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Ongoing Thoughts 17:
By William E. Steinman:
A New Camera:
A friend made me aware of an inconsistency in my behavior. I
like to take photos whenever I notice something interesting or important, but I
rarely have my camera along. My friend always has one with him. One day while
taking a photo, he stated the obvious. My good Canon camera is so expensive
that he would be reluctant to take it along most of the time. Suddenly, a bell
rang in my thick Kraut head. I was missing some good photo opportunities
because I did not want to risk my camera.
Okay, what to do? I knew his camera was good for many photo
opportunities, not all. In addition, it was very small and easy to carry. My
Canon is not small or easy to carry, but it is very powerful. I decided I
needed the kind of compromise he had already managed. I needed a small pocket
camera that would work in most situations. So I began a casual search. Each time
Mrs. Gaffer and I went out, I checked out what was available in the stores.
One day, I was surprised to find a small pocket-sized camera
while we were walking through a store. I thought I had one that would work and
it was priced at only $20.00. That price should have been a clue, but as
sometimes happens when I am shopping my brain malfunctioned. This time the
malfunction was so severe that I actually bought two cameras of the same type.
I figure one for me and one for Mrs. Gaffer.
It did not take long. The first day I brought those things
home, I discovered all I needed to know. They were crap. The resolution
produced photos similar in quality to the grainy appearance of the Sunday comic
strips. It was painful to look at them. In addition, the camera had a very
small memory. It allowed storage of about 20 bad photos and there was no
provision for memory expansion. There was also no way of reading and printing
the photos except with the proprietary software that came with the camera. The
whole thing was a kludge. I trashed both of them and ate the loss.
After that boondoggle, I kept on looking for a small pocket
camera, but I became aware that cheap had become a relative term. I would need
to put out considerably more that twenty bucks, but not nearly as much as I had
for the Canon. I found a good compromise at an office supply store. It was a
Kodak EasyShare M683. This one had most of the features I wanted and some that
I did not like. As I said, it was a compromise. It is small enough for my
pocket. The dimensions are 7/8” X 2&3/8” X 3&3/4”. It
has a memory expansion slot that allows me to decide how big is big enough. I
chose 1GB, which allows about 320 high-resolution photos. The positive aspect
of this is the camera ignores its internal memory with the memory card
installed. That removes any confusion as to where photos are stored.
One negative is a proprietary battery. The way it came, this
battery can only be recharged in the camera, which ties up the camera during
recharge for as long as 3 hours. Crappy engineering! Of course, they have an
optional battery charger available for sale, but there is no advantage. The
battery must still be in the camera to be recharged. Duh! Another negative is
this little camera has no viewfinder. It is necessary to frame the photos using
the LCD display. That is not great, but it is acceptable for inside photos.
Outside is a whole other problem. To much coincident light makes it impossible
in some situations and very difficult in most situations. I see my own
reflection more clearly than I see my subject. Double crap! Finally, there was
no manual with this camera. To get the manual, I had to download it from the
kludgy Kodak website. They could have put it on the included CD, but all that
had is the crappy proprietary software.
One thing that surprised me was the resolution of this
little toy. They claim a resolution of 8.2 mega-pixels. That is 2 mega-pixels
more that my Canon. I have yet to check it out, but I did make and print some
photos. The quality is quite high. When I tried to copy and print the photos, I
encountered the other evidence of poor engineering.
First, I found I could not read the camera memory card with
Window’s explorer. I plugged in the Camera USB cable and got nothing. It
was invisible to Window’s Explorer. The included proprietary software
seemed to be the only way to read it. So I decide to load the damn stuff. Then
I discovered what I had feared. First, the install program slopped all of their
crap down on my C drive. There were no options. This was a purely amateur
software creation at its worst. They gave me no choice of where to put the
photographs. I did not want photo data on my C drive, but that is where they
slopped the photo folders down.
Then, my computer started to malfunction after I loaded the
software. Everything was slower. Internet access was almost impossible. I
finally blew the Kodak software off. After that, when I went to use Roxio Easy
Media Creator to save some data, It malfunctioned. Some drivers were missing. I
don’t know if that happened when the Kodak software took over my computer
or when I blew it off. I tried to repair the software, but that did not work. I
had to remove Roxio completely and reinstall it before I could run the CD DVD
data copy software. After that, I had to defrag my C drive to get a reasonable
response from the computer.
I made a decision. I was not going to reinstall the Kodak
software no matter what. I knew I had to find a way to read the data. I
remembered that I had a memory card in the camera. That is a SanDisk card. I
realized, if there is a SanDisk memory card there must be a SanDisk memory card
reader. That would have to work with a regular USB port and Window’s
explorer. Otherwise, they would not be able to market the cards.
So, I went to the store and spent some more money. After
that, I was able to read my photos directly from the card. I could deep six the
Kodak software and use my favorite photo program, Adobe PhotoShop. Now, the
biggest drawback I see is the lack of a decent viewfinder. I will live with
that for now and carry this camera in my pocket or purse. Of course, I have a
purse. Don’t you? Why should women have all the neat stuff?
Here is the bottom line. I was able to work around the
memory read problem, but because of the missing viewfinder, the missing manual,
and the kludgy battery-charging problem, I cannot recommend this camera. It is
a shame. With a little more effort and insight, they could have got it right.
This came close to being a dandy little gem. Try again Kodak.
My next step is to look into camera backs for my Canon System. I thought, with all the advances in pixel count, the higher pixel camera back should be somewhat less expensive than the last time I checked. Sure enough, I can now get a 10.1 mega pixel Canon camera back for less than 1,000 bucks. The last time I looked, that size camera back was priced at about ten grand. Go figure. I’ll think on that and probably bite the bullet to upgrade. What will I do with my 6 mega pixel back? I’ll likely give it to my son who has a few Canon lenses and an SLR film camera back.