Comments on: What I Saw at PC Expo 2001

What I can't understand is that these company sell these things for $500. You can get a low end PC system for that price that can do more things. WHY oh why would you spend all that MONEY???

Shinei mentioned that there will be a battpac for the Palm m50x soon. The battpac from Shinei can also hot syn and charges from a pair of AA batteries.

http://www.i-vox.com

Sorry! There are wwws in there that don't belong.

Corrected URL is:

http://media.mmm.edu/scrapbook

Did you click the About link?! Hey, I didn't create it! I'm just promoting it in my report as it was the "smallest exhibitor" there -- a mere flyer passed out at some anonymous booth. Such dedication should be rewarded. Too bad this year's Expo didn't have a second floor for such people...

I've had a PalmPix for the M500/M505 for approximately 1 week in use with a M505 color Palm. I've used the camera with a 32MB MMC card for 1/2 the week and with a 64MB SD Card for the second half of the week. I have taken approximately 200 pictures. Not to spoil the review but here are a few quick impressions:

1. The camera is extremely small. It folds in half and easily fits in my front pocket. Very convenient for a few quick snaps. With the camera attached to the M505 both can easily slip into my front pocket if I'm standing up.

2. I've been happy with the quality of the pictures. You have to have a steady hand to take pictures otherwise they may be a bit blurry. Generally if you are careful with keeping the camera still the pictures are quite acceptable.

2. With no flash the camera takes very dark/blurry pictures inside. This is an outside only camera except in extreme indoor light situations. No surprises here but this may limit someone from using the PalmPix to replace an ordinary camera. Outside on a cloudy day or in moderate shade the pictures are still acceptable.

3. I find the viewfinder (Palm screen's) refresh rate a bit slow. Sometimes its hard to get a shot since when the click is done to take the picture the subject may be still moving. The subject may be in an unacceptable pose when the picture is actually taken compared to the viewfinder but generally this hasn't been a major problem.

4. The 5 focus modes are nice (closeup, business card, legal letter, portrait and landscape levels). I find the landscape level the one I leave on most of the time.

5. With the 3 levels of resolutions I find I use the 800x600 mode the most. Generally with keeping 3.5-4 MB free on the Palm (on the memory card) I can fit 10-15 pictures on the Palm before I moved them to the memory card. Pictures move over to the card in a couple minutes. Picture size for a 800x600 mode picture is generally 200-300k in size.

As an example I took 78 pictures at a wedding/reception I was attending over the weekend over the 5 hours I was there. Every 10-15 pictures were moved over to the memory card.

6. The controls for using the PalmPix are extremely easy to use. Its trivial to select all the pictures on the Palm and move them to your memory card.

7. The use of the 32 MB MMC vs the 64MB SD card with the PalmPix for me was exactly the same. Use of the SD card was noticably faster but I had plenty of space on the MMC card.

Summary: For my basic needs the camera is very good. Small, light, generally gives good results, focused on outside use. It won't replace my regular camera because of the lack of flash but it takes its place on many occassions.

That's because I forgot to ask! I was too dazzled by the software!