nGear Ultra-small Mini DV — World’s smallest voice/video recorder
By rockia on Dec 22, 2009 with Comments 58
Before I saw this nGear Ultra-small mini DV, I thought my cell phone was one of the smallest DV. Today I am going to introduce the world’s smallest DV (oh, right, we don’t count James Bond’s).
This mini DV is available from NCIX; it’s an OEM model, so if you find the exact product with different brand, I won’t be surprised at all. According to the package, this mini DV is available in 6 different colors. However, I don’t know how come it says only a Voice Recorder on the box?
When I opened the box, I was surprised to see this mini DV the size as an AA battery. This size without support of external battery source, nGear Ultra-small mini DV is definitely one of the smallest DV in the world. You can easily clip it onto your belt, your pocket or even the cover page of your book and you are ready to go out shooting videos (by the way, the clip is included in the box). Upon one fully charge (through USB cable), the built-in Lithium battery will enable the device to work for about 2 hours.
One of the downfall of this product to some of you might be the lack of internal storage; however, I actually find it flexible and handy. With support up to 8GB microSD, I can easily swap out memory cards or upgrade the memory (up to 8GB for sure).
Now, let’s actually take a look at the quality of this mini DV. First of all, when I purchased this video recorder, I actually saw it as a toy and didn’t really have any expectation on it. It says it is capable for outputting 640px by 480px at the rate of 30 frames/second. I tested this device under low light condition and shot a video for about 25 seconds. The operation is self-explanatory. Once you finished video recording, the video will be save onto your microSD card in .AVI format. You can take a look at my sample clip.
I would say this nGear mini DV is absolutely not for serious video fans (it’s actually worse than my cell phone), however, the size of an AA battery will for sure give you a lot of convenience. Maybe someone can use it as a surveillance camera while he/she is leaving for about 2 hours?
Filed Under: Reviews
This camera can capture newspaper caracters of 3 mm hight and the number of frames per second changes automatically acccording to the light in the room. Outside with much light it makes wonderfull pretty coloured pictures of just 1 frame per second without voice trace, indoor if light is low, you get a voice recording with a playback of 3 seconds for 1 recorded second in real.
By the way: resulution is super-VGA with 7hundred something *
3hundred something pixels. One cannot record and charge, not even if just 5V input and nothing else is given as an input in the usb-jack. So another box and another battery is required. With 8 gb claas2 micro-sd card I recorded 4 hours and 25 min.
Current: 175 mA per hour nonstop-recording
125 mA when vox is stand-by this might be the fault of the big size sd-card that eats up a lot of energy.
Who knows if 16 Gb card are accepted too ?? The little paper inside the emballage mentioned that 16 Gb would be possible too.
I personally contacted the product manager and he told me this mini DV supports up to 8GB of microSDHC.
Qualcuno mi può aiutare,fatta la registrazione cerco di caricare il video ma mi porta solo il sonoro, nessuna immagine viene evidenziata, grazie in anticipo a tutti.
what is the website to find drivers and software?
Hi Hertje, the video-recorder comes with the driver CD. If you don’t have it, maybe I can upload the drivers and give you the link. Let me know if you need it. Thanks for visiting.
Hi,
Are you able to please send me the link to the drivers as my device did not have a CD in the box
Thanks
Andrew
Hi Andrew, I will see if I can upload the image or send it to you directly. Stay turn!
Could you send me one too….my CD came in Chinese…thanks!
I did not get a CD and I’m at a lost as how to work it. Can you help!!!! Dwayne
Mine was a sample and it didn’t come with any instruction, but I believe it’s pretty straight forward and lots of people discuss it above already. Please take a look.
Hi Rokia i have just purshased the mini dv my cd is in chinese can you please assist me??????????????
my email adress is [email protected] please if anybody can assist me
Hi,Rockia,
Could you give the driver link,too?
Because my driver cant not work.
i just got the camera and i have no driver is it posible for you to send me the drivers to my e-mail address
regards
Could you kindly give me the link to the drivers, I got one without a CD.
perche i video mi durano solo 2 minuti ho una scheda da 2g
Is there a way to turn off the timestamp from being recorded onto the video? Or similarly, how do you update the time that is displayed?
Also, did you manage to use it as a webcam? My WinXP doesn’t seem to want to recognize it as a device.
Hi Sam, since the one I got was a sample sent from a computer store. They didn’t really give me the manual so I didn’t set it. However, apparently you could change the time or remove it because I have seen a sample video with no timestamps on it before I got my testing sample.
U CAN CHANGE THE TIME STAMP BY ADDING A TEXT DOCUMENT ON THE ROOT FILE OF SD CARD ….. IF U GOOGLE “MINI DV MAUNAL” IT SHOULD COME RIGHT UP AS A PDF FILE … HOPE THIS HELPS
http://www.cg-electronics.com/upfile/Mini%20DV%20Manual%20MD80.pdf
I am afraid that I didn’t get the real manual either. I got a nano one instead of the DV one.
Would you please upload or e-mail me the drivers and the manual??
Thans a lot
Juan
can you send me the website for drivers and installers?
thanks
Hi,
I recently bought one of these mini dv camera but i can’t get it to work the cd that came with it dosen’t have the drivers on.Can anyone help by sending me a link to where i can find the drivers.
Many thanks
Anyone know how to change the date and time on this mini-cam?
The instructions are very hard to understand.
[date]
2010/06/05
20:00:00
copy this text exactly like it is in this layout into a text (.txt) documet and name it tag.txt
adjust the time and date to the correct one for the present (so if you do this tomorrow you must change the line 2010/06/05 into 2010/06/05) close and safe tag.txt to your desktop.
Then hook your camera up with your usb cable (or use a cardreader) and go to the root of your mini sd card.
You will see the map DCIM which holds your videos.
Now put the tag.txt into the root, eg NEXT to your DCIM map/folder, NOT in it!
eject your camera or insert the mini sd if tou used a cardreader
You’re almost done!
Simply turn the camera off and on again and voila, the date/time is adjusted and if you would look in the root of your card again you will see the file that you put there earlier is gone!
Thats it!
Tried every thing but to no avail, mine keeps saying 27/11/2009. i have followed your instuctions but after turning on/off the file is still in the root next to DCIM map/folder. Any help apreciated
All sorted now, this is how the txt file should read.
[date]
2010/07/06
09:28:00=
The only differance being the = at the end of the time & when saved to the desk top i saved it as “TAG” only, not “tag.txt “
I’d really appreciate it if the drivers could be uploaded. The disk that came with mine is corrupted and the site I baught it from will not replace unless the whole thing is sent back, which unfortunately isn’t an option as I’m going abroad for a few months in a couple of days and wanted to use this camera on the trip!
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?4mdji10muzy
here you can find the driver for sunplus spca 1528 mini videocamera
nGear Ultra-small Mini DV — World’s smallest voice/video recorder.
I have a mini camera one and I can not use it seems that the CD files are corrupted, you can send me the drivers via email.
Or pass the manufacturer’s website.
Sincerely,
Paulo Sérgio
55 11 9362-7663
I have just bought one of these but I have a MacBook. Is there anywhere that has software that works for this thing or is it PC only?
I just want to change the date and time on the settings but I have no way of doing it with the Mac.
Any Ideas? has anyone else tried to change the time and get it to work? (even on PC’s – if i can get on a mates computer)
Thanks
Hi Rocky, I just purchase this camera (oem, same buttons) but I have great difficulty in making it work. A manual came with it but as for 3 different(flashing)lights, I have only seen 2 lights on the cam, and whatever I try I seem not to be able to make a video since never is anything saved on de sd-card. Could you please be of help?
looking to find out if anybody has the instruction manual on how to operate this camera, if so could you send it to me by email
hi, i bought this camera, but lost the manual, is there on online?
Sorry, I personally don’t have the manual and it doesn’t seem to be available online. What kind of questions do you have? Maybe you can check the previous comments and see if you could find the answer.
Hi everyone:
I just got this mini/voice activated recording camera but my drive cd reads corrupt, there was no actual manual with it, my question is does anyone know how to put it in voice activation, mine’s has a tiny white button on top, on one side it just reads Power, on the other side there’s mode button, the slot for the card and the word Reset but there’s no button next to the word odd? When I press the little white button it records on my command, but what I want is for the device to record upon detection of sound, can anyone help me as I have written to China but I have not gotten anywhere.
Thank you
how to use the instrument as to change the date and maintain a principle of including a record she went to save or myself have to reap what you like to order and how much it costs to deliver to Russia in Tver
i to bought this and have no ideal how it works, no manual,and a bad disk, were is a web site to help,on how to operate the mini dv
ANCHE IO HO PRESO UNNA MINI DV MA NON SO COME FARE PER AVERE IL MANUALE DI ISTRUZZIONI GRAZIE BY
i opened my mini dv today expecting it to be be the size of my mini camcorder and it was the size of a double A battery! it is 720p(6.8 mega pixals)how ever it is hard to tell weter you are recording voice or vidio as i found my self today using it as an action cam at a skate park and i ended up at least 10 times recording voice on my best jumps. i inserted a 4gb micro sdhc card into it and that worked fine. it would be a great item to bust a shoplifter of someone as it is so small and hard to see.
my overall rating would be **** or 8/10
A great spy cam then?
It could be, but I found a better clothes-button-shape one is better on my vacation to China last summer.
Mine worked fine first time round, but now only the blue light stays on and when i press it to record the red light just stays on while i hold the button but doesnt record, any ideas???
Hi, I’m in desperate need of the Drivers for this mini dv. The mini cd that came with it isn’t reading in 3 different cd/dvd drives. If you could send them to me in email or post a link, I would greatly appreciate it. I want to document my up coming surgeries & physical therapy accomplishment after being in a wheelchair for yrs. I am told that I may finally walk assisted after the surgeries! Thank you in advance. Surgery date May 31st, 2011, then not sure for the next ones.
Hi, I got this camera but whenever i try to install the software, it doesnt work! can anyone please tell me how to make it work. If there is a website where from i can download the driver it would be great. Thanks
Did you ever get the link to the drivers? I am in need of them too… thanks!
i have the same problem, have you solve it? if you do, can you tell me how?
ciao a tutti
qualcuno sa, perche’ all’accensione rimangono le luci rosse e blu accese e poi non riesco piu’ a spegnerlo devo resettare per spegnerlo come posso risolvere il problema grazie
La stessa cosa che succede a me. Ma come fai a resettarla? C’è scritto “Reset” ma non capisco come premerlo!
i just bought the mini dv, but for some reason i can’t open the driver on my netbook, i’m using a windows 7 starter, do you think that’s the reason why i can’t open it?…. please help…
what is the website to find drivers and software?
a dont have the cd drivers
I recieved one of thrse items for my xmas with no instructions, please help.
aiuto non so come funziona !!! il manuale non esiste e il dischetto non si installa !! scrivetemi per un aiuto [email protected]
Hi, I have a problem with installing the software I turn the camera with usb but when we apply an external drive will not open it and when I click on the program for camera throw me a warning that says Soory you have no video capture hardware , please help, my address is [email protected]
Hi my name is Willian and I’m brazilian, so, I bought this camera but i can’t use, plese can u send me the drivers please… I’m so enxious to use this camera now that is canival please!!!
hi, i have bought this camera. i think it was a second sent to me as NO instructions nor cd. kinda gutted about it. i have downloaded the pdf file supplied up abover, however i need the driver to install on my puter.
May i please have a link to to the driver for this mini dv worlds smallest voice/video recorder ?
regards Ray
I need the driver download I have the camera but no CD! Please someone help me out with a link or email with the download! The download on this site did not work.
I got one and I’m having trouble charging it. The problem is I don’t know when it will be finished charging. The instructions say “When you charge it, green light and red light will bright simultaneously, of which states are stillness.” Help? Please?