The Snap Mini comes with a neck strap and, when slung around your neck, looks more like a pendant than a camera. It also comes with a swivel clip to attach it to your belt or backpack, but sliding it into your pocket is easiest.
Despite its several features, the best part about the Snap Mini is its price. Available for about NT$1,000, it is the perfect introductory camera for anyone wanting to get into digital photography. Eight megabytes of storage space and 640 x 480 pixel resolution means your pictures won't be very clear. But what do you want from an NT$1,000 camera?
Casio Exilim
US$320 and US$260
Casio's credit-card sized camera comes in two models: the EX-M1, which has the added feature of being able to play MP3s, and the EX-S1, which doesn't. If you have a library of digital music or want to stealthily record conversations, you'll do well to get the former model. Otherwise, the latter EX-S1 is more economical.
At 1.2 megapixels, this tiny model has one of the better picture resolutions for cameras in its class, comparable to some larger "compact" models. Nonetheless, it is still pared down and lacks many of the features found in slightly larger designs. Also, the buttons are impossibly close together. With the "shoot" and "off" buttons adjacent to one another, I kept turning the camera off when I was tying to take a photo.
Still, it looks cool. And as with Logitech's Pocket Camera, it makes up in design chic what it lacks in functionality -- something none of these cameras have much of. Never mind covert operations, you'll likely want to wear the Exilim around your neck.
Sony Cybershot DSC-U10
US$230
Sony's entry into the miniature camera market is more a matter of having created a marketing blitz than having produced a usable tool. The company seems to have copied Apple's iMac scheme in creating a product that's available in an assortment of cutely collectible colors. In my opinion, it looks somewhat better as a necklace pendant than the Casio models.
That said, it is comparable in functionality to the EX-S1 and priced slightly better. It's more functional, actually, if you consider that is contains a number of useful scene selections, picture effects, editing software and a multi-burst mode that allows you to take five photos 0.5 seconds apart.
What's more, it comes with a line of attachments that improve both on the camera's usability and its cult of personality. You can snap on a wide-angle attachment or -- much to a spy's suiting -- an underwater housing, then stuff it all away in a matching camera bag.
With Sony's Cybershot, you can spy in style.
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