Creative PC-CAM 880

...was the PC-CAM 880 from Creative Technologies, a manufacturer with a good reputation in the electronic and computer peripherals market place. So I was as certain as I could be that I was making a good purchase. How wrong can you be? Ever since I bought the damned thing, it has caused me nothing but endless trouble. Let me start at the beginning.

~ ~ Home I go clutching my relatively inexpensive new toy, and I simply can’t wait to tear ...
...morning I log onto the Creative website to see if there is any fix there that will help me out. No luck!
I then start to use Google to see if I can resolve my problem that way. No luck!
So at this stage of proceedings I am able to take pictures with my new camera, but totally unable to download them onto my computer.

~ ~ My next course of action was to consult with the resident computer expert in the mad cabbies extended ... more

~ ~ The mad cabbie had been looking for an inexpensive digital camera for absolutely ages. I’d read sheaths of reviews here at Ciao, and scoured the computer mags that give comparisons, prices, and ratings for different makes and models.

~ ~ What appealed to me about a digital camera was the fact that I could simply upload my piccys onto the hard drive of my computer without first having to go through the process of having them developed, and then scanning in the ones I wanted to use with reviews, articles, features, etc.
There was also the fact that I would save considerable wedges of cash as I would no longer have to buy countless rolls of film, half of which was wasted on pictures that were either of poor quality, or which I didn’t want to keep. With a digital camera I could discard bad pictures either on the spot, or later when I downloaded them onto my computer, and use the same memory over and over again ad infinitum.

~ ~ I’m not techy minded, but what I took most from the various reviews I read was that one of the most important factors with a digital camera was the amount of picture resolution it offered, measured in “megapixels”. I don’t have an earthly clue what a megapixel is, but understood enough to understand that the more of them you had, the better chance you had of getting good quality pictures. The more individual wee dots that go into making up the whole picture, then the sharper and clearer the picture will be, much in the same way as more individual lines in a TV picture make for a better viewing image. (So Digital TV is better than the old analogue system)

~ ~ The problem I have is that (in common with lots of other Scots, heh, heh) I love a bargain, and tend to be very cautious when purchasing something in order to make sure I’m getting the very best value for my hard earned spondoolicks.
So when I spotted an advert in the newspaper for Power City (a local Irish electrical superstore) offering a 3.1 megapixel resolution digital camera for only €99, then I was tempted to say the least. In fact, so tempted was I that I immediately got in the car and went up with two €50 notes in my pocket and bought it instantly, as it was the best price I had seen for a camera offering this amount of resolution.

~ ~ The camera in question was the PC-CAM 880 from Creative Technologies, a manufacturer with a good reputation in the electronic and computer peripherals market place. So I was as certain as I could be that I was making a good purchase. How wrong can you be? Ever since I bought the damned thing, it has caused me nothing but endless trouble. Let me start at the beginning.

~ ~ Home I go clutching my relatively inexpensive new toy, and I simply can’t wait to tear off the brightly coloured (slightly gaudy, if the truth be known) packaging to get my mitts on it.
Comprehensive instructions are included in the multi-language instruction manual on how to go about installing it on your home PC, for all the most common operating systems. I currently run Windows 98SE on both my PC and laptop, and this was no problem. So I insert the accompanying CD into the drive, and follow the instructions (both on-screen and from the booklet) religiously.
All is well, apart from one rather important factor. My PC will simply NOT recognise the new hardware! I try for the whole evening to resolve the problem, thinking that in my technical ignorance I must be doing something incredibly stupid that is causing the difficulty. No luck! The next morning I log onto the Creative website to see if there is any fix there that will help me out. No luck!
I then start to use Google to see if I can resolve my problem that way. No luck!
So at this stage of proceedings I am able to take pictures with my new camera, but totally unable to download them onto my computer.

~ ~ My next course of action was to consult with the resident computer expert in the mad cabbies extended family, a nephew of my wife (let’s call him Bill) who is in his final year of a computer science degree at Trinity College. Another frustrating few hours followed where Bill tried everyway he knew how to get the PC to recognise the camera. Finally we resorted to attempting to load it onto my laptop instead. Again, the same problem. The computer simply wouldn’t recognise the new hardware, and kept telling us we needed a new driver.
So we scour the Creative website once again. No fixes listed, no new updated drivers listed; plenty of fancy advertising for their extensive range of products, but that was about it. We then try the various websites for downloading new drivers, try a few of those, and STILL no luck!
So we go out Bill’s gaff, and try loading it onto his PC, which uses Windows 2000, thinking that possibly the problem is with the operating system. Exact same result as we were getting on my own PC!
Next day we were visiting my brother-in-law, who works for a major telecom company, and who has forgotten more about computers than I ever knew. I took my laptop with me, but the same scenario played out all over again. So we try it on his computer, which runs on Windows XP Home Edition. Same problems!

~ ~ Let me add at this point that I had bought the Creative camera only a few days before we were due to go on our annual holiday. (This year it was the south west of France) So I was rather keen to get it operating somehow. Add to this the fact that the mad cabbie is sometimes rather loath to admit he has made a mistake. (Character defect!) My ire was well and truly up, and I was determined to get it to work somehow.
OK. One of the features of the PC-CAM 880 is that you can load in a memory stick (up to 128MB) to supplement the built-in memory of 16MB that the camera already has. So Bill and I hotfoot it down to the local computer store (Compustore) and purchase a 64MB memory stick, and a multi-card reader for the PC. I might add that this cost me a further €70 on top of the €99 I had already spent on the camera, but I wasn’t too concerned as it had always been my intention to buy some extra memory capacity in any case.
Oh, wonderful. Both the computer and the laptop recognise the new card reader, I slot in the memory card to the little compartment on the side of the camera, and at long last I’m ready to view my photographic masterpieces!

~ ~ Let me tell you about my photographic skills. They’re about as advanced as my techy knowledge of computers!
What I want from a camera is the ability to “point and shoot”. I don’t want to have to be messing about with exposure rates, light settings, and a whole plethora of other technical gobbledigook. Which is why our old 35mm camera is an Olympus Trip, which does all that for you. All you have to do is point it in the right direction, press the button, and (usually) you get a decent enough snapshot. So this is what I was looking for with my new Creative camera.
Did I get it? Well, the answer is both yes and no.
The camera is simple enough to actually use. You turn on the power, (2 x AAA batteries) and set it to picture mode. Again, this is simple enough, as there is a “mode” button with that allows you to either take pictures or view the ones you have already taken. On the back is both a standard viewfinder, and a 1.6-ich LCD display. So you either use the viewfinder, or look at what is displayed in the LCD display, and press the button to take or view your piccy. It (supposedly) has a built-in intelligent flash, which will come on automatically when it senses you are taking pictures in a light setting that needs some further illumination. (Like indoor shots) So why were the majority of my pictures so fuzzy as to be practically unusable?
Again, I thought I must be doing something incredibly stupid, so went back to the instruction manual to totally familiarise myself with all the workings of the camera. Hold on though! There’s a detailed picture of the camera itself, along with instructions telling you what all the different little buttons are for. But there are NO instructions whatsoever to enlighten you as to what the various functions are for that are constantly being displayed on the little LCD screen. So I’m as much in the dark now as the day I bought it as to exactly what all the little icons this camera displays are actually for! My wee lass (13-years-old) is usually far better than her old dad at working out these things, but despite her best efforts we still couldn’t figure out the workings of the camera. So here’s my question for the good folks at Creative. Why do you assume that everyone who buys one of your cameras is a technical whiz kid, and why don’t you give basic instructions on how to actually use your product? Get your act together folks!!
I’ve since managed to work out how to delete unwanted pictures, (most of the ones I’ve taken!) and it wasn’t too difficult to figure out how to use the 4 x digital zoom facility. But that’s about as far as I’ve got, and I have NO idea how to go about figuring out how to use any of your more advanced features! Having said all that, it IS possible to take a clear, sharp picture using this camera. (Look at some of the piccys I’ve included with this review) But it’s totally “hit and miss” as to how your picture is going to turn out. If Creative had bothered to include a proper instruction manual, then surely this wouldn’t be the case.

~ ~ I suppose for the sake of thoroughness I should include some of the other features and extras you get with this camera.
You can also use it as a webcam, not something that’s high on my own personal priority list, but it might be important to other potential users. Creative even include a small plastic stand for the top of your computer if you want to use it for this purpose. By the way, it connects to your PC or laptop via any available USB port, and the cable for doing this is included in the kit.
Supposedly you can also use it for taking short video clips up to 98 seconds in length. Again, not high on my priority list, as I already have an excellent Sony video camera, but it WOULD be handy if I knew how to use it in this mode. (How about telling me Creative!) Included is a simulated leather (plastic) carrying case to protect the camera, and it’s small enough to slip easily into your pocket with ease. It also has a TV-out facility. (What’s that exactly?)
They say you can make perfect 6” x 8” prints, which I believe as I’ve printed off some of my better efforts on photographic paper and they look fine.
Included in the software bundle is something called the “Creative Camera Centre”, which is a poorer version of Adobe Photoshop, (which I already have) to allow you to view, edit, store or share your snap shots. This also caused me untold hassle, as I loaded it onto my computer to see what it was like, decided I was happy enough with Adobe, and so tried to uninstall it. It didn’t want to uninstall, and kept throwing up an (unwanted) icon on my desktop every time I turned on my PC. (I’ve now got rid of it totally using a new little bit of software called “Reg Edit” which I downloaded after reading a good review from “thingywhatsit”. Thanks Rachel)

~ ~ So does the Creative PC-CAM 880 get a good recommendation from the mad cabbie? You must be bloody joking!!! Avoid this product like you would an outbreak of the bubonic plague.

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PS. I’m aware that the camera is listed for sale at Amazon at only £49.99 (€74.30) in the Ciao links, but the item has now been discontinued. (Wonder why? Maybe because it’s not worth tuppence!)

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PPS. Apologies for lack of piccys with this review. I'm doing my best to upload some that I took with this camera from floppy discs loaded from my laptop, but without success. Hopefully I'll mange to get some loaded soon. But take my word for it, they are awful quality.

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© KenJ July 2004

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