Canon PowerShot S200 ELPH

[Leon Stewart]

Richard & Jo Ann:

I have a 19" Flat Monitor also, but that is not my problem. When I take my photo's, say 1, 2, 3, when I load them into quick pic, they don't appear in that order, and when I'm taking a large number of photo's I have difficulty figuring out what's what. What I'm looking for is some type of device or feature in the Camera where I can imprint on the image itself what dwelling it is. As I indicated before, if I had a date/time stamp that I could adjust, that would work fine because I could put parts of the address on the photo for identification. Jo Ann does your Canon have an adjustable date/time stamp that would allow you to punch in the street number or part of the same for each house? Or what low cost Digital Camera has this date/time feature?

leon

 

[Jo Ann Meyer Stratton]

I programed my camera the day I got it and haven't read the instructions since. I do remember it asking questions on how I wanted the photos numbered but I don't remember the various choices. But the camera has them in sequence, so regardless of what number the camera assigns, the first photo I take will be the first photo of that day, and will have the info on the right hand side of the computer screen (view-details) of for example 2-11-2003 9:45 AM, second photo will be 2-11-2003 9:48AM, etc, etc. So my memory or written notes know that the at 9:45AM is the rear photo of my first subject, etc. My computer looks at the compact flash in the card reader, I have view set to details and it is spelled out on the computer screen. That same info is then copied over to the folder in my computer. It took me several hours of reading directions on how to program the camera, are so many functions that have choices, but once I decided how I wanted it to work, I have had to do anything except move a button to adjust the telephoto lens when something is far away. Occasionally I have reset the resolution to high if I want to take a personal photo, then reset to low for the appraisal photos. It is extremely flexible. And the cost was very reasonable I thought. Go to an Office Depot or Office Max or Staples or Best Buy and look at the display camera--read over the instruction book with the display and if shopping around you might even find it for less than I did. When they first came out, they were close to $500. But I definitely recommend having a second battery and the largest compact flash card you can afford. Just additional security and flexibility. By the way my Epson and Kodak cameras had the date/time also but I couldn't program them to my choice.

 

[Richard Carlsen]

Now I understand what your problem is.

Question: Do you have Windows XP? If so, there is a program built right in that starts up when you put your card in the reader. I like it better than QuickPics which I used to use all of the time until I got XP Pro.

I would ask a la mode about these thumbnails being displayed out of order. That is not a logical way for a computer to operate.

 

[KD247]

My 2 cents:

Camera:
Minolta Dimage X (small, quick wake-up, quick shots)

Transfer to Computer:
Photos are stored on the camera in folders (just like on the computer)
The camera names the folders based on the date shot
USB cable plugs directly into the camera, the camera is automatically recognized as an additional drive on the computer.
Using Windows Explorer, move (not copy) the folders from the camera to the computer.

Photo Security:
Never "delete" photos from the camera; move them to the computer. In that way the camera is "emptied" after each use, but it's guaranteed that every photo is now on the computer. When I used to copy (instead of move) the photos, I continually had to double-check that the photos had been stored on the computer before I could delete them from the camera.

Photo Use:
When writing a report, find the folder with the same date as the inspection. Using ACDC's (shareware) image viewer, each photo is shown in a full window and Page Up or Page Down scrolls through the pictures, in the order they were shot.

When the appropriate picture is displayed with ACDC, just type Ctrl-C (the windows Copy command). Then, click once on the photo page in the report (actually click on the exact place where the photo is supposed to go). Then, click Ctrl-V (the windows Paste command) and the photo is placed in the report. This works with almost all appraisal software.

Back to ACDC, use Page Up or Page Down to find the next picture and repeat the process until done. One cool feature of ACDC is that it lets you keep the photo viewing window "On Top". That is, when you click on your appraisal form, ACDC (and the image) do not disappear below the appraisal software. That means that you can be filling in the form while looking at the photo of the property you're describing.

After all the photos have been placed into the report, the photo folder just stays where it is, and can always be found again by its date label. Most of the time, if I need to re-use a comparable sale, I'll copy it directly from the older report (Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V again). It's very rare that I need to find a picture in my photo archive. But if I do, it's easy to find if I know the approximate date and use ACDC to browse through the photos. Thumbnails are almost useless to me (they all show houses!), but I can cruise through a hundred full screen photos in about 20 seconds using ACDC's Page Up, Page Down scrolling.

This is the most streamlined way I've found to move the pictures into the report, while keeping copies of the photos organized by date in a separate photo file.

 

[Mike Garrett RAA]

My kodac DC 210 and 215 both have date/time options.

 

[Bemis Pownall]

This is my way and I figured it out after about 10 cups of coffee one morning.

I have a hard drive just for pics.
I create a new folder every day I make inspections. I name them; 021003 (Feb 10 2003). I use an ink stamp and stamp the file folder so there are no typos. Learned the hard way.
I download all the pics at once into file. Camera gives them a unique number 1 to infiniti 8)

When typing a report I look in that folder for the pictures ie; 021003(good noggin/memory comes in very handy at this point), find the pictures i need and write at least one picture number(created by the camera) on the outside of the file folder. Now my file folder has the date/file folder# and picture number written on it. If I have to go back after 1 year I can find them. And Ive had too.

With the picture number you can use the "search" function in Windows and there it is.

That is all

:icecream:

 

[Tim The Enchanter]

I just note the first file number given by the camera for the first pic on a job. Then I number 1 thru whatever for subject and comp pics. i.e. pic # 8765 is first, I note front of subject is #1, st is #2, R is #3, then the interiors, maybe 4 thru 6 or more LR, K, Ba. Then comps are #7 to whatever.

So there's a dozen or 2 per job usually. Then I copy them into the folder for that job, which also contains pdf's and stuff I don't actually print on paper, then load into the appraisal. Back them up, I'm done.

 

[Leon Stewart]

This is my way and I figured it out after about 10 cups of coffee one morning.

I have a hard drive just for pics.
I create a new folder every day I make inspections. I name them; 021003 (Feb 10 2003). I use an ink stamp and stamp the file folder so there are no typos. Learned the hard way.
I download all the pics at once into file. Camera gives them a unique number 1 to infiniti 8)

When typing a report I look in that folder for the pictures ie; 021003(good noggin/memory comes in very handy at this point), find the pictures i need and write at least one picture number(created by the camera) on the outside of the file folder. Now my file folder has the date/file folder# and picture number written on it. If I have to go back after 1 year I can find them. And Ive had too.

With the picture number you can use the "search" function in Windows and there it is.

That is all

:icecream:

Bemis:

You pointed out once again the core of the problem we have been discussing, and that is having to have a good memory when you are dealing with 30 or 40+ pictures where many look just alike. What I trying to find out is if there is someone who has a system to label their photo's while they are still in the Camera in case your camera does not list them in the order in which they were taken or the camera don't put a number on each image. In my case it dosen do me any good to worry about folder of a given day that contain all the photo's for that day if I don't know if one house is the address I think it is because it looks just like another house, and the downloading process didn't list the photo's in the order that they were taken. I'm interested in being able to imprint something on the image before I take each shot like I use to do with my date/time stamp on my 35mm. Jo Ann indicated that her Canon (she didn't indicate what model she had, it sounds like the A or S200 or something like that) does make an imprint, and i'll probably check that out. I'll probably read some Reviews and check some prices on
dpreviews.com and computers.com before I decide.

leon

 

[Leon Stewart]

Now I understand what your problem is.

Question: Do you have Windows XP? If so, there is a program built right in that starts up when you put your card in the reader. I like it better than QuickPics which I used to use all of the time until I got XP Pro.

I would ask a la mode about these thumbnails being displayed out of order. That is not a logical way for a computer to operate.

Richard:

I don't have XP. I never bought it since it would have cost too much to install it on all my computers. It doesn't seem to create a problem to load the photo's in quick pic. The Camera or the download process just started listing the photo's out of order a week or so ago. I think it's in the Camera moreso than quick pic or the card reader, but it did it to me again today, it listed about 2 photo's out of about 15 photo's, but I was able to figure it out since I was not dealing with many photo's.

leon

 

[Leon Stewart]

I programed my camera the day I got it and haven't read the instructions since. I do remember it asking questions on how I wanted the photos numbered but I don't remember the various choices. But the camera has them in sequence, so regardless of what number the camera assigns, the first photo I take will be the first photo of that day, and will have the info on the right hand side of the computer screen (view-details) of for example 2-11-2003 9:45 AM, second photo will be 2-11-2003 9:48AM, etc, etc. So my memory or written notes know that the at 9:45AM is the rear photo of my first subject, etc. My computer looks at the compact flash in the card reader, I have view set to details and it is spelled out on the computer screen. That same info is then copied over to the folder in my computer. It took me several hours of reading directions on how to program the camera, are so many functions that have choices, but once I decided how I wanted it to work, I have had to do anything except move a button to adjust the telephoto lens when something is far away. Occasionally I have reset the resolution to high if I want to take a personal photo, then reset to low for the appraisal photos. It is extremely flexible. And the cost was very reasonable I thought. Go to an Office Depot or Office Max or Staples or Best Buy and look at the display camera--read over the instruction book with the display and if shopping around you might even find it for less than I did. When they first came out, they were close to $500. But I definitely recommend having a second battery and the largest compact flash card you can afford. Just additional security and flexibility. By the way my Epson and Kodak cameras had the date/time also but I couldn't program them to my choice.

Jo Ann:

You didn't indicate what model Canon you had, and in setting up your program for the Camera, can you set the Camera for manual imprint the date manually on each photo?

leon