IXLA DualCam 640

An excellent all-around pocket camera for all but macro & telephoto needs.

Point & shoot with automatic flash; fast connection to computer & quick download/save to desktop.

Small buttons for big fingertips; small icons & characters for nearsighted vision; somewhat confusing operating sequences except for picture taking & saving; recently quit clearing photos from camera; recently produced hard hang with Mac OS 9.2.x after force quit option.

Minolta & Canon SLR 35mm manual cameras.

Difficulty finding www.ixla.com website to download dualcam user's manual.

Hi, The IXLA was the cheapest camera with the most features when I bought it. If you use Irfranview you can delete the pics from the computer. With a bit of stuffing around I found a WinXP compatible driver on the IXLA web site. The software bundle is VERY extensive. It only works on Win98 though. USB & Serial!!!! + TV output! Tell me which other camera has that. Also acts as a web cam and you can attach a power pack to it! Not bad! Has a lovely carry bag which my mate with the expensive $$$ camera didn't get! This is a camera with the lot for a slim price. Good beginners camera. Prices vary depending where you buy it but seem to range from $110 to almost $200.

Everything including flash for the cheapest price on the market.

Not comparable to the more expensive digital cameras with picture backs.

I've used about 3 other digital cameras. Two of them were nice but I couldn't afford them. Still use my Canon EOS 500 for really important shots. Can see digital taking over when I find a good camera.

Got stuck with XP drivers. My e-mails were replied to. Advice was solid although I still had trouble getting all the drivers to work as they ought to. Ended up using serial as a result of the driver problems.

This is my first digital camera so I was only after something real cheap, kind of "happy-snaps" only rated. My minimum requirements were only 640x480 and in-built flash and this camera seemed the cheapest thing going with this specification. I paid $140.00 (Australian Dollars) for it which seems pretty high compared to the street prices other reviewers have listed, but most stuff costs more than it should down here. Also the Aussie dollar is only 0.51 Green-backs at the moment and this camera was still the cheapest of its type that I could find. The picture quality is nothing special but still it’s ok for web work or emailing happy-snaps. I don’t know what the equivalent ISO rating would be but I figure it must be fairly slow because you have to keep the camera pretty still to avoid blur. The only other complaints would be that the colour depth is a little low and the flash tends to overexpose most photos at portrait range. There is a manual "EV compensation" (with settings of -1, -0.5, 0 ,+0.5, +1) that might help with the latter though I haven’t tried it out yet. Getting started with this camera was very easy. The instructions were quite straight forward once you got used to the writing style used in the manual. The supplied software worked straight up (even with my old Win95B computer) and I was dowloading my photos via the serial port in no time. I also had no problems viewing my photos on my TV-VCR via the supplied cable. I haven’t tried the supplied USB cable yet but I assume it would work the same as the serial one only faster. I flattened the supplied alkaline batteries real quickly and this was initially a bit of a disappointment. Once I worked out the power usage however I must say that I am now quite happy with this aspect. My initial problem was that "playing" my photos through the VCR was fairly draining on the batteries and also when connected to the computer via the serial port it was working off the battery power. I did some quick ammeter measurements and found the battery current to be about 450mA in record mode and about 680mA in play-back mode. I now have a 5V plugpack for use when the camera is connected to the VCR or computer and some 1.5AH NiMH batteries which work extremely well. This camera now has a zero-dollar running cost and I’m happy about that.

Low purchase cost. Low running cost (works very well with NiMH batteries). Good connectivity and easy to use.

Picture quality is ok but nothing special. Can’t force the flash. Fairly slow equiv ISO rating and no published specifications on this.

None

Not needed

I only got this camera yesterday, and already plan to buy another. While the pictures it takes are not the best in the world (as with all CMOS cameras), I must say that for the money you get a great little package. I say for the money because these are currently going on ubid.com between $19 and $29. Setup is pretty simple, though I didn't install the software included on the CD. I installed some simple drivers directly from the Ixla website to allow me to use the USB interface without installing dial-up networking. A side-effect of this method reveals an undocumented feature. You can upload pictures from your computer into this camera! This was perfect for me since I wanted to use it to show pictures on my television anyway.

Cheap, simple, would be great for kids to play with. Has a TV out function which is really handy. Undocumented "feature" allows you to upload pictures via the USB cable.

CMOS sensor doesn't take great pictures. The pictures are normally lacking in color saturation and the contrast is poor. Plastic lens cover will probably get scratched soon.

Sanyo VPC-G200, Olympus C2000, Kodak DC3200

Not sure yet.

Nice, versatile, efficient camera for the money. Werner was just havin' a bad day when he submitted his review. This is one of those "don't try to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear" jobbers. You won't get a zoom lens, a motion camera, or bells and whistles for the price, but DUH- that's why it's so cheap. It's economical, friendly, cute, and well-suited for vacations, trailrides (I take pics with one hand, and hold the reins w/ the other), or "quick- grab the camera" moments!

PRICE! ($55.00)- as opposed to the $60 agfa cl15), Portability (handy little pocketsize), FLASH (most webcams don't have this), USB/Serial connection, Image quality's great for the price/size. the AGFA just was sad. More of a beginner/learning experience for me. Battery efficiency- when on usb cable, it doesn't need batteries! AGFA SUCKED batteries down .. availability- these guys are all OVER the auction sites.

No Color LCD like Polaroid, but don't let that bug you. Read the manual first, so you won't be confuzzled by the different signs on the little status display (little b/w LCD) on the back. If I wanted to whine, I'd want a nice little accessory pack and expandable memory. It's no Elph (my dream camera) or that new little bitty sony w/ motion (another dream), but hey- I got bills ta pay! LOL

AGFA Ephoto Smile CL15 Vivitar Vivicam 2700 Neither hold a candle to this camera, and vivitar even had the LCD screen, AND expandable memory.

I didn't have to use it. I'm happy with the whole deal.