PACKAGE
CONTENTS

   Lets start by taking a look at what comes with
the Concord Eye-Q Go Wireless and what can be accomplished with this
equipment.

Concord
Eye-Q Go Wireless Digital Camera

: The camera itself.
2.0 MegaPixel max resolution (1600×1200). 1.6″ LCD display. 7MB of internal
memory. One Secure Digital (SD) / MultiMedia card (MMC) storage card slot
(accepts both types of cards). 4x digital zoom. Bluetooth wireless transmission.
Flash.

Camera
Case

: Black, nylon carrying
case for the Eye-Q Go Wireless. The case adds no size to the camera and
makes carrying the camera around in a jacket pocket very convenient.

Wrist Strap:

The gray wrist strap
connects to the side of the Eye-Q Go Wireless. You can see the strap in
the picture above.

USB Bluetooth Wireless Adapter for PCs

: The included Bluetooth adapter allows you to Bluetooth-enable any USB
equipped PC. Software and drivers are also included. We’ll discuss the
camera’s Bluetooth abilities in more depth further on.

USB Cable

: As I mentioned in
the introduction, even though this camera comes equipped with Bluetooth
most users will still make a lot of use of the included USB cable. I found
that the USB cable was by far the easiest way to dump a SD card full of
photos onto my desktop to make room for new ones.

TV Cable:

This is an awesome feature! Using the included TV cable you can view your
photos and video clips on any TV!

One CR123
Lithium Battery

: Included is a Panasonic
CR123A lithium battery, which is not rechargeable. From my experience
I would approximate that the battery will last for 3 to 4 weeks under
pretty heavy usage, as it has for me. However, under typical usage I would
suspect that it will last much longer than this. All in all I found the
battery life to be comparable to other models that use two standard AAA
batteries.

Software
and Drivers CDs

: Two CDs with software
and drivers for the camera and Bluetooth adapter, respectively.

User’s Guide and Quick Start Guide:

Includes a comprehensive User’s Guide (in English and Spanish) as well
as a Quick Start Guide (in English, Spanish, French, and German).

PRODUCT
FEATURES

    First and foremost let me mention the Eye-Q
Go Wireless’ size and form factor. At just 3.25″ x 2.25″ x 1.25″ it
is the smallest digital camera I’ve ever used. It fits perfectly into
my jacket pocket. In fact, I don’t even notice its there until I need
to use it. This, above all of its other great features, makes the Eye-Q
Go Wireless useful in that it is able to go where I go without
requiring special attention. I found this to be the most pleasing of
all of the camera’s features. On the flip side is the camera’s construction.
Although it works as would be expected and I certainly don’t expect
it to break any time soon, it does have a bit of a flimsy feel to it.
The buttons and switches feel a bit sub-par on first impression. However,
the user will quickly get used to this and, as I said, the camera operates
perfectly and is not going to break on you. This just tells me that
Concord spent more resources on the functionality and inner-workings
of this camera than it did on the actual construction of the camera’s
body. This is a minor, aesthetic annoyance that I quickly forgot after
having the camera for a day or two but I felt I should mention it here.

   
The Eye-Q Go Wireless has three photo size settings: 1600×1200, 1280×960,
and 640×480. There are also three settings for picture quality: Fine,
Normal, and Economy. If you’re like me, you like to keep your camera
set on its highest resolution and lowest compression (1600×1200 Fine,
in this case) in order to maximize the clarity of the pictures being
taken. On the 7MB of internal memory you can fit about 9 of these 1600×1200
pics, about 15 1280×960 pics, or about 29 640×480 pics. Add a Secure
Digital memory card, however, and you’re in business. On a 64MB card
(which I found for just $30 on the Internet) you can fit over 80 1600×1200
pics! The Go Wireless only accepts memory cards up to 256MB in size
but this is hardly a problem seeing as a 256MB card would fit almost
300 pictures!

   
Although a resolution of 1600×1200 is for the most part adequate for
a photographer like me, there are some applications such as scenery
photos where the lack of higher resolutions is felt. To give you an
idea of this I took a picture with the Concord Eye-Q Go Wireless at
its highest resolution (1600×1200) and then took the same picture with
a Fujifilm 3.2 MegaPixel camera at its highest resolution (2048×1536).

   
The Eye-Q Go Wireless does a great job with indoor, portrait, and close-up
pictures. In fact, even photos of distant scenery are acceptably clear.
Here’s a picture I took of the sunset. I was pleased to find that the
Go Wireless was able to capture the beauty of the sunset, albeit not
in its entirety. The slight blurriness in this picture is due to the
fact that I am not the best the photographer and have a hard time holding
still .

   
In addition to still photos, the Eye-Q Go Wireless can capture 320×240
video clips in .AVI format. It appears that the length of these video
clips are only restricted by how much free storage space is available.
I found these clips to be of adequate quality although they don’t include
sound. In conjunction with the TV cable the clips are viewable on your
TV. In fact, you can view the clips on your TV as you are shooting them.

   
The Go Wireless includes a 4x digital zoom, which I found useful and
comparable to the digital zoom offered on many digital cameras. I used
the zoom infrequently, however, and don’t plan on making much use of
it in the future, though its nice to know that its there if I need it.
However, digital zoom is only available on the 1600×1200 and 1280×960
resolution settings.

   
As with any digital camera, the Go Wireless offers white balance options
which include automatic white balance, sunny, fluorescent, and tungsten.
I found I was able to leave this setting on automatic, which resulted
in properly colored photos most all of the time. In the photos above,
however, I may have been able to increase the color clarity had I set
the white balance to sunny.

   
Another interesting feature of the Eye-Q Go Wireless is its scene selection
options. Here you can choose between five preset scenes or simply turn
the feature off. These scenes include party/indoor, beach/snow, sunset,
night landscape, and fireworks. These scene selections control the shutter
speed and other options which apply to specific situations such as high-glare
snow and beach photos or low-light nightscapes and firework photos.
I found this to be a very interesting feature of the Go Wireless which
I hadn’t expected in a sub-$200 camera.

   
Another ever-important feature of the Go Wireless is its included tripod
connection and self-timer mode. These allow for hands-free operation
and the ability to use a standard camera tripod for blur-free pictures.

   
On the front of the Eye-Q Go Wireless is a slide switch which controls
the camera’s mode. The options include portrait (default, auto flash),
macro (for close-up pictures, auto flash), and distant (for landscapes
and scenery, no flash). This slide switch allows for quick access to
particular settings for particular types of photos. I found the macro
and distant settings very useful for close-up and scenery photos, respectively,
though I most often kept the slide switch on portrait.

BLUETOOTH
TRANSMISSION

    The Bluetooth USB adapter and XTNDConnect Blue Manager
software included with the Go Wireless is a nice addition. However,
is most cases users will find that their USB equipped computer is easier
to work with using the also included USB cable because transfer speeds
are much faster. The Go Wireless’ Bluetooth ability is most helpful
when used in conjunction with a Bluetooth enabled PDA. One should keep
in mind, however, that the transfer speeds and the fact that the sending
and receiving Bluetooth devices must be in the same room, basically
within eyesight of each other, are restrictions of the Bluetooth protocol
and not of this particular camera.

   
I was able to transfer a 1600×1200 photo via Bluetooth in 90 seconds,
which may seem slow but again this is the nature of Bluetooth For 1280×960
photos it took just under 60 seconds and for 640×480 photos it took
just under 20 seconds. Photos must be transferred one at a time–there
is no option to transfer all photos via Bluetooth Having said this,
I think the Bluetooth ability of the Eye-Q Go Wireless is a very handy
addition but, in my opinion, not necessarily its strongest point. This
is, again, due to the restrictions of Bluetooth However, the fact that
this is currently the only available digital camera with built-in Bluetooth
means that it offers something to mobile professionals and photographers-on-the-go
that no other camera does.

Transferring a photo via Bluetooth

The included XTNDConnect Blue Manager desktop software

Receiving a photo via Bluetooth on an iPAQ h4155

HELP
SUPPORT

    The included user’s manual is very comprehensive
and does a good job of explaining any aspects of the camera that are
not self explanatory. The quick start guide is also helpful but most
users won’t need it due to the simplicity with which this camera operates.
I was very pleased with these two sets of included documentation.

SYSTEM
REQUIREMENTS

    The only compatibility issue I see with
the Eye-Q Go Wireless is with the USB Bluetooth adapter and software.
Unfortunately you’ll only be able to use the adapter on a Windows PC.

BUGS
AND WISHES

    To somewhat of my own surprise, I have been
extremely pleased with this camera. The only aspect of the Go Wireless
that I would improve is in the quality of the camera’s casing. As I
mentioned above, the camera feels just a tad flimsy. While this doesn’t
take away from the functionality of the camera, I feel it makes the
camera feel of a lesser quality than it actually is. For me this is
no big problem but for more aesthetically minded individuals it may
be a concern.

PURCHASING

The Concord Eye-Q Go Wireless can be purchased direct from
Amazon.com for $179.99 through this
link.

PROS

• 
  

  Bluetooth
  transmission

• 
  

  Supports
  SD and MMC memory cards

• 
  

  Very
  useful in conjunction with a Pocket PC

• 
  

  Very
  small and compact–a perfect size!

• 
  

  Great
  feature set

CONS

• 
  

  Somewhat
  flimsy casing

• Picture
  quality may not be good enough for some
• 
  

  Only
  2.0 MegaPixels

OVERALL
IMPRESSION

    The Concord Eye-Q Go Wireless digital camera
is not just the only available digital camera with Bluetooth technology.
Its also a great mid-range camera with an impressive set of features
that will satisfy even the pickiest of amateur photographers. Although
more advanced photographers will want a higher resolution camera, the
Go Wireless is the perfect “point and shoot” camera for beginning to
intermediate users. The wireless connectivity and SD/MMC memory slot
make interfacing with a PDA painless. I would recommend this camera
not only to fellow Pocket PC users but to anybody shopping for a mid-range
digital camera. You won’t be disappointed.