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More Than A Camera For A Handspring
Of course, the Handcam does double as a straight up video camera for your PC. The Targus Handcam comes with a "Handcam socket adapter" that the Handcam can just slip into and plug into an available USB port.
Photos and videos can be shot the same way as they were on the Handspring, but with a much better resolution preview.
You can immediately tell that the bracket that the Handcam socket adapter slides into was meant for laptops. Perhaps the folks at Targus feel that, if you're in the market for a digital camera that fits into a portable digital assistant, that your entire life must be portable! Then again, this is Targus's market niche; portability. The bracket has a spring-loaded clamp that is obviously engineered to clamp onto a laptop's screen for use with video conferencing.
The bracket can double as a simple platform for the camera, but there are no rubber feet to keep it from sliding off of the top of a monitor. This is another good reason for the pivoting lens. The camera can be placed on the desktop and the lens pivoted upward for videophone and self-portrait use.
The fact that this bracket was obviously made for a laptop brings me to a complaint I have about the USB cable provided. The Handcam comes with a 6-foot cord that actually takes away from the camera's portability.
Guys, make the cord only 1 foot long and include an extension for those people that will use the camera with a desktop PC. I found myself tying up the extra 5 feet of cable with a bread tie so it wouldn't get in my way! I have several "mobile" USB devices that come with very short cables attached to the device (some as short as two inches) and then a USB extension cable so the device can be used with desktop computers.
>> In Conclusion
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