Photo Creator Mini Cam review: it takes decent photos, at least compared with the average keychain

Canal Toys isn’t the first name that springs to mind when my brain starts running through a list of camera manufacturers. But then again, I’m not used to a compact (make that extremely compact) digital camera that only costs about the price as a Big Mac meal for one. As it turns out, the Photo Creator Mini Cam is available in four different styles, mimicking a silver retro camera, black pro camera, pink compact camera and gray instant camera.

All four models work in exactly the same way and have the same specifications. They’re just shaped differently and turned out in different colorways to appeal to individual taste. Before we get too carried away, I should make it clear that this is a cheap novelty item designed as a keychain accessory, rather than a ‘serious’ digital camera. However, despite its unfeasibly small, lightweight build, it really can capture digital photos and video clips.

Whether or not the quality of the results is sufficient to make you want to keep what you shoot is another matter. Either way, the Photo Creator Mini Cam is never going to be one of the best point-and-shoot cameras, the best compact cameras or even one of the best cameras for kids. But it might just be one of the most photographic keychain novelty items.

Photo Creator Mini Cam: Specifications

Photo Creator Mini Cam: Price

What price a digital camera? You can spend a (not so small) fortune on digital camera bodies and collections of lenses, flashguns and the like. Or you could buy this Photo Creator Mini Cam camera complete with fixed lens and ‘flash’ for about 10 bucks. You’d probably end up spending more on a microSD card to slot into it but as it turns out, the camera sells complete with a 1GB microSD card for $18.73 in the USA, or on its own without a memory card for around £9.99 in the UK. Now that’s what I call a cheap camera!

Photo Creator Mini Cam: Design & Handling

There are ‘compact cameras’ and then there’s this. The Photo Creator Mini Cam from Canal Toys is only an inch thick, complete with fixed lens, and a real featherweight. At less than an ounce, it literally weighs about the same as a couple of feathers, complete with internal Li-ion battery pack. To give some perspective, the front lens cap of my standard zoom weighs about the same as this entire camera.

So what’s in the box? Pay your money (very little money) and take your choice between the four different retro, pro, compact and instant camera styles on offer and you’ll get the camera itself, an all-important keychain that turns it into the requisite keyring accessory, a USB cable for charging the internal Li-ion battery and transferring data, and an instruction leaflet in various languages.

From a handling perspective, this camera certainly won’t weigh you down. It’s absolutely tiny, so you can easily fit it into a spare pocket, or stash it away wherever you stash the assorted keys that are also hanging around on your keyring. The flipside is that the sparce and rudimentary control buttons are also very small and a bit fiddly in operation.

Let’s get technical for a moment. In keyring speak, the camera comes with a 1-inch chain that fastens to a loop on the camera at one end, and has a spring-loaded, quick-release hoop at the other. In camera speak, there’s a 1-inch image sensor, a 1-inch LCD display screen, a fixed focal length lens and a built-in ‘flash’. That said, it’s not a flash as such, just a little lamp that you can turn on or off.

The right hand side of the camera has a miniature faux hand grip – it’s naturally too small to actually wrap your fingers around. It does serve a practical purpose, however, as it houses the microphone for recording audio when you’re shooting video. More on that later. The right hand side also plays host to up and down directional buttons, which you can use for navigating menus, adding one of a bunch of filer effects or ‘fun frames’, or for accessing other functions with a long-press.

Up on top, there’s an on/off switch on one side and a shutter button on the other. The shutter button actually has dual functions. A short press is all that’s needed to capture a still image. A long press will initiate a video recording, you then press the shutter button again to stop video capture.

Around the back is the display screen, in true digital camera fashion. In the absence of a viewfinder, you’re reliant on the screen for composing shots, as well as for adjusting settings and viewing images in playback. It really is very small, measuring just a single inch on the diameter, and it’s also very low-res. It’s actually quite hard to see and to read menu pages, especially with sunlight bouncing off it.

Underneath the camera on the bottom panel is a USB-C port which you can use for recharging the internal Li-ion battery via a standard mains charger (not supplied), and for downloading images and video clips to another device. A cable is included for the purpose. There’s also a microSD memory card slot next to the USB port, so you can fit your own or use the memory card that’s supplied with the camera in some world regions. The maximum capacity is stated as 64GB in the instruction leaflet.

Photo Creator Mini Cam: Performance

Let’s talk image quality – it won’t take long. Photos that I took with the camera often reminded me of an artist’s sketch rather than a photo-realistic image. There’s precious little fine detail or texture captured, dynamic range is pretty scant and color accuracy is all over the place.

When the going gets tough, or just dimly lit, blotchy image noise adds to the woes of the generally poor picture quality. Fine detail takes even more of a hit, so you’re left with images that look very grainy and third rate.

One thing that I didn’t immediately notice on the tiny rear screen is that the time and date are imprinted into the bottom left hand corner of each still image and video clip. Try as I might, I couldn’t find a way to switch off this ‘feature’ in the menu system, otherwise I’d have put more effort into setting the correct date and time before I started.

Photo Creator Mini Cam: Sample Images

The gallery below contains a collection of still images, taken in the English city of Wells. Weather conditions were bright and sunny, so this is as good as it gets for image quality. I swear there wasn’t so much of the color purple around, which seems to be very prominent in the pictures.

Photo Creator Mini Cam: Video

Above: sample video shot with the Photo Creator Mini Cam

The camera is capable of capturing video in 1080p, 720p or VGA resolutions. As with image quality for stills, the net results are more of an approximation of what you’re looking at with your eyes in any given scene, rather than a faithful reproduction of what’s actually there. Video is saved in AVI format movie files.

Photo Creator Mini Cam: Verdict

It’s a keyring accessory, not a lucky charm. However, the Photo Creator Mini Cam does have a certain charm as a novelty item. If I’d won it as the result of pulling a Christmas cracker, I’d be pretty chuffed. I wouldn’t exactly be disappointed with it even if I’d paid the full price of £9.99 in the UK, or nearer 20 bucks in the USA with a bundled 1GB memory card.

This Mini Cam from Canal Toys is essentially a ‘toy’ camera. It’s a bit of fun, could potentially be a talking point, and really does take still images and video clips. The outright quality of those photos and videos is the only real sticking point, as they do look pretty dreadful, even in the best light. Let’s just say you get what you pay for.

Alternatives

Kodak Charmera: at digitalcameraworld.com

The hugely-successful Kodak Charmera is another low-cost digital camera, modelled on an old 110 film camera, and small you can carry it on your keychain. It comes in a variety of designs but its 'blind box' means you don't know which you are getting until you buy it!

Kodak Funsaver: at digitalcameraworld.com

A disposable camera, like the Kodak Funsaver, gives you a similar shooting experience to using the Charmera - but is more expensive and bulkier. But as it uses film, there is no rear LCD screen, or video mode. You also have to wait and pay for the film to be processed before you see the results.