Subj : Re: digital camera
To   : Jason Lamb
From : Alan Zisman
Date : Wed Oct 05 2005 09:30 am

-=> Jason Lamb wrote to All <=-

 JL> A friend has a 4.1 MegaPixal camera. The manual says that he must
 JL> install the camera software. It uses an xD media card. He has a
 JL> multi-card read in his computer. Could he just remove the card from the
 JL> camera and put it in the card reader? I assume the software is for
 JL> connecting the camera via USB. He doesn't want to install the software
 JL> if he does not have to. He likes to keep his hard as clean as possible,
 JL> He is not one to install a bunch of software. He has taken test
 JL> pictures and insert the xD card in the reader and it seems to work. He
 JL> iis worried about damaging the system, reader, card, or camera though.

 JL> He says this is his first digital camera. He not used the muti-card
 JL> reader is his computer before either.

What's wrong with experimenting? What possible harm would it to do either the 
camera or the computer to snap a few pictures then place the card in the reader 
and see what happens?

(Please forgive my grumpiness-- but I'm feeling like too many people have 
become too dependent on answers from 'experts' to things that they could easily 
find out themselves-- whether by a simple experiment or a quick Google search).

To answer your question more nicely-- MOST digital cameras produce standard JPG 
images and format their memory cards in standard files and folders that are 
readable as removable disks, though the actual photos are often buried several 
layers of folders down. So yes; in that case, there would be no problem getting 
the photos off the disk that way; in fact, if he is using WinXP, he will find 
many common digital photo operations can be accomplished right in Windows 
Explorer, such as printing a 'contact sheet' of thumbnail images, or printing 
multiple photos in a number of common sizes.

Typically, camera software (which I also generally don't bother installing) 
includes the driver so that that the camera will appear, when connected, as a 
removable drive, along with photo-organization and image editing software; 
there are often programs for using the photos in a variety of ways-- making 
cards, calendars, etc.

There are better generic programs for most of these things and recent versions 
of Windows may also recognize the camera without the manufacturer's drivers... 
some software I like:

-- Adobe Photoshop Elements ver 4 (about US$100) includes both image 
cataloguing software (formerly sold separately as Photoshop Album) and image 
editing software (formerly Photoshop Elements ver 1 or 2)

-- Picasa (www.picasa.com) is free, owned by Google, image cataloguing and 
simple editing and project software

-- Irfanview (www.irfanview.com) is free and good for many basic image editing 
features... it may be all many users need for cropping, resizing, printing, 
etc.
.... Inet mail to: alan at zisman dot ca
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