I purchased the Intel Pocket PC Camera to satisfy the
digital craving - get pix on the web fast, be able to
fiddle with pictures and movies on the pc.
Installation was easy. I only have 2 USB ports, both
in use (Mouse and Printer), so I had to swap it with
the printer regularly.
I was able to take pictures and desktop video and
all easily. I love how tiny the camera is. Intel
included a little case that you can attach to your
belt and carry it around. I did that for over a
week, taking pictures and mini movies everywhere.
When connected to the computer, the camera can focus
fairly close, and can adapt to a wide range of light.
The video (and audio) capturing was excellent (via USB,
the standalone video is different.) It would be great
for video conferencing use and occasional snapshots,
though you may need a better desk tripod; I couldn't
get the little stand Intel supplies to stay on top of
my monitor (for video conferencing, you usually want
the camera close to what you're looking at.)
The standalone video takes a (silent) movie while
you hold the button down. It's pretty good at what
it does, but you need to be close to your subject
since it uses 160x120 for these. This feature is
more for entertaining kids than anything practical.
You can take movies as long as you wish, up to 10
seconds. You can fit a number of movies in memory:
a 10-second movie consumes 9 640x480 picture slots
(so I'd estimate 140 seconds max).
There's some simple movie-assembly software included,
which we used to put together a few of the movie clips
with some sound effects. It's easy to use but it's a
toy since there's much you'd want to do with it on even
your first movie that you can't do, such as make sound
that crosses two clips, or have an action scene
transition to another action scene without a freeze in
the middle. But, I think it's great for kids (under 13).
It does fades and titles and lets you insert still pictures
for N seconds.
Now some problems...
Whenever I'd used the Intel software, I'd have weird
PC problems, often requiring a power cycle (really
locked up). When I'd shut down normally, it would
hang and I'd have to power down.
I also use Homesite for web page editing, and that
stopped working (wouldn't start) after Intel install.
The pictures are highly compressed (JPEG) and so if
you're taking a picture of faces, you need to be close
or the face detail will be blotchy. 640x480 can
do much better than this (though with fewer pictures
in memory.) The same camera taking pictures when
connected to the PC does a much better job, so I know
it's the compression and not the optics.
I took a few pictures at the circus, and I could see the
dark crowd and the ring, but the performers, who were
well-lit, came out completely white. I have no idea
how to get a shot like this with this camera since you
can't adjust anything. I'd imagine most digital cameras
have this poor dynamic range as well.
At the time of this writing, I de-installed all the
software (I use GoBack) so I can again use Homesite.
I'm not sure when or where I'll re-install, but I'm
happy to have a stable PC again!
I wish they had a bare-bones "get the pictures off
the camera" program that didn't require many megabytes
of cutsie-but-soon-boring games and sample movies etc.
You can't simply connect the camera and use Windows
Explorer to drag and drop the files off the camera like
you can with some cameras. You have to use the Intel
CreateShare software.
There's a "Gallery" where you naturally put all your
pictures. It automatically makes thumbnails (mini pix)
from your pictures or movies so it's easy to find that
picture. It's frustrating if you try to rearrange your
pictures so they're not all in one huge pile. You can't
simply drag and drop a thumbnail to move a picture to
another gallery. (I think you have to move it to
a directory, then add the files in that directory to
another gallery.)
I paid $110 at CompUSA but I think they mispriced it.
In short, I think this is a fun, cool camera good
for a variety of video/photo purposes, but be on the
alert for software problems.
Takes both photo and video images 640 x 480 maximum resolution 16.8 million colors 8 MB flash memory Up to 30 frames per second in full-motion video, ...More at Amazon Marketplace
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