[lug] Digital Cameras and Linux

[Sean Reifschneider]

On Fri, Jun 07, 2002 at 12:37:56PM -0600, Tkil wrote:
>Other than sheer megapixels, also consider:
>
> - Size / Form factor
> - Battery type / lifetime (high-capacity rechargables rock)
> - Orientation sensor (portrait vs. landscape)

We have an older (1996-ish) Olympus DC400Z or somesuch...  In general I've
been happy with it.  However, if I were to get a new camera here's what I'd
like (feature-wise):

   Rechargable battery.
   Compact size.
   CF or SmartMedia -- doesn't really matter to me.
   NOT the Sony shite...
   Long exposure option -- 30 seconds for example.
   Ability to take and download images via serial/usb.
   Multiple timers -- Our Nikon point-and-shoot can be set to take
         two pictures instead of one, which is VERY nice.
   Lense cover built in (apparently some camers don't have a nice lense
         protection built-in.

Ability to do video clips sounds fun, but wouldn't be a make-or-break
decision.  It seems there are some fairly small "video" cameras available
now for under $100 with like 128MB built-in memory...  I've been tempted to
try those out...

Mostly I find our camera a bit too big to carry around a lot.  It'd be nice
to always have it around...

> - Frames-per-second / Burst mode

Except for testing it out, I've never used that on our camera...

>to be even close to a "prosumer" level, so it's in the middle.  If I
>had to do it again, I'd go one way or another.

Yeah, I'd definitely go with a more compact one like Kevin's...  If I
really wanted pro-like options, I'd probably go with my SLR and get the
film dumped to PhotoCD or something...  While I spent a lot of time in
darkrooms when I was younger, these days I mostly just do snapshots...

>I'd recommend CompactFlash: biggest and cheapest (512MB for 200 USD!).
>Sony Memory Stick is proprietary; SmartMedia has gotten a rep lately
>for being fragile.  The latter two also have "secure" variants that

My current laptop has a CF slot built-in -- so I could just drop a CF card
in there and download directly without any extra hardware required.
However, recently I got a USB SmartMedia reader and it works like a charm
(after one false start with one that completely failed).  And it was like
$15...

I built some code that detects when I connect the reader, mounts up the
file-system, copies off the images in my preferred file-name format,
verifies the copy, and deletes the source...

Up until about a month ago, I was downloading via serial (where I had a
similar daemon, only using the photopc program).  That sucked because it
took FOREVER to download pictures -- a full 8MB card would take like 20
minutes (once you figure transfer failures and restarts and stuff).

The USB one takes less than a minute for a full card, it's super easy to
use.  I just plug the card into the reader, plug the reader in to my
laptop, wait for the light on the reader to stop flashing, and put the card
back in the camera...

I like that SmartMedia is so fricking small -- if I were to carry a bunch
of them around that'd be handy.  However, for the 5 years we've had the
camera, up until last month we were only using the original 8MB card that
came with it...  So, smartmedia being small isn't really that big a deal...

>p.s. I bought my digital camera to encourage me to shoot more
>     pictures, and that's defintely worked; 3600 shots in 18 months.
>     Feel free to browse:

When I was doing a lot of photo stuff, I was bulk-loading (getting film in
100' rolls, and then loading from there into the cans that go into your
camera).  It encouraged taking pictures of everything, experimenting with
different camera settings (more useful with an SLR where you can adjust
EVERYTHING), etc...  Digitals are great because you can just take a picture
of everything, and weed out the crappy ones whenever you want...

For example, when I toured the Winchester Mystery House a few weeks ago, I
probably took over 100 pictures in the 90 minute tour...  Of course, I also
set up my laptop, so I'd pull out the card every so often and dump to the
laptop, which was configured to take the last image and send it up to my
web-site via wireless networking...

Sean
-- 
 668:     Next door neighbor of the beast.
 vivivi:  The editor of the beast.
Sean Reifschneider, Inimitably Superfluous <jafo at tummy.com>
tummy.com - Linux Consulting since 1995. Qmail, KRUD, Firewalls, Python