I'd like to chime in on behalf of CDM along with Charlie. As Charlie mentioned, we have resolved the previous issues with our camera. Our latest iteration of the iTab has a camera that matches an off the shelf, consumer-grade digital camera as close as makes no difference.
Joe - I see you have a number of valid concerns about our solution and I'd like to address them one by one:
Our current camera does not have a wide angle lens. That said, it does have a very respectable 62 degree field of view compared to our previous iteration's 56 degree field of view. What does that mean? Well, basically, if you're taking a side profile shot of a 20 foot long vehicle, you need to be 16 feet away from the vehicle with our new integrated camera vs. 21 feet away from the vehicle with the old one. That may not sound like a big deal, but when it comes to automotive photography on a dealership lot, it's no easy task to find enough space to back yourself up enough to get a good side profile shot.
To your point, that increase in degrees of field of view translates to capturing a wider view of the interior on interior shots and as well, making the items further away in the image seem a lot further away than a longer lens would - essentially making the inside of the car appear bigger like you're talking about.
We have several instances where our hardware solution is used to process over 9,000 vehicles per year, which amounts to well over 100,000 photos per year - all by 1 operator. No joke! Even in those very heavy usage scenarios, we only have a situation where the iTab needs to be RMA'd - whether a component of the iTab failed, the iTab got run over by a truck, or something else happened - on average 1 time per year. When the operator has to move through that much inventory, they're moving fast and sometimes accidents happen that are not the fault of the hardware. I know, because as someone who used to move through almost that much inventory, I've had one or two of those accidents myself.
Regarding the tired camera issue, we used to have the tired camera issue with a decent level of frequency on our previous integrated camera iteration, but after checking with our hardware specialists, we have not had that issue with the latest integrated camera in the past year and a half since it's been on the market. I'm not saying it's not going to happen eventually - everything fails eventually, but it hasn't happened yet.
What if it did? Or how does CDM handle things when something else goes wrong? If it's the camera/scanner module, we usually send a new module to the customer and walk the customer through the installation process (it's easy). If they aren't comfortable with that, they can send the iTab in to us and we'll take care of it. When it's the tablet PC that has an issue, we send out a loaner to the customer, the customer sends us their iTab for RMA, and when it's repaired, they swap places again. Everyone comes away happy.
The current iteration of our iTab has a transflective (sunlight readable) screen that is easy to work with.
Here are some example customer sites. Now keep in mind that not all people are created equal when it comes to using camera angles to frame the photo optimally or find the best lighting condition, but it should give you a good idea of how the latest camera performs.
http://www.auctiondirectusa.com/
http://www.scrantonmotors.com/
http://www.appleford.com/
I'd really appreciate hearing your feedback on this issue. If we haven't already resolved what you're referring to, it'll help us address it in the future. Please feel free to reach me at alex.schoeneberger[at]kbb[dot]com on this or any other topics. Thanks!
