The Digital Camera Fan

Pump Up the Saturation

I've finally figured out how some photographs look simply fabulous, like the ones by pro photographers that always win Canadian Geographics’ annual photo contest. They pump up the saturation.

Saturation is the intensity of colors. More saturation and the colors are more intense; less, and the photograph begins to look like a black-white photo.

Your camera might have a saturation settings. On my Canon S1is, it is found in the Func. menu. Move down to Custom Effect, press Set, and then change Saturation. This camera offers only three settings: more, normal, or less.

My other camera, the Samsung NV3, handles saturation differently. Press the + button, and the press the four-way controller until you get to the Red-Green-Blue setting. Now increase each one by a few steps.

Take some photos, and suddenly they no longer seem so bland looking.

If you don't want to contaminate the "original" photos with the camera's saturation settings, you can post-fix them. For example, Picasa has a saturation setting that lets you see the effect in real time. Notice that when the saturation is too strong, colors start to look wrong, and black areas can get flooded with electric blue.

Saturation is like salt: a little enhances your photos, but too much kills them.

Getting Photos Back into Cameras

My dad asked if I could solve a problem for a friend: "At church a lady asked me how to transfer pictures from the computer back to the camera."

It is possible. It might be that the software that comes with your camera allows this.

If not, then follow these steps:

1. Take out the camera's memory card.
2. Insert it into a card reader, which is attached to your computer. Some computers now include card readers; if not, you may need to buy one.
3. The computer will recognize the card reader and the memory card as another disk drive. Use Windows Explorer to open the new "drive."
4. Drag photos (JPEG files) from your computer onto the new "drive." In some cases, you may need to place the JPEG files in a specific folder of the memory card.
5. When done, click the "Unplug or Eject Hardware" button on the task bar (bottom right of the screen). Choose the drive name, and wait for Windows to tell you that it's now safe to remove the card.
6. Put the card back into your camera, and check if you can view the photos.

My dad replied, "Thanks for mailing the answer to her question. She had some transfers done by [the local camera dealer] and they charged her one dollar per picture! Come to think of it: I never asked her why she wants to transfer pictures back to the camera, would you know of a good reason?"

To use the camera as a photo viewer. They have such big screens today, that we can use the camera to show pictures to friends and relatives.

When A Full Battery Looks Empty to the Camera

My daughter was leaving on a four-day trip and asked me for a new set of batteries for her Samsung digital camera. I always have four NiMH batteries "simmering" in a trickle charger, so that there is always a set fully charged and ready to go.

She thanked me, took them, and returned minutes later. "I hate my camera!" Turning it on, the battery meter showed three bars: fully charged. "Wait a couple of minutes," she instructed me. Sure enough, the battery meter suddenly turned red (the sign of empty batteries) and the camera shut itself down.

I tried different rechargeable batteries. Same problem. I stuck in a pair of alkalines that I happened to have nearby. While playing with her camera, trying to find the problem, I noticed a menu item named Battery. There was the problem:

The battery type was set to Alkaline, but she was using rechargeable. I changed the setting to NiMH, and the camera worked correctly.

Here's what happened:

* Alkaline batteries have a nominal voltage of 1.5V (volts) and are nearly dead when the voltage drops to around 1.2V.

* NiMH (and other rechargeable) batteries have a nominal voltage of 1.2V.

When you stick NiMHs into a camera (or other device) expecting alkalines, the camera assumes the batteries are nearly dead, because it measures a voltage of just 1.2V. Change the setting to NiMH, and the camera then realizes that the "low" voltage of 1.2V is normal.

A consumer camera should not have an alkaline setting; it's just too confusing!

From Camera to Zen Micro?

A strange tip over at Popular Photography.com:

Using select camera cables, I can connect digital cameras from several makers to my Creative Zen Micro music player, and their image files are transferred automatically.

I have both -- several digital cameras and the Zen Micro -- but I haven't been able to try this tip, because the cables are a problem. The Zen Micro has the miniUSB female connector; most cameras have the same or a proprietary connector. Thus, an adapter cable is needed, which I don't have.

But, I can't see this tip working, because neither the camera nor the Zen Micro are USB servers -- one is needed to initiate the file transfer operation. I wonder if the editors of Popular Photography tested the tip, which needs more information. For example, should the Zen Micro be in File Transfer mode?

I wonder if the tip submitter used a USB transfer box, which allows two non-server USB devices to communicate with each other. I've looked at them at London Drugs (about $40), but decided they wouldn't work well, because there is no control over which files are transmitted, and where they end up on the receiving device.

Timing the PhotoTainer

I've mentioned the InnoPlus PhotoTainer before in this blog. It was the very first 20GB portable media player that plays back MP3s, ripped DVD movies, and JPEG photos with its color screen and built-in loudspeaker. Because it was first designed to be a digital camera backup device, it has a CompactFlash slot. Oh, and it runs Linux.

(Unfortunately, the PhotoTainer suffers from poor battery life. In addition, it's not clear whether Korea-based InnoPlus still exists. The company has not updated the unit's firmware in more than six months.)

Some time ago, I wondered if the PhotoTainer would run longer if the music was playing off a CompactFlash memory card, rather than from the hard drive. This week I finally got around to testing this theory. I discharged the battery fully, and then fully recharged it. Then, I played music until the unit died.

The Results

1. Playing music off the hard drive - 2hr 30 min
2. Playing music off 512MB memory card - 3hr 40 min

About 50% longer playing time -- great for longish airplane trips! Next, I plan to time how long movie playback lasts, where the screen is on all the time.

Remember: For maximum playing time, it is important that the PhotoTainer battery be fully discharged before recharging. I learned this the hard way taking a flight from New Zealand to Canada. Much to my annoyance, it lasted just 3/4 hour -- because I had topped-up the battery the night before, instead of doing the deep discharge/recharge.

Couple of S1iS Tips

The Canon S1iS has tons of features -- even too many. The one that bugs me the most is the ability to customize the startup image: who cares for a startup image, let alone a customized one???

Anyhow, some features are "hidden" away. Here are a couple that I tend to forget about -- either forget they exist, or forget how to access them.

Exposure Reciprocity

In automatic modes (like Auto, P and C) the camera selects the "best" combination of exposure time and aperture opening. As you may know, the exposure and aperture are inverse to each other:

Increasing the exposure time means the aperture must be larger, and vice versa.

You can change the settings selected by the S1:

1. Half-press the shutter button.
2. Press the [o] button (one below the Func button). Notice that a * appears in the viewfinder, telling you the exposure is locked.
3. Press the left and right buttons on the 4-way controller. As you do, notice that the expsure and aperture reciprocitate:

1/60 - F3.1
1/50 - F3.5
1/40 - F4.0
1/30 - F4.5

... and so on.

What good is this?

Moving the Focus Point

Cheap Flash Diffuser

Over on the dpreview forums John McCormack describes making a flash diffuser from a transluscent film container (the kind sold with Fuji film). He just cut off the end, cut a slot lengthwise, and puts it over the pop-up flash of the Canon S1iS.

I tried the same, but from the handle of a plastic milk jug. Two sissor cuts removed the handle, and then a third slit the handle lengthwise. The problem is that the milkjug plastic is thin, and so tends not to stay on the flash. I cut out a couple of offsets to make the "diffuser" stay in place better.

Testing it, I found that the diffuser reduces shiny highlights induced by direct flash exposure, as well as added a warming, light-mocca tone to the photographs. I am guessing the coloring is from the compsition of the plastic. It might be worthwhile testing other kinds of translucent plastic to determine their color effects.

2GB Showing on a 4GB Card

Today's pro-sumer digital cameras, such as the Canon S1iS, can take huge capacicy CompactFlash memory cards. One owner, however, was discourged to find that his camera seems to only access half of the newly-purchased 4GB memory card. After formatting for card in his camera, rgorcomplained, "The camera tells me I have 1.9gb available space."

Aaron quickly provided the solution: "Do you have a switch on the card?

* 1 position for 4GB
* 1 position for 2 GB
* And the other for the other 2 GB"

The tiny switch on the SanDisk 4GB UltraII CF card allows it to be used with cameras that cannot access more than 2GB of RAM. Rgor checked, and found that the switch was in the 2GB position. Changing it to the 4GB position solved the problem.

What to Do wtih 8/16MB Cards

Over on the dpreview Canon forum, sbj asked, "The 16MB card that comes with the camera seems worthless?! i was only able to take one photo - how 'bout you guys?"

mr_fishbulb replied:

I store a PDF version of my camera manual and some editing programs, like Irfanview and neat images to take into Internet cafes whilst I'm travelling.

You can usually download PDF versions of camera manuals from the vendors Web site. eddyb replied:

Another use is if your wanting to print some 4x6 photos at a Costco, Walgreens or Osco you can dump a bunch of JPGs on one.

Film print locations sometimes lose negatives (memory cards), so using a cheap card means you don't have to worry about losing a more expensive one. Forbes adds:

This is easier than burning a CD with the images.

Tom O'Neil replied:

I have an 8Mb CF that is extremely important. It carries the firmware file for my Flashtrax [aka PhotoTainer]. If the Flashtrax freezes up when I'm on a two-week trip, I lose access to 30Gb of storage. It happened two weeks ago when I was on a ship. So far a firmware reinstall has always restored the Flashtrax to functionality.

The PhotoTainer/FlashTrax firmware file is about 1.6MB.

TIP: External Flash for S1iS

The Canon S1iS lacks a hotshoe, the adapter that would let you mount an external flash to the camera.

You can still use an external flash with the S1. The solution is to use a "slave" flash. This is a regular flash unit with a light sensor attached. When you use the flash on the S1, the bright light is noticed by the sensor, and sets off the external flash.

There are two types of units: one is a flash with the sensor built in; the other is an sensor that is added to regular flashes. There's an article with more details at Slave Flash Photography.