Digital Photo Cameras

Configuring a Digital Photo Camera

In this section we will assume that you have a USB camera[13]. Webcams are covered in the section called “Webcams And Video Conferencing”.

Please make sure that GTKam is installed. If you do not, please refer to Chapter 21, RpmDrake: Package Management for instructions on package installation.

This icon appears when you connect your digital photo camera to your computer and turn it on: click on it to launch GTKam. You can also choose Multimedia+Graphics->GTKam (GPhoto 2) from the main menu.

Choose Camera->Add Camera.... Connect the camera to your computer and click on Detect. The manufacturer and camera model should be detected. If it is not, select it from the Model pull-down list; do the same for the port it is connected to in the Port pull-down list, as shown in Figure 13.1 and click on the Ok button when done.

Figure 13.1. Configuring the Camera Connection

Configuring the Camera Connection

Manipulating and Transferring Pictures to the Computer

Each camera stores pictures on different folders, navigate through the tree in the left pane of the window to reach the folder where your pictures are stored.

Digital cameras name the picture files in different ways (IMG_XXXX, PIC_XXXX, etc.). If your camera supports it you can change those names by right-clicking on the thumbnail and selecting Info. Type the new name in the Name field and click on OK. You can also click on an image name in the thumbnail list, type the new image name and press Enter to change it.

To transfer a single picture to your computer, right-click on the picture's thumbnail, select Save from the pop-up menu and enter the folder name in which you want to save it to. Then click OK. The picture will be stored in the chosen folder with the file name that was displayed by the picture's thumbnail.

Choosing File+Save Photos->Selected from the main menu will save only the currently marked pictures. Choosing File+Save Photos->All will save all pictures regardless of the selection. A dialog will pop up, asking you for some save options (photos, raw data, thumbnails, EXIF data, etc.) Do not change the options and press on OK. The pictures will be transferred to your computer and saved in your home directory.

Once transferred to your computer, you can rotate or edit the pictures using GIMP or your favorite imaging software.

Choosing File+Delete Photos->Selected from the main menu will delete only the marked pictures. Choosing File+Delete Photos->All will delete all pictures, regardless of the selection. A dialog will pop up asking you for confirmation. Click on Delete to confirm deletion or on Cancel to quit that operation.

Warning

The Delete option erases the pictures from the digital camera's memory. If you do not transfer those pictures to your computer first, you will lose them permanently.

Enjoy taking pictures with your digital camera and GNU/Linux!

Photographic Settings, Storage Media

EXIF: Digital Camera Photographic Settings

Most digital cameras produce EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) files. EXIF are JPEG files with extra tags containing information about the image such as the date, the camera model, the exposure time, the ISO speed setting, the aperture, etc.

GTKam can access additional information fields available in an EXIF file. For example, you can use that information to “remember” when you took a picture or to examine the camera settings for a picture taken in particular environmental conditions.

Right click on a picture and select EXIF from the menu that pops up. A window containing extra information about the picture will be shown. In the EXIF tab (see the example in Figure 13.2) you will find information about the camera settings, when the picture was taken, etc.

Figure 13.2. Information About a Picture

Information About a Picture

Note

Even if some values have controls to change them, the changes will be lost as soon as you click on the Close button. There is no way (and actually not much sense) in changing those values from GTKam.

Handling Digital Cameras' Storage Media

GTKam (GPhoto2) may not recognize your USB digital camera. However you can still try to make your camera work using the USB mass-storage driver and accessing it like you would any other storage device.

If you have a laptop computer with a PCMCIA slot, you can use the ATA photo memory card PCMCIA adapters. They are mounted just like any other ATA device (CD-ROM, hard disk, etc.) in order to access your pictures[14]. This is the fastest method to access photo cards. It also allows the camera's batteries to last longer. There are other devices that may be used to read the data from the memory device, for example several USB peripherals which allow a Compact Flash or Memory Stick device to be plugged into them.



[13] There are serial (RS-232) digital cameras. However virtually all digital cameras use USB.

[14] Actually, any file can be accessed this way, not only pictures. You can put whatever file you want on your memory card.