Take Your Web Cam For A Walk

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Take Your Web Cam For A Walk
by Bonny L. Georgia (10/11/00; 9:00 a.m. ET)
URL: http://www.planetit.com/techcenters/docs/mobile_wireless-notebooks/product_review/PIT20001018S0020
Paying $300 to $500 may get you a megapixel digital camera capable of snapping sharp, high-quality images at home and at work, but if you want to do video conferencing or capture full-motion video for your Web site you're probably out of luck. Web cams handle these jobs nicely, but the video clips you can shoot are limited to what's within reach of the cable or where you can easily drag your laptop.
The $149 Intel Pocket PC camera may well be the perfect compromise. While attached to your computer by its USB cable, the Pocket PC can transmit crisp videophone signals or capture an unlimited number of AVI video clips. Disconnect it from your desktop and it becomes a rugged, pocket-sized digital still camera you can use to snap up to 128 photos in 640 by 480 resolution, or up to twelve ten second silent videos in 160x120-pixel AVI format.
Setting up the Pocket PC camera took about ten minutes. Once the included Create & Share software was installed, I rebooted my PC and plugged in the camera, which sits in a handy swivel-based cradle while it's attached to the computer. Once I launched the Create & Share application, I was prompted to view the online manuals -- the only paper documentation is a quick setup guide -- and asked if I'd like to e-mail friends to tell them I could now communicate using Microsoft NetMeeting.
This same Create & Share interface integrates all the basic photo and movie editing tasks you would expect with templates for designing video e-mail, picture postcards, and family Web pages. An auto snapshot feature lets you capture and send images from your camera at pre-determined intervals. If you or your kids are really bored, four camera-related games are included that incorporate your live video image. You also get copies of NetMeeting for video conferencing and MGI Photosuite III SE for picture tweaking.
For $149 you certainly can't expect high-end still camera features or megapixel image quality, but what you do get does not disappoint. In walkabout camera mode you can alternate between snapping single shots, five shots in rapid succession, or ten-second video clips. A ten second timer gives you a chance to get in the picture, too. There are no complicated controls to learn -- just an on/off button, a shutter button, and a mode key for switching options.
Live videos transmitted by the Pocket PC were consistently bright and crisp, even when shot in moderate to low lighting; however, indoor photos tend to be grainy and lack contrast because the camera does not have a flash. The shutter speed is not fast enough to handle a moving subject, but high-resolution still images shot outside or in bright indoor lighting have good color and are sharp enough to use on Web pages or share with friends. Thankfully, Intel makes getting pictures off your camera using the Create and Share software as easy as getting them in it.
Is there room for improvement? Absolutely. No flash or LCD viewer at this price is hardly surprising, but 8MB of non-upgradable memory instead of a removable memory card is a shame. It would also be nice to be able to record two full minutes of video in memory instead of just 10-second video clips, and providing a way to dump photos from memory while you're away from the desktop would also be a welcome option.
These caveats notwithstanding, the Pocket PC's bang for the buck far outstrips other Web cam or videoconferencing devices. As a digital still camera it's no slouch, and video capture of any kind in a unit at this price is icing on the cake. Overall, the Pocket PC proves itself a powerful and versatile image capture tool even tiny budgets can afford, earning it a spot on our WinList.

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