Digital Camera Help!

“I have a Kodak DX 3500 digital camera and tonight I was trying to transfer my pictures from my camera to my computer. An error messaged appeared that said no pictures found on the device. I can't figure out what is wrong. I've never had this to happen before and my pictures are on my memory card.”

“Check you camera and see if the images register there first.

If they do, you probably have to configure the camera or your computer's software to recognize the interface or transfer (e.g. turn on the camera, set it in transfer mode, etc.).

If the images to not register on your camera as it stands alone, they might not be there.”

“The images are on the camera, in fact the memory card is full. I am able to view the pictures on my camera. I'm not doing anything different with the transfer that I normally don't do and my settings havent been changed. I've tried everything and i cant figure it out.”

“Sorry, can't help I'm still using my etch-a-sketch.”

“My first thought is that there might be a port conflict somehow.

I'd try to reboot and launch no other applications until I can once again try the transfer.

If that doesn't do it, I'd look at the cable and connections between the computer and camera.”

“Rebooting helped. Thanks tekapo!”

“allow me to teach you the windows troubleshooting mantra...

reboot
reload
replace

please send 5000.00 in a sase to me and I will get your certificate right out.”

“I have a 3500 also, isnt it a great camera, amazeing what you can do with it.”

“miss opie...you should have called me...as any help desk will tell you...
1. make sure it's plugged in...
2. have you restarted?
3. we can't help you, because of recent software you've loaded
4. have you restarted?
5. the upgrade is 29.99
6. you probably have a virus
7. have you restarted?
8. you understand my accent very nicely..pleaze comb again..dank you bery much!!”

“The only reason I didn't try that first was because I had just turned my computer on and the computer recognized the device was there. When I turned the camera on, the software loaded up like it normally does. It was just telling me that there were no pictures on the device. I was afraid there was a setting that had been changed on the camera or the software.

Pemsit.. yes I love my 3500 also. I have received many compliments from the pictures that I make on it.”

“Miss Opie, does your Kodak camera come with the docking station. From what I have read it is easy to transfer pics to the computer from the camera by pushing one button. Plus the docking station recharges the battery at the same time.
I am looking at the Kodak DX4900 to buy. Seems like everytime I get ready to buy it the price drops so I wait another week and then it drops again.”

“sorry ewker but cameras are on the same downward spiral that happened to computers, the prices drops 10% as soon as you leave because it went obsolete....”

“ewker if you keep waiting your never gonna get it..lmao..and once you do there will be one out that is 3 times better for only a little bit more money...best thing to do is wait for the first price break and get it then”

“Hey, does anyone have any of the ultra compacts like the Cannon Elph and so on? Just wondering what kind of picture quality your looking at.”

“So I got this awesome new camera. It has the auto feature so I can point and shoot which is about the limit of my abilities. I have four slots that I can preset my camera for and I’d like to be able to set my own stuff up so I can fine tune my pics and get better shots than the auto setting. I was thinking of setting one up for outdoors/cloudy, outdoors/sunny and one for indoors. Here’s the rub. I don’t even know where to start with the settings.

I’ve found a few sites and I’m getting the National Geographic photog book but I was wondering if anyone can give me some base settings for these three conditions or point me somewhere where I can find the settings I need to start?”

“No instruction booklet with your camera? There should be a menu with some preset setting.....couldn't you work off those?”

“I've got a cd rom manual but it doesn't go into fine tuning. It has presets but I was hoping for some tricked out settings our local pros might be able to pass along. I wouldn't even know what direction to take the settings in to get the results I want for the differant conditions.
last edited: 11/29/05 10:31:10 AM”

“I'm sure the resident pros can help you, but, and there's no hidden message here, the Dummy/Idiot guide books for digital photography can be helpful.”

“The National Geographic one I saw looked really good. I think it cost like $11. I'm just hoping to ease the learning curve. I'm not lazy. No really, I'm not. I swear! :)”

“Nigal,
You might try the "Sunny 16 Rule" as explained here. They do a much better job of explaining it than I could. :)”

“You got the oly right nigal, how you finding that?”

“Nigal:
http://www.photonhead.com/
http://www.morguefile.com/archive/classroom.php


Try them”

“Thanks for the links guys. I'll bookmark 'em and do some reading.

“You got the oly right nigal, how you finding that?”

I really love it. The only problem I have is it doesn't have the anti-shake technology and I do get some blurring if I don't hold it really still. I always thought the little Sony 2.0 MP did fine but I see a real difference.”

“Nigal,
Try going to the photography forum at
www.wetcanvas.com

Lots of photographers there-- they can give you some assistance!”

“Nigal...really...I know what you mean. For me...it all sound locial and stuff but I FORGET!! My memory is the one of a 80year old I think. Best tip I can give you...lots of trial and error. It's a digital so hey...no film wasted. concentrate on something outside first and take the same picture over and over and change settings.... check and see what u like best.

then go to a street and take picture of the moving cars and see which pic u like best...etc...

do it over and over until it comes naturally to you.

heeheehee...maybe I should listen to my tips and do the same.”

“Heehee! Advice is much easier to give than follow.”

“What type of camera did you get? Point and shoot or SLR. Most point and shoot give you a few options like portrait, landscape, night, backlit, etc. They set the proper speed and F stop for those condtions. There is little you can do in the camera. Most of the work is done post proccesing in PhotoShop or some other software. There is a web site www.dpreview.com that has forums for most brands of cameras and the people on those forums can be a lot of help. If you have a SLR you have a lot of options in the camera as well as the mode you shoot in. Jpeg vs Raw etc. Again a lot of the work is done post proccesing. Good luck!”

“Although there is a lot you can do in post, there is no substitute for a sharp image, taken at the proper exposure. Now the question is, proper exposure for what? The most important thing you can do is learn how to control your exposure for the mid-tones in any scene. The second most important thing, is to learn what depth of field is, how it is affected by the aperture setting, and how to use it to achieve the results you want. Play and have fun. Oh, and congrats on the new toy.”

“My husband wants to buy me a really good digital camera for Christmas, but I didn't want one since I see my camera has a slight delay before it actually takes the picture. He says there are some that don't do that.

I just saw an add for the Cannon that takes 3 shots rapidly, BUT and I'm surprised, they mentioned there is a delay when you first take your shot. My dog is long gone by the time my digital camera takes the shot. I have more pictures with my dog's head turned or her butt than I can count!!!”

“Local libraries usually have a lot of good books too.”

“So hard to get candid shots of dogs when they want to rush up to you and see/sniff/lick the camera.”

“Lipstick, get a good SLR and there won't be any shutter lag. The Nikon D70S is a good entry level digital SLR with minimal shutter lag.”

“Outamatches, I have a SLR. I've been thinking of getting a filter for it but it's kind of confusing what I need for my modle as it's fairly new.”

“That like asking "What should I have for dinner?" There are a lot of filters for different things. You need to define what you want the filter for. I use a Skylight or UV filter on all my lens just to help protect the lens. They are cheaper to replace than lenses. Another must have is a circular polarizer filter. This will help cut glare on water and help reduce haze. It will also bring out definiton in a lot of those outdoor scenes. Get a good one. With all filters it is like the old saying, "Don't put $10 speakers on a $1000.00 stereo system." If you do a lot of outdoor photography you will want a set of graduated filters. These allow you to cut down that real bright sky to help blend it into the darker ground. Or vis versa. The best ones I have found are from www.singh-ray.com. These will set you back a few $ but are worth it. The other filter I use a lot in the fall is a Red Didymium Enhancing filter. This brings out the reds and oranges in the fall foliage shots. The one I have is Kenko. A good place to get filters and learn about them is at www.photofilter.net Other than that they sky is the limit on special effects filters. Cokin makes a nice system of different filters, but it is kind of cumbersome to carry around. Check out www.dpreview.com and ask some questions on that forum you will get a 1000 different answers and they will probably all be right. Good luck.”

“UV.

Oh and btw...I'm having beef roast tonight. :) thanks for the great info.”

“Nigal,
What kind of DSLR do you have? If you want to get creative, here's a short primer. Some of this is probably review for you, but since I don't know where your starting, here goes.

Most SLRs will have 4 creative control modes.
1) Fully automatic - picks the shutter speed and aperture for you, but lets you under/overexpose and choose whether you want flash or not.

2) Shutter priority - Let's you choose shutter speed. I use this most often when I want to make sure I don't accidentally take a picture that has too much motion blur, or if I want to slow down water for a silkly look.

3) Aperture priority - Use this when you want to control the depth of field or keep your aperture in the middle ranges, which will result in better pictures with all but the best lenses. A large aperture opening (like f2.8) will give you a small depth of field, meaning that the foreground and background will be blurred, with the focus point sharp. (This effect is exaggerated on telephoto lenses). A small aperture opening (like f22) will give you a large depth of field, so the flower and the mountain behind it are both in focus.

4) Manual mode - you'll probably only use this for multi-shot panaoramas until you get pretty advanced. The manual keeps each shot that you'll stitch together from getting to dark or light compared to the previous shot.

As for filters, use a UV filter to protect your lens and remove haze. You should have one of these and leave it on all the time unless using another filter (stacking is not recommended unless you need it for the desired effect). Use a circular polarizer to make your skies blue and your colors rich. (turn the filter and you'll see the colors change). Lastly, use a graduated neutral density filter to keep your skies from being overexposed while your foreground is underexposed. You can also use special effects filters like colored filters and soft filters, but these can be emulated in photoshop.”

“I have the Olympus SP-500uz. It does have 26 specialized pre-settings such as landscape, portrait, ect. These do seem to work better than the auto setting. I’ll check into the others when I get time. Thanks.”

“u silly, silly man nigal...that's not a SLR. Still the olympus is an awesome camera. you're gonna love it. and go buy yourself a good book to read in the tub.

you could practice and take funny picture in there too.”

“It's not?”

“no. you can't take the lens off can you? or do you have to look through the little window to shoot a picture or can you look at the LCD and then shoot the picture?

hey..it's an awedome camera. I liked my olympus a lot.and i checked...your's has a great zoom.”

“So my family has offered to buy me a new digital camera for christmas, so I'm looking for a good camera in the $500 range.

Discuss:

Sony Cybershot DSC-H1

Canon Powershot S2 IS

Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ20k”

“I've looked through there - just looking for personal input

Add:

Olympus SP-500UZ”

“I loved my olympus camedia back then. When I got a smaller canon powershot I was really able to tell the difference in quality. Olympus was much better. Not sure about this canon thou, or this olympus”

“Simer - I think you should post some photos on the atonement thread. You are noticably absent.”

“I'll get on that”

“Thanks. And don't use buddurs source (nicemodel???) I just get the dreaded Red X from those.

I would go with Olympus. But I know nothing. I have a Kodak. And that may or may not be b/c I lived in Rochester for too long. ;)”

“Simer, I saw a digital in Backpacker mag. that is small, waterproof (of sorts) and around 300 dollars. I think its around 5mb. I use a Nikon CoolPix 995, but am thinking about a smaller camera like the one I saw in the mag that can handle weather better. I'll try to look at back issues and find it and let ya know.”

“Simer, found it. It was in Outdoor Photographer. It is a Pentax OptioWPi, 5 megapixel waterproof camera. It says it will withstand 30 minutes of continuous operation in up to five feet of water, uses a zoom of 38-114mm without lens extending from body, built-in AF follows movement of subject, a two-inch LCD screen (nice) and 4X2X0.9-inch body. List is $350.00 www.pentaximaging.com
Check it out.”