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Kodak PalmPix Digital Camera for Palm Handhelds

Kodak PalmPix Digital Camera for Palm Handhelds

List Price: $49.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Disappointing performance
Review: The camera will not take an acceptable picture under incandescent lighting - it will generate a very red image. Even out of doors, the image is badly blurred around the edges; only the middle half of the image is sharp. The "preview image" (ie the viewfinder) is very blocky and in grey only, making it hard to recognize where the camera is pointing. The display of images after they have been taken uses a very poor color mapping - much worse than what the Palm IIIc is capable of.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Disappointing performance
Review: The camera will not take an acceptable picture under incandescent lighting - it will generate a very red image. Even out of doors, the image is badly blurred around the edges; only the middle half of the image is sharp. The "preview image" (ie the viewfinder) is very blocky and in grey only, making it hard to recognize where the camera is pointing. The display of images after they have been taken uses a very poor color mapping - much worse than what the Palm IIIc is capable of.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not quite there yet.
Review: The PalmPix is compact and light weight. The price is good and the idea is great. But unfortunately the picture quality is not quite there. The picture on the palm is almost unusable, but once you hotsync (which takes longer than advertised) is still is not a very good quality picture. Not much detail. I am not sure what application or situation this product would work for, but I think I will wait till next year -- hopefully the technology will be better. This year I am sending back the Palm Pix

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best price-value deal for Palm III/V users
Review: This camera is really awesome. You can't expect 8 megapixel photos quality, but if you always have your Palm with you (as I do) is invaluable to have this camera at hand for those moments when you need one (your standard camera is another gadget you can left at home). It's true, bad light conditions give bad pictures, but with good lights, the quality is unsurpased for the dollar (I also have a 4Mpix camera). For me, and my 6mo old daugther, is the always ready camera.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Getting Maximum Enjoyment from your PalmPix
Review: This camera is really handy! I love its portability and ease-of-use!

Once I got the knack of taking good pictures (e.g. keeping still, natural sunlight conditions, etc.), how did I make sure I got maximum enjoyment of the pix I took?

Here are a few tips I can offer:

1. Set your HotSynch conduit to save your images as .BMP files. These do take up more space, but this also means you have more 'raw data' to play around with if you are going to do any editing or enhancements.

Explanation: A Palmpix 640x480 image will be saved in a 72 dpi format if saved as a JPG file. This translates to approx 200k. If saved as a BMP file, it will be saved in 150 dpi (dots-per-inch) format, which will be approx 900k of disk space. This gives you DOUBLE the resolution, which is useful is you want to play around with your photo.

2. Use a desktop-based photo album/enhancer to store your photos, and to convert from .BMP format to e-mail or web-ready JPG files. Many are available via downloads, with prices from FREE to $100-and-over. (I use a freeware editor by Adobe, downloaded from www.activeshare.com)

Explanation: This is indispendable for organizing and retrieving your photos! Be sure to delete the original photos from your PalmPix directory so as not to store duplicate files.

3. Get a handy Palm viewer for your photos. Again, many are available via download, with prices from FREE to $20-and-over. (I use a $20 Palm OS album which I downloaded from www.splashdata.com -- it gave me the best viewing quality on my Palm IIIC)

Explanation: what use is a portable camera if you can't view pictures too? Personally, I've deleted many of my AvantGo channels to make way for my collection of photos 8-)

4. Try to get a small travel pouch for your Palm Pix, and be sure to throw in a small bag of dessicant (i.e. silicon gel) to keep the lens of your Palm Pix nice and dry.

Explanation: if you live in a humid environment as I do, there is a risk that molds will form on the lens. The dessicant reduces the risk.

Hope that helps!

Note: I do not work for any of the companies whose products are mentioned here, I'm just a satisfied user of their products!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Mostly a good camera, though excellent at lighting.
Review: This camera is small and makes 24-bit 640x480 pictures that look good. In excessive light or darkness conditions the camera takes a while (about 4 seconds) to adjust sensitivity, but it will make the picture. You can move as much as you want and you almost never get any 'smear', which is nice if you want to make a lot of action shots. The 2 AAA batteries are good for around 300 pictures. The disadvantages of the camera are it's zoom and palm display capabilities. the claimed '2x digital zoom in 640x480 mode' is not true; it can only zoom in 320x200 mode. This makes it hard to get close-ups of anything. Also, the picture on the box showing your palm screen with the picture is also not quite true- the quality on the palm display is lousy at best, enough to see the picture will look great once transferred, but not good enough to actually take along and show to people. It's also quite sturdy- I have dropped it twice and it's got a few scratches, but it still works fine.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Great Sub-$100 Digital Camera for the Palm IIIc
Review: This camera works really well with a Palm IIIc. It was on salefor only ... as Deal of the Day at ... so I picked it up and then came back to Amazon for a Palm IIIc with ... off and no tax.

Since this is a low price "fun camera" which doesn't have all the fancy features like other higher priced ones, there are several things you need to know in order to get the optimum quality.

1. Download the latest driver from Kodak. Don't use the one that came with the camera which is probably the outdated v1.00 or v1.20. By using the latest driver, your picture and preview quality does improve.

2. Obviously, it doesn't provide flash. Don't try to take a picture in the dark unless you have abundant light source or if the object itself provides extremely high luminance that brightens up the entire area (for example: movie screen, monitor, outdoor fireworks, etc). Daytime especially noon when the sun's out provides the best natural lighting.

3. Always use 640x480. Never use 320x240 and don't bother with the 2x zoom feature. The 2x zooming simply crops the center part of the screen and shows it to you at 320x240. For a nice close up view, just walk closer to the object but no closer than 4 feet away. Otherwise, it might look blurry.

4. Take still shots. Make sure no objects are moving and keep your arms still. You can tell if you'll get a nice shot by observing changes in pixels on your preview screen. When you've reached the point where you can hardly see movement in pixels, that's when you take the shot. Keep it still after you press the Date Book button until the preview screen sharpens up and Palm starts saving.

5. Use an 8 meg Palm. Each 640x480 jpeg requires roughly 200k of free space. If you have about 4 megs of free space like my Palm IIIc does, you'll have room for saving at least 20 pics. On my Palm m100, I have only 500-600k left so that gives me say...3 pics? If you're using Palm m100 which only has 2 megs, I really wouldn't recommend getting the m100 version of the PalmPix.

6. After you sync your Palm, edit the pics by resampling it to 320x240 or 50% of the original resolution for highest quality and save it in 16.7 million color .bmp or use the lowest compression in jpeg. A "sharpen" filter might also enhance the photo depending on the type of object in the pic. For printing, keep it at 640x480 and use 300 dpi to get a nice print out sized roughly 2.1"x1.6". It's perfect for a personal portrait.

Overall, this is an excellent little gadget for capturing images to be used on a website or emailed to family and friends. The hardware itself is very limited but you CAN produce quality pics if you learn to work with it. PalmPix is by far the best digital camera I've seen that retails for under ....

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Cute but disappointing
Review: This is a cute little camera attachment for Palm III (etc) devices that promises little and delivers less. I am especially disappointed by the quality of the pictures. Sure, it maxes out at 640x480, so I shouldn't expect much, but noticeably chunky dithering occurs even with the best stability, lighting, and subject contrast range. This alone makes the camera inappropriate for anything more than the most inconsequential noodling around. In addition, manufacturing/design flaws hamper ease-of-use. In the unit I own, the plane of focus is not parallel to the display on my Palm IIIxe, forcing me to hold the unit slightly above eye-level and tilt my head back awkwardly to correctly frame lansdcape pictures, and aim slightly to the right of center for portrait. Since the display of Palm III devices depends on ambient light for contrast resolution, this makes previewing, framing, and shooting quite difficult. If anything, the plane of focus should be skewed the other way, allowing me to hold the unit in a slightly more comfortable position.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An astonishing harbinger of what's to come
Review: This little inexpensive device handles diverse lighting conditions (flourescent, incandesecent, daylight, mixed, bright or dim) with astonishing grace. The pics are reminiscent of Type C prints, gentle even in contrasty situations. You don't have a flash, and you rarely would want one, the pictures are much nicer than the flat "flash face" you get from most inexpensive cameras. The capture technology is CMOS rather than CCD, perhaps we'll see a lot more CMOS to come. Resolution is low,... This is a delightful product.


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