Thread: Digital Cameras

RV.
Maybe if you count to 10 and settle down a bit and provide a bit more information you just might get some help.
Firstly, I presume we are talking cameras not printers

Secondly, what is going wrong? I have to say that my Canon Powershots are ultra reliable and I doubt that the other brands mentioned are much less so.
I have many hundreds, possibly even a few thousand images from holidays and just general mucking about. The cost of an image is practically zero, which is why I mention printers .....but $7.00 per image?? I don't think so.

Thirdly what on earth has reliability got to do with where your pictures end up??
Most digital cameras, if not all, come with their own software for managing the images although I find them a bit fiddly. I prefer just to plug in the USB lead, treat the camera like a memory stick and put the files in directories /folders of my choice. It sounds to me as though you might need to brush up on how to operate your computer

Fourthly, of course the image names are strings of numbers - usually they are sequenced in the order in which they were taken ( I've only ever seen numerics bit I guess alphas would work as well) along with a time and date - what do want? A camera that reads your mind and names your shots..that a liitle way off I suspect.

So what's your problem?


Ian

After nearly 10,000 B&W analog negs, I thought that digital point-and-shoot would be really convenient. The first, a $450 Ricoh, died, it's still trying to take a picture in 2007. The Sony, Casio, Sharp died, also.
That's where my math comes from. camera price/image quantity.
The Kodak Easy Share C190 insists on reformatting the chip after a single viewing. At least, the lens cap still retracts which is more than the rest of them can do.

I expected that my computer would place all images in "My Pictures" I had a silly idea that the phrase really meant what it said. Wrong. They are all over the place. I had the naive idea that I was in charge, Not so. On my behalf, people downloaded all sorts of camera/image software for me. Then, I could not suck a single image out of a camera. The final explanation was that all the software packages were competing for the image. So, I deleted all the software. Now, when somebody else does it, I can see the images in my computer. Where they are stored, I have no idea.
Most disappointing is that more than 60% (70?) are out of focus. I can do better with a pinhole in a beer can.

I have an Epson 340 photo printer, a Canon 8800 film scanner, CD and DVD burners which keeps everyone else happy, I'm not sure how any of it works. I paid a tech to hook it all up.

What you can do in/on your computer may not be at all related to what happens here. Unfortunate but probably true.
No offense, but if you were to sit here and make it all happen, clicky-clicky, I won't stay to watch. I need to sit my butt down here and make it happen. So far, I'm out for a duck.

I've had a very good run out of my digital cameras. Not counting mobille phone cameras I've had 5 different digital cameras and have taken more than 70,000 photos with them in 12 years. It is not unusual for me to shoot a couple of hundred images an hour when I deliberately set my mind on taking photos or I'm into panoramic photography mode.

Every night I download the images to my laptop into folders organized by Year, then Place and then Sub-place and/or Object name. Every month or two I make two DVD copies of what I shot since the the last backup and I keep a set of DVDs at home and a set at work. I also shoot a lot of RAW images so I churn through DVDs pretty quickly.

All my images are stored chronologically and as my sense of event time and date are very good I can locate almost every image I have ever taken within minutes. I also keep the last two or three years worth of images on my laptop hard drive so I have them with me where ever I go.

I also have about ~2000 slides and 3000 B&W and colour negatives in arch lever files taken from as long ago as 1972. Ask me to locate a specific picture in that lot and it'll take me a little longer than minutes.

RV.......your camera software will place the images where you tell it and generally asks you give it a folder name.....even so each and every pic will still have an ID# which will be in the format 001 on, and each folder will have an identifier such as 2011.17.4 001 (depending on what date format you use ie. American and so on ) which equates to Pic #1 taken 17Apr2011....easy.

To find all the pics on your computer go to "search" enter "*.jpg" (without the quotes) and it will bring up all the pics on your computer....simply drag and drop into pre-named folders as you wish.

As for the camera problems am in a hurry and will discuss later....I have used all the different Canons since the first Digital and have never had a failure...on the beach, in the boat and out in the desert. you must have a major hamfist.

If you don't really understand the filing system on your computer......a simple solution might be to download and install Picasa (a Google program)? Its free.

Then, when you plug your camera into your PC, Picasa will open automatically and suck the photos into the computer. They will be organised for you chronologically, and the program even has basic editing features to fix poor photos.

When you want to export a photo as a small jpeg for posting to the forum, Picasa can handle that for you too.

I was given a little box which has slots for all sorts of different camera chips. I was advised that the box obviates individual camera software packages. Fine, I took it. The guy showed me how well it worked, fine. I left it hooked up.
I don't know what to do when the computer goes into "auto-suck" mode. It says all my images have been downloaded. Put the chip in the slot, BANG! it's done. To me, one key point is to tell me where they are. I'm up to coping with that, if it happened.

Now, for the fifth time in the past decade, I am trying to do no more than take some pictures which are in focus. All of them. I'll leave the computer stuff to another day. I found the box of cameras, I found one which still seems to (mechanically) work.

My sincere apologies. It is April. My annual quest for digital camera information. How can I prevent the camera from formatting the chip after one look? The problems are as simple as that?
Maybe we need a beer.

When you plug the camera chip into your little box (I use the same thing), Picasa will open automatically.

If you look at the check boxes it gives you a couple of options. It can either suck up all the photos and delete them from the chip (which is what I do), or suck up all the pictures and leave the copy on the chip alone.

OK, I'll try that.
First, I would like to take some pictures. I prefer to have them all in focus. Then, I'd like some assurance that they are in focus. Then, I would like to be in total command of where the pictures reside in my computer.

I read all sorts of camera crap. All of it is predicated on an intimate understanding of the lexicon associated with the computer operating system. I had boats to build and bridge fires to try to put out.
Example: What is a download? Very hit-and-miss if I ever see it again. Where did it go? I write things down on paper to go looking for in this computer over my morning coffee. Where did it go?

MS Picture Editor/Picture Manager is in this computer but I cannot find it in any search so far. I'd like to read about it.
I know that this sounds really juvenile. I could care less. These are the facts. My crystal ball broke decades ago.
Maybe, I'll just back off and ask again next April.

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

OK, I'll try that.
First, I would like to take some pictures. I prefer to have them all in focus. Then, I'd like some assurance that they are in focus. Then, I would like to be in total command of where the pictures reside in my computer.

I read all sorts of camera crap. All of it is predicated on an intimate understanding of the lexicon associated with the computer operating system. I had boats to build and bridge fires to try to put out.
Example: What is a download? Very hit-and-miss if I ever see it again. Where did it go? I write things down on paper to go looking for in this computer over my morning coffee. Where did it go?

MS Picture Editor/Picture Manager is in this computer but I cannot find it in any search so far. I'd like to read about it.
I know that this sounds really juvenile. I could care less. These are the facts. My crystal ball broke decades ago.
Maybe, I'll just back off and ask again next April.

It sounds like you need a Mac

As for pics in focus, DSLR with manual focus, but my bet is within about 10 shots you'll be using the autofocus.

I'm with you BobL,since I changed over to Mac it has been a pleasure and ease to use iPhoto without a download of any camera software and my wife has a Cannon and I a Panasonic Lumix.....even with Windows XP I preferred to download direct without using the camera software.
RV maybe you should keep your cameras in from the cold!!! I believe those negative temperature can play hell with technology Kerry

Autofocus was a worry for me, before my first digital camera...but I found it could focus both faster and more reliably than me.

As long as you have sufficient light (the focus algorithms are based on maximising contrast between adjoining areas) and you know where it is focusing (my SLR gives a series of boxes in the eyepiece showing what areas are being used set focus, while the point and shoot only shows that if I have the rear screen turned on) it does very well.

It's been my experience that digital cameras will not let me take a photo until it has gained a focus lock on something - it may not be what I want it to focus on, but it's up to me to correct that focus point if it's incorrect.

The only problem I have encountered in 7+ years was taking pics of glassware on a white background under studio lighting - for that, I had to set the focus manually. Even then, I had to hold up a colour swatch card so that I had something I could focus on, as I had trouble focusing.

As for not knowing where it's storing your photos...that's not a camera problem.

Take control of your computer and TELL it where to store things, and TELL it what you want to name the folder/files. If you haven't learnt how to properly use a $1,500+ tool, that's hardly the camera's fault. You could always just buy large memory cards - 16 gig ones are about $90, and that'll hold some 3,000 photos - that's the equivalent of $1,500 worth of film and prints if my memory serves me well.

The computer will come up with a suggested location, based on either camera software preferences, or the last used folder or some other default setting. It's up to you to confirm this location, or otherwise take charge of what's happening. If you don't notice that it is trying to store your pictures in C:\Users\yourname\no pictures are in this folder, you'll just have to get used to doing a search for *.jpg every time you want to find them!

The computer is not the camera. Never was. Computers are dirt cheap. This IBM clone with a P4 (mouse, keyboard, monitor and box of tricks) cost me $50.00. So I bought 3 of them. That's as much as I ever pay. OS, software, printers scanner, burners, I had to buy. I paid a MS-certified tech to make it all hum right along, and it does.

My motivation this time around is two-fold: I want to photograph my wood carvings. I am going to Britain in August for my daughter's wedding, I thought it would be nice to take some pictures of the events. Maybe I can buy some digital cameras in a Duty Free shop.

The quantity issue is first. Without a quantity, I don't see how to learn to do the computer things. If I deleted all the fuzzy ones there might not be anything left to work with! I'm trying to determine the cost of reliability to get a quantity of images. I'm beginning to think that buying two or three cameras is the best way to go.

Much to my chagrin, "downloads" does not mean that the item has been saved in the Downloads list. Just the other day, I lost a very useful and unusual wood-carving document in just that way. I did print it so that was a relief.

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

The quantity issue is first. . I'm beginning to think that buying two or three cameras is the best way to go. .

I don't quite understand the logic RV....
by the sounds of things this may just compound your problem two or threefold...
I don't recall anyone having as much trouble with a digital camera...
my suggestion would be to borrow a neighbors teenager to show you how to use the "heap big magic box" ...(that's what I do)

I'd be happy to settle for just one. I need to slow down the death rate.