NickClick toy digital photography

It's the most stylish, and cheapest, digital camera in the world (probably). Just $49 (£33) for the camera and the software and the cable and helpful booklet and everything. It's in see-through purple plastic. . . it seems quite sturdy. . . and it actually works!

The pictures are only 160 x 120 pixels and, okay, they may not be the finest photographs in the world (sorry, nice little camera)... but they have a charm and a, um, cheapness all of their own. The camera takes an ordinary 9 volt battery and can remember six pictures at once. This is good because you can take six pictures per day and then transfer them to the computer when you get home. However I am willing to admit that if you are going away for a fortnight, being able to only take one picture per two days might seem, ahem, somewhat limiting.

Anyway, here's some examples of its fine photography...

And of course, this being digital media, it is perfectly easy to edit or combine images...

Because you can hook it up to the computer and take as many pictures as you like, it finally becomes cheap and easy to do those David Hockney-style collages of several photos, suggesting fragmentation and movement.

Here's one I did just to see if it would work... I subsequently washed-out the colours a bit because it looked better.		(Below is a mini version with the original colours).

These pictures were taken indoors on a dullish day (but close to the window)... observant toy camera fans will have noted that the NickClick has no flash, but it takes decent photos in well-lit rooms. Hurray. Flash photos always look rubbish anyway.

I got my NickClick for $49 (£33) at a Toys-R-Us in Los Angeles. That was great because I'd already seen them on the web priced at $109 (£70). If they ever arrive in Britain (I've not seen 'em) they will probably cost £80.