Thanko's Spy Button Camera gets an upgrade

Tokyo-based USB gadget maker Thanko gave us a video camera button last July, which was basically a mini camera for your shirt or jacket that could be used for secretly recording video. And today the company started selling the second version [JP] of the Spy Button Camera whose main new feature is the sound recording function.

So now you have a device that shoots video (AVIs in 720 x 480 and at 30fps) and JPEGs (in 1,280 x 1,024), but which also lets you store sounds. The Spy Button Camera weighs 20g and is powered by a lithium-ion battery that lets you shoot up to 70 minutes of video. As the device has no internal memory, you’ll need to get a microSD card for it (cards holding up to 16GB are supported).

All the material you recorded can be transferred to your PC via USB, but only Windows XP/Vista and 7 machines are supported. The new camera doesn’t have a remote control anymore, meaning you have to push a button on the device itself to start the recording (see picture above).

Thanko already started selling the Spy Button Camera on their Japanese website (price: $55 including six buttons). If you live outside Japan, you can ask import/export specialist Geek Stuff 4 U if they can get one for you.