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Conclusion
The DSC-350 is a nice attempt, on D-Link's part, to bring the best of both the worlds of the digital camera and the webcam. The digital camera, with its high-quality images and storage capacity and the webcam with its capability to capture video, although only at low resolutions with low frame rates, to enable some basic video production on any USB-equipped computer.
D-Link did a nice job in placing basic features of both of these worlds, with even a little on the side in the form of a digital video camera. This product can act as a basic digital camera, capable of capturing photographs at a resolution as high as 1024x768 @ 24-bit color and, with 8MB of memory, which is twice the amount that you'll find in a digital camera in its class (such as the popular Kodak DC215), you can store an lot of pictures in this tiny camera (about 140 pictures in this camera's highest resolution setting). Apart from the digital camera portion, the DSC-350 can also act as a webcam, when plugged into a computer using its USB port. Another added bonus is that this camera is capable of recording up to 4.5 mins of low-resolution digital video on the go. The included software bundle of MGI's PhotoSuite III SE and VideoWave III SE allows any user, regardless of how experienced they are with digital photography and video, to get started immediately in enjoying the capabilities of this product.
Unfortunately, though, D-Link did come up short overall in this product. The first and foremost shortcut that I think sets this product back the most is the fact that it has no flash. To take pictures, you must have either full or half-light, and if there's not enough light, you simply cannot take pictures with this camera. Although this camera can take pictures of up to 1024x768 resolution, the pictures can sometimes turn out to be blurry and unclear because of the lack of an automatic focus and the fact that D-Link resorted to a manual focus. Furthermore, although the specifications claim that the DSC-350 is capable of capturing video at 640x480 @ 30 frames per second, in real life, the camera fall short and was only able to capture a recognizable video clip at only about half that resolution and frame rate.
Overall, a great product for only $129 that tries to give you a taste of digital photography and video but truly leaves much to be desired. If I was looking for a digital camera, I would personally opt for a "mid-ranged" digital camera that's 2-3 times the cost, but for someone who's on a budget, this product will surely satisfy.
Pros
- 3-in-1; a taste of digital camera, a dash of webcam and a little extra--digital video camera capabilities
- 8MB of built-in memory allows plenty of storage
- Resolutions of up to 1024x768 @ 24-bit
- USB interface
- Nice software package
- Very small physical size
- Low price
Cons
- No flash
- Manual focus might make some pictures out-of-focus for the majority of the people who aren't photography experts
- Video capture not able to perform up to what specifications claim
- No way of adding extra memory (i.e. lack of a CompactFlash slot)
- USB interface becomes bottleneck when it comes to video capture
- Some minor annoyances (must set mode/resolution after every time the camera turns off by itself after 1 min of inactivity)
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