Software for Downloading Images from Olympus Digital Cameras

by

Michael Tobin, M.D., Ph.D.

INTRODUCTION

Digital cameras offer many advantages. They produce immediately viewable photos and you can save only those you deem satisfactory. You can download images to a computer and use them in a variety of applications including web page creation, desktop publishing, and Internet e-mail. Unlike film, digital storage media are reusable, which is both convenient and economical.

For most digital cameras, you need special software to download the images(*) but appropriate software has not been generally available for the Amiga, except for certain Kodak models. I am pleased to report that Amiga software is now available for a wide variety of digital cameras, including the highly-praised Olympus D-6xxL series.

----------------------------------------------------------------- * If you own a Sony Mavica, you do not need special software because the storage media are removable, PC-formatted floppy disks and the photos are saved as Amiga-readable, JPEG files. -----------------------------------------------------------------

THE OLYMPUS D600-L

The Olympus line of digital cameras has received critical acclaim for its megapixel resolution, user-friendly features, and ability to reproduce color faithfully.

Until recently, the Olympus D-600L digital camera was the top of the line (Figure 1). Recent enhancements, including the ability to capture sequences of images rapidly, have led to a newer model, the Olympus D-620L. Both versions feature 1280 x 1024 pixel resolution, a 3X optical zoom, macro focus mode, flash, optical view finder, liquid crystal display (LCD) back panel, and more.

For group viewing of images, you can connect the Olympus D- 620L, but not from the D-600L, directly to a television. For making prints, Olympus offers the P-300 and P330 dye sublimation printers, which you connect directly to the Olympus camera. You can find more information on Olympus' website.

Image Storage and Quality

The Olympus D-6xxL series stores images on 3.3v removable, SmartMedia cards which are currently available in up to 16 MB capacity. Important! If you wish to use a 16 MB card with the D- 600L, and not be limited to 8 MB, you must first send your camera to Olympus for a firmware upgrade.

The number of images you can store on a card depends on amount of JPEG compression you select. The more compression you use, the more photos you can store, but the images will have less detail and lower quality than if you used lower compression. Super High Quality (SHQ) images are the best the Olympus digital camera is capable of producing. These are compressed the least but require the most space. Conversely, Standard Quality (SQ) images are compressed the most, but have the advantage that many more can be stored on a single SmartMedia card. High Quality (HQ) images take a middle approach and often are the best compromise between size and quality.

A 4 MB card can store at least 4 images in SHQ mode, 12 images in HQ mode, and 49 images in SQ mode. Importantly, a SmartMedia card can have any combination of SHQ, HQ, and SQ images up to its capacity in megabytes.

CAMCONTROL FOR THE AMIGA

CamControl, developed by Andreas Gunther and distributed by Vesalia computer, enables you to transfer images from Olympus digital cameras to the Amiga computer via a serial port.

The CamControl software contains two main elements. The first is the camera control program itself, CamPhotoLab; and the second is the preferences program, CamPrefs, which allows you to set various parameters used by CamPhotoLab.

CamPhotoLab

CamPhotoLab's stark, but functional, interface allows you to view, store, or print some or all of the images in the Olympus camera. You can display thumbnail views of all the photos in the camera and, if necessary, rotate them prior to any operation (Figure 2). Using CamPhotoLab, you can delete images stored on the SmartMedia card and change various digital camera settings, such as LCD brightness and degree of JPEG compression during image recording.

You can use the Arexx scripts supplied with CamPhotoLab to load digital camera images transparently into programs such as Art Department Professional 2.5, Deluxe Paint V, Photogenics 2, Professional Paint 7, and Pagestream 3. Although a loader was not included for ImageFX, presumably one could be written using Arexx and the additional commands supplied with CamControl.

CamPrefs

CamPrefs, among its many features, allows you to select the serial port you wish to use when downloading images from your Olympus camera. This is especially important because the Amiga's built-in serial port is slow. For example, I found that using the Amiga 1200's serial port, my maximum transfer rate was limited to only 19200 bps. Using the Surf Squirrel's serial port, however, I was able to download camera images at 115200 bps, which is a profound improvement in performance. A color image that takes 155 seconds to transfer when using the A1200's serial port requires only 30 seconds when using the Surf Squirrel's and even less when using a GVP IO Extender Board, which can transfer data up to 230400 bps in an Amiga A4000.

You can use CamPrefs to select the screen on which CamControl will open and where you want camera images stored on your Amiga. CamPrefs allows your choice of image viewing programs, e.g., multiview, visage, etc., although ViewTek (VT) is included in the software package.

Finally, you can use CamPrefs as a stand-alone program or call it from within CamPhotoLab.

Useful Tips For Camcontrol

  1. If you find it difficult to view images with CamControl, but easy to load and save them, reduce the number of colors on your Workbench screen and then retry. You will probably find your Amiga peppier as well. I found that I needed to lower the number of colors on my A1200 from 256 to 64 or 32 when using 640x480 Productivity screens for both Workbench and CamControl.

  2. Use CamControl to download and save Olympus digital camera images in one step to achieve the most flexibility. You can then use a variety of programs such as FastJPEG, Visage, Multiview, VT, and probably others, to view them. Or, if you prefer, you can load the images into ImageFX or DPaint V for further processing. The final result can be impressive (Figure 3).

  3. If you want to use ADPro with CamControl, use the plug-in loader provided for ADPro. Interestingly, ADPro 2.5 refuses to load JPEG images saved by Camcontrol, complaining about a bad JPEG header. However, if you use the plug-in loader, you will have no problems using ADPro as your image processing program.

  4. If you want to use CamControl to print camera images, purchase a good print program first. Because CamControl uses the default Amiga printer driver to print images stored on the Olympus, your satisfaction will depend on your printer and your printer driver. I achieved very acceptable print quality using the Canon BJ-200e black and white printer with the appropriate driver from Studio Professional v2.21.

CONCLUSIONS

CamControl does such a fine job of interfacing the Olympus series of digital cameras to the Amiga computer that if you own an Olympus digital camera you should consider it an essential purchase. CamControl is stable, easy to use, and multi-tasks nicely with other Amiga software. You can use its Arexx interface to integrate it into other Amiga applications.

CamControl software is also available for selected Kodak, Fuji, and Casio digital cameras as well as for the Minolta Dimage V series. If you own one of these digital cameras, you would do well to check out the corresponding CamControl program.

You can purchase CamControl from Eyetech, if you cannot obtain it locally.

Wish List

My wish would be for some additional Amiga software such as --

  1. A program for stitching images together to produce a panoramic view.

  2. Programs dedicated to photo processing.

  3. Amiga drivers for the Olympus P-300 and P330 dye sublimation printers.

  4. Software support for the Olympus PCMCIA card holder and floppy disk adapter so that SmartMedia cards could be read on the Amiga independent of the digital camera (Figure 4).

Stop The Presses!

As I was putting the final touches on this article, a beta version of a new program for downloading Olympus digital camera images appeared on Aminet called Camedia.lha.

Although the software was able to read the number of images stored in my camera and even estimate a download time, I was unable to download any images to my Amiga 1200. In this early release, the program lacks a graphic user interface, does not display thumbnail images, and does not allow selective photo downloading. It also requires use of the sluggish, Amiga serial port.

In the future, this software may provide a viable alternative to Camcontrol although at the present time, it does not. Its functioning with other digital cameras is also yet to be determined.

Stop the Presses Again!

Just to show that progress never stops, Olympus has announced development of the C-2000 and C-2500 Zoom digital cameras described, respectively, as 2.1 and 2.5 megapixel cameras. A major innovation appears to be control over exposure. According to a very positive review of a pre-production model of the C-2000, the price of this unit is intended to be in the sub $1000 range.

It is too early to say if any modification of CamControl's software will be necessary for these new cameras until they become available, which may be by the time you read this article.

Final Thoughts: Let's Help Each Other

Time and again, I find that the Amiga computer can do amazing things if only someone will write the software. Having said this, I do not think it is always easy for users to learn about the existence of new programs and purchase them. Let's help each other by sharing such information and continuing to support the Amiga in any way we can.

August, 1999

List of Publications -->

Return To Home -->