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The Ultimately Useful Computer Peripheral

by Martha Hollis

What is as important to a computer system as a telephone line is to a carryout pizza shop?

We found a computer peripheral, the Olympus D220L, that answers that question. Sure, the word processors and financial programs are the biggie applications, but a digital camera becomes a necessity that is both creative and fun.

Point-and-shoot camera users will immediately know how to take pictures. Slide open the lens cover to start the four AA batteries' juices which activate red-eye reduction, the flash, the macro lens or the self-timer.

A new option selects between a high-quality and a standard resolution format as measured in pixels. Pixels measure the resolution, the higher the better. At the better quality you can take about 20 pictures (640 x 480 pixels) while at standard quality you can shoot about 80 pictures (320 x 240 pixels).

I personally liked only the high-quality images. These can be printed out with a color printer, but will not have the crispness of a traditionally developed photographs. But they look fabulous on the Internet, in e-mail, or as wallpaper for your screen saver.

The premier feature on this $500 retail Olympus is the two-inch square LCD screen on the camera’s back to view the picture BEFORE you take it. And if that weren't enough, you can also see the picture after it is taken, eliminate the duds, and retake the shot if needed. This feature I found to be incredible as it is difficult to see through tiny viewfinders.

The camera, weighing in at nearly fourteen ounces fully loaded, fits into a pocket. It needs no film, but can be hungry for extra batteries (as they may only last several hours or for 100 frames).

In our testing some first-time users had some difficulty knowing when the shutter was released, so we found it important to turn the BEEP on. The camera turns itself off automatically.

But what fascinated me is how easy, fast, and useful the pictures become when downloaded to your computer. The supplied connector cord plugs into the side of the camera and into the computer's serial port for either Macintosh (at least 68040, system 7.1) or IBM-compatibles (at least 386, windows 95 or NT4.0). The unit comes with plugs to view the pictures through a standard VCR and television set.

Here I encountered difficulty due to my IBM ThinkPad which had an infrared reader active in the serial port. After I figured out how to turn that off, all other operations were a breeze. Olympus offers technical support on the web, responds promptly to e-mail queries, and has a toll-free telephone number.

I loaded the Olympus and Adobe Photoshop 2.0 software from the supplied CD’s. Minimum computer requirements are 16MB RAM and 45MB hard disk space and 256 color monitor with 640x480 pixels. With NT 4.0 24MB RAM is the minimum. Then I downloaded the images as an index which took about one minute. Now I could eliminate anything not to my satisfaction and then download the complete image.

Now the choices get incredible and playful. The Photoshop options include tinkering to really make your photography look good. No more over or underexposure. You just change the contrast, brightness or color. And those shots with objects shooting from the head can be cropped or chopped. A host of greeting cards, calendars, special effects are also tempting--like putting your head on another body. You can add captions with each shot so there is never any confusion.

For the traveler, just imagine the possibilities. You can take your laptop and digital camera on a trip and shoot images at the destination. Download in the privacy of your hotel room and e-mail back to love ones--no stamps, no photomailers, no negatives.

Send home pictures of the relatives saying “Don’t Uncle Bruce and Aunt Jan look terrific? They send you their love.”

Suppose you have found an incredible piece of art? Send it home with the message “Honey, shouldn’t we buy this?”
 

There is one major drawback to this camera. Once it is full of pictures (like shooting a roll of film) you can do nothing except delete shots or download to a computer. And if you are in the middle of a day of touring--with computer in the hotel room--that means no more images on this camera unless you have extra smart media cards.

The camera’s memory is on that smart media card, solid state floppy disk card. This tiny little card, looking like a Barbie-doll accessory, will eventually wear out and need replacement. The standard is a 2MG card. Also available are 4MG and 8MG cards which proportionally increase the number of shots.

Images can be saved on the computer in many formats. If you are concerned with space, save them as JPEG?s cropped to about three inches. Label and save to a floppy disk.

Back home, applications of digital images will also began to grow. Go to a restaurant. Make an image of the entree and send it to a friend--remember a picture is worth a thousand words. Try pictures of old pictures, like this western one made decades ago. (I am the toothy kid on the back of the horse.) Make sure your significant other, parents, or friends have a picture of you on their computer--beats being stuck in a wallet or frame somewhere.

Camerese: 5mm lens F2.8 (similar to a 36 mm lens), center weighted average matrix system, optional AC adapter, optional printer

Contact:http://www.olympus.com 
1-800-622-6372

Images by Martha Hollis
 

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