Multimedia Powerhouse!

Casio's Digital Camera Card slips into the E-100/105's CompactFlash slot and turns the Casio color-screen Palm-size PC into a still image and video recorder.

by Rich Hall

Over a year ago Casio broke fresh ground with their Cassiopeia E-100 Palm-size PC, the first Palm-size PC with a stereo headphone jack, and optional audio and video player. The Casio booth at the Spring 1999 COMDEX was swamped, and even PalmPilot users were breaking ranks and sneaking over to have a peek. Well, just when the rest of the Windows CE world is starting to catch up with Casio, they do it again by introducing their new Compact Digital Camera Card. To be fair, it's not the first digital camera card. Sharp introduced one in early 1998 (see review,  May/June 98; also on www.hpcmag.com). But Casio's Digital Camera Card slips into a Compact slot, not a PC Card slot. And the Casio camera one-ups the Sharp product by capturing still images and videos!

We've already done a review of the Cassiopeia E-100 (see ,May/June 99). I won't repeat that here, but I have included a Spec Sheet on the E-100 for your reference. Casio has since released the E-105, which comes with 32 Mb RAM instead of 16, and includes the Casio Multimedia Pack as a standard feature (it's an option with the E-100).

It's so small you hardly notice it

The Casio Digital Camera Card slips into the E-100/105's Compact slot, adding a little cylinder to the top of Cassiopeia (see photo). The Camera Card adds about one inch to the length of the Cassiopeia Palm-size PC, and only 1.6 ounces of additional weight.

You have to install the Casio Mobile Camera and Video Player software before you can use the Camera Card. This software already ships with the Cassiopeia E-105, but it's also included with the Camera Card so E-100 users don't have anything else to purchase. The Mobile Camera and Video Player software only works with the Cassiopeia E-100/105 ­ other PC Companion users will have to look elsewhere for a digital camera.

Taking a photo is easy

After you install the software (the evaluation unit came with it pre-installed), slip the Casio Digital Camera Card into the Compact slot and turn on the Cassiopeia, and select and run the Mobile Camera application from the Start/Programs menu. Tap OK to get past the intro screen and to the camera screen (see Screen 1). At the top left of the screen you have three icons that let you take still images, videos, and display either. Tap on the left-most icon to capture still images.

The still-image camera appears, displaying the image being viewed by the camera (see also Screen 1). A simple tap of the Shutter button in the lower right captures the image. Back to the icons on the top left, tap the third (right-most) icon to display the image you just took (see Screen 2). The image is automatically saved in the common JPEG format (see Screen 3), and can be transferred to another computer, or sent as an e-mail attachment to a co-worker or friend. The still-image camera has three compression settings: econ., nom., and fine. They don't affect the resolution of the images, but do affect the size of the file and the time it takes to load. You can further adjust the still-image (and video) camera for different lighting conditions (outdoor daylight, incandescent lighting, and fluorescent lighting). Finally, you can display thumbnails of all of the images (or videos) you've shot in the Playback selection screen (see Screen 4). Tap on the thumbnail to view the image or video.

A palm-sized video recorder

The video recorder is as easy to use as the still camera. Tap on the video camera icon (the middle icon, upper left in the Mobile Camera screen) and the video recorder screen pops up (see Screen 5). Tap on the Record button to start recording and the Stop button when you're finished. The button with the microphone icon lets you turn the sound record feature on or off. You also have the option of selecting a large or small image for the video. Larger image size and sound increase the size of the video files. Here's a comparison:

Video type (all 4 seconds long) ­ file size

Large image with sound ­ 152 Kb

Large image without sound ­ 129 Kb

Small image with sound ­ 96 Kb

Small image without sound ­ 77 Kb

The still-image JPEGs varied in size from about 50Kb to 125Kb, depending upon the level of compression you select. The camera card doesn't appear to draw very much power from the E-100/105. I never got a "low battery" message. The number of JPEGs and the number and length of the videos you can take depends entirely on the amount of free internal storage space. And since the camera card occupies the Compact slot, you can't use an additional CF storage card at the same time.

The video recorder also has a Playback selection screen, displaying still thumbnail images of the video. Tap on the desired thumbnail and the Mobile Video Player opens (see Screen 6). You can play the video, fast forward or reverse, adjust the volume of videos with audio, and more.

The Casio Digital Camera Card is fun! The first day I had it I went around taking "interesting" pictures and videos of the people at work. I ended up in the town square and took a video of some children playing on the bandstand (see Screens 5 & 6). Unfortunately, I can't show you the video on this printed page. I'll try to have something for the Web version of this article, but there may be a problem with that. The Casio video recorder saves the movie in Casio's proprietary CMF format. The Mobile Video Player that comes with the Mobile Camera can display CMF movies. Casio even provides a CMF player for your desktop PC. But I don't know of any way to convert CMF files to the more popular and common MPEG format. Casio includes a converter, but it only works one way ­ from other video formats to CMF. I attempted to play one of the CMF files with Real Player Plus on my desktop PC, but it wouldn't work and RealNetwork's doesn't have a plug-in for CMF files ­ yet!

If a picture's worth a thousand words,
what's a video worth?

The Digital Camera Card's video record feature is fun but is it practical? Well, if a picture's worth a thousand words, what's a video worth? Say I'm a real-estate agent trying to interest an out-of-state client in a house. I could e-mail the prospect a video walk-through of the house. Or maybe I'm trying to describe the way something works to someone (like I do in reviews all the time). I could record a short video, or a series of short videos to do the job. Finally, what if I want to send my brother a picture of his niece and nephew. Why not send him a video with them saying, "I love you Uncle Dave?"

The truth is, if these videos are taken with the Digital Camera Card and saved in Casio's proprietary CMF format, Uncle Dave won't be able to play them. Even if I sent him the desktop PC version of the Casio Movie Player (which would violate the software license), my brother has an Apple Macintosh which "doesn't do PC." It would be so much easier if the video recorder saved its videos in MPEG (like the camera saves its stills in JPEG). A reasonable compromise would be to enhance the desktop PC video converter so that it translates to and from CMF.

I'm keeping the E-100 and Digital Camera Card long enough to take it with me to COMDEX (the computer industry's premier trade show). I'll use the still-image camera to take pictures of people and products. I intend on seeing if there's anything at a trade show in Las Vegas that's worth a video.

Final verdict: "Way cool!"

The Digital Camera Card can physically slip into any CompactFlash slot, but you need Casio's Mobile Camera software to use it. So far, that piece of software only works with the E-100/105. The Casio Digital Camera Card is priced at $299 and will be available through regular Casio distribution channels. For online purchases, go to Casio's Online Store (access at the bottom of the page at www.casio-usa.com/hpc/) or Mobile Planet (www.mobileplanet.com).

My 13-year-old son took a look at the Cassiopeia E-100 Palm-size PC and Digital Camera Card, shot a couple videos, and judged it "Way cool!" I have to agree with him. The Cassiopeia has a bright color screen that displays 65,000 colors. It fades out in bright sunlight, but is great otherwise. It has a stereo headphone jack and the Multimedia Pack that comes with the Digital Camera Card includes the Mobile Audio Player that plays MS Audio Files. If you want to play MP3 on the Cassiopeia, Utopiasoft's Hum player does the trick. The Digital Camera Card, with still-image and video recording, is the icing on the cake. *

Screen 1: The Mobile Camera software on the Cassiopeia E-100/105 Palm-size PC displays the image being viewed by the Casio Digital Camera Card.

Screen 2: After taking a picture, you can display it on the Cassiopeia using Mobile Camera (shown here) or an image viewer application that can display JPEG.

Screen 3: The still-image is saved in JPEG format, which can be transferred to another computer or e-mailed as an attachment.

Screen 4: The Playback selection screen displays thumbnails of the still images, or videos you shot. Tap on the thumbnail and display the still image, or run the video.

Screen 5: Mobile Camera's video recorder lets you adjust the size of the video, turn the sound on and off, and record videos.

Screen 6: The Mobile Video Player lets select and play your recorded videos, fast forward and reverse, adjust the volume of videos with audio, and more.