First Thoughts: Digital Blue Night Vision Digital Video Camera

Written on Mar 12, 2009 by Brian and filed under Digital Blue, Reviews

Digital Blue has been on a tear this year, announcing all kinds of fun kids optical devices. We’ve been working with their Night Vision digital video camera which uses Infrared to let kids take pictures and video in the dark. While it’s designed for kids, there’s no doubt parents, especially the geeky types like me, will have fun here too.

The concept sounds great, use an Infrared gun to enable night vision in a handheld camera that can shoot stills and video. But it’s pretty easy to dismiss this as marketing hype, since most products with claims like these and a price point of under $80 fail to deliver in any meaningful way. Think again, after just a little hands on time with Night Vision, we’re sold on the camera and while we need more time to complete the full review, we think it’s going to be a winner. The only problem will be the wait, it’s not due out until this summer.

Using the Night Vision is simple. While there are six buttons for operation and a trigger, you really only need one button to power it on and the trigger to take shots or video. The other buttons are for image playback/review and to turn on an LED flashlight. The Night Vision transitions seamlessly to night vision mode when it’s dark, so kids can walk from a lit room to a dark closet and the Night Vision will adjust automatically. One more button press transitions between video and still capture mode.

The camera itself takes stills with a 1.3 megapixel resolution and video at VGA (640×480 pixels). There’s a 2″ color LCD display that’s actually better than what we’ve seen on some mainstream digital cameras. While the camera only includes 32MB of internal storage, there is an SD slot that can handle cards up to 2GB.

None of the specs matter though if the images aren’t good. The Night Vision does a fantastic job. The only problem we had is that many photos came out blurry and while shooting video it takes the camera a second to catch up if you make a rapid movement. A still hand will resolve the blur issue though, the camera even includes a tripod adaptor if you’re serious about getting quality shots. At the end of the day kids love this thing. Whether it’s discovering secrets in the basement or spying on their friends outside on a warm evening, the Digital Blue Night Vision has been a huge hit. Expect a full review from us soon, until then, here are a few sample shots.