Snap
Happy
The latest
digital camera advice from Dave Barkin
This brief
little article is not a full description
of digital cameras and certainly not a review,
but it is a brief introduction. Most importantly
I think Atari owners should know they can
access these machines with their own Atari
computers. So here's how to get the images
into your computer and some words, warnings
and odds and ends.
Atari computers
can make use of just about all digital cameras
which come with removable memory cards.
First there's the shareware program "PhotoTip"
which directly supports Olympus cameras
through the serial port. I understand this
program also supports some other cameras.
I neither have nor used PhotoTip (Check
out our separate review in this issue -
Ed). It's available for trial use and the
price of the unhindered version is not going
to send you to the poor house. Aside from
letting you download photos it also has
some image processing features.
Now some
really good news
If a digital camera uses
a removable memory card, whether Smart Media
or Compact Flash, then you can download
the files easily into your Atari. It just
costs extra money. This is money well spent.
Downloading 20 or 30 large image files through
the serial port is a time consuming operation
for any computer. Macs or IBMs can make
use of card readers. These are devices in
which you place the removable memory card
and the files are downloaded at a much higher
rate than via the serial port. For example,
it took me 20 minutes to download 8MB of
pictures to my Mac via the serial port.
I purchased an SCSI PCMCIA card reader.
The same 8MB card downloaded to my Mac in
20 seconds. On my Atari it took 10 seconds.
In essence, if you're going to be taking
a lot of pictures you'll want the card reader
anyway. The USB or Firewire versions, both
of which cannot be used with an Atari, have
really come down in price and can be purchased
for under $50. The SCSI version is more
expensive. The cheaper models with one slot
(and why would I want more than one slot?)
sell from $125 to $175 depending upon brand.
If I purchased a model with three slots
I would have to pay almost $400 (What am
I nuts? I download one card at a time, why
would I need three slots?) I own both Minolta
and Microtek readers and there's not much
to choose between them.
These are
simple devices that plug into the SCSI chain.
The same ease (and problems) you have plugging
in any SCSI device holds for these card
readers. You will also need the program
MEDIACHG which is part of the HD-Driver
package. Or you could use BIGDOS, the freeware
package. If you use memory cards over 32MB
you will absolutely have to use BIGDOS.
Otherwise your computer will not recognise
the cards. With the smaller cards your drive
will be recognized but you will be unable
to access the cards because the formatting
is different. MEDIACHG can be run from the
desktop although I found no conflicts if
I ran it from the AUTO folder.
Here's a
benefit of using an Atari: memory cards
sometimes become defective or unusable.
The manufacturer tells you to "use
another card." I own about thirty of
these cards and twice cards became useless.
The camera could not format the cards and
according to Olympus, whose camera I was
using, I should have just thrown them away.
I decided to try repairing these cards.
My Mac would crash when attempting to use
these cards. Using HD-Driver I was able
to format the card. The card of course is
useless using Atari format, but after formatting
I found that the camera could then format
and use the cards! I've lost none of my
cards and saved over $100 because I own
an Atari!
Just what
is a digital camera?
When you take a picture
with a conventional camera, a shutter opens
which has been protecting the light sensitive
film. Your camera lens then focuses this
light onto the film. This film, once exposed
to light records the image. You then happily
trot down to the photo lab and after processing,
you can view your pictures. Essentially
a digital camera is really identical to
a conventional camera with the following
important differences: instead of the light
focusing on film it focuses on an electronic
light sensitive receiver. The majority of
digital camera's use something called a
CCD receiver (Charge Coupled Device, identical
to the receivers on flatbed scanners). These
receivers, composed of millions of sensors,
then transmit the image to the camera's
memory, either fixed or removable. If the
camera has fixed memory, you then plug your
camera into the computer and download the
images or if removable memory, plug the
chip into an adapter and once again download
the images.
Only the
cheaper models of camera still use fixed
memory. The overwhelming majority use removable
memory chips. This makes a lot of sense.
You're not vulnerable to replacing the whole
camera because the built-in memory failed
and you can also think of these chips as
"digital film" and carry many
of these chips around so you never run out
when you're stashed in the Athabascan National
Forest. It should also be noted that aside
from CCD there's another form of receiver
called CMOS (Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor).
CMOS uses much less energy than CCD. The
problem with CMOS at the present time is
they simply are not as good as CCD receivers.
However this is changing and we may soon
see more CMOS machines.
Cautions
and expenses
To use your Smart Media or Compact
Flash card with any card reader you need
an adapter. You plug the card into the adapter
and then plug the adapter into the card
reader. Any Compact Flash adapter will work
for Compact Flash cards and the adapter
is around $15. With Smart Media cards, however,
the adapter must have the right capacity
to read the card. The adapters are over
$60 and if you have an 8MB adapter it won't
read the larger cards. Make sure you get
the right one!
Files,
formats and software
Images on digital
cameras are stored in a variety of formats.
JPEG, TIFFF and a number of proprietary
formats. You must own software that can
read these formats. PhotoTip, Photoline,
ImageCopy, GEM View, Calamus and other programs
can all read most of these formats. Most
of the proprietary formats are options with
the cameras and require special software.
However, none of these cameras use just
the proprietary formats. Indeed it seems
to be something which only high-end consumer
and professional cameras use. There are
advantages. For example, the extremely high-end
Nikon DX1 can take pictures of 17MB (yes,
that's one picture). The 17MB represent
a TIFF file, which I had no trouble using
with my Atari. But they also used a proprietary
format of compressed raw data. This is a
format which loses no information but still
gives a fairly high image compression ratio.
The 17MB image becomes 11MB. While I could
download this file I could not make any
use of it. This is a problem I can live
with. Most digital camera's also use the
JPEG format. This is a format that does
lose image data but in the lower compression
ratios this is not noticeable unless you
save them over and over again in the JPEG
format. In fact, my particular machine,
while allowing the use of TIFF as a capture
format, also uses JPEG files with different
levels of compression. I take all of my
images with the highest quality JPEG format.
A word of caution here: if a 7MB file is
stored as a JPEG at 2MB, the file is still
a 7MB file when loaded into your image processing
software.
Once you've
downloaded the image it can be used as you
would use any image. You're limited by your
software, your imagination and your computer's
memory. If all you want to do is crop and
rotate your pictures any of the mentioned
software will be able to do this. In fact,
PhotoTip is a more powerful program than
the software that comes with these machines,
so you're not out much cash. In addition
the Atari has some decent image processing
programs that do much, much more than that.
Aside from the above mentioned software
there is also True Image, DA's Picture and
especially DA's Repro which can do marvels
with photographs. I'm probably leaving out
a number of other programs. PixArt can be
used for image processing and there are
others. DA's Repro can only load TIFF files,
so I convert my JPEGs to TIFF and then load
them into Repro. Your main limitations are
memory. On the other hand you don't have to purchase a camera
that takes 17MB files.
What to
look for in a digital camera
There has been an
explosion in digital cameras with just about
everyone and their mother-in-law getting
into the act. You can, for under a thousand
dollars, purchase a camera which comes close
to a 35mm in quality. But, these cameras
have limitations in lens flexibility and
quality which limit their capabilities.
Cameras like the Nikon DX1 (which I have
used but don't own) overcome these problems
by actually using regular Nikon lenses.
For under $6,000 you can buy this camera.
Some other brands such as Fuji, Canon and
others also make cameras which make use
of interchangeable lenses and have the same
flexibility as a 35mm camera. What about
the cheaper machines? You can buy a camera
for under $500 that should meet almost all
your photographic needs. While the price
may be extreme keep in mind that you won't
need to ever again buy film (just a good
printer, ink and lots and lots of paper)
or have to go and get your pictures developed.
You can print only those images you want.
You can publish them on the internet and
e-mail them to friends. And of course some
of the best photos in the world have been
shot with little 110 cameras.
You can actually
buy a point and shoot digital camera for
$300, just don't expect too much.
Things
to avoid or be wary about
- Many
digital cameras come with "digital
zoom" capabilities. Essentially
there's a ROM chip on the camera whose
embedded software interpolates the image
to give you this extra magnification.
This is essentially a useless function
if you have software that does the same
thing. The Atari program Photoline can
interpolate an image and so can the
optional filters module of Calamus.
It's a great option for printing an
8x10 image without jaggies but there
is actually no improvement to the image.
Interpolation does not increase the
resolving power of the camera. The software
enlarges an existing image by "intelligently"
adding pixels of intermediate average
color as it expands the existing image.
If you're paying good money for a camera
then look for optical zoom, not digital
zoom.
- Look
for TTL. This means "through the
lens." Like a real 35mm SLR you
are looking through the lens and you
will see what you're actually photographing.
The parallel view finds distort what
you will actually capture on film.
- Many
of these machines can even capture video.
If that's what you want, fine, but keep
in mind you're paying for this option
and the price may hide a cheaper quality
camera with a neat trick. Also there's
only so much video you can capture on
these removable memory chips. If you
want video go and buy a video camera.
- Power
consumption. Many of these machines
eat batteries. Don't buy a camera with
a proprietary battery. No matter how
good the camera you're going to be paying
for their batteries! Purchase a machine
that allows you to use standard type
batteries and heck, go and buy some
really good rechargeable batteries along
with a charger. Four AA batteries will
last about 10 minutes with my camera
while the high quality NIMH (Nickel
Metal Hydride) types will last for 100
pictures and then I recharge them. I
actually carry around a few spare sets
but I make money with this gadget. Another
thing to look for is the LCD screen
which displays the image. This is a
great idea, you can examine the images
you've taken, delete the ones you don't
like and so on. However, this screen
eats energy. Look for a camera that
allows you to turn off the screen. The
truth is while I really appreciate this
screen I rarely use it. My batteries
last three times as long with this screen
off. I have enough memory chips to keep
everything. I prefer to do my deleting
at home. Sometimes a poorly composed
image has a detail worth cropping and
no matter how good the LCD image it
won't show me that detail.
- Be wary
of "near professional" cameras.
The Olympus E-20 has a list price of
$1,999 and is billed as a professional
camera. After using one of these I was
not impressed. While better than most
digital machines it still had many of
the limitations of the lower end machines
selling for a thousand dollars less
and almost none of the advantages of
the really high end digital or 35mm
cameras.
- If you're
on a budget (and who isn't) but can
afford to spend over $500 make sure
the lens you get is threaded for adapters.
While not as good as interchangeable
lenses you can buy some decent telephoto
and wide angle adapters. If there are
no threads on the lens barrel you're
stuck with what the manufacturer supplies,
if anything at all.
- Just
how many pixels are enough? This is
the latest thing in consumer level cameras.
I've owned four different machines.
The latest having 2.5 million pixels.
This amount is enough to print out at
5x7. Using software interpolation I've
gone as high as 16x20 without serious
artefacts. Considering what's out there
I would say that 2 megapixels is what
you should look for but how good is the lens and
the CCD receiver? There's a lot more
to image quality than the number of
pixels. Canon makes a 1.7 megapixel
machine which uses interchangeable lenses
and takes much higher quality images
than some of the 4 or 5 megapixel machines
out there.
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Issue
14