Aiptek Pocket DV Digital Camera, Voice Recorder, and Web Cam

Got my daughter one of these for Christmas 2005. Paid around $32 at a local drugstore. Worked fine the first time I turned it on. Took pictures, a 30sec video (NO SOUND!). Was thinking I got a bargain!

PROBLEMS START: Laptop wouldn't read CD, so I had to use my desktop to copy drivers over to a thumbdrive. Drivers installed easily after that on my WinXP-Home Laptop. Using included software, device works GREAT as a webcam. Then I disconnected it from the USB cable and it has NOT WORKED SINCE as a standalone camera. Will NOT TURN ON. Changed batteries, everything. Thought maybe a button was stuck...nope. But it STILL WORKS AS A WEBCAM when I reconnect it to the computer via USB cable.

PROS: Cute little camera (if it still worked). Takes videos (up to 200 seconds with built-in 16MB memorynot expandable!)

CONS: Videos DO NOT have sound...this is a BIG downer for a kid thinking she would be able to make videos of her & her friends.

If you read the FAQ at aiptek.com they say it doesn't record audio w/video. This device will record audio (sound), but as a voice recorder, not as part of a video (seperate functions).

DO NOT BUY THIS CAMERA if you think it would be a cheap way of getting a digital camera in the hands of your kid. Many people have had problems with AIPTEK products. You get what you pay for (in my case, I got less).

I bought this camera awhile ago but just got around to trying it out. I was able to install the software and use the camera, but when I tried to connect the camera to my computer, no matter what I did, I could not get my computer to recognize the hardware. The device manager software will not recognize that the camera is even plugged in. I went to Aiptek's website and it turns out that this is a compatibility problem with Windows XP (even though the camera is advertised as being compatible with XP), but I have yet to find a solution to the problem that works for me. I ignored XP's warnings about installing drivers that Microsoft have not verified, just as the Aiptek site suggests, but that only crashes my computer. Aiptek's customer support staff has yet to respond to my email about this issue. I have read two other reviews that reference this problem: one with the solution of plugging in the USB cable into the camera first, then the computer. This did not work.

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I bought this product a year ago, and it really is good while taking still photographs and it worked quite well with online chat with windows 98. But lately i have downloaded the windows xp o/s ignoring the warns, And when I connected this product again to my computer, the computer fails to recognize the product. I am sending this review to give me solution and not just to print it to your customers review column. This product is quite impressive but after this problem I have degraded it.

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I love this little camera, to a point. You can take pictures, videotape ect.. "As long as you have the EXTRA STORAGE", I can record voices (not like a tape recorder but good enough) but I can only download my pictures and such I can not use any of the programs with it, my computer is VERY NEW and it will not except the camera (I have another one INTEL "I use it as a web cam, that shows up on my computer but I cannot get the Pocket DV 3100 to load) Web cam??? Forget that; Don't bother with writing the company via E-MAIL, they won't respond! We have been trying for weeks now and still we are waiting to hear back! We have three different cameras by them and none work as a web cam! Good luck if you purchase this product.

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Pretty good for the money. Will hold 250 jpegs of VGA quality, over 3 minutes of AVI (1/2 VGA at 10 fps) or 1/2 hour of audio only. Changes I would recommend would be to make the microphone more directional (operator's voice is over-modulated while the subjects voices could use some gain). Also, relocate the audio button as I keep pressing it unintentionally. A little better power management would be nice too (the battery gauge is next to useless). I like the size and price though, and the output quality is fine as long as you don't need to print anything. Also, you need their software to upload the photos/movies/audio to your computer. It would be nice if it was more plug-n-play with anybody's computer, perhaps seeing the camera as another drive (read only, of course) when plugging in the USB port (though, to be fair, I'm not aware of any competing product that works this way).