Fancy having your Pocket PC double as a digital camera? Anthony Newman takes a look at - or through, rather - Nexian's NexiCam sleeve, compatible with most Compaq and HP iPAQs.
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Nexian’s NexiCam is a digital camera in the form of a sleeve for handhelds in HP's iPAQ line (excluding the low-end HP H1910 model), which makes it a unique product, and an attractive proposition for those who don’t want the clutter of a CF camera poking out of the top of their device.
Features
The Nexicam is a black plastic sleeve, about as bulky as the Compaq single PCMCIA expansion pack, which integrates a digital camera and a CompactFlash Type II card slot. Its maximum picture resolution is 800 x 600 pixels (down to 192 x 144), and it has a 2x digital zoom, but no flash. The lens can rotate around to view the wielder. When not in use, the lens is covered by a sliding panel, which protrudes from the back of the unit, making normal cases difficult to use. This sliding panel does not disable the camera; it merely blocks the lens. The Nexicam can also record 15- to 45-second snatches of video at 15fps and 192 x 144 pixels in VID format - AVI or MPEG2 would have been nice. Build quality is fairly good, but not excellent, and the camera is actually fairly light, considering its bulk.
Software
The camera is controlled through software, which is installed, as normal, through ActiveSync. It doesn’t automatically start when the iPAQ is inserted into the camera, but must be loaded from the start menu. The main software window shows a small preview window, the current settings and indicators for battery and memory. The software runs in landscape, making it feel much more like a normal camera than other solutions: the iPAQ’s ‘record’ button becomes the shutter, although a picture can also be taken with a tap on the screen. Although it may have been due to the device, the 3630 on which it was tested had to be reset every time it was turned off while running the software: it seemed to hang as soon as the power button was used. On the occasions when it didn’t hang, it no longer recognised that the sleeve was attached - so a reset was necessary anyway. The software also asks you to save or delete the image after each shot, so it’s hardly a quick-snap tool.
 | | Ill: Nexian |
Despite these problems, there are a wide range of features available from the software. For viewing and pruning your shots, there is an album mode, which is animated, looks nice and provides a range of image editing options. There’s also a wide range of image processing tools in the main screen, allowing the tweaking of exposure, white balance, brightness, and so on. All these can be previewed on the viewfinder. A configurable self-timer is also included for those times where you simply must be in the shot. Saving of photos takes just a couple of seconds, but the automatic image adjustment can take some time. I tested by pointing at my monitor, and it took some four to five seconds for the camera to dim enough to recognise text on the screen, as opposed to the screen being a bright white light. Opening the shutter outside proved an even bigger test: the camera was only acclimatised after some nine seconds. The only hardware control is a tiny rotating ring around the lens that activates a sort of macro control, allowing focus down to about four centimetres. The other setting is, obviously, for longer distances.
Photo quality is mediocre, unfortunately. Colours aren’t quite true, and the pictures are lacking detail: pale colours tend to white-out. Even when rested on a solid surface, there’s a slight blur to the whole photo. When taking a distance photo of a fence, a noticeable moiré pattern emerged in glorious magenta. That said, the camera did cope quite well with relatively low light levels, which is essential considering the lack of a flash. It’s possible to take photos in black and white too, for those wanting the option.
Availability
The Nexicam is available now for all iPAQ models with support for Compaq's expansion sleeve system from Nexian's website for $199 USD.
Conclusion
The Nexicam has a great allure for iPAQ owners in comparison with card-based solutions, due to its conventional-camera orientation, its more efficient shape and its provision for a card slot. However, it is let down by a number of factors; bulk, lack of flash, poor resolution and lacking usability - not to mention software instability. It simply takes too long to get a good picture, and while the camera is too clunky for fun use, it's also too low-spec for more serious users. Mitigating features emerge in the video capture, which is still largely in the exclusive domain of high-end standalone cameras; the video-conferencing software provided with the latest version of the Nexicam, and the fairly comprehensive control the user has over the image, both before and after it is taken.
- What's positive: Real-camera physical appearance, CF slot, good range of options
- What's negative: Poor specifications, lacking flash, bulky, poor software
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Price and availability
The will start selling for TBA () in November 1999.
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