A camera system including: a substrate having a coding pattern printed thereon anda handheld digital camera device. The camera device includes: a digital camera unit having a first image sensor for capturing images and a color display for displaying captured images to a user; and an integral processor configured for: controlling operation of the first image sensor and color display; decoding an imaged coding pattern printed on a substrate; and performing an action in the handheld digital camera device based on the decoded coding pattern. The decoding includes the steps of: identifying a data block in the imaged coding pattern; decoding a control block to determine the size of data to be extracted from a data area; and decoding the coding pattern contained in ae data area of the data block.