"Oh, yeah? Can your camera become a web cam and a flash drive aside from taking pictures and videos?"

You wouldn't want this conversation to happen to you especially when you are considered a techie, right? Well, it's not too late to get the BENQ DC E300.

At first I can't believe it until I've tried it. Being small and lightweight (weighing in at about 82 grams without the batteries and memory card), it carries a variety of functions that a lot of entry-level (or even mid-range priced) cameras cannot do.

The DC E300 is a three megapixel camera which has a built-in 14 Mb memoory. Despite the small capacity, an SD expansion slot is available so you can extend your memory up to 512 Mb. But if you're just going to use the DC E300 for gimmicks or other unexpected events that may occur in your everyday life the built-in storage will do.

Aside from taking pictures, yes, it can take videos too. Although without any audio recording capability, silent videos are not that bad. Besides, if you don't to take videos with your DC E300, you can actually make it into a PC camera (or webcam).

The PC camera feature is also compatible with Windows NetMeeting, which enables you to do videoconferencing. Since I don't do videoconferencing online, I tend to skip this feature and focused on more picture taking.

And what's sweet about the DC E300 when it is used as a PC camera, you don't need to use any batteries (the camera uses 2 AAA-sized batteries by the way). It will automatically power on when connected to the computer via USB.

Navigating through the different modes may be confusing at first but you'll get used to it easily.

The DC E300 that we got for this review came with the necessary accesories like the camera case, USB cable, hand strap and CD driver (with Ulead Photo Express and Photo Explore). Although it doesn't come with an SD card for storage upgrade and rechargeable batteries which are sold separately and are available in most computer, gadget and photo shops.

So for newbies who want to get your money's worth, the BenQ-Siemens DC E300 is the right choice. Big things do come and small packages. But with this one, it has a few little twists.