The Smallest Digital Camera: How Small will it Go?

Electronic equipment seems to shrink in physical size with every new model range. For example, one of the first hard drives ever created, had a capacity of about five megabytes, and weighed about a ton. They needed a forklift to get it onto a plane.

Today, we have hard drives of a few hundred gigabytes, the size of a packet of cigarettes. And today, we have cameras taking pictures which would not fit on the original hard drive, because of their size.

Due to the popularity of digital cameras, it has become a “standard item” for many people, just like a watch or a phone. But as with everything else, smaller is better, because it takes up less space. The search for the smallest digital camera has resulted in drastic size reductions, making keychain cameras quite a common sight.

In searching for the smallest digital camera, though, you must be careful to not lose sight of your expectations from the instrument. It may be all good and well having the tiniest camera among your friends, but if it cannot take pictures of the quality you expect, it is of no use other than a novelty item. The same goes for storing a reasonable amount of photos. You will eventually reach a trade-off point, where anything smaller would compromise the functional requirements.

A good example would be to compare two popular cameras:

The Blink, made by Stylecam, is quite small. Unfortunately, so is the resolution, at only 0.3 megapixel. With no real zoom function, it is not a serious photographic instrument. But at the price, it’s a good buy.

On the other hand, Casio’s Exilim EX-M2 has a 2.0 megapixel resolution, can record voice conversations, and play mp3 files. It also has a price tag of almost ten times as much as the Blink.

Because of the advanced technology needed to “shrink”, the smallest digital camera will probably not be the cheapest, especially if you need to take pictures of a reasonable quality. Big features in a small package tend to cost more. Unless you have a big budget, you will be facing a trade-off between size and capability. The choice is yours.