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My camera is a Dakota Digital Single-use ;) from Ritz camera. Apparently it's good for more than one "roll," heheh.

The sensor is CMOS, not CCD, which means it's cheap. Resolution's 1280x960, which is 1.3MP. Capacity is 25 pictures, no more, even though most "rolls" I've taken have come out to about 6-7 megs, way less than the camera's onboard 16MB capability. New firmware thanks to Rodrigo Balerdi fixes a numbering bug in the firmware, allows the picture limit to be set by the user, and resets the filename counter to 1 on each camera reset. Awesome.

Focus is fixed at about 3 feet to infinity, no macro here. And the viewfinder seems to be rather conservative, framing shots more narrowly than the lens actually sees them. Contrast sucks, and there's no white balance, lending a decidedly blue cast to pictures taken in fluorescent light.

Getting images off the camera is another issue. The interface is USB, but the connection port is nothing standard. I first used a piece of cardboard onto which I had superglued wires as my ghetto connector, but since then I have installed a proper USB-B port, allowing me to use a standard A-B cable. It's much better now.

I must admit that none of the actual hacking was done by me. However we all benefit from the efforts of those brave souls who dared explore the secrets of this camera.
Long live the $10.99 digital camera.

There's actually a Dakota Digital PV2 out with a LCD preview screen. That one's proving much harder to figure out, prompting the original hacker of the Dakota Digital to go as far as writing a disassembler for investigation of the camera's firmware. Check out this forum for the latest.


I suppose this is where the warning goes, the one that tells you not to steal my images. Like Mr. T, I pity the fool who doesn't ask first.

And if this is a place where you don't want to show your face, let me know.

So in the interest of being cool and all:

Copyright© me, 2003-2006.
All Rights Reserved. The management cannot be held responsible for any damages, mishaps, or other unfortunate happenings that result from viewing these images (the Images). You, the Viewer, assume all risk involved in viewing. Said Viewer by viewing the Images implicitly accepts these terms. The management will not and cannot be held accountable for any and all emotional trauma or scarring developed as a result of viewing the Images.

The Images are not authorized for use as critical components in life support devices or systems. Any attempt to use any Images for that purpose is null and void and the management accepts no liability whatsoever in contract, tort or otherwise whether or not resulting from our negligence or failure to detect an improper usage.

Last modified 16:16 PST 26 Nov 2006        [an error occurred while processing this directive] hits since 26 Nov 2006