14 DAY TRIAL // Remember all those spy movies in which secret agents used to take quick photos of top-secret documents with some ultra-small cameras, often disguised within some type of mundane object? Well, at least part of those devices were Minox, a brand of ultra-small photo cameras that have been used both on set and in real life for all sorts of covert operations. And now, a good 72 years after the launch of the first Minox camera, the company has decided to go all digital and launched (initially back at Photokina) the digital version of their famous spy cam.
Dubbed Digital SpyCam (what else!), the new device is extremely compact, measuring just around 86 x 29 x 20 mm, at a weight of roughly 90 grams. It has been equipped with a 5-megapixel CMOS sensor (3.2-megapixel hardware resolution), which can be used for taking photos at resolutions of up to 2.560 x 1.920 pixels and shoot video clips at resolutions of up to 640 x 480 pixels.
Furthermore, it also packs a LED flash module, which switches on automatically in dim light conditions, as well as a bright optical viewfinder, which also helps users whenever there's simply not enough light available (as in most spies' missions). As far as the optics go, the device has been equipped with a 4-element glass lens with IR filter glass, which provides a focal length of around 8.7-mm (corresponds to approx. 42 mm with 35 mm format), a lens aperture of 2.8 and a focus range between 1 m and infinity.
It's also important to note that the camera shoots photos directly in JPEG format and videos in AVI format, which are then stored either in the 128 MB of built-in NAND flash memory or on microSD cards, the camera supporting sizes of up to 16 GB.
Besides the camera itself, users can always go for an additional external electronic flash that can be connected to the side of the DSC. Moreover, for even more added convenience, this external flash unit (which, by the way, measures 76mm x 41mm x 21mm and weighs around 80 grams), has also been equipped with a 1.5 inch TFT LCD monitor, which allows users to quickly browse trough or view the photos and videos they've just shot.
The Minox Digital SpyCam is set to arrive in stores at some point over the course of November and will sell for around 382.17 US dollars, which isn't even that high a price for all the wannabe-spies out there (or real ones, for that matter).
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