Olympus Digital Camera

Olympus Digital Camera (D400Z) Notes December 15, 1998 L. Chasin

1) Insert the Smart Card memory chip ("film") in the slot on left front of camera, with the chip side facing back

2) Turn on the camera by sliding the lens protector to left front. The lens should extend forward.

3) Set the image quality by pressing the menu button on the top right back. Press three times to get to the image quality screen. Choose SQ, HQ, or SHQ, using the plus or minus buttons.

4) SQ means standard quality: 640 X 480 pixels, lowest quality, 122 pictures with the 8 MB Smart Card.

5) HQ means high-quality: 1280 X 960 pixels, 36 pictures with the 8 MB card, compressed, ~170 KB/image.

6) SHQ means super high-quality: 18 pictures with the 8 MB card not so highly compressed, ~350 KB/image. SHQ is probably the best general setting. Confirm your choice with the OK button. Images are saved in JPEG (JPG) format.

7) Frame the picture with the viewfinder, as using the screen wastes the battery. To turn on the screen press the screen button (top left back, toggles the screen display).

8) Autofocus and set the exposure by depressing the shutter release halfway on top right. A steady green light in the viewfinder indicates the picture is ready to take. A flashing orange light in the viewfinder indicates the flash is recommended.

9) The flash, on the upper left, must be flipped up manually. A flashing orange light in the viewfinder indicates the flash is recommended. The flash is sometimes not really needed even when it says so; you can check the exposure using the LCD screen. However, the camera must be held very steady until the picture has been taken (2 beeps) if one is taking a low light picture without the flash

10) Take the picture by pressing all the way on the shutter release. The picture has been taken when the camera beeps twice quickly.

11) To view the last picture taken, press the display button (left top) twice quickly.

12) To delete the picture, press the red delete button (lower left) then the OK button (middle). Do not delete a picture until its display is complete.

13) To screen all the pictures to delete some, shut off the camera by closing the sliding lens protector, turn on the screen by pressing the screen button (toggles). Then use the red delete button as above.

14) To shut off the camera, slide the lens cover to the first detente; the lens should re-tract. Avoid sliding the lens cover so far over that it touches the side of the lens. After the lens has retracted, slide the lens cover closed.

15) Zoom (3X) button is on the upper right. W is a wide-angle and T is telephoto.

16) The instruction book is pretty clear, although it is very hard to find a given topic. Use the table of contents.

17) Downloading the files to your computer is most easily accomplished using the flash-path floppy disk adapter. First install the flash path software: from the Olympus CD-ROM go to the flashpath folder and run SETUP.EXE and follow the installation instructions. Remove the smart card from the camera and insert it into the floppy disk adapter with the metal chip side facing away from the metal side of the floppy disk adapter. Insert the floppy disk adapter into your floppy disk drive and transfer the files as you would from a floppy disk. This works on a PC running Windows 95 but not Windows NT; not tested yet on Macs.

18) You may also download through a serial port. There are cables provided for directly attaching the camera to Macs and PCs. The camera connection is the small great port on the lower left back, accessed by carefully lifting the flimsy plastic cover. The software in this case is in the Camedia folder on the CD-ROM. Again, run setup and follow the installation instructions. Downloading this way is quite demanding on the batteries so an AC adapter is recommended (not yet purchased).

19) Alkaline batteries (4 AAs) should provide enough power for 20 to 60 pictures, depending on your use of the display screen and the zoom. Nickel metal hydride (NIMH) rechargeable batteries are preferable, but the initial batteries purchased don't fit quite right; requiring a piece of wire wedged in to make a good connection (in the case, easily done).

20) Other useful features include Other useful features include thumbnail display and delete, exposure adjustment, picture lock, and macro mode. Please see the instruction book for these and other features

NOTES ON IMAGE MANIPULATION:

The Olympus saves its files in JPG format, which is the best way for display of photographs (as opposed to drawings) for display on a monitor.
The jpg image that the Olympus saves is 1280 X 960 pixels in SHQ mode. So there are about 1 million pixels of information there. The default way this information is organized is at 72 dpi, which is appropriate for monitor display, since that's all the resolution most monitors are capable of. To accommodate 1 million pixels of info at 72 pixels per inch, means the image is a whopping 17 x 13 inches large (17x72 x 13x72 =~ 1,000,000). You can trade off the size vs. the resolution by making the image smaller. To do this you need to use an image manipulation program such as Photoshop or Corel PhotoPaint. The process is called "resampling" and you can ask for any resolution you want. If you plug in 300 dpi, the image comes out to be 4 in. by 3 in. (4x300 x 3x300 =~ 1,000,000 again). So you may want to do this for printing. Alternatively, you can resample to make the image smaller so as to take up less disk space and be sent more rapidly between computers or over the Internet. Resamping to 100 dpi and 4 x 5 inches gives you a file size of 4x100x5x100= 200,000.

The jpg format is compressed about 4-fold, compared to a tif file. But not much quality is lost in this compression. For the highest resolution, the camera is capable of storing a non-compressed 1280x960 image, maybe 1 or 2 pictures like this.

Gif images contain much less detailed color information (256 colors compare to 16 million for true color. So they are not appropriate for color photographs (grey scale is OK). Edges come our smoother in gif images, so they are better for diagrams, and especially getting smooth looking text. For the best text, use as much "anti-aliasing" as you can when using a graphics program that is converting your image to gif (anti-aliasing is usually an option that is presented).

So, in summary, use Photoshop or PhotoPaint items under Image or Convert or Resampling some such to get the size/resolution you want, and use:

- jpg for small file size color photographs, suitable for monitor display also
- gif for diagrams and text, or monochrome images - tif for highest quality photographs (large files, suitable for hard copy printing) [also PICT on a Mac]

For Internet publishing, keep the resolution down to 100 dpi for photographs, then set the size you want and then resemble to get the smallest file (quickest load), save as jpg.

For diagrams on the Internet use gif, but I seem to get better looking text at 200 dpi even though it should not work this way.

So, in summary, use Photoshop or PhotoPaint and manipulate items under Image or Convert or Resampling or some such to get the size/resolution you want, and use:

- jpg for small file size color photographs, suitable for monitor display also

- gif for diagrams and text, or monochrome images

- tif for highest quality photographs (large files, suitable for hard copy printing) [also PICT on a Mac]

For Internet publishing, keep the resolution down to 100 dpi for photographs, then set the size you want and then resample to get the smallest file (quickest load), save as jpg.

For diagrams on the Internet use gif, but I seem to get better looking text at 200 dpi even though it should not work this way. Text and lines in jpg are less smooth.

INDEX TO OLYMPUS MANUAL

Autofocus             8
Batteries             19
Delete                 12
Disk adaptor     17
Downloading     17
Flash                    9
Flashpath             17
HQ 5 Image quality     3
Instruction book     16
JPEG                         6
Screen previous pics     13
Serial port                     18
SHQ                         6
Shut off                 14
Shutter                 10
Smart Card             1
SQ                         4
Take picture         10
Turn on                 2
View picture         11
View previous     13
Viewfinder         7
Zoom                 15