> other varieties.  You may also want to check for compatibility with the
> IBM Microdrive, which is a CF size hard drive available up to 1GB.  The

While interesting, I suspect that such a camera would be well outside of
my current price-range.  I'm not much of a photographer, and do not expect
to make it a serious hobby much less a profession.  My primary interest,
as I said, was to experiment with texture maps (via OpenGL and POV-Ray).


The D-Link camera that I mentioned yesterday seems to be fundamentally
capable of producing decent pictures.  (To find this out, I had to hook it
up to an MS-Windows machine, however.)

The downsides are serious enough that I won't keep it, though:

 * You view through a seperate viewfinder, while the camera uses a manual
   focus.  Perhaps with experience and a more stable hand/surface (see
   next) this wouldn't be a problem.  However, I found it frustrating.

 * Depending on resolution, the camera can take up to 1 second to resolve
   an image.  Without a tripod or stand, it's easy to ruin a ``high
   resolution'' (1024x768) image.

 * I don't know exactly how it works with lighting and colors.  In
   ``video camera'' mode (about 5 frames per second?), coloring
   adjustments appear to persist for a few seconds, and sometimes it's
   necessary to turn the camera away and back to a source in order to get
   corrected colors.  I don't know if this is due to the camera, using
   the camera as a video camera, or if it was due to adjustments made by
   MS-Windows software that received/displayed the images.

 * There's no apparent way to use it with NetBSD; unless D-Link wants
   to disclose the protocol and it's simple to deal with, I think that
   I will classify it as unusable.  (Well, alternatively, unless I can
   get my hands on already-written software to deal with the camera...
   (^&)


On the plus side, it can let you focus to within 1.5 inches, supports as
high a resolution as I'd want anytime soon, and is acceptably fast over a
USB link.  The colors turn out decently if you give it good lighting (and
perhaps allow it to adjust).  If I could use it with NetBSD, I would think
twice about keeping it.  If you were comfortable with the blind-and-manual
focus, and had a steady hand (or didn't mind carrying a tripod with you
for high resolution images), you could probably get pretty decent results
with it.

As it is, I think that I will return it for a refund and look at a camera
with a display + gPhoto support.  (^&  Thanks for the suggestions, I'll
keep the Kodiak and Olympus models in mind.

  "I probably don't know what I'm talking about." --rauch@eecs.ukans.edu