94%, which is roughly comparable to competing models. There is evidence of some minor haloing in our test shots, but it is considerably better than the prominent red and blue haloing we noticed on the EOS 400D. This is a clear sign that the lens used on the D40x is of a much higher quality, which is a great sign as that is the main point companies cut costs on entry level SLRs.

As expected, the D40x's noise performance is flawless. It scored 0.38% in this test at ISO 100, which is in line with other entry level SLRs. Furthermore the noise scaled excellently with higher sensitivities. Our shots were perfectly usable all the way up until ISO 800, with a sharp jump in noise when using ISO 1600. Those that regularly like to shoot at ISO 400 or ISO 800 should find this model appealing.

Our final test is for colour, and the D40x performed well in this regard. Its score of 11 is a little lower than the D40 and EOS 400D, but the difference wasn't too noticeable in our shots. Colours are still deep and rich with nothing obviously oversaturated. Overall, we were pleased with the colour balance.

The other notable thing about the D40x is its speed of operation. Like the D40 before it, everything about this model is lightning quick. From the three frame per second burst mode (which runs constantly until the card fills up, assuming you are using a high speed memory card) to the absolutely instant power up time and the tiny 0.03 seconds of shutter lag, this is, simply put, one of the fastest cameras on the market. Even navigating the menu and changing settings causes no delay in your photography, as you can be back snapping pictures in an instant.

All the features you'd expect from an entry level SLR are present. The staple shutter, aperture and program priority modes along with full manual mode are on offer, but there are also a variety of scene modes for less experienced users. White balance can be dictated using presets or the manual mode, and there is an option to tweak each individual preset by a certain degree, to help tailor to specific situations. ISO sensitivities extend up to ISO 1600, although there is also an ISO HI setting for those extremely low light or fast paced situations (however we wouldn't recommend using it if you are at all adverse to image noise). The only slight area of disappointment is the focus points. Nikon only offers three focus points for their multipoint system, as opposed to the nine offered by most of the other 10 megapixel models. This may not be a big deal to all users, but some may find this a little limiting.

Everything is laid out in pretty much the same fashion as on the D40. Like most other manufacturers, Nikon has abandoned the second display in favour of showing all pertinent settings and data on the main screen. We think this is a good move, although the implementation is a little irritating as the screen powers down after a short period, and you constantly have to hit a button to bring everything back up.

There are two options for altering settings - you can either go through the main menu or use the on-screen display on the default screen. We found the later to be quite intuitive; just hitting the Info button opens access to all the major camera options, which is great for novice users. There is also a comprehensive in-camera help menu which will offer some much needed guidance to those who are a little daunted by the complex SLR functionality.

The design is also basically identical, which is not a bad thing in the slightest. The D40x sits very nicely in the hands and is very comfortable to use. It has the usual jutting right hand grip and rubberised surface which will be familiar to anyone who has used an SLR in the past. Despite being constructed mostly of plastic it feels sturdy and is more than strong enough to take on the road with you.

Digital Camera Features

Camera Resolution

10.2 MP

LCD screen size

2.5 in

Focus Type

Autofocus

FlashType

Built-in

Flash Functions

Forced Flash, Auto Flash, Fill-in Flash, Flash Off, Red-eye Reduction Flash , Slow Sync

Max Shutter Speed

30

Min Shutter Speed

1/4000

Image Sensor Type

CCD

Viewfinder

LCD (TTL)

Continuous Shot?

Yes

Bracketing Function?

Yes

Display

Display Technology

Colour LCD TFT (Active Matrix)

General

Length (mm)

94

Width (mm)

126

Height (mm)

64

Weight (g)

495

Media

Supported Memory Media

Secure Digital (SD)

Power

Battery Type

Rechargeable - (Li-Ion)

Wired Connections

Wired Terminals / Ports

USB 2.0