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REVIEW: IPEVO Point 2 USB Document Camera
By Bob van Lier
S
o why would you be interested in a USB cam-
era? Your Mac already has a built-in iSight
which is perfectly functional and works with all
Mac applications. Well the IPEVO Point 2 View (P2V)
camera is not just your ordinary webcam. Although
it can double as a webcam, its value is in capturing
any small to medium sized object you place in front
of it. By being on a wire, you can point it almost
anywhere, and if you’re like me who docks your
MacBook Pro most of the time the iSight is useless
because the top of the Mac is closed, so an external
camera that can be attached to my monitor is help-
ful if I want to use iChat.
What’s in the Box?
The camera comes with a
3-point articulating stand
with a heavy base, so that
you can set it on a table
and point it at a piece of
paper or small object and
capture its image. Maxi-
mum resolution is 2 mega-
pixels or 1600 X 1200 ppi
and it supports both Mac
and Windows with Plug
and Pray technology. The
application that is included
on a CD supports Mac OSX
10.6; no installer required.
There’s also a monitor clip
that allows you to hang the
P2V from your monitor to
use as a webcam.
The camera itself is approximately 3 ¾ inches long
by approximately ¾ inches around at it’s widest
point (the lens) and can be held like a short pencil.
There are three buttons on top. The front most is for
snapping pictures, the second one for focus, and the
last one is for choosing whether the focus should be
xed or continuous; the latter being best for video.
The Application
When the application also called P2V is launched it
immediately shows what the camera is seeing with
controls at the top, on the screen itself in the lower
right, and at the left. At the top of the window are
dropdown menus to control zoom, exposure, timer
for snapping a picture after a set amount of time,
mirror, and resolution. On screen you can control the
focus, snap a picture, and see whether the camera
is set for continuous or xed focus. At the left are
buttons to see what the camera is seeing, go into
review mode to see the
pictures you’ve taken, and
full screen mode. The P2V
is advertised to be able
to focus down to 5 inches
where images appear
larger than life-sized. If you
zoom in, the image on the
screen is not zoomed, but
the resulting snap is.
Use and Testing
In my testing, the P2V
more than lived up to my
expectations for a $70
webcam. Pictures of small
objects like a shiny dime
were okay, but you have
to play with the result in Photoshop or GraphicCon-
verter to knock down the contrast and color correct
the image. Dim spots were bright red in the original.
Still the picture was not what I can do with my Nikon
D90 and a macro lens, but you can’t expect that.
(28 stránky)
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