The Toy This Japanese import may be lacking in megapixels, but it doubles down on cuteness. At 2.4 inches long and 0.8 inches thick, the Mr. Digital Clover Keychain Camera fits in a front pocket, and is right at home attached to your everyday keyring -- the pleasantly grippy rubber coating protects it from getting scratched by your keys. The most delicate parts aren't exposed to pocket abuse, either -- to use it, pull one end outward until the lens cover slides away and the petite viewfinder pops up. Super kawaii! Unfortunately, that's just about where the pros end. With only a 2-megapixel sensor and barely a lens to speak of, the Mr. Digital Clover is marketed as "loveably lo-fi." The images and video are certainly lo-fi, but not all that loveable. Any vignetting or other type of endearing degredation is minimal at best. Photos taken with the 1600x1200-resolution high setting look pretty good -- when you can hold the camera still enough for your scene to stay in focus. Snapping photos with the f2.8 lens in anything but bright, natural sunlight is basically out of the question. The 10fps silent videos I shot with it do have a cool 8mm feel to them -- perfect if you want to make a fun, retro-style home movie. Whether you shoot video or take a photo, there is a large amount of shutter lag -- at least one second. It seems like an eternity. The biggest problem with the Mr. Digital Clover Keychain Camera (found elsewhere online in various iterations as the VQ2005) is that it appears to have a serious battery drain issue. I went through one AAA battery per day while I was testing this guy. A brand-new full battery drops to about half charge within about 10 to 15 minutes of continuous use, or around 10 photos. For something this tiny, that's a huge flaw. WIRED Scores high with the cute factor and takes fun, retro-looking silent videos. Straightforward to operate. To swap between settings (high, medium or low resolution image, or video), you tap the power button. Inexpensive. TIRED Serious battery problems. Frustrating software issues -- Error 58? What does that mean? THE MANUAL IS IN JAPANESE. Only has 4MB of storage, so you'll need to purchase an SD card separately. I wouldn't pay $5 for this thing, much less $55. Mr. Digital Clover Keychain Camera, $55

The Old Fashioned The only way you could get classier than the Minox Classic Mini Digital Camera is if you actually purchased a Leica M3. And we all know how likely that is. The tiny shooter is styled after the silver spy camera CIA operatives used in the 1940s. It's got a removable viewfinder up top and a host of realistic-looking knobs that are, unfortunately, just for decoration. It's pretty, though. The palm-sized camera can take 5.1-megapixel stills and shoot up to one minute of 320x240 video -- not too great. Three distance settings (0.5 meters, 1 meter and infinity) help make sure you can capture your subject in focus, whether it's a city skyline or a portrait of a friend. It accepts SD cards (up to 16GB, not included) and has 128MB of onboard storage. The internal lithion-ion battery recharges over USB, which is also how you unload photos. Pictures generally look good -- about iPhone quality -- but there's no image stabilization, so if you're heavy-handed with the shutter you'll end up with blurry shots. I wish Minox had added some filter options to this camera so photos ended up with a nostalgic feel on par with the camera's look. If you're thinking this would make a good gift, you should know Minox doesn't skimp on presentation. The company understands this is more of a fashion item than a serious camera, so it arrives in a delightful wooden gift box. WIRED Oozes style. Good photos. Optical viewfinder is a nice touch, but a two-inch LCD viewfinder is there as well. On-screen menus look like a throwback to Windows 95 -- in a good way. TIRED Unwieldy shape necessitates deep jacket pocket or in-bag storage. It's not going to replace a regular point-and-shoot or your smartphone camera, but that's not why you're buying it in the first place. Minox Classic Mini Digital Camera 5.1, $179