Customer Reviews: It works, with some rough edges November 7, 2009 R. Cattell (San Francisco, CA USA) This pen-cam worked OK for me, and was delivered promptly (in contrast to two other reviewers, maybe it ships from the U.S. now). It's handy that it works as a pen, it includes the USB plug (when you unscrew the pen), and it can be activated easily by pressing the button on top.
Some negatives:
1. The documentation is terrible. It's in Japanese and English, and the latter is such poor grammar and wording that I can't understand most of it. You're supposed to be able to set the date/time (for recording files) with a systemtime.txt file, but I can't get it to work.
2. Amazon needs to post a better description. For example, it was unclear whether this is a camera and a camcorder (it's only the latter), and how long to expect the battery to last (a couple hours).
3. There's a blue light that indicates the camera is recording, on the back side of the pen. This may be visible to people, since it reflects off your shirt. This was not a problem for my purposes recording lectures, but you'd have to tape over it or something if you're doing "stealth" recording.
4. It's a bit hard to align the pen's lens with what you want to video. However, with some adjustment in my pocket I can usually get it to point in the right direction.
Never got it to work September 28, 2009 BobK (Spokane, WA USA) 3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Neither I nor a friend who specializes in surveillance gear were able to get this camera to work. My money was wasted, perhaps others will have better luck.
Battery only lasts 2 hours or less September 18, 2009 Jorge Guerrero Sanchez 3 out of 4 found this review helpful
When I got this product, at first it seemed ok; nevertheless, the short battery life it has makes it necessary to recharge the thing often, so I would have to leave it in the car.
Come summertime in the Southwest of the US, the heat served the pen useless. However, I needed the device on a regular basis and it was impossible for me to get it off the car, wall-charge it at room temperature, unplug, re-use.
The video quality was very decent, but also you run into the problem of wearing the pen. If you wear loose garments or are at an incorrect angle, the pen records unusable footage.
Seems a good product, but the issue of the short battery life and having to charge it constantly in the car, made this product short-lived and worth this terrible review.
Audio problem August 14, 2009 R. L. Nathan Jr. (Houston, Texas) 3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This device ships from China so it takes some time to arrive. The audio, when recording low level sounds, has an annoying shutter sound to it like from an old 16mm home movie film reel. I guess if you like this kind of nostalgia, it's tolerable.
Pen cam April 28, 2009 LCM (Puerto Rico) 16 out of 17 found this review helpful
Excellent camera but take more time to arrive that estimated, do not run in windows media player xp so I have to unload a file in the web.
Still work but with errors. The sound is unclear. I have the AA emergency battery in back order and that will take additional three weeks. I dont like to see the light so can be obvious that can not be hidden.
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