Someday soon, we will all be walking around with little wireless videopads that let us communicate with each other visually as well as audibly. This combination of computer/communicator I call a com (see my column Have com, will travel in the last issue of Pen Computing.) Such devices will be as common as cell phones in a few years, but until all the technologies and wireless infrastructure are in place it won't happen.
Casio has taken one of the necessary steps with their new Digital Camera Card (US$299) for their best-selling Cassiopeia E-100/105 palmsize PCs. This little (1.6 ounce) still and video camera gives us a glimpse of what it will be like to use a com, and it is pretty hard not to be excited by the possibilities.
This "camcard", if you will, is a Type II CompactFlash card with a lipstick case-like protrusion containing a 180¼ rotating lens. When you rotate the lens towards yourself it automatically flips the image so your face isn't upside-down. The module clicks into place on top of the PPC and can be locked there using the card lock switch on the back of the E- series machines. The unit is made of silver plastic, so I would not recommend leaving it jacked in all the time. Cameras, even digital ones, are inherently fragile machines due to the fine tolerances of their glass lens elements.
Speaking of lenses, this one has a fixed focal length equivalent to roughly 35mm on a 35mm camera. It has a fixed aperture of f/2.8, which is plenty fast for low light work but projects a narrower depth of field than some people might want. Such tiny lenses have inherently wider depth of field however, so you end up somewhere in between. The lens has a rotating bezel that lets you manually shift into macro, or close-up, mode. Normally, the focus minimum distance of the lens is 0.78m, but in macro it can focus as close as 10cm.
As you can see from the pictures on this page, this little camera isn't going to win anyone a Pulitzer Prize for photojournalism. In fact, the quality is terrible compared to a real digicam. However, this little card isn't about taking fabulous pictures, it's about communicating images easily. If all you want to do is capture a few moments of video of yourself in front of the Louvre to email to your friends, this is the camera to use. If you want to shoot magazine covers or even a respectable snapshot, buy a real camera.
Mobile Camera software
Casio includes well-written, useful utility software for their camera. You get the necessary Mobile Camera software for the E-100/105, which is your main control and viewing interface for both still images and video clips. The software is very well done, allowing you to create albums with different backgrounds and other thoughtful touches. Foe example, when shooting video or still images, the software lets you know how much time/pictures you have left using your PPC's available memory. You also get Windows software to convert Casio proprietary CMF video format into MPEG clips that can be viewed on your PC.
Images or clips you capture can be attached to email messages and sent off via wire or wirelessly. Casio's software allows you to specify three different levels of JPEG compression and you can shoot at half-VGA resolution for really small files.
Holding a Cassiopeia E-105 with this camcard attached is like holding a prototype of the future of handheld computing and communications. Some compromises are inevitable in such forward-looking machines, but such quibbles pale in comparison to the new possibilities they foretell.
-David MacNeill
