ClickIt DCE-400 USB Digital Camera
Reviewed by Samuel Hong (12 November 99)

First Impressions

It took me quite a while to think of what to write for this section on first impressions because prior to the ClickIt DCE-400, I had used several digital cameras before. Unfortunately, I did not have the honour of owning one :), so all the cameras I used before were loaned units, this was no exception!

Sony Digital Mavica, Casio QV100, Panasonic Cardshot and Canon Powershot are just some of the cameras I've used before, and trust me, each camera greatly differed from the one another in functions and usage, not to mention size, with the exception of the Canon Powershot and Panasonic Cardshot. Besides being nearly identical in name, these two are basically carbon copies of each other!

So when I had a look at the camera inside the box, I realised that it was kind of big and bulky. Also, it looked pretty much like those ordinary cameras we used, except for a large 1.8" LCD screen at the back. CPU-Zilla (who was with me) agreed that it was a bit big, but nevertheless, the camera was presentable not to mention heavy as well! The manual was more than adequate, providing a wealth of information. One minor gripe though, it didn't have an attractive cover, but that wasn't really an issue. Everything which was needed to operate the camera came in the box. It took me less than a minute to set up the camera... Ready, set, ClickIt!

Technical Specifications

ClickIt DCE-400 Specifications
Description/Class	XGA Class DSC with Colour Image LCD, Digital Zoom, auto focus, macro, optical viewfinder, burst mode, date back and audio recoding capability.
Resolution	1024x768 (XGA) and 640x480 (VGA) with 3 mode compression
Memory	4MB CompactFlash Card (provided) 46 Good, 24 Better or 12 Best (1024x768 XGA resolution)
Connectivity	- RS-232 Serial data to PC COM port - USB "Storage-class" implementation - 32-bit TWAIN driver for Windows95/98 or NT - NTSC/PAL video out-live preview and playaback
Power	- AC Power Adapter (Output: 6V DC) provided - 4x AA  Alkaline batteries (NiCaD, NiMH or Lithium acceptable) - 60sec auto-power off (Power Managment)
Dimensions	144 x 51.5 x 75 mm
Weight	307g (w/o batteries), 405g (w/ batteries)
Main Features	Minimum System Requirements
- 1024x768 maximum resolution - 1.8" Colour LCD - Date and Time Stamp - PAL/NTSC Video Out - Stores Images on CompactFlash Card (4MB provided) - Three Apertures: f/2.8, f/5.6 or f/11 - Shutter Speeds: 2 to 1/8,000 sec - Digital Zoom 2:1 - Auto Focus with Macro - Auto Flash - Auto Exposure - Audio Recording Capability - Optical Viewfinder - MGI Photo Editing software included	- PC with Pentium Class Processor - Windows 95/98 - 16MB RAM - 100MB free hard disk space - 800x600 resolution colour display - Operational USB port for USB Image Transfer - Available serial port for RS-232 Image Transfer - CD-ROM Drive - Floppy disk drive

These are the contents of the package: These are the contents of the package:	Software & Drivers included
(1) ClickIt DCE-400 Camera (1) 4MB CompactFlash Card (1) RS232 Cable [Serial Port Transfer] (1) Video Cable [NTSC/PAL video device] (1) USB Cable [USB Port Transfer] (1) Carrying Strap with reset key (1) Leather Carry Case (1) User's Manual (1) Camera Drivers (4) Toshiba AA Alkaline Batteries (1) AC Power Adapter	DCE-400 USB Drivers DCE-400 TWAIN Drivers MGI PhotoSuite

Back to top

The Good

Ease Of Use

Definitely the biggest plus point of the camera is the ease of use. Basically, setting up the camera took less than a minute! All we have to do is to load the batteries in (make sure that you've loaded them correctly) and power up! The CompactFlash card has already been inserted so things are super easy to handle. Besides swapping CompactFlash cards or putting them into the PCMCIA reader, there is little reason why one should remove the CompactFlash card. On this note, I'd like to digress a little and talk about the different medium which digital cameras store their images.

The most common and by far convenient would be in the form of CompactFlash cards like the DCE-400. Yet, earlier cameras did not use CompactFlash cards but some kind of in-built memory, which I'm personally not sure of the capacity and technology behind it. One example of a camera using this technology would be the Casio QV-100. When I loaned that unit, it did not come with the manual as the owner had lost it and assured me that the camera was extremely easy to work with, which was true, but the images turned out to be a total letdown. The downside about such in-built memory is that it isn't upgradable and obtaining the images from the camera would be limited to its slow serial interface. Earlier Sony Digital Mavicas used floppy disks to store images which has its plus and minus factors. One of the plus factors is that it is universally compatiable. Whereas a minority of PCs (a very very great minority) still come without CD-ROM drives, a floppy disk is a must-have for every PC! Thus compatiability is assured wherever you go, no more long, messy and tangled cables. However there are also downsides of using floppy disks as media. Consider this, a floppy disk is 3.5 inches and this very much dictates the size of the camera, also it has a limited capacity of 1.44MB which isn't a lot, although diskettes are just about as easy to find as normal photographic film. In the case of the Sony Digital Mavica, the benefits and the disadvantages are about similar, thus the concept of the Mavica was cool. Unfortunately the pricing of the Mavica wasn't, thus it wasn't a popular choice. Still, its image quality was the best of all the cameras I had ever tested! The sad thing is that Sony abandoned the idea of using normal floppy disks to using their own proprietary memory sticks. If it wasn't obvious, all the hype surrounding memory sticks only involved Sony products. Therefore, memory stick technology isn't universally compatible!

The most common and supported medium in use today with digital cameras is the CompactFlash card, which is available in different capacities with 96MB as a maximum! Theoretically speaking, the image compression setting used most often would be "Better" as opposed to "Good" or "Best", if 4MB CompactFlash cards can store 24 images, a simple calculation would show that a 96MB card would store a good 576 images (if you know your math). On a typical one week holiday, I could only use a maximum of 4 rolls of film (144 shots) which is considered quite a lot! This makes the CompactFlash format very attractive indeed!

Installation of Drivers, Transfer of Images

The camera is able to transfer images via USB or the slower serial port, thus it is compatible with newer PCs as well as those without USB ports. I'm sure many of you are excited by the camera's USB interface and what potential it has. I'll further discuss this later in this section! First let's look at the procedure of how the camera is installed via USB of course.

The USB Installation
USB Installation for the DCE-400 is relatively straightforward and very little manual work needs to be done. Like all other USB devices, this is "hot plug" which means that upon power up and connection, Windows is able to detect it. Also camera is known as a "storage class device", therefore upon detection and installation of drivers, a driver letter is assigned, which in my case became Camera (I:). Downloading 15 images took approximately 8.75 seconds! USB has finally made the transfer of images fast and painless. The DCE-400 is detected under Imaging devices as a VGA USB Still Image Capture. Since it's using the NEC chip, an NEC USB Controller driver is also installed.

As mentioned earlier, the DCE-400 is a storage class device, which means you can copy files into the CompactFlash card to transfer to another computer. This makes it much like a portable storage device as the camera ignores all other files which does not belongs to it. But with only 4MB of space to spare, that barely fits one MP3 song. I suggest getting a higher capacity card if you would like the DCE-400 to double up as a portable storage device.

USB Installation

The Serial Installation
ClickIt has thought about the minority of the PCs shipped before 1997, before USB was made standard in new PCs and included the RS-232 serial port interface. This on the other hand, needs more tuning and configuration, which is why I do not recommend to use this method unless absolutely necessary. The same 15 images were transferred and the time taken was 6 minutes and 25 seconds, which is like more than 40 times slower than USB! Shocking, but true! This was transferred at 115,200bps! Just imagine older PCs not utilising the UART16550, their serial devices only max out at around 19,200bps. Can you just imagine how long that takes?

When using the serial port to transfer images, images are acquired via TWAIN, therefore a TWAIN compliant image editing software must be used. MGI Photosuite (included) is one example. I decided however to use my favourite image editing software which is Paint Shop Pro 5 (TWAIN Compliant) in these tests.

TWAIN Drivers

Features & Pricing

For about 500 dollars you get a camera which has moderate image quality and a whole slew of features! The DCE-400 is one of the few cameras to have voice recording capability, but then again, I couldn't get the voice recording function to work. I suspected this to be a technical glitch in one of the pre-production units. A quick check with the manufacturer, IT Resources, revealed that it was indeed a fault with the engineering sample, and their production units all worked fine. So, I guess there's nothing you should worry about. Anyway, the sound transfer can only be performed via USB and not by serial transfer.

Also notable is the fact that although this camera is USB ready, it is NOT compatible with the iMac because drivers for iMac are not included, the manual did mention that for Macintosh users, the only way would be to use CompactFlash card readers. Even though, the DCE-400 comes with the USB and serial interface, do NOT attempt to connect both together and attempt to transfer images, the presence of two interfaces confuses the camera, hangs it, as well as your computer. So for those who think they can increase the speed by connecting using 2 interfaces, you can just forget about that silly idea!

Back to top

---

The Bad

Image Quality

Like most other digital cameras, the image quality of the DCE-400 is not as good as that of the more expensive Sony Digital Mavica. Images are clear at only 50% of the resolution, for example on preview at 50% mode, a 1024x768 (XGA) appears clear, but once you zoom in and make the image 100%, the edge of the objects start to appear blurry and don't look as good as when they are previewed at 50%, I've included some shots below taken with and without light with autoflash mode turned on. You be the judge and decide for yourself, the images speak for themselves!

Left Image captured without light, right image captured with a light source

Camera Size

As technology progresses, electronics are supposed to take up less space and be more efficient and functional. The DCE-400 is indeed more efficient and greatly functional, albeit the size is still that of old digital cameras. The only consolation is that it is very much smaller than the Sony Digital Mavica which is indeed huge. However, it takes time to get used to the camera's sheer size!

Back to top

---

Test System Configuration
Processor(s)	Intel Pentium II 333MHz
Ram	64MB 100MHz 10ns SDRAM Dimm
Motherboard	Abit BH6
HardDrive(s)	IBM Deskstar 5 4.3GB
Operating System	MS Windows 98 SE
Video Card(s)	Asus V3400TNT/TV 16MB SDRAM
Software Used	Camera Drivers Paint Shop Pro 5.01

Back to top

---

Conclusion

For a first attempt, the DCE-400 is definitely commendable. I would also strongly recommend this camera to those who place photos on the web. For printing out, the images did not turn out very well, carefully look at the photos which I included in the review and you would notice it. The DCE-400 also has features which even its competitors find hard to beat, all at a price of $499, it's definitely a great bargain!

Back to top

---

CARD RATING

Copyright © 1999 by Singapore Hardware Zone. All rights reserved.

None of the above shall be reproduced, copied and/or
modified without the permission of the WebMaster.