Camera Preview and Save Image Blogs

 http://android-er.blogspot.com/2010/12/add-overlay-on-camera-preview.html

http://android-er.blogspot.com/2010/12/implement-takepicture-function-of.html

http://android-er.blogspot.com/2011/01/save-camera-image-using-mediastore.html

These three links by android-er blog are very useful for taking an image and saving the image to the sd card using a surfaceHolder (image preview) without using the camera application