In
this article I am going to review the PSP camera and the software that came
with it in the 3.00 update (I am not reviewing the UMD software, it is the
software that came with 3.00)
Specifications
Name
- Chotto shot
Weight - 15g
Price - £30, $43, 5,000 yen
Resolution - 1.3 megapixel
Software
The software that came with the 3.00 Update is located under the Photo menu of
the XMB, you must first plug the camera in to the USB socket before you can run
the software.
Photo mode
When you start the software from the XMB the camera starts up in photo mode,
the basic controls are..
- L button to look at
other pictures you have taken
- Up and down buttons to
zoom in or out
- R button to take photo
- Triangle to bring up
the options menu
- Select takes you to
movie mode
- Circle takes you back
to the XMB
When you are looking at the screen to take the photo at the bottom there are
details displayed about your current settings
- Where you have chosen
to save your photos to
- What image quality you
have
- Chosen picture size
- White balance option
- It also displays a sort
of help thing where it tells you which buttons to press
The camera in photo mode has a X2.8 digital zoom and the pictures are saved in
.jpeg format
If you press triangle a menu of options appear on the screen like in the music
player, video player and picture viewer and these options for the photo mode
are...
- Record - Takes a photo
- To movie mode - takes
you to movie mode
- Review - Lets you look
at all other taken photos while still on the camera
- Settings - Lets you
choose main settings including to change the shutter sounds, there are a
selection of 5 shutter sounds to choose from, There is also the option to
choose where you store your taken photos and there is a reset file number
option
- Display - This either
displays your chosen settings and help text or either hide this
information
- Zoom in
- Zoom out
- Image size - choose
from 320 X 240, 480 X 272, 640 X 480 and 1280 X 960
- Image quality - Fine
quality or standard quality
- White balance - This is
where you choose what type of environment you take your photo in, if you
wanted to take a photo in daylight you will choose the daylight option, If
you are in dark places you can either have Fluorescent or Incandescent or
if your not sure what to choose put it in automatic and the camera should
do all the work for you
- Exposure adjustment -
goes from -1.5 to + 1.5
- Effect - This chooses
the type of mode you want your camera to be in you can either have sketch,
toy camera, Distortion, text or you can just have it normal
That is all the details of the software in camera mode, on to movie mode.
Video mode
When you press select or go to movie mode from photo mode the basic controls
are..
- L to review taken
videos
- R to record video
- Select to go back to
photo mode
- Triangle to bring up
the options menu
- Circle to go back to
the XMB
When you are in movie mode and looking at the screen just like in photo mode it
displays your settings at the bottom of the screen, it displays..
- Movie film type
- Image quality
- where you save your
videos to
- how much you have recorded
(timer)
The camera in Movie mode has a X1.4 digital zoom and the videos are saved as
motion jpeg format video and also this piece of built in software lets you
record an unlimited amount of video provided that you have space on your memory
stick.
Just like in photo mode if you press triangle a menu comes up like in the music
player, movie player and the photo viewer, the options on this menu are...
- Record - Start
Recording video
- To photo mode - Takes
you to photo mode
- Review - Lets you look
at videos you have taken while still on the camera
- Settings - Lets you
choose main settings including to change the shutter sounds, there are a
selection of 5 shutter sounds to choose from, There is also the option to
choose where you store your taken photos and there is a reset file number
option
- Display - This either
displays your chosen settings and help text or either hide this
information
- Zoom in
- Zoom out
- Movie size - This is
where you choose how big your video is you can choose from 320 X 240
(15fps), 320 X 240 (30 fps), 480 X 272 (15fps) and 480 X 272 (30fps)
- Image quality - you can
choose from fine quality or standard quality
- White balance - This is
where you choose what type of environment you take your photo in, if you
wanted to take a photo in daylight you will choose the daylight option, If
you are in dark places you can either have Fluorescent or Incandescent or
if your not sure what to choose put it in automatic and the camera should
do all the work for you
- Exposure adjustment -
This goes from -1.5 to +1.5
And that about covers it for the camera and software that came with 3.00.
The only other thing i could mention is that this is
something that could be added to in future firmware updates, Sony could add
more camera effects, more white balance options, more shutter sounds etc,
something that can always be added to.
Crazy
Coder @ PSP Fanatic