Omni 2 12 Megapixel HN-8899

 

If there's an official website for Omni -- Not the hotel chain -- and this camera has a specs page, I'm not finding it. I did, however, find a person looking for a copy of the manual in 2011. I got you! 

Wonder if they folded or if someone bought them out.

Now, with 12 MP, we're not running the gamut on high-resolution photos here, but let's look at some context. Even when I sold phones in 2013, the Samsung Galaxy S4 had 13 MP for the rear camera. Why weren't leaps and bounds happening here? 

That's a story for another author.

The Omni 2 has a very plastic case. While I can't bend it greatly, I can still bend it, lending to a cheap feel. 

There's a very chunky USB port that I recognize.

I have another digital camera that's older than this and doesn't look nearly as outdated that also uses the cable. The slidey switch right above it (there's a blue line right beneath it) -- It may have originally been another focus feature, as there are icons of a flower and a figure of a human, but I flicked it and something rattled inside.

The associated cable also comes with two of the colored plugs we used to put into televisions; I guess we could broadcast blurry images to the masses if I so chose.

They don't make cables like this anymore!

The images are around 406,420 bytes, or 410 KBs on the disk, and 2048 x 1536 px. It takes 2 AAA batteries. I took a few photos with the stuff I keep on my desk. 

The white balance is awful, no matter which setting you select.  They're more akin to filters than adjustments. 

 

This was either 'Cloudy' or 'Tungsten'.

It looks a little better on a screen from 2019 than a tiny screen from 2006.

The macro setting is adjusted by a switch on the side. Flash is turned off automatically, and I thought it didn't work, the Busy light blinked red for about 20 seconds, before beeping and having a flash on symbol. 

The flash still overwhelms the subject, no matter how far you may be.

We can zoom in, but the camera doesn't take in light that well, so the reflection on the actual camera screen is still really dark; Who knows how much you've zoomed in until you snap a shot?

Curiously, in Mac OS's Preview, I can remove the background (a bit) and change it to a pdf -- But I see no reason to.

in 2006, the Omni 2 12 Megapixel HN-8899 would have been an nice toy for a budding photographer child, but in 2023, it's a quaint, if almost useless, piece of technology.