[mdlug] Linux and Digital Photography

[Robert Meier]

Richard,

> Anyone else using Linux for their digital photos?

Yes.  I received an Olympus FE-190 for Christmas 2006.
A friend received a Nikon ??? for Christmas 2005.

> What are you using?

I use digikam.
My friend uses gphoto.

> And have you gone RAW?

I suspect you are referring to the camera access?
  SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy)
  TWAIN
  mass memory device (USB external drive)
  RAW (camera native format)

We both mount our cameras as mass memory device for simplicity.
Both cameras save their images as jpegs with jinfo(?)-compliant headers.
Unfortunately, I've only been able to copy unaltered files back onto
the camera.  The camera refuses to display any photo I've altered
in any way (tried so far) that alters the md5sum.



I usually print my pictures locally for documentation purposes.

My friend has successfully printed high-resolution images on their
photo-capable printer with photo-quality printer,
however after trying this a few times, they find it easier,
and much more economical to copy to a flash drive, drive to the
local drugstore, and print from a Kodak kiosk.



In case you are not aware of it, I suggest you let the camera
format any cards you use with it.  Most cameras I've seen will
accept pre-formatted cards, but will store their jinfo data
(orientation, shutter speed, ...) only on cards they format.
My friend inserted a brand-new pre-formatted card into their
camera before they took a trip and were disappointed to learn
that all their pictures during their trip were in scrambled
order.  When stored on the camera-formatted card, the filenames
included the date and time of capture, which they used to
caption the pictures with gphoto, and make into a photo album
(web site on a cdrom).  When stored on the pre-formatted card,
the filenames were apparently random (hex-month + day? + ???)
making it very time-consuming to reorder and caption the pictures.
They also believe that it overwrote and lost many pictures on
the days when they took the most photos (implying a limit
on the number of filenames for the same month and day).
IIRC, the pre-formatted card was VFAT, and the camera-formatted
card was automounted as xfs.

Reporting,
-- 
Robert Meier

    #!/bin/bash
    chalk=0
    punishment=100
    while [ $chalk -lt $punishment ]
    do
        echo "I promise not to rush an incomplete answer to the list."
        chalk = `expr $chalk + 1`
    done
	    -- Ollie Dettman 2004