Taking pictures

[chuck.kahn]

According to http://www.expansys.ca/product.asp?code=106396, the HP Photosmart Mobile Camera has been discontinued.

According to Windows Mobile 2003 SE, the current drivers/software for this SDIO camera are outdated:


The program you have installed may not display properly because it was designed for a previous version of Windows Mobile software

According to my hands-on experience, the camera doesn't work properly in WM2003SE with the WM2002 drivers. For instance, the software freezes whenever 4x zoom is activated.

According to HP e-support, that's just tough:

There is nothing that can be done to resolve the issue.
The company who makes it will have to decided if they are going to release a newer driver.
You will have to wait and see.
Recommend getting the ipaq with a built in camera if you cannot wait.

According to Veo (the company that makes the camera that is re-branded for HP), I don't exist. My emails go unanswered. Too bad I didn't buy the Veo version.

According to CompuSmart, I could exchange my hx2410 with the ipaq h6325, but that unit's built-in camera is limited to 640 x 480 resolution, which is a step down from the 1280 x 1024 I currently enjoy via SDIO. Not to mention the lack of a swivel camera head and focus ring.

How then, can pictures be taken with the Pocket PC?

http://photos5.flickr.com/8208267_6da997db64_m.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/groups/pocketpcphotography/

[Sven Johannsen]

Have you tried the veo drivers at http://www.veo.com/Traveler_130S/drivers.asp ? Those work fine with my HP branded SD camera on my Dell X50v.

[chuck.kahn]

Have you tried the veo drivers at http://www.veo.com/Traveler_130S/drivers.asp ? Those work fine with my HP branded SD camera on my Dell X50v.

I had actually. I get the same warning from the VEO installation:

The program you have installed may not display properly because it was designed for a previous version of Windows Mobile software

And it takes about 5 seconds to snap a 1280 x 1024 photo versus the 2 seconds for the WM2002 h3950. Quite a long time for the camera and subject to hold still.

VEO should update those 10/24/2003 drivers.

[Sven Johannsen]

Have you tried the veo drivers at http://www.veo.com/Traveler_130S/drivers.asp ? Those work fine with my HP branded SD camera on my Dell X50v.

I had actually. I get the same warning from the VEO installation:

The program you have installed may not display properly because it was designed for a previous version of Windows Mobile software

And it takes about 5 seconds to snap a 1280 x 1024 photo versus the 2 seconds for the WM2002 h3950. Quite a long time for the camera and subject to hold still.

VEO should update those 10/24/2003 drivers.

The warning is usually due to the app not being landscape aware. I don't use the camera much, and had originally bought it for a 4155. I just tried the Veo drivers on the X50 to see if they would work.

Are you sure it is actually taking that long to snap the picture, or is it just that it is taking a while to get the image off the CCD into memory.

And, yea, Veo should update the drivers. There are a lot of WM2003SE PPCs out there they could sell this for. Even those that have cameras, have them pointed the wrong way to do VTC with MS portrait.

[chuck.kahn]

Have you tried the veo drivers at http://www.veo.com/Traveler_130S/drivers.asp ? Those work fine with my HP branded SD camera on my Dell X50v.

I had actually. I get the same warning from the VEO installation:

The program you have installed may not display properly because it was designed for a previous version of Windows Mobile software

And it takes about 5 seconds to snap a 1280 x 1024 photo versus the 2 seconds for the WM2002 h3950. Quite a long time for the camera and subject to hold still.

VEO should update those 10/24/2003 drivers.

The warning is usually due to the app not being landscape aware. I don't use the camera much, and had originally bought it for a 4155. I just tried the Veo drivers on the X50 to see if they would work.

Are you sure it is actually taking that long to snap the picture, or is it just that it is taking a while to get the image off the CCD into memory.

It takes that long for the spinning "busy" icon to finish. What it is doing during all that spinning, I don't know. (Compressing to jpeg? Passing image data over the SDIO? Writing to memory?) But I do know is that I tested the hx2410 and h3950 (with WM2003SE and WM2002 respectively) side-by-side and saw an increase of about 2-3 seconds for the WM2003SE to finish taking a picture with the hp drivers. I count 4-5 one second "spins" of the busy icon with the VEO drivers as well. Again, this is for best resolution (1280x1024).

Another problem that the VEO drivers have in common with the hp drivers is the freezing that happens when zoomed a 4x. I use the 4x zoom to resolve finer details when adjusting the manual focus ring, so every time the software freezes I have to pop the camera in and out and start my focus procedure again. Very annoying.