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2.3 DOWNLOADING IMAGES | ||
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Once you have taken images, you have to transfer (download) them from the camera to your computer. As you download them, they are copied from the camera's storage device to a storage device on the computer. The procedures you use to download depend entirely on the software you are using Usually, the camera's storage device looks to the computer just like another drive. You can then select and copy or move files that are displayed either as filenames or small thumbnail images.
| What's Downloading?
When you transfer files between computers or other devices, you are uploading and down- loading them. These terms simply refer to the direction of transfer. Uploading simply means you are sending the file to another system. Downloading means you are transferring a file from another computer to yours. In digital photography you download images from the camera to a computer and upload them back from the computer back to the camera. |
To connect a peripheral such as a camera, card reader, or printer to a computer, you usually run a cable from it to a socket on the computer called a port. There are a number of such ports ranging from the agonizingly slow serial port to the blazing fast Firewire. Let's take a look at each of them.
Serial ports are mainly used to connect analog modems so you can connect to the Web. However, many digital cameras use the serial port to transfer image files to the computer. These ports carry only one bit of data at a time, so they have a real problem with speed—or, rather the lack of it. There isn't a slower port on the computer. Downloading an image through a serial port can take as long as 10 minutes.
Parallel ports, widely used for connecting printers to the computer, carry data 8 bits at a time on parallel paths so they are much faster than serial ports. For this reason, many flash card readers plug into the parallel port. If you use one, be sure it has a passthrough connector so you can plug the reader into the computer's only parallel port and then plug your printer into it. If the reader doesn't have this capability, you have to keep swapping cables.
Many devices such as scanners, hard drives, and CD-ROMS, can be connected to a SCSI port (Small Computer System Interface). One big advantage of this type of port is that more than one device can be connected to the same port. One device is plugged into the port and then another device is plugged into the first device. This process, called "daisy-chaining" reduces the number of slots taken up by all of these devices. SCSI ports are fast but on PCs you need a SCSI card and the installing it can be difficult.
As input and output demands have increased, serial, parallel, and even SCSI ports have become bottlenecks to system performance. To speed performance, USB (Universal serial Port) and even faster IEEE 1394 (Firewire) ports (described next), are being added to systems. Both of these ports have some features in common. They can each:
- Use thin cables to make connections easier.
- Daisy-chain devices so only a single port is needed on the computer.
- Support Plug and Play so the computer will automatically recognize a new device. (This is so flaky it's often referred to as "plug and pray.")
- Support hot plugging (adding and removing devices without first turning off the computer).
- Distribute power along its own cable so low-consumption devices can operate without a separate power cord.
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| USB replaces a variety of serial and parallel port connectors with one standardized plug and port combination. Courtesy of Kavi. | |
Universal Serial Bus (USB) allows you to plug up to 127 devices into a USB port on the computer, or on any other device already plugged into that port. For example, you can plug a keyboard into the computer and then plug a mouse into the keyboard. USB is much faster than the older serial port and handles all but the most data hungry devices such as hard drives, fast CD-ROM drives, and high-end video equipment. USB works at 12 Mbps and the even newer USB2 will offer much higher transfer speeds.
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Most computers come with one or two USB ports. However, you can connect hubs to those ports to add connections, much like you might plug a multi-socket extension cord into a wall socket so you can plug in all of your computer equipment. |
Firewire was originally conceived by Apple but has since been adopted by the entire computer and consumer electronics industry (in a kind of lackadaisical way). Sometimes referred to as IEEE 1394, Firewire is much faster than USB and is designed to connect up to 63 consumer electronics devices such as digital camcorders, digital cameras, and digital video disc players and also typical PC devices such as CD-ROM drives, printers, scanners, and hard drives. It also enables high-speed Internet connections. It can deliver a total tranfer rate of 200 Megabits per second (Mbps)—or 25 Mbps for any one device.
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Almost all new computer systems come with a USB port built-in. The faster and more expensive FireWire ports are less common. However, you can use an adapter card to add it to your system |
To transfer images from the camera's storage mmedia, you need a slot into which you can plug it. These slots are common on notebook computers, although you may need an adapter to use them, but on most desktop machines you need a card reader.
Most notebook computer come with PC Card slots. Sliding a PC Card into one of these slots makes it look to the computer just like a hard drive.
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PC Card slots let you just slide in a card with your images on it. Nothing could be easier. |
Not all flash cards fit all card slots and readers. However, there are adapters available that let you match cards and slots.
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To use a small CompactFlash card in a larger Notebook computer's PC Card slot, you can get an adapter. Image courtesy of SanDisk. |
Since most computers don't have PC Card slots, you need a standalone card reader that plugs into one of the computer's ports. You insert your flash card into the reader and download the images to your hard drive. Most of these card readers plug into the parallel port but faster USB models are becoming more common.
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Lexar Media’s The Digital Film Reader shares the parallel port with your printer. No additional hardware required. It reads both CompactFlash and SmartMedia cards. It transfers images at 500KB per second--20 times faster than a connection to a serial port. Image courtesy of Lexar Media. |
Cables can be a pain to hook up and use. There are two devices or technologies that let you avoid them entirely.
It seems the 3.5 floppy disk drive just won't go away. Not only does one camera store images on a floppy disk, now there is a FlashPath adapter you can slide into the drive's slot to read SmartMedia cards. Before or after it's in place, you slide a SmartMedia card into the FlashPath. This unique adapter doesn't require a cable connection. However, it does require driver software to operate and must be installed so it's not easily movable from one system to another.
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FlashPath is shaped like a 3.5-inch floppy disk and slides into the standard drive slot found on almost all computers. Courtesy of Toshiba. |
Infrared solves the hassle of connecting components with cables. Using a beam of infrared light a digital camera can "point-and-shoot" images to a device located nearby. The only small problem is that the light can’t be obstructed and doesn’t bend so you can’t download through walls or around corners. Infrared devices currently follow the Infrared Data Association (IrDA) standard.
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If your camera has infrared capability but your computer doesn't, you can buy an adapter that connects to one of the computer's ports. Courtesy of ACTiSYS. |
Although you normally download images to a local computer, there are times when you'd want to download them to a remote one. To make this possible, Motorola and FlashPoint are working to make it possible to send and receive digital pictures over the Internet using Digita(tm)-enabled cameras and wireless Motorola iDEN (integrated digital wireless) phones. With an IP (Internet Protocol)-enabled plus series iDEN handset, such as the Motorola i1000plus(tm) connected to a Digita-enabled camera, photographers and in-the-field professionals, such as insurance adjusters, journalists, real estate agents and construction managers, will be able to capture, send and receive images wirelessly. The image transfer rate is 9.6 kbps.
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Motorola's iDEN handsets are wireless phones that allow you to connect to the Internet so you can send and receive e-mail and share information and photos instantly with one or hundreds of individuals with the push of a button. |