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Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/12/05/geek_treat_of_the_week_spy_cam/

Silverlit Spy Cam

Spy in the sky

By Lucy Orr

Posted in Hardware, 5th December 2011 10:00 GMT

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Geek Treat of the Week Never mind all my boasting about training for a helicopter pilot licence to help me survive the zombie apocalypse, it's been a long time since I had a go at flying anything. Looking back, that was a mistake because this Spy Cam 'copter is fun, fun, fun.

I was really impressed at how simple this toy chopper is to set up and use, and how straightforward it was to extract and view the footage and photographs that I took.

Silverlit Spy Cam

The toy is charged over a USB link, and it flies for around ten minutes before the battery goes flat. It has a 1.3Mp camera in the nose and 128MB of storage memory, enough for up to three minutes of video or a load of photos.

Silverlit Spy Cam

There's a 1.3Mp moveable cam in the nose

With the bundled software, I can upload footage and snaps with a single click to YouTube or facebook.

Meant for indoor use, the Spy Cam is pretty hardcore in the build department and survived ferret attacks - literally - and taking a bashing on several walls and floors. I haven’t had to use the spare parts included yet!

Silverlit Spy Cam remote control

It took some serious practice to try and control the Spy Cam, especially working the tail rotor, but after about an hour I started to get the hang of flying it.

The camera didn’t cope too well inside my room at home everything looked a little too dark and pixelated, but in a classroom with the lights full blast everything looks much clearer.

Silverlit Spy Cam sample shot

Snaps are affected by motion blue while the chopper's in flight
Click for full-size image [1]

Photos - shot at 1280 X 960 - tend to be on the blurry side, because the Spy Cam is constantly moving. The video resolution is 640 x 480 and I found taking video gave much better results.

Some fiddling with the software that gives you a live view from the camera helped me slightly with the exposure but I think the makers could have increased the quality of the video camera. After all, I have a better one on my phone!

The Spy Cam is obviously for kids. That said, everyone who had a go was over 30 and found the Spy Cam loads of fun. But for £60 I’d like a better picture and some batteries included! ®

Geek Treat of the Week is published every Monday. Got a handy or fun gadget in mind you'd like us to consider? Please let us know [2]

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