Intel PC Camera Pocket

...turned out to be the Intel Pocket PC Camera, what’s included:

Convenient snapshot button
Focus dial
Tilt-swivel base
Tripod socket
USB cable
Batteries
Wrist strap and carrying case.
Quick reference field guide

The camera itself doesn’t very high tech, it looks very much like a kiddie camera, grey and blue plastic material with the work Intel on the front.

...
...the updated drivers from the Intel website, once you get to website it’s fairly self-explanatory. The set up took around 20 minutes. The camera is connected to the PC by a USB cable and that’s the installation taken care of.

With the camera you can take pictures and record video anywhere, create PC movies, make clear video phone calls and send e-mail postcards.

We haven’t quite done all the things the camera can be ... more

Firstly I must apologise for the title, very cheesy, but I love it!

So, birthday time came round again for my other half and I was receiving texts left, right and centre asking what to get him, like I was supposed to know? It was his birthday the next day and I still didn’t have anything! As we had just got a home PC a friend asked if he would like some hardware, software etc. He then came up with the idea of a web cam, I wasn’t too impressed with the idea but said yes as I really couldn’t think of what else he could get him, at least then if I got a bit low on cash I could always set up my own little sideline….!

The next day they popped round with the pressie and handed it over, how lovely, a toy to play with. Should keep him busy for hours!

It turned out to be the Intel Pocket PC Camera, what’s included:

Convenient snapshot button
Focus dial
Tilt-swivel base
Tripod socket
USB cable
Batteries
Wrist strap and carrying case.
Quick reference field guide

The camera itself doesn’t very high tech, it looks very much like a kiddie camera, grey and blue plastic material with the work Intel on the front.

The Intel pocket camera is compatible with Windows 98, 98 SE and millennium edition. We have Windows XP home edition, so we had to get the updated drivers from the Intel website, once you get to website it’s fairly self-explanatory. The set up took around 20 minutes. The camera is connected to the PC by a USB cable and that’s the installation taken care of.

With the camera you can take pictures and record video anywhere, create PC movies, make clear video phone calls and send e-mail postcards.

We haven’t quite done all the things the camera can be used for as I’m not that technical, we have however taken the camera off the stand, added the batteries that are included and took it off to France with us. The picture resolution is 640x480 while on high quality mode and 320x240 on normal resolution. You can change this by using the mode button.

There only three buttons on the whole camera and they are the on/off switch, one beep means the camera is in focus and ready to go, two beeps means the camera is out of focus and three beeps means the batteries are low.

Mode cycles through different camera modes, you can choose high quality, normal quality, timer (wait 10 seconds before taking the snapshot, timer light shows countdown), multi snap (takes five snaps one after another)

Snapshot, this is the button you use to take snapshots, multi pictures, starts timer, captures video clips (this captures up to 10 seconds)

While taking pictures the camera warns if you need more exposure due to low levels of light, the tripod is recommended for this.

On the small LCD display on the top this shows the battery levels, whether the camera shot is in focus or not, the focus ring on the front should be used when the display shows the camera is out of focus, there is also the snapshot indicator, you can take up to 128 high quality pictures or 2 minutes of video.

The first time my other half used it I was at work and received a mail off him, he never e-mails me! I opened the attachment and found a wonderful picture of him with the biggest, silliest Cheshire cat grin you have ever seen!

We also used the camera while at Mont St. Michel and decided as we didn’t have to worry about wasting any pictures as if we didn’t like any we could just delete them, when we got back we popped the camera onto the stand and plugged it in, getting and downloading the pictures was just too easy, even I managed it! The quality was amazing, it’s a real shame we didn’t have the camera for our last few holidays and whilst in Paris, I would have loved to have taken some photo‘s of Notre Dame or the Eiffel Tower, I always knew I was never going to be David Bailey but the old camera made my pictures terrible, this camera proves that it wasn’t me after all!

The camera was bought from PC World, it cost £30, what a bargain, we now know what an advantage a digital camera would be. We love it and even though it’s not the most technical, top of the range camera in the world (far from it) it’s easy to use and it’s good enough for what we need. I would highly recommend this to the technically challenged (such as myself) or those that want a cheap camera that does the job.

There is also a customer support line should you need any help, for the UK it's 0870 607 2439 and there is also Intel www support, go to http://support.intel.com/support/crateshare/camerapack/

Thank you all for reading.

Paula
 

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