Camera woes

jeffrey-wimberl

Active Member
Got my new camera this morning, a Kodak C533. It takes dazzlingly clear pictures. Too bad I don't have it anymore. The cameras software was not compatible with Windows 98, which I already knew. That's why I bought an SD card and a card reader to go with it. The camera and the card worked flawlessly. The card reader on the other hand was a PITA! The drivers had to be downloaded from the companies internet site. Try as I might, the driver wouldn't download. The INF files downloaded as did the instructions. But the driver would not download. I took the card reader back to Wal-Mart and exchanged it for a different brand. Got it home and had the same thing happen. By this time, I was really ****** off! That was it! I had had it! I packed everything up and the whole * mess back to Wal-Mart and got my money back! Without the card reader, the camera was worthless. Now I have money for trains when I go to Alexandria tomorrow. Hare's Art and Hobby, look out! There's a tornado coming!
 

Ralph

Remember...it's for fun!
NUTS! I'll keep your story in mind when I go camera shopping. Meanwhile, redirecting those funds to the hobby store sounds like a great plan!
Ralph
 

2680

New Member
as a full time professional photographer, i can assure you your problem is with windows 98 and USB1.1 interface. i have 10+ card readers of all different brands that all work on all my computers now. back in the day running win98, it was a shot in the dark. sorry about the problems, but don't give up on making some great photos!
 

Jim Krause

Active Member
I'm going through the W98 thing with my computer at the present time. Turbo Tax 2006 is not W98 friendly so I bought a new computer and now find that I have to get a download from online for my external drive in order to extract files from the old computer. That will teach me to wait until Microsoft stops supporting a system.
 

kf4jqd

Active Member
I use my 6 year old Sony FDM100 digital camera. ALL of the pictures I post here on the Gauge, I used that camera. It's only 1.2MP! It has a USB connection PLUS it has a 1.44MD built in disk drive! I don't use the Sony's photo editing software. I use Micrograph's software. I have found out that photo editing software makes all the difference. I have a friend that has a Cannon 5.2MP camera. After I edit my picture. We compare them, he's mad because mine looks better!

As for WIN98. Most hardware companies such as digital camera's have stopped making hardware for Win 98. Window's XP and now Vista is 100% differant that the old Window's OS's.

By the way. You can still find camera's like mine on Ebay. SNIPE!!! Just kidding!!

Andy
 

kf4jqd

Active Member
One more thing. Save the picture as a .TIFF file. The reason is the picture will deterrorate over time. When posting it on the web or emailing, use .JPEG file. Also note some digital camera's will automatically save it as a .TIFF. You will have to go into the menue settings to change it if you want.

Andy
 

Squidbait

Recovering ALCO-holic
kf4jqd said:
One more thing. Save the picture as a .TIFF file. The reason is the picture will deterrorate over time.

Are you saying the digital file will degrade, or the printed picture will degrade, and he'll need the hi-res file to reproduce it?
 

2680

New Member
yeah, because digital files don't loose quality over time. and for most peoples needs, jpg's are just fine and take up much less space.

the only reason to use tif's is if you are going to be doing a lot of post work to an image (meaning color correcting, editting, etc), or printing it in CMYK, which unless you own a magazine, you probably will not.
 

91rioja

Member
Jeffrey:

You may want to accelerate your plans to upgrade to XP. With the computer hogging Vista now released, you may have a harder and harder time finding XP.
 

kf4jqd

Active Member
Squidbait said:
Are you saying the digital file will degrade, or the printed picture will degrade, and he'll need the hi-res file to reproduce it?

What I am saying. Everytime you copy a .jpeg image. The quality will go down. I don't understand why but it does. It takes unknown amount of time when this happens. And I am not talking about making many copies of the same picture. I am talking about making a copy from a copy. BUT .TIFF pictures are far the best quality. They just take up more memory on your stick.

Andy:wave:

Window's XP is a good OS. I even heard better things about Window's Vista!:thumb:
 

jeffrey-wimberl

Active Member
91rioja said:
Jeffrey:

You may want to accelerate your plans to upgrade to XP. With the computer hogging Vista now released, you may have a harder and harder time finding XP.
There's a computer tech in this area who keeps older stuff in stock for those who want it, at a fair price too.
 

Biased turkey

Active Member
May I suggest you to install "Linux". Free as in free beer and free speach.
Linux detected my Canon A530 out of the box, I didn't even have to install the USB drivers supplied on the CDROM.
And there is an Xtrakcad version for Linux too.
Photoshop $$$$ who care, Linux ( nand windows ) has " The Gimp", a free pics editing software.
So, install Linux and save your $ for a brand new locomotive :)
 

91rioja

Member
Jeffrey, glad to see that some people still stock older stuff for us "holdouts".

Andy, with a JPEG, you are correct in saying that the quality of the image will go down with each saved as copy of a copy. The reason being is that a JPEG is a compressed file format (that is why they are so small). Highly compressing the file strips out information, so the more times you compress the copy, the more information you lose. It is not a lot of information, but after 10 or so copies, the trained eye can start telling the difference.
 

N Gauger

1:20.3 Train Addict
That's why I always keep the "original" pic (jpg) right out of the camera.. i learned from videotape that you always keep the "master" then take copies from that. I have never gone beyond 3 generations with a pic. Never went beyond 2 with video or CD (mov, mpg)
 

Renovo PPR

Just a Farmer
While it is true that an image will keep better as a TIFF there should be no great rush to convert from a JPEG. JPEG’s are just fine unless you want to do a lot of post processing. Just remember the larger the file you store the larger hard drive you are going to need. This means an up grade to your hard drive or even an external hard drive.

A JPEG will do just fine if you want to save the image to print, post or send them in a few e-mails. If you are concerned with quality then the best thing to do is buy a camera that will capture a RAW image, there is simply nothing better when it comes to image storage quality.

While I can’t say why you are having problems downloading the drivers for Windows 98 it is a good idea to consider moving up to a more modern operating system if you are planning to get into digital photography. What ever you do don’t cheat on the size of the hard drive either, you will be surprised how many images you will start to store on it.

You can solve this with either an external hard drive or downloading to a DVD. In any event you should back up the images in addition, so figure on twice the storage needs for a digital file. I know too many people that have lost every image because they did not have a backup.

Now your Kodak C533 will work with Windows 98. You should have been able to download through the USB connection.

System Requirements

Windows 98, 98SE, 2000, XP
233 MHz processor
128 MB RAM (64MB for Windows 98)
CD Rom
[FONT=&quot]Available USB port[/FONT]
 
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