Have you ever thought to yourself, "I wish the DSi camera could shoot closer photos?" Well, even if you didn't, Nyko's got you covered.
The third-party accessories manufacturer has made the Zoom Case, a form-fitting hard-shell case for your DSi which allows you to attach a lens for the outer DSi camera. And despite the name, it doesn't actually "zoom" — it's an 8x optical magnification lens, or simply, a magnifying glass for the camera. According to the press release, though, DSi owners will be able to "snap clearer photos with the external DSi camera from greater distances."
But remember: The DSi digital camera is 0.3 megapixels. So how much more crystal can these photos be? We took it for a test run and compared it to the other handheld camera on the iPhone (the 3G model with the 2.0-megapixel camera).
But what about the photo quality? Here are the photos, with and without the zoom lens on the DSi and ones we shot with the iPhone.
With the zoom lens:
Without the zoom lens:
With the iPhone:
With the zoom lens:
Without the zoom lens:
With the iPhone:
With the zoom lens:
Without the zoom lens:
With the iPhone:
So clearly, the iPhone takes better-quality photos than the DSi, but Nyko's Zoom Case lets you take up-close photos from afar; the iPhone can't zoom at all. The zoom lens also lets you manually focus on subjects at least three meters away. However, having not used the DSi camera extensively until now, we noticed that the onscreen glare makes it really difficult to see what you're shooting, with or without the zoom lens; thus, I had trouble focusing while in broad daylight. Or perhaps, the resolution on the DSi's screens is so low, that it's hard to tell if you're in focus anyway. So all in all, for $20, Nyko's Zoom Case suffices at helping you take up-close photos of faraway things — if you happen to only have a DSi handy, and not your regular digital camera.