From now on you'll notice another webcam image under mine.
I decided that since the Aiptek camera is mobile I'll take pictures on the go and add them to my webcam page.
If you read what I wrote about the Aiptek Pencam, you already know that the pictures it takes really suck unless it's connected to the USB port, so the mobile cam images will most likely not be as clear as the regular webcam.
I just bought a copy of Serif PhotoPlus 8 and the PhotoPlus 8 Resource CD.
They cost me $9.95 each (plus $7.95 shipping to Israel).
Not bad for a total of $27.85!
I got a special upgrade deal since I'm a PhotoPlus 5 owner (it's a free version .)
That's a lot cheaper than the $84.99 online pricetag (and another $34.99 for the Resource CD)!
I discovered PhotoPlus 5 a while ago while I was searching for a free PhotoShop replacement. I checked out many free graphic programs and ended up using PhotoPlus for most of my graphic needs.
It's what I use so you can check out my ugly mug at the webcam section of guymal.com.
After using it for a while I've come to one solid conclusion: Don't get one!
It's supposed to be a digital camera/webcam/video camera.
I really isn't a video camera: all it does it take up to 26 pictures in continuous mode and later you can convert them on your PC to an avi file.
Well, I never expected it to actually be a video camera so that wasn't a real disappointment.
As for the webcam: it works pretty much like any other standard webcam. No surprises there.
The main reason I bought the Aiptek PenCam is to use it as a cheap portable digital camera.
And that's the biggest disappointment for two reasons:
Just about every time I try to take a picture indoors, the camera emits an annoying beep indicating that it doesn't have enough light to take a picture.
Unless I point the camera straight at a light source it refuses to take any pictures indoors (when used as a webcam it lets you capture pictures regardless of the light and the pictures come out pretty good).
It eats up batteries as like a ^&%*# @#$%^* even when not in use!! Last night I popped in two fresh AAA batteries, took about 4 pictures, and this morning I wanted to download them to my PC but discovered that the pictures had been erased since the camera drained the batteries!!! How frustrating!!
To sum it up: the camera works as a standard webcam but as a digital camera it isn't one bit reliable. You can hardly take indoor pictures and the batteries drain so fast that you need to quickly transfer your pictures to your PC or you'll lose them forever.
The only thing the Aiptek is good for is as a webcam but if you want a webcam just buy a regular USB webcam: it'll be much cheaper than the PenCam.
I added a search field to Guy's World (you should see it at the right, under the webcam).
It actually uses google's free SiteSearch to search guymal.com.
They don't promise to index the entire site (actually you can't control what parts of the site they index) but I think they already index most of guymal.com.
.)
