Kodak PalmPix Digital Camera for Palm Handhelds

Kodak's PalmPix adds picture-capturing capability to your Palm III series handheld. It is compact and lightweight, and lets you frame, take, view, and transfer pictures to your Palm LCD in color or gray scale. You can then transfer images to your desktop or laptop using the HotSync cradle. PalmPix has 2x digital zoom, and images are stored and manipulated as standard BMP or JPEG files.

1 Yes,PalmPix works with VIIx
This is a cute little gadget. It certainly does not replace a standard camera, but it is fun. The main reason for my entry is to advise viewers that Yes, it does work with the Palm VIIx.I contacted Kodak an they would only say it worked with the VII. But, I took a chance and picked up one at a very minimal cost- and I'm glad I did. The photos appear much better once you upload them on your computer.

2 The best price-value deal for Palm III/V users
This camera is really awesome. You can't expect 8 megapixel photos quality, but if you always have your Palm with you (as I do) is invaluable to have this camera at hand for those moments when you need one (your standard camera is another gadget you can left at home). It's true, bad light conditions give bad pictures, but with good lights, the quality is unsurpased for the dollar (I also have a 4Mpix camera). For me, and my 6mo old daugther, is the always ready camera.

3 Disappointing performance
The camera will not take an acceptable picture under incandescent lighting - it will generate a very red image. Even out of doors, the image is badly blurred around the edges; only the middle half of the image is sharp. The "preview image" (ie the viewfinder) is very blocky and in grey only, making it hard to recognize where the camera is pointing. The display of images after they have been taken uses a very poor color mapping - much worse than what the Palm IIIc is capable of.

4 Outstanding little Snap On Camera
I bought this little PalmPix add on for my Palm IIIc. I didn't expect it to be a super digital high dollar camera but what I did get absolutely shocked me and my family and friends. This little camera is GREAT!!! I couldn't tell anything until I uploaded it to my PC at home but firstly, it told me I had space to take 45 more pix which was amazing! Then, I took pictures inside a dimly lit chapel and in offices with flourescent lighting and found this camera to be more than adequate to record. The manufacturer says that the camera should be used in outdoor lighting which is best but I found it took fine pictures indoors as well. The convenience of it is awesome Just take it out and pop it on and that's it! In addition, there's no cost for camera film development, no cost to send over email to friends and it has alot of other uses. My sister uses hers to take pictures of real estate properties she has listed for sale. I think that one of the important keys to the use of this little camera is to be patient when you point and wait very very still before you shoot. If you do that, it records amazingly well. I will never be without a camera again because of it. It's worth every penny!

5 An Awesome Accessory For The Palm*****MONDO COOL!!!
If you are a gadgeteer like me, you will wet your pants over the Kodak PalmPix Digital Camera. It is soooo MONDO COOL to hook up the camera and preview a picture on my Palm IIIxe!! I love it!

You won't see the true quality of the pics you take until you hotsync them to your main computer. The quality of the photos are pretty darn good. This camera is no match for a $ Nikon digital camera, but for the money it is simply awesome.

Hint...I waited until Amazon.com sale priced it at $ then added a $ off E-cupon. Total price was $ including shipping. I love it! I love it! I love it! I love it!

6 Getting Maximum Enjoyment from your PalmPix
This camera is really handy! I love its portability and ease-of-use!

Once I got the knack of taking good pictures (e.g. keeping still, natural sunlight conditions, etc.), how did I make sure I got maximum enjoyment of the pix I took?

Here are a few tips I can offer:

1. Set your HotSynch conduit to save your images as .BMP files. These do take up more space, but this also means you have more 'raw data' to play around with if you are going to do any editing or enhancements.

Explanation: A Palmpix 640x480 image will be saved in a 72 dpi format if saved as a JPG file. This translates to approx 200k. If saved as a BMP file, it will be saved in 150 dpi (dots-per-inch) format, which will be approx 900k of disk space. This gives you DOUBLE the resolution, which is useful is you want to play around with your photo.

2. Use a desktop-based photo album/enhancer to store your photos, and to convert from .BMP format to e-mail or web-ready JPG files. Many are available via downloads, with prices from FREE to $100-and-over. (I use a freeware editor by Adobe, downloaded from www.activeshare.com)

Explanation: This is indispendable for organizing and retrieving your photos! Be sure to delete the original photos from your PalmPix directory so as not to store duplicate files.

3. Get a handy Palm viewer for your photos. Again, many are available via download, with prices from FREE to $20-and-over. (I use a $20 Palm OS album which I downloaded from www.splashdata.com -- it gave me the best viewing quality on my Palm IIIC)

Explanation: what use is a portable camera if you can't view pictures too? Personally, I've deleted many of my AvantGo channels to make way for my collection of photos 8-)

4. Try to get a small travel pouch for your Palm Pix, and be sure to throw in a small bag of dessicant (i.e. silicon gel) to keep the lens of your Palm Pix nice and dry.

Explanation: if you live in a humid environment as I do, there is a risk that molds will form on the lens. The dessicant reduces the risk.

Hope that helps!

Note: I do not work for any of the companies whose products are mentioned here, I'm just a satisfied user of their products!

7 Superb for the price, AND NOW WORKS ON A MAC!
I picked this up because the price was right, and I had always wanted a digital camera to take pictures of things for upload only. The Kodak PalmPix does all that!

The other reviewers cover the details well, but let me add a couple of things. First, it works great even on a grayscale Palm IIxe. Obviously, you don't get to see the color until you HotSync, but you can still get a good idea of what the picture will look like, especially if you adjust the contrast.

More importantly, MacUsers take heart! Even though some shipping units claim they're for Windows only, Kodak **DOES** have a Mac conduit available on their website! Just go to the Customer Support page listed in the manual, and drill down to Driver Software, or search for "Mac" from there. It allows you to save the pictures in JPEG or PICT format; I tend to prefer the latter, and use other software to tweak the results.

8 being forgotten as so often
Exactly what I was looking for.... I thought. A non-weight non-volume camera for ad-hoc situations, no high quality required. How disapointing to read the specs and find out Mac users can shake it as with too many other products....

9 Not a Nikon, just one great little cam!
If you are looking for a professional digicam, stop reading right here. (Thanks!)

If you, like me, *love* digipix and are looking for an amazing little add-on for your 8-meg Palm (IIIc), this is a terrific piece of gagetry that will let you have fun with photos anywhere.

I know it's 640 x 480 max, and I read about blurriness, blah blah etc. and I still bought this cam. Why? Because it seemed to me some folks were looking for a Nikon F5 for a hundred bucks. That worked flawlessly with their Palm. -Right.-

This cam is not fancy. Its strength is its simplicity. Take it out and hitch it on. Turn on the Palm. Frame (well, as best you can; it's not what I would call, ahem, precise) in adequate light (that's important!) and shoot. End of tale. (No, there is no motor drive.)

A review posted earlier has terrific tips, and you should read that as well as the manual, of course, to get the nicest pix you can with this.

Frankly, I am impressed. The cam and software work flawlessly. *No* hitches (with Palm IIIc anyway.)

You can throw this teeny lil thing in your bag and never know it's there. But instead of saying, 'Gee, wish I had a camera!' you can whip it out and preserve your Kodak moment. (Provided you have your Palm, of course.)

Pair it with Album to Go for a really nice resolution, right on your Palm. It's one of the things the IIIc was made to do. Enjoy it.

10 Cute but disappointing
This is a cute little camera attachment for Palm III (etc) devices that promises little and delivers less. I am especially disappointed by the quality of the pictures. Sure, it maxes out at 640x480, so I shouldn't expect much, but noticeably chunky dithering occurs even with the best stability, lighting, and subject contrast range. This alone makes the camera inappropriate for anything more than the most inconsequential noodling around. In addition, manufacturing/design flaws hamper ease-of-use. In the unit I own, the plane of focus is not parallel to the display on my Palm IIIxe, forcing me to hold the unit slightly above eye-level and tilt my head back awkwardly to correctly frame lansdcape pictures, and aim slightly to the right of center for portrait. Since the display of Palm III devices depends on ambient light for contrast resolution, this makes previewing, framing, and shooting quite difficult. If anything, the plane of focus should be skewed the other way, allowing me to hold the unit in a slightly more comfortable position.

11 A Great Sub-$100 Digital Camera for the Palm IIIc
This camera works really well with a Palm IIIc. It was on salefor only ... as Deal of the Day at ... so I picked it up and then came back to Amazon for a Palm IIIc with ... off and no tax.

Since this is a low price "fun camera" which doesn't have all the fancy features like other higher priced ones, there are several things you need to know in order to get the optimum quality.

1. Download the latest driver from Kodak. Don't use the one that came with the camera which is probably the outdated v1.00 or v1.20. By using the latest driver, your picture and preview quality does improve.

2. Obviously, it doesn't provide flash. Don't try to take a picture in the dark unless you have abundant light source or if the object itself provides extremely high luminance that brightens up the entire area (for example: movie screen, monitor, outdoor fireworks, etc). Daytime especially noon when the sun's out provides the best natural lighting.

3. Always use 640x480. Never use 320x240 and don't bother with the 2x zoom feature. The 2x zooming simply crops the center part of the screen and shows it to you at 320x240. For a nice close up view, just walk closer to the object but no closer than 4 feet away. Otherwise, it might look blurry.

4. Take still shots. Make sure no objects are moving and keep your arms still. You can tell if you'll get a nice shot by observing changes in pixels on your preview screen. When you've reached the point where you can hardly see movement in pixels, that's when you take the shot. Keep it still after you press the Date Book button until the preview screen sharpens up and Palm starts saving.

5. Use an 8 meg Palm. Each 640x480 jpeg requires roughly 200k of free space. If you have about 4 megs of free space like my Palm IIIc does, you'll have room for saving at least 20 pics. On my Palm m100, I have only 500-600k left so that gives me say...3 pics? If you're using Palm m100 which only has 2 megs, I really wouldn't recommend getting the m100 version of the PalmPix.

6. After you sync your Palm, edit the pics by resampling it to 320x240 or 50% of the original resolution for highest quality and save it in 16.7 million color .bmp or use the lowest compression in jpeg. A "sharpen" filter might also enhance the photo depending on the type of object in the pic. For printing, keep it at 640x480 and use 300 dpi to get a nice print out sized roughly 2.1"x1.6". It's perfect for a personal portrait.

Overall, this is an excellent little gadget for capturing images to be used on a website or emailed to family and friends. The hardware itself is very limited but you CAN produce quality pics if you learn to work with it. PalmPix is by far the best digital camera I've seen that retails for under ....

12 A great little camera for the money.
Sure, you can buy a much higher quality camera, but not one that weighs 1.5 ounces and extends the Palm's length less than 2 inches.

I have a Palm IIIxe and run everything on it. I'm overclocking it with afterburner, I'm running half a dozen hackmaster hacks and this camera STILL works perfectly. As one reviewer stated earlier, It DOES take a few seconds to adjust to the light - especially if it's extremely dark or light - but then it performs wonderfully. I have personally gotten much higher quality pictures when I'm not trying to work in very low-light conditions. I agree that using the screen as a viewfinder isn't much better than a framing tool, but then, I don't use the 1-square-inch display on the digital camera we have at the office to display images for people either. The Palm isn't much on displaying these pictures because of its grey scale limitations. For the price and convenience, I am perfectly content with the quality and very good color accuracy of the pictures. I have not had a single problem with the camera or hot synching the pictures to the PC. (Hey, It's a LOT faster than transferring a few web pages with AvantGo)

I have a keyboard and a modem for my Palm so this was just another extension to increase it's functionality. It won't take up much space or add much weight to my briefcase and the batteries last a long time. And, since they are the same size as the Palm uses, I don't have to stock several sizes.

13 Not quite there yet.
The PalmPix is compact and light weight. The price is good and the idea is great. But unfortunately the picture quality is not quite there. The picture on the palm is almost unusable, but once you hotsync (which takes longer than advertised) is still is not a very good quality picture. Not much detail. I am not sure what application or situation this product would work for, but I think I will wait till next year -- hopefully the technology will be better. This year I am sending back the Palm Pix

14 An astonishing harbinger of what's to come
This little inexpensive device handles diverse lighting conditions (flourescent, incandesecent, daylight, mixed, bright or dim) with astonishing grace. The pics are reminiscent of Type C prints, gentle even in contrasty situations. You don't have a flash, and you rarely would want one, the pictures are much nicer than the flat "flash face" you get from most inexpensive cameras. The capture technology is CMOS rather than CCD, perhaps we'll see a lot more CMOS to come. Resolution is low,... This is a delightful product.

15 Fair pictures, bad service from Kodak.
I have a Palm Vll and had a very hard time doing a "hot sync" to my desktop after taking pictures with the Palm Pix. Each and every time, my Palm locked up and I had to do a soft reset. Three weeks have passed since I informed Kodak about the problem, and still no response from them. I am going to return the Palm Pix and purchase a digital camera from anyone but Kodak!

16 Mostly a good camera, though excellent at lighting.
This camera is small and makes 24-bit 640x480 pictures that look good. In excessive light or darkness conditions the camera takes a while (about 4 seconds) to adjust sensitivity, but it will make the picture. You can move as much as you want and you almost never get any 'smear', which is nice if you want to make a lot of action shots. The 2 AAA batteries are good for around 300 pictures. The disadvantages of the camera are it's zoom and palm display capabilities. the claimed '2x digital zoom in 640x480 mode' is not true; it can only zoom in 320x200 mode. This makes it hard to get close-ups of anything. Also, the picture on the box showing your palm screen with the picture is also not quite true- the quality on the palm display is lousy at best, enough to see the picture will look great once transferred, but not good enough to actually take along and show to people. It's also quite sturdy- I have dropped it twice and it's got a few scratches, but it still works fine.

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