Tech Toys IIIDigital PhotographybyRobert Fabian |
A lot has been happening in the world of digital cameras. I decided it was time to take a look. I called HP and asked to borrow one of their popular digital cameras. They loaned me a Photo Smart C20.
I made several "discoveries" while working with the camera. To use the images captured by the camera, I needed to get them from the camera into my computer. My desktop computer has a second serial port that can be used for that purpose, but I had never used it.
This second serial port uses a different plug. Fortunately, I had a converter and was able to plug the camera into the computer. But Windows 95/98 did not "see" the camera. I made the physical connection easily enough, but the logical connection eluded me for some while.
It turned out that the BIOS was set with a "auto" option for the second serial port. My computer, at bootup, determined that the modem was using the second serial port. It decided that there was no need for another serial port.
After switching the "auto" to "comm3" and rebooting, Windows was able to see the other serial port. Everything then worked, but s-l-o-w-l-y. I had forgotten that serial ports default to 9600 bps. I reset the port to 115200 bps - much better.
While the camera has very simple optics, it does a surprisingly good job taking pictures. It uses a viewfinder with auto focus and auto exposure. You just point and shoot. The standard reuseable memory chip holds 8 high res, or 20 medium res, or 40 low res images.
I found that the camera would take reasonable pictures under a wide variety of conditions. And even when the original image was less than ideal, it was often possible to digitally enhance the image to produce a satisfactory result. My computer gave me the equivalent of a flexible darkroom, with the bonus of instant results.
For web use, I did not find a need for more than the camera's medium resolution. Even for snapshots, I did not need more than medium res. While high res isn't a photograph, it could be useful if you need to zoom to a portion of an image.
HP's estimated selling price for this camera is $700, with an effective cost of about $1.00 per printed page of images. That's too expensive to use for taking snapshots. But it's a very attractive for business images.
Within the next three or four years, I expect to see such cameras selling for $70, with printed images costing $0.25 per page. At that price, digital cameras will be a practical for snapshots. Today, I see them as practical for many business purposes.
HP almost seems to be anticipating that future market. They ship the camera with Microsoft's PictureIt! image processing software. That software is aimed at the home market. Microsoft must have given them a price that was just too good to pass up.
As mentioned, I didn't find a need for anything more than medium resolution images. The previous generation of digital cameras supports that resolution. They are now available through online auctions for less than $300. Now that's tempting, even for personal use.
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