Dakota Digital Camera $11

[jollyrgr]

Have any of you had a chance to play with the Dakota Digital Camera? This is a one time use 2 Megapixel digital camera. This is NOT a film camera that has the negatives scanned and then saved to CD. This is a TRUE digital camera. Here is a link to the product:<p>http://www.dpreview.com/news/0307/03073 ... igital.asp<p>
I have looked for this since it was highlighted in the Sunday paper two weeks ago. (Go figure that nobody in the stores has seen it and keep pointing to the film cameras with the CD Rom scanned digital pictures.)

[russlk]

Seems like a dumb idea to me.

[Megadan]

With a dash of cleverness you could build your own Bullet Time capture unit for about $300...<p>Dan

[haklesup]

Sometimes the dumbest ideas make the most money; remember the pet rock.<p>I see it as a natural evolution of an already established market. The price is probably almost exactly the cost of such a product, so if it can be reused even one time, that constitutes a 100% profit (minus packaging and distribution) which blows away the margin on any high volume consumer product.<p>Furthermore, the extra initial cost that the digital camera incurs is offset in part by the fact that no film needs to be processed and replaced for that price. Only a CD is burned and mailed back to the consumer (I wonder if prints cost extra).<p>I doubt true photo enthusiests will be impressed with the camera since in the long run you only need to use a dozen or so of these to pay for a real digital camera and you'd only get about 300 shots. On the other hand, those already inclined to buying disposable cameras and want digital shots, these will sell well. Perhaps not at Wolf or Ritz but maybe at the visitors center at the Grand Canyon.<p>The true intrest for me is; can you hack the interface and get the pictures out without the driver? For $12 bucks, I'll get one just to tear it apart to see how it works. The next best deal is the sPix for about $35 and thats only VGA w/ no flash and Volitile memory but at least it has a USB interface.

[josmith]

Most of the time you do not get a second chance to take a picture. If you use a cheap camera, digital or otherwise you will be disappointed.

[Donald S. Lambert]

A couple of years ago I bought a digital camera that was a 640 by 480 to play with. Basically outside of resolution it resembled this $11. camera. It worked and connected to a pc. No cards to change if you used up the storage space. But after uploading to the computer you could get the memory erased and start over. If I remember right I paid around $50. for it about two or three years ago. It was put out by IXLA. Bet they sell a lot that get taken apart for experimenting. Greybie