Windows Phone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

Check out the hottest Windows Mobile devices at our Expansys store!


Digital Home Thoughts

Loading feed...

Laptop Thoughts

Loading feed...

Android Thoughts

Loading feed...




Go Back   Thoughts Media Forums > WINDOWS PHONE THOUGHTS > Windows Phone Hardware

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 09-08-2003, 05:30 PM
Anthony Caruana
Sage
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 706
Default The Veo Pocket Traveler - When You Just Gotta' Take a Picture!

Sometimes, I've just got to get something because it looks so cool. The Veo Pocket Traveler is a really cool looking device. This Compact Flash digital camera integrates beautifully with my iPAQ 2210. Its design is slick and it looks like it was made to match up with my iPAQ perfectly. But does it perform as well as it looks? Read on to find out.

The Veo Pocket Traveler for Pocket PC is a Type 2 Compact flash camera. It allows you to take reasonable quality photographs quickly and easily from your Pocket PC. With a maximum resolution of 640 by 480 it's certainly not at the high end of the photograhic technology spectrum. However, it is handy for a quick snap and could be of great value for some remote workers. With my iPAQ 2210 I was able to quickly snap a photo, attach it to an email and send it to colleague in just a few seconds.

So, What's in Package?
When the camera arrived the first thing that impressed me was the slick little capsule that ships with it. This is a solid aluminium case with a impact absorbing rubber inlay. I'm pretty confident that the camera is well protected when not in use. It should look after the camera nicely when it is thrown into your accessory bag.



Figures 1a and 1b: The very cool Veo Pocket Traveler Capsule

The Tale of the Tape
So, what are the specs?
  • 640x480 digital resolution
  • Takes still photos and video clips
  • Adjustable self timer
  • Captures standard JPEG pictures
  • Automatic exposure, white balance and color control
  • CF Type 2 Expansion Slot
  • Swivel lens with adjustable focus
  • Weighs less than 1 oz
As well as the camera, the Veo Pocket Traveler comes with software for both your Pocket PC and desktop computer. The Pocket PC application lets you easily control the camera and allows you to adjust some of the camera's controls such as image brightness, light conditions, where the images are stored and image resolution.

The desktop application, Veo Creative Studio, lets you create movies by stringing together avi files (either recorded by the Pocket Traveler or from other sources) as well as create e-cards, design web pages and transfer photos either to or from your PDA. It's a nice application and can be downloaded from the Veo web site (it's about 225 MB).

So, what About the Camera?
The camera itself seems pretty solid. The camera sits on a Type 2 CF interface and protrudes from my iPAQ 2210 by about 3 cm when inserted. So, it doesn't add much bulk to the iPAQ.


Figure 2: The Veo Pocket Traveler in my iPAQ 2210

When it's inserted the lens is pointing back towards you as you face the Pocekt PC's screen. However, the lens is on a pivot. This means you can use your Pocket PC screen as the view finder for taking photos or use the Pocket Traveler as a video conference camera.


Figure 3a: The Veo Pocket Traveler with the lens in the "default" position



Figures 3b and 3c: The Veo Pocket Traveler with the lens pivoted to the alternate position

What Buttons do I Push?
Using the Pocket Traveler is pretty simple. Once you put the camera into your Type 2 CF slot (it's a snug fit) all you need to do is launch the Photo Traveler software in the Programs folder on your Pocket PC. As soon as you start the software the camera is active.

Figure 4: The Veo Pocket Traveler Pocket PC Software Interface

The capture button takes the photo. There's even a "shutter" sound effect to complete the real camera effect!

You can adjust plenty of settings through the software as well such as image brightness, lighting conditions and image resolution. The software also lets you choose between still pictures and video capture. Video capture (in avi format) is limited to a resolution of 320 by 240.




Figure 5a and 5b: Pocket Traveler Software Settings

You can focus on near and distant objects by turing the focus ring around the camera lens. This is easy to do but not very precise. This means it might take a few attempts to get your shots just right.

But are the Pictures Any Good?
Well, this is the big question with any camera. The Pocket Traveler takes reasonable photos given its limitations. Given that it has no flash it does a fair job if you use the controls that the Pocket PC software provides. Couple this with some decent image editing software on your PC and you can get some reasonable snaps. But I wouldn't use this as my main camera. Rather, I think I'll get the most use from this camera when I'm at work and need to take a quick snap.

The Desktop Software
The Veo Pocket Traveler ships with some nice utility software for the desktop. The Creative Studio - Veo Traveler suite lets you combine video clips into a movie a swell as providing you with a photo gallery, greeting card creator, homepage creator and a utility for sychronising photos from your Pocket PC to your PC.


Figure 6: Pocket Traveler Desktop Software

For the Developers
Veo have made available through their web site an SDK for the Pocket Traveler. This would allow developers to use the camera within their applications. This could have great potential in some sales force automation applications and for remote sevice people.

What about an SD Model?
Well, there's good news and there's bad news. The good news is that there is an SDIO model avaialble. The bad news is that it's only for the Palm OS . However, Veo are working on an SDIO model for the Pocket PC

Gotchas
Overall, the Veo Pocket Traveler for the Pocket PC s a pretty reasonable unit. However, there are some limitations with the device.
  • Picture quality is pretty limited. This is not the device to buy if you are after high resolutoin, high quality pictures
  • The software allows you to set the target directory for photos. However, this setting is not persistent when you shut the application down
  • The lack of an internal flash, while keeping the size of the unit compact, make a real difference to image quality
  • The focus ring lacks any indication of how far around you need to turn it for objects at different distances
  • I'm not sure how robust the swivel is. I plan to treat mine very gently.
Where To Buy
You can purchase The Veo Pocket Traveler from Mobile Planet for $99.99 USD. [Affiliate]

Specifications
The Veo Pocket Traveler for the Pocket PC is listed as having the following device compatibility
  • iPAQ 36xx, 37xx, 38xx, 39xx (with CF card extension pack)
  • iPAQ h2215 (Requires latest Windows Mobile 2003 software for Pocket PCs (Pocket PC 2003) driver from the Veo webpage.
  • HP5550, HP5150 and HP3970
  • Toshiba e570, e740
  • Dell Axim X5
The desktop component has the following minimum requirements
  • Microsoft� 98/ME/2000/XP with Pentium� 166 MHz (or higher)
  • 200 MB Available Hard Disk Space
  • 32 MB RAM or Better
  • Pocket PC Handheld with ActiveSync Cradle
  • 800 x 600 Display with 16-Bit Color
  • 4x CD-ROM or better
Conclusions
I like the Veo Pocket Traveler. It looks good and does what it is designed to do very easily. Although the image quality does not make this suitable to be my main camera, it is good enough for a quick snap. Is it worth the $100 USD? Well, I'm not sure I'd drop that much folding stuff on it. But, now that I have it I'd recommend it.

Author's Note: I received my Veo Pocket Traveler free of charge as part of a promotion HP were running in Australia with the launch of the iPAQ 2210
 
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 09-08-2003, 06:02 PM
dean_shan
Mystic
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,911

How well does this work when doing a video conference?

Also what camera (on the pda screen) is that is the picture on Figure 2?

Side Note- 600th post! Yahoo!
 
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 09-08-2003, 06:14 PM
DerekTheGeek
Ponderer
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 54
Default How many megapixels does it have?

Sorry if this shows my ignorance but is it a 300k pixel camera? I know its 640x480 but no mention of pixel res. Thanks!

- Derek
 
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 09-08-2003, 06:15 PM
hdsalinas
Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 135
Send a message via MSN to hdsalinas

Anthony,

Could you post some pictures taken with this camera?

BTW, The skin they used for their application on the PPC sucks! I hate when developers try to give their a program�s interface a rounded "custom" look. They usually use every photoshop effect and a bunch of gradients. It just looks dumb. They should stick with designs that compliment the OS and look like part of it, not clash with it. :roll:
 
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 09-08-2003, 06:23 PM
Jason Dunn
Executive Editor
Jason Dunn's Avatar
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
Default Re: How many megapixels does it have?

Quote:
Originally Posted by DerekTheGeek
Sorry if this shows my ignorance but is it a 300k pixel camera? I know its 640x480 but no mention of pixel res. Thanks!
640 x 480 resolution = 307,200 pixels = 0.3 megapixels
__________________
Want to contact me personally? Use this. Want to read my personal blog? Check it out. Want to follow me on Twitter? Here you go.
 
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 09-08-2003, 07:08 PM
Scott R
Philosopher
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 516

Your review left out something mildly important: Sample pictures. I suspect that this camera uses the same optics/firmware/etc. that their SD camera does, which would mean that the photos are pretty awful.

Also, I'm not sure what to make of this comment:
Quote:
Is it worth the $100 USD? Well, I'm not sure I'd drop that much folding stuff on it. But, now that I have it I'd recommend it.
Does that mean you recommend it if you can get one for free?

Scott
__________________
Tapland
 
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 09-08-2003, 07:49 PM
Pat Logsdon
Magi
Pat Logsdon's Avatar
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 2,186

I have one of these, and it's ok. It takes average pictures, as long as there's a decent amount of ambient light. I got it so I don't have to lug around an extra camera when I go geocaching.

It works well for what it is - just don't expect too much, and you won't be disappointed. :wink:
__________________
redbatphotography.com
 
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 09-08-2003, 09:06 PM
DimensionZero
Intellectual
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 170

Sorry to go o/t a little but I had to find out what GeoCaching was and IT LOOKS LIKE FUN!!!

I can't wait to get my PDA and GPS now!!
 
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 09-08-2003, 09:44 PM
Pat Logsdon
Magi
Pat Logsdon's Avatar
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 2,186

Quote:
Originally Posted by DimensionZero
Sorry to go o/t a little but I had to find out what GeoCaching was and IT LOOKS LIKE FUN!!!

I can't wait to get my PDA and GPS now!!
It IS fun, and a great use of the technology. :rock on dude!:

I'm going on vacation this Friday for 2 weeks, and I've got a list of 46 geocache locations. I've mapped all of the coordinates on the topographical maps from Maptech (using their Outdoor Navigator product).

I then created a PPC-friendly HTML page with a description of each cache, the necessary hints in white text (in case I need them), and a satellite photo at maximum zoom of the exact location of the cache. I don't consider this cheating, by the way, since we still have to get TO the cache itself.

I've got all of the maps and the html page with all of the text and satellite photos stored on a 256mb SD card.

We like to take a picture of the cache and us at the cache for upload to the geocaching.com site, so that's what we'll use the Veo camera for, and just store the images on the same SD card.

For those of you who haven't heard of geocaching, check out geocaching.com. Enter your zip code and see what's hidden in your area!
__________________
redbatphotography.com
 
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 09-08-2003, 10:38 PM
Alicatt
Pupil
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 24
Send a message via ICQ to Alicatt

How does this cam compare with the likes of the Pertec SVGA Compact camera?
seen here http://www.totalpda.co.uk/productvie...ion=31&id=4308
 
Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 09:27 PM.