To resolve the first problem I added another panel and displayed the original picture. When I wanted to take a picture I hid the new panel to reveal the original panel with the camera in view. Not sure if this is a work around but it works.
The second problem has been resolved by moving the picture save to the point where I exit the view. For some reason if you take a picture and then immediately save it, it saves an empty file. Yet saved at a later point works ok. Almost suggests that the picture create needs time to "buffer" the data. Would really like to know if anyone has an answer for this.