Aug
31
(2006)
VuPoint toy camera and MacOSX?
Filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: camera, lazyweb, macosx, vupoint.
I was at the mall with Evan today, and we popped through the Toys ‘R Us store. They had a cool looking little toy digital camera for $19, so I just had to pick it up for Evan to mess around with. The box said the software was only for Windows, but I just assumed that MacOSX would be able to see it magically, as it does for everything else that claims to be Windows-only.
No luck. I’ve been googling for drivers or apps or hacks, without any success. Does anyone know how to get pictures from a VuPoint Solutions DC-M1082-VP onto MacOSX? I don’t care if I have to delve into obscure command line utilities, or compile some open source project. I just have to find a way to get Evan’s masterpieces off the camera. And, no, I am not going to buy a Windows machine to do it. It’d be cheaper/easier to just buy a new Canon XTi and hand him my XT 
He’s been shooting pictures almost non-stop since I handed him the camera. That’s pretty cool.
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13 Responses to “VuPoint toy camera and MacOSX?”
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Hey, does it have a little display at the back to show him the picture after he’s taken it? I bought a cheap one for Calum ($29) but it’s major shortcoming was not having a display on the back, meaning it’s photograph and pray, just like in the old negative days. Obviously the price of bad photos is much cheaper, but as we’re learning with Cal the ability to see what you’ve done right away seems to be a major plus with digital cameras generally. Anyways, hope you get it working on your Mac, cos I agree it’s a great idea to get them their own tools like this to explore. Cheers, Scott
D’arcy,
Thanks for mentioning this! I’m a father of a very active, very [and I say this with MUCH pride] geeky 2 1/2 year old who would love to have one of those tomorrow. I can not help you with drivers but I would like to pose a question to your readership. I assume [and I know how much trouble assuming anything can get a person in] we’re all slightly geeky and at least slightly ahead of our peers in regards to technology use or interest. With that assumption, are your children leading their pack of peers in regards to technology use or interest in techology?
Over a $20.00 camera, hmm, I doubt it’s worth the trouble. Return it or just forget about it.
Scott - it doesn’t have a preview, and the LCD shows cryptic abbreviations for settings. But he doesn’t seem to care. He took it to his grampa’s birthday supper tonight and was delighted taking pictures of everyone. Didn’t matter that it only holds 80 pictures, so the camera was full 30 minutes in…
Jym - even without the drivers, it’s cool just to have him wanting to take pictures. One day, I’ll spring for a cheap “real” camera for him… As for leading the pack, I’m not sure. He seems to be much more technology oriented (in crafts at preschool, he made a laptop computer so he could check his email) - but he doesn’t spend much time on actual technology. He doesn’t use a computer at home. But, he does see his old man spending way too much time checking email, RSS, Flickr, etc…
Sami - the camera isn’t negotiable. If you’d seen how happy this kid is with it, it’s just not going back to the store. I’ll spend days figuring out drivers or hacking some other solution before I rip this camera out of his hands
A bit of poking around with USB Prober revealed that the chipset is from Jeilin Technologies, their JL2005A Dual-mode Toy CAM Controller (CIF/VGA). The closest thing I’ve found for drivers on MacOSX is the IOExperts packages, but they list neither Vupoint nor Jeilin on their lists (supported or unsupported - just off the radar).
I guess I’ll just have to talk Evan into parting with the camera long enough to try downloading the photos onto a Windows machine at work (if I can install the software on one of those…)
Hi D’Arcy-
just was fighting with a Pentax Optio S4 that wouldn’t load in iPhoto automatically-
and then saw your post-
I know you say you don’t want to take it back- but for another $13 you could buy something real- here’s a list sorted by price- starting at $32.70
http://dealnews.com/digital-cameras/search.html?type=cam&mfg_id=any&megapix=any&opt_zoom=any&inst_mem=any&mem_type=any&connector=USB&min_price=0&max_price=79&keywords=&btnSearch=Search
Deal cam is a great place to check prices-
I got my first camera- an old Brownie- Twin lens reflex- 120 film when I was about 10- at 12, my grandfather gave me his old 35mm- a Topcon. It was shutter priority, auto exposure- or manual- it gave me the bug good- and that was when film cost real money…
Did you get it at Market Mall? Do I need to get anything else to go with? This is a much better idea than the disposable cameras I sometimes get for the boys when they go to camp or on outings.
David - I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks! I’ll pick up a better el cheapo camera for him asap.
Patti - yeah. Toys ‘R Us in Market Mall. The toy digicams were just inside the electronic games corral by the outside entrance - you might want to go without The Boys unless you want to be nagged into getting an XBox 360˚ or something as well…
The chip’s datasheet shows a simple SDRAM controller for sensor writing and USB reading. Maybe you could ask the chip manufacturer for the commands the chip responds to and just write a simple driver/reader app yourself?
I’ve emailed VuPoint, and may try to find someone in Jeilin Technologies for more info. I’d be willing to try hacking something together…
Hey - I’ve got the same problem. I just bought a VuPoint KooCam DC-M30PR-VP for my uncle. He’s older (and doesn’t have a computer) but got very excited by the idea of taking his own pics. I bought him this cam for his birthday and here I sit trying to find something that will let this little thing run with my Mac. I didn’t read far enough into the description to realize that it didn’t have a removable card.
Did you have any luck yet finding something that will make it work properly?
no luck. he’s happy just clicking away, and hasn’t really realized that he hasn’t seen any of his photos. When he’s ready, I’ll get him a real one, or hand him the spare. He’s actually pretty good handling my Canon XT now - for a 4 year old
I stumbled across this site on accident then I found this link, it may help http://www.vupointsolutions.com/downloads-drivers.asp