removing camera

[TauTau]

Hi,

I'm about to receive my Wizard soon, it's the 100 Model that Vodafone germany sells. Since I can not use a camera, and no provider hat the 110 model, I will try to remove the camera and get the back cover of a 110 model or a dummy. So my main questions are:

did anyone yet disassemble the wizard? Is it easy? pictures?

And which company sells a 110 version that I can get the back cover as service parts from? So far it seems Cingular has it as 8100, but I can't see anything on their site since one has to log in it seems...

Lars

 

[ZeBoxx]

I'm confused.. if you don't want to use the camera, then why not just not use the camera? Or do you need it at work, and work has a "no camera phones" policy?

 

[TauTau]

exactly, guess I didn't make that clear enough, I'm not allowed to have a camera phone at work (and I don't want to switch devices all time).

 

[ZeBoxx]

a couple of people here..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=31755
..did take theirs apart, at least a bit. There's even some images - but they're broken - and a bit of description on: http://www.howardforums.com/showpost.php?p=6298030&postcount=27

Here's one of the pictures...
http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=377474
But it doesn't show much with regard to taking the wizard apart

 

[TauTau]

Thanks, that helped at least so far that I know about the screws to lose and how to open it... Will have to figure about the lens etc. when I have my hands on.

 

[heliosfa]

Before you go butchering a new device (which might cause problems the hardware complaining it is missing something), why not just try the rear cover from he other model before you remove the camera.

Another other option would be a small bit of plastic to secure over the hole in the covering using something like Bostick All Purpose. This would be removable if required.

One more thought is to buy the non-camera one from another network and unlock as required.

 

[TauTau]

Of course I will try first without removing anything... My guess though from pictures is, that the lens will protrude too much for the other cover to fit. I hope that the ccd is soldered directly to the pcb, while the lens is clipped on, that would myke it easy, and no "hardware" would be really missing. And it would be reversable as well. Have to see that when I got the device.

Believe me that I did a really good search for the 110 model, but I couldn't find it, only one was Cingular, where I would have to buy it for full price, compared to paying ~200 US$ for the subsidized one here...

Now I only need a way to get service parts from singular

 

[X-man germ]

Your job sucks. I am glad I don't have that problem. Eventhough I don't use the camera very much, every now and then I do take a few.

 

[ZeBoxx]

his employer may also not be satisfied with just having the cover over it (if it did fit).. as taking a picture would just be a cover-removal away ( okay, okay.. bunch of screws.. but you could leave those out and pretend there's no camera %) )

 

[TauTau]

actually my job is quite cool, and I hate all those handy-cams... I have a digital SLR and if need be a small casio if I want to take pictures...
From my view the providers are responsible for the current situation, as they want to earn on those MMS messages...
I for my part just need a smartPHONE or pocketpcPHONE. And if we're really honest, those pictures taken with GSMs are mostly horrible

 

[ZeBoxx]

Most, yes... However.. S/E k750i/w800i, Nokia N9x-series, Samsung whatchamacallit... all have quite reasonable 2MP cameras, and better is coming up (with telescoping lens and all that, as can be seen on many of the very thin consumer cameras).

It's not just the providers - it's people as well.. I have a very nice DSC V-3 myself for my photography stuff, but I don't lug it with me as it's fairly big. But even if it were one of those thin cameras, I'd be lugging around both a phone -and- a camera. If I can have both in 1 device, then why not? That's the argument for a PDA with GSM as well, isn't it? Not having to carry around both a PDA and a phone ? :>

 

[TauTau]

sure, true as well... of course there's always different views on that... I'm just referencing the *current* quality of the pictures, and without a optic zoom and a reasonable flash, they just don't work for me... and of course I like the all-in-one thing... though GPS would be more important to me And I alos wonder, since everything is more or less modules these days, they could just (like with the HTC 100/110 or HP 6500/6900) make models with and without camera. From observing a bit, I think the need for phones without camera is quite big in enterprise environments...

 

[ZeBoxx]

Well.. once upon a time, there was the SD card. With it came enough bus bandwidth and whatnot to create the SD I/O standard. You could buy a little camera SD I/O thing, plug it into your PDA/phone, and you had an added camera. GPS ? Ditto - GSM ? Yep. WiFi ? Absolutely. All at the same time? maybe not, but not impossible.
Problem is that you'd be stacking devices, which isn't very attractive

Of course, on the manufacturer end, you can drop features from a 'high end' model and sell it as a 'lower end' model - like the WIZA100 and WIZA110 for camera/cameraless (or the other way around). But then there's the question of it actually being available to you

I'm curious, though - if you knew that your employer doesn't allow camera phones, then why not get a PocketPC phone without the camera -other- than the Wizard?
( I assume they exist :x )

 

[TauTau]

There's a few I know of. Currently I have a 9210 Nokia communicator, but I want to get away from "proprietary" systems (Windows seems to be more open in this case). The upcoming Sony-Ericsson M600 (?) seems to have the same problem. And then there's the HP 9500/9800 series, but those are a) expensive, since nearly no provider takes them in their program, and they have a 240x240 resolution, which also can make problems.

The HTC Wizard just is the perfect device for me, and obviously it even seems to exist in a version without camera

 

[ZeBoxx]

TauTau - if you're still reading, check:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?p=244134#244134

For pictures of the device taken apart. And guess what? Looks like the camera is a module you can just 'unplug' Good luck!

 

[TauTau]

great info, thanks!