Friday, May 9, 2003
IA Style CompactFlash Camera: Only for the Patient?
Posted by Jordan Rosenwald in "HARDWARE" @ 08:15 AM
Pictures on your PDA? Nothing new. Pictures taken BY your PDA? Still not all that new. But is the IA Style CompactFlash camera a must-have accessory for your PDA?
Out shopping? House hunting? At a party? I can think of a dozen reasons why having a light and portable camera, that can also take movies, and plugs into my ever-present PDA would be useful, fun or downright needed.
Figure 1: In the box: Camera, CD, Carrying Case, Manual. Simple.
First Impressions
To say I was excited to do this review would be a serious understatement. On top of it being my first hardware review, this is one category of peripherals I've been most excited to investigate.
So upon opening the box, I find the CF Camera, a CD, manual and a simple pouch for keeping the camera in. The camera itself is a simple looking device with a lens (duh) that can rotate 210 degrees and twists to accommodate either portrait or macro (close up) shots and a hardware button for taking pictures (although pictures can also be taken through the software, but more on that later).
Nice. Simple. Let's get installing.
Software
The camera comes with several applications on the CD, including drivers for the device. Fully functional software on the CD include:
Starting Up
So I begin by attaching my CF sleeve to my iPAQ and with my iPAQ powered on, I plug in the card. The radar begins to clock. Five seconds. 10 Seconds. Ah, I get the startup screen, where I can either register or continue on. I tell it to continue on. Five more seconds and I'm in. Not very excited by a 10-15 second start-up time, but not a big deal.
Figure 2: The main screen
Not sure why, but I always like to check out options and settings before I really begin to play with any new application. So off we go...
Options, options, options
Well the developers certainly didn't skimp on the options. The General tab gives you options for preview resolution and color or black and white. It lets you set a hardware button for taking a picture (seems to be overkill since the main screen has a capture button and the camera has a button as well). The tab also has the option for copying the picture directly to the clipboard instead of saving to a file. The File tab is where you can specify default file names (picture001, picture002, etc.) and the directory for video and images. It would have been nice for them to give you the ability to save images and videos in separate directories.
The third tab is for image options. It lets you pick what file format you want to save the picture in and what image quality and resolution you want to use. Finally, the fourth tab is for movie files, which is restricted to AVI by the way. This tab controls image quality, audio quality, and even gives you the option to save the movie as you're recording.
Main Screen
The layout of the main screen is very intuitive. At the top is the preview screen. Below it and to the left is a small window telling you what mode (picture or movie) you are in, as well as the resolution you're set to. Below that is a button for the 2x digital zoom, the minimize, close and help button.
To the right are buttons for launching IA Album in thumbnail and full-screen mode. On the bottom right of the screen are the buttons for Options, Capture, and Video Playback, as well as a slider for the 10 second timer.
Video Playback
To guarantee that anyone, using any Pocket PC, can play back the video, the camera records video to AVI. It would be great to see an update to the software that allows the user to choose format, since MPEG is played easily with third party software.
The playback screen is simple enough with the viewing area at the top of the screen and a list view of the AVIs at the bottom of the screen. Select the movie you want to play and click the play button. From this screen you can also view properties of the AVI, send the file via IR or email, or convert the AVI to an animated GIF.
Figure 3: Video playback screen is simply laid out
Time is on your side… or is it?
Below is a grid of what I find to be one of the most important factors in a camera - aside from picture quality - write times.
Sample Pictures
Gotchas
The CF Camera can be purchased from IA Style for $99.95.
Specifications
The following specifications are from the IA Style Web site.
Conclusion
Perhaps my little Sony DSC-P7 has spoiled me (and to be honest, I find its recovery time when using a flash to be a bit lagging), but I really found the write times and load times to be excessive. A camera like the IA Style CF Camera has its greatest use when needing to take quick pictures, where quality isn’t your highest demand (otherwise, shouldn’t you be using a 3+MP camera?). However, the load time exceeding 20-30 seconds, write times of 4-7 seconds (and there’s no flash recovering in that time) and AVIs taking nearly half a minute? All of these things contributed to me generally being displeased with the concept of a CF camera, which was something I had been pretty excited about going into this review.
Out shopping? House hunting? At a party? I can think of a dozen reasons why having a light and portable camera, that can also take movies, and plugs into my ever-present PDA would be useful, fun or downright needed.
Figure 1: In the box: Camera, CD, Carrying Case, Manual. Simple.
First Impressions
To say I was excited to do this review would be a serious understatement. On top of it being my first hardware review, this is one category of peripherals I've been most excited to investigate.
So upon opening the box, I find the CF Camera, a CD, manual and a simple pouch for keeping the camera in. The camera itself is a simple looking device with a lens (duh) that can rotate 210 degrees and twists to accommodate either portrait or macro (close up) shots and a hardware button for taking pictures (although pictures can also be taken through the software, but more on that later).
Nice. Simple. Let's get installing.
Software
The camera comes with several applications on the CD, including drivers for the device. Fully functional software on the CD include:
- IA Capture - The actual software for capturing pictures and movies.
- iView Cards - A replacement for the normal Contacts application which includes a spot for someone's picture, so you can keep faces and names together.
- IA Album - Image viewing and manipulation program.
- Ulead Photo Express - Freeware photo management software.
Starting Up
So I begin by attaching my CF sleeve to my iPAQ and with my iPAQ powered on, I plug in the card. The radar begins to clock. Five seconds. 10 Seconds. Ah, I get the startup screen, where I can either register or continue on. I tell it to continue on. Five more seconds and I'm in. Not very excited by a 10-15 second start-up time, but not a big deal.
Figure 2: The main screen
Not sure why, but I always like to check out options and settings before I really begin to play with any new application. So off we go...
Options, options, options
Well the developers certainly didn't skimp on the options. The General tab gives you options for preview resolution and color or black and white. It lets you set a hardware button for taking a picture (seems to be overkill since the main screen has a capture button and the camera has a button as well). The tab also has the option for copying the picture directly to the clipboard instead of saving to a file. The File tab is where you can specify default file names (picture001, picture002, etc.) and the directory for video and images. It would have been nice for them to give you the ability to save images and videos in separate directories.
The third tab is for image options. It lets you pick what file format you want to save the picture in and what image quality and resolution you want to use. Finally, the fourth tab is for movie files, which is restricted to AVI by the way. This tab controls image quality, audio quality, and even gives you the option to save the movie as you're recording.
Main Screen
The layout of the main screen is very intuitive. At the top is the preview screen. Below it and to the left is a small window telling you what mode (picture or movie) you are in, as well as the resolution you're set to. Below that is a button for the 2x digital zoom, the minimize, close and help button.
To the right are buttons for launching IA Album in thumbnail and full-screen mode. On the bottom right of the screen are the buttons for Options, Capture, and Video Playback, as well as a slider for the 10 second timer.
Video Playback
To guarantee that anyone, using any Pocket PC, can play back the video, the camera records video to AVI. It would be great to see an update to the software that allows the user to choose format, since MPEG is played easily with third party software.
The playback screen is simple enough with the viewing area at the top of the screen and a list view of the AVIs at the bottom of the screen. Select the movie you want to play and click the play button. From this screen you can also view properties of the AVI, send the file via IR or email, or convert the AVI to an animated GIF.
Figure 3: Video playback screen is simply laid out
Time is on your side… or is it?
Below is a grid of what I find to be one of the most important factors in a camera - aside from picture quality - write times.
| Format | Resolution | Write Time (in seconds) | JPEG | 320 x 240 | 4 |
| JPEG | 640 x 480 | 7 |
| GIF | 320 x 240 | 7 |
| GIF | 640 x 480 | 12 |
| Bitmap | 320 x 240 | 17 |
| Bitmap | 640 x 480 | 60 |
| AVI | 160 x 120 | 22 |
| AVI | 224 x 168 | 27 |
Sample Pictures
Gotchas
- Slow loading time
- Slow returning to application after minimizing
- Slow record times for AVIs
- Can’t record videos to MPEG
The CF Camera can be purchased from IA Style for $99.95.
Specifications
The following specifications are from the IA Style Web site.
- Sensor Type: 300,000 pixel CMOS Sensor
- Resolution: 640 × 480 pixels
- Bit Depth: 24-bit
- Capture Modes: Single Image/Movie
- Still Image Dimensions: 640 x 480, 320 x 240
- Video Dimensions: 160 x 120, 180 x 136
- Digital Zoom: 2x
- Plug & Play: Yes
- Swivel Lens: 210 degree
- Self Timer: 10 seconds
- Focal Range:
- Normal: 100cm (39.4"0 ~ infinite
- Macro: 40cm ~ 100cm (15.7" ~ 39.4")
- Drivers: 88KB
- IA Capture: 757.4KB
- iViewCards 629KB
Conclusion
Perhaps my little Sony DSC-P7 has spoiled me (and to be honest, I find its recovery time when using a flash to be a bit lagging), but I really found the write times and load times to be excessive. A camera like the IA Style CF Camera has its greatest use when needing to take quick pictures, where quality isn’t your highest demand (otherwise, shouldn’t you be using a 3+MP camera?). However, the load time exceeding 20-30 seconds, write times of 4-7 seconds (and there’s no flash recovering in that time) and AVIs taking nearly half a minute? All of these things contributed to me generally being displeased with the concept of a CF camera, which was something I had been pretty excited about going into this review.
