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D-Link DSC-350 3-in-1 Digital Camera
By Tikkler - October 14, 2000
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Let's take a look at the digital imaging market. On one hand, we have digital cameras. These devices have been around for quite a few years now and through these years, the price to own one of these babies have dropped considerably. Starting at 4-digit price-ranges when they first came out, the price has dropped considerably so that you can purchase a decent digital camera for a few hundred bucks.
 Meanwhile, as the prices were dropping, the features and quality of the images that these cameras were capable of producing were improved on significantly. Nowadays, a "decent" model will usually be able to produce images with megapixel-quality, bundled with a nice-sized color LCD screen so one can preview images, some plenty amount of built-in memory and the capability of adding more storage space in the form of, for example, Compact FlashCards, to store hundreds of high-quality images, and uses a USB interface to transfer data, among other model-specific features.
Unfortunately, a few hundred bucks is still quite a lot just to get a camera, especially when compared to regular 35mm cameras, and plus, not everyone needs these ultra-high resolutions and features that cost an arm and a leg to purchase.
 On the other hand, we have the webcam, a fairly new device that has only been around for a few years as well, but has enabled home users, when bundled with a high-speed connection, to experience video conferencing, much like how they do it in sci-fi movies (although not quite up to snuff in terms of video quality).
These devices don't have any on-board memory to store images and video clips, so they must be plugged into a computer through, for example, a USB port, so that they send data directly to the computer, meaning that they must stay by the computer and can't be carried around. Furthermore, these devices, mainly limited by the slow 12Mbps transfer rate of the USB interface, are only able to deliver very low resolutions and frame rates such as 320x240 at only a maximum of 15 frames per second.
Because of the low functionality of these webcams, prices for these devices have remained quite low and one can easily purchase a decent one for under $100.
Now, digital cameras are a tad too expensive with too many features that most people won't use, while webcams are only capable of very low-quality image and video quality, so what if someone took the best of both worlds and combined them into a single device? Well, the D-Link DSC-350 is exactly that.
 On to: The DSC-350
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