Brighthand Reviews the Veo Photo Traveler 130S Camera

An increasing number of handhelds have a camera built into them, but not all. If you would like to add a camera to your Pocket PC, one possibility is the Veo Photo Traveler 130S.

The Good News

This device plugs into the SD slot on Windows Mobile 2003 devices. I successfully tested it with both a Dell Axim X3 and an HP iPAQ h1940, and the Veo web site lists a number of other devices that will work as well.

The 130S has a 1.3-megapixel camera, so the largest pictures it can take are 1280 by 1024 pixels. It can take smaller ones as well, handy if you want to save memory or email your pictures.

You aren't limited to just pictures; you can also record videos with sound. These can be as large as 320 by 240 pixels.

The lens can swivel, allowing it to point at either you or what's in front of you. Your handheld's screen acts as the viewfinder and you'll tap an on-screen button to snap a picture or start and stop recording a video.

Images and videos are stored as JPEG and AVI files, respectively. Once you've taken a picture or video, of course you can view it on your handheld and delete it if you don't like it.

Both images and videos can be transferred to your PC via a software package supplied by Veo called Creative Studio. This is not an automatic process when you ActiveSync; you need to transfer each picture and video manually.

Creative Studio can also be used to create slideshows that combine both still images and videos separated by transition effects. If you've ever felt the urge to make a very low-budget movie, this could be a way of doing it.

You aren't going to be able to carry your Pocket PC around with this camera attached to it. The odds of you breaking either the handheld or the 130S are much too high. Fortunately, Veo has included a very nice leather carrying case. This is so well made, I suspect it was manufactured by Vaja Cases, which always makes top-notch stuff.

The Bad News

The 130S isn't a fixed focus lens. Instead you must focus it yourself. This is done by twisting the plastic cylinder around the lens.

Because you have to use it to focus your pictures, the on-screen viewfinder is very important. You have the option of the viewfinder being 160 by 120 pixels or 240 by 180 pixels. You definitely want the larger size, as it makes focusing somewhat easier. Nevertheless, focusing on close-up objects can sometimes be a challenge. I'm not saying it's impossible to take an in-focus picture of a close-up object (I included one earlier in this review), but you have to work at it. And when I say "close up," I mean within 3 or 4 feet. Fortunately, it gets a bit easier for objects that are farther away. A lot of my close-up pictures came out like the one to the right.

This camera also lacks a built-in flash. This is true for a lot of the cameras that a built into handhelds and smartphones these days, but I found the 130S to be especially light sensitive. Unless you are in a very well lit room, your pictures are going to be somewhat dim and the colors won't be very strong. I'm not talking about a room with average lighting. You need either lots of lamps or the sun to get decent pictures. At left, you can see an example of what a picture that was taken in a less than brightly lit room looks like.

The framerate on the 130S's videos is pretty low, and therefore playback is kind of jerky. Check out the video sample at right to see what I'm talking about. Also, you have to be just as careful about focusing videos as you do still images.

Conclusion

If most of your pictures will be of stationary objects in well-lit areas, the this might be the camera for you. It's decent enough, within its rather narrow limits.

The Photo Traveler 130S sells for $99.99 on the Veo web site.