🚀 go-pugleaf

  The HCCS Vision Digitiser produces pictures the same quality as most
digitised pictures I have seen.  The only problem I have come across is
horizontal 'lines' across colour pictures.  I think these lines have had
their Red, Green, and Blue components swopped around.  Normally you can use
!Paint to touch the image up by replacing these lines by copies of their
neighbours.  Gsrabbing the frame again sometimes lessens this effect.
  The only positive thing to be said about the software is that it works.
I appreciate that better software would be more expensive but I wouldn't
mind paying more money for better software.  Each picture can be processed
in monochrome or 2 levels of colour quality.  In mode 15 the two colour
options are indistinguishable but I suspect the difference can be seen in
mode 21.  Monochrome pictures are processed then shown, with colour
pictures you can see the picture build up line by line.  While the picture
is processing you can alter the brightness, contrast, and saturation values
- normally with the effect of making the picture look worse.  There is no
way to change Red, Green, and Blue levels, most of my pictures seem to look
too yellow - too much Red and Green.
  Pictures can be saved as a sprite or as a sprite, there is no facility
for saving un-processed pictures to be processed later, and only one frame
can be stored at a time - the only reason I mention this is that I would
like to be able to produce short animations.  The size of each sprite is
always chosen by the program (720 x 254 in mode 15, presumably 720 x 508 in
mode 21) and can only be grabbed in modes 15,21, or 28.  I needed 128 x 128
mode 13 sprites (For use in my 'demo' - The Colour of Risc - watch your PD
library) so I put the desktop in mode 13 and used !Paint to scale and
'Screenshot' the sprites.
  Documentation is not wonderful - a sheet showing how to install the thing
and a 10k 'edit' file.  The podule itself is well put together, the A3000
external one looks like an archimedies podule in a (cheap) box.  I only
call the box cheap because it has too many gaps and overlaps for my liking;
but considering that hard drive boxes cost nearly ten times as much, it is
good value for money.  On the circuit board are sockets for expansion chips
- presumably for 'HiVision' specification.
  Having said all that, I don't regret buying the HCCS vision digitiser as
more expensive digitisers are out of my budget.  The pictures are of high
enough quality for my requirements and I'm quite happy with it.

--
Magnus Huckvale

Posted by:
-- 
Tim H