Iíve always been known for my lack of impulse control, but I usually manage to put the brakes on before I actually spend the money. Within an hour after first putting my hands on the Epson^TM PhotoPC^TM, Iíd talked with my sales rep at GATEWAY^® 2000 and ordered one.

Now why on Earth would I want another camera? I already have a camera -- one that thinks, winds the film, and focuses for me. The straight answer? I procrastinate when it comes to getting film developed and I resent the price of the film, the exotic battery, and the development process -- and maybe more than anything else, I want images that I can use on my PC -- and I donít like to go around asking people, "Can you scan this for me?"

Since I couldnít wait for the new camera to arrive, I borrowed the one Iíd been looking at. I took it home and started to play around to figure out how it worked. Iíd already found the on/off switch and the shutter button. That much was intuitive Well, no, not intuitive. The buttons are pretty clearly labled and obvious. Then I figured out that if I wanted to view images, the camera needed to be connected to the computer by the supplied serial cable. Easy enough. I can screw in a serial cable.

At this point, I cheated a bit and read the directions. The EasyPhoto^TM software installed quickly and the camera controls (timer, flash, erase and image resolution) were easy to understand.

The EasyPhoto software is quite sufficient.

• The FILE menu item allows images to be printed or saved in a BMP or JPG format.
• The EDIT menu provides copy, cut, paste, and a select command.
• The PHOTO menu includes crop, resize, rotate, brightness/contrast, adjust color, and remove scratch.
• The VIEW switches between actual size and zoom in or zoom out.
• The HELP menu provides a good tutorial on how to create and use a Photo Gallery (visual file folders of your images) and how to print or use the images within other applications.

With not too much effort I found that I could also access the images with my TWAIN compliant applications like Adobe^® PhotoShop^TM. This gave me the ability to also save my images in a GIF format as well as try to compensate for my ineptness at taking pictures.

Sounds easy so far, doesnít it? What I didnít tell you was that when I got home I walked in on a grandmother, two mothers, an aunt, five kids and a dog. Thereís no point complaining about the noise and chaos. This is called a photo opportunity. I just quietly went to my computer desk and started tinkering. Eventually the kids started to notice that I had a camera, and in a matter of seconds I had three eager models who needed about 50 pictures taken. Hereís a plus. If Iíd been using film, I wouldnít have taken all those pictures and I wouldnít have been able to drop them into the PC and print the images for them. They had a great time.

Printing the images pointed to the major weakness in my system. I still work with a 300 dpi black and white printer. This just doesnít do justice to the rich 24-bit color images. This is not a problem with the camera or the software but just with my home system. To get better results and satisfy my curiosity, I moved a couple of images from my home computer to my work computer. The 600 dpi black and white printer does a better job. The 600X300 dpi color print is clearly the winner. Color makes the most difference.

Other than for just playing around and passing out what amounts to snapshots, I donít much care if I print the images or not. Iím more interested in what I can view on the monitor. The screen quality of the PhotoPC's image is excellent and will be great for online presentations like Web pages or for sending to a friend via e-mail.

The camera settings allow for high (640X480) or low (320X240) resolution photos. If you select only one or the other, you could get about 16 high resolution or 32 low resolution images held in memory for download using the standard 1MB memory configuration. Memory modules are available separately which would double or quadruple the capacity. With 4 MB of memory, the camera can hold up to 80 high resolution or 160 low resolution images.

The advantage of additional memory is that you can take more snapshots before you download them to your computer. Of course you can take advantage of the feature that allows you to erase the last image. If you find yourself saying things like, "Oh, you big dummy. You had your mouth open and you look like a carp," all you have to do is push a recessed button and get rid of the fish picture.

You can view some of my snapshots here. Keep in mind that the one large 640X480 image is going to take time to download. Two smaller images are also included. They are of the same flower but one image was cut from a high resolution image and the other (about the same area) was clipped from the low resolution image.

Full size image of Chris (JPG) -- 55k
Section of 640X480 flower image (JPG) -- 42k
Section of 320X240 flower image (JPG) -- 35k

The PhotoPC is what I always thought cameras should be. Fun.

EPSON is a registered trademark of Seiko Epson Corporation. PhotoPC is a trademark of Epson America, Inc. EasyPhoto is a trademark of Storm Software, Inc. Adobe Photoshop is a Trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc.

The information in these articles is provided "as-is" without warranty of any kind, and all warranties are hereby disclaimed, whether express or implied, including, without limitation, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. GATEWAY^{® 2000 will not be liable for any damages whatsoever, whether direct, special, indirect, incidental, or consequential (including, without limitation, damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, or any other pecuniary loss) arising out of, or related to your use of, or inability to use the information in any such article,even if advised of the possibility of such damages. Because some states and jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the above limitation may not apply to you. You may not further distribute, reproduce, rent, sell, transfer or license these articles.}

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