Panorama Function Question

Hi folks,

today I finally received my C-2100 UZ.

Except it locked itself while playing around with it and now I'm waiting til tomorrow, when it hopefully comes back to life, I'm quite happy )

Grrr...in my opinion a camera of this price range shouldn't crash like this though!! So far so bad...

Now for my question:

The camera in combination with the camedia software provides the ability to get panorama shots. Included is a smart media card with "panorama function".

What exactly is that? I know the results and can imagine the way to get them, BUT:
Why the heck do I need an original Olympus Card with explicit Panorama function?

I'd love to take pano shots but I can't afford the expensive original cards though.

Can anyone explain to me, how it works (only speaking about the technique in the card!) and where to get less expensive 64 MB pano cards?

Maybe there is a bundle offer if I take 3 of them (would fit my needs, because I'm going a buy a digital wallet, which I think is a bit expensive too, but worth buying it)

ANY help would be really appreciated!
Bye for now...
Goyko

Goyko said:

Hi folks,

today I finally received my C-2100 UZ.
Except it locked itself while playing around with it and now I'm
waiting til tomorrow, when it hopefully comes back to life, I'm
quite happy )

Grrr...in my opinion a camera of this price range shouldn't crash
like this though!! So far so bad...

Click to expand...

Right! Never had a problem with my C3030.

Goyko Kleensang said:

Now for my question:
The camera in combination with the camedia software provides the
ability to get panorama shots. Included is a smart media card with
"panorama function".

What exactly is that?

Click to expand...

Special code on the card that allows the camera to take sequential shots with the same exposure settings to make stitching panoramic photos simpler.

I know the results and can imagine the way to

Goyko Kleensang said:

get them, BUT:
Why the heck do I need an original Olympus Card with explicit
Panorama function?

Click to expand...

SOme people prefer the somewhat simpler process the Camera and Camedia software work together to stitch photos. But you don't need the pano function to shoot good panoramic photos. Get one of the great free or cheap panorama stitching software packages available. Search on All Forums for names and where.

Goyko Kleensang said:

I'd love to take pano shots but I can't afford the expensive
original cards though.
Can anyone explain to me, how it works (only speaking about the
technique in the card!) and where to get less expensive 64 MB pano
cards?

Click to expand...

Don't need pano cards. Use the one provided for the rare ocassions you need it. Then get any SM card you want and shoot away with 30 to 50% overlap and use the stitching software. I prefer PanoVue. It's more flexible and does a lot more than just straight stitching landscapes.

Goyko Kleensang said:

Maybe there is a bundle offer if I take 3 of them (would fit my
needs, because I'm going a buy a digital wallet, which I think is a
bit expensive too, but worth buying it)

Click to expand...

Looked into the IOMEGA FOTOSHOW zip drive?

Goyko Kleensang said:

ANY help would be really appreciated!
Bye for now...
Goyko

Click to expand...

CDW.com has 32mb OLy smart media for $60 and 64mb for$100,

please update tomorrow re cam locking up, and also pano mode with Oly card, as these are 2 things I am keenly interested in as I like the look of the 2100 and am pretty much sold. By the way, where did you purchase and how much, if you don't mind saying?

Leonard

Goyko said:

Hi folks,

today I finally received my C-2100 UZ.
Except it locked itself while playing around with it and now I'm
waiting til tomorrow, when it hopefully comes back to life, I'm
quite happy )

Grrr...in my opinion a camera of this price range shouldn't crash
like this though!! So far so bad...

Now for my question:
The camera in combination with the camedia software provides the
ability to get panorama shots. Included is a smart media card with
"panorama function".

What exactly is that? I know the results and can imagine the way to
get them, BUT:
Why the heck do I need an original Olympus Card with explicit
Panorama function?
I'd love to take pano shots but I can't afford the expensive
original cards though.
Can anyone explain to me, how it works (only speaking about the
technique in the card!) and where to get less expensive 64 MB pano
cards?

Maybe there is a bundle offer if I take 3 of them (would fit my
needs, because I'm going a buy a digital wallet, which I think is a
bit expensive too, but worth buying it)

ANY help would be really appreciated!
Bye for now...
Goyko

Click to expand...

Goyko said:

Hi folks,

today I finally received my C-2100 UZ.
Except it locked itself while playing around with it and now I'm
waiting til tomorrow, when it hopefully comes back to life, I'm
quite happy )

Click to expand...

This seems to be happening to lots of people right after getting the camera, happened to me the day after I got mine. Just took the batteries out, put them back in, turned it on and everything was back to normal. That was about a month ago and it hasn't happened again. I have been avoiding pressing any buttons except the shutter release while it writes to the card (red light is blinking).

Goyko Kleensang said:

Grrr...in my opinion a camera of this price range shouldn't crash
like this though!! So far so bad...

Now for my question:
The camera in combination with the camedia software provides the
ability to get panorama shots. Included is a smart media card with
"panorama function".

What exactly is that? I know the results and can imagine the way to
get them, BUT:
Why the heck do I need an original Olympus Card with explicit
Panorama function?
I'd love to take pano shots but I can't afford the expensive
original cards though.

Click to expand...

The only thing the camera does differently when you have an olympus card and are in pano mode is it locks the exposure and puts guide boxes on the LCD so you can frame your next shot. It then puts info in the image files so camedia can stich them together.

For non olympus cards you don't have this special feature and camedia will not stich them. You you need different software to do it. You can still lock the exposure if you want with the AE lock button. In the english manual it's explained on pages 130-131 (AE memory is what you need to use).

leonard said:

CDW.com has 32mb OLy smart media for $60 and 64mb for$100,

please update tomorrow re cam locking up, and also pano mode with
Oly card, as these are 2 things I am keenly interested in as I like
the look of the 2100 and am pretty much sold. By the way, where did
you purchase and how much, if you don't mind saying?

Leonard

Click to expand...

Hi Leonard,

Nope... it didn't come back to life yet.
I will return the cam at Monday morning and have to wait for the exchange :-(

ARGH!

Goyko

What exactly did the camera do when it locked up? Have you taken the memory card out with the pwoer on and put back in again without turning it off? This works like a warm cpu reboot. This brings my C3030 back around when it acts up. Others suggest taking the batteries out for 24 hr. sort of a forced cold reboot.

Goyko said:

leonard said:

CDW.com has 32mb OLy smart media for $60 and 64mb for$100,

please update tomorrow re cam locking up, and also pano mode with
Oly card, as these are 2 things I am keenly interested in as I like
the look of the 2100 and am pretty much sold. By the way, where did
you purchase and how much, if you don't mind saying?

Leonard

Click to expand...

Hi Leonard,

Nope... it didn't come back to life yet.
I will return the cam at Monday morning and have to wait for the
exchange :-(

ARGH!

Goyko

Click to expand...

Hi Jim,

the effect was the following:
I took one pic (the very first after unpacking the cam).
Then I reviewed it on the backside display.
After doing that I started to set time and date.

While doing that the camera started klicking repeatedly (like the sound, when you take pics) and the red led light at the back and the top display were blinking.

I tired to turn the camera off immediatly, but nothing happened.
The top display didn't stop to blink and so I took off the batteries.

Since then the cam never came back to life.

I waited for 14 1/2 hours (the olympus support told me that would be fairly enough to reset the "goldcap" inside) and tried again...nothing.

Now I'll give it another try for 24-26 hours.

If this still doesn't work, I'll return the cam at monday and hopefully I'll get antoher one for exchange at tuesday!

You know, if you buy something, barely can await to get it... and finally it arrives.
After ten minutes of usage it stops working.

I HATE situations like that !!!!!

Hmm... we'll see :-(

Greez
Goyko

P.S.: I didn't know about the "warm reboot thing".

But it seems, if the cold reboot isn't going to work, the warm one will neither :-(

Jim T said:

What exactly did the camera do when it locked up? Have you taken
the memory card out with the pwoer on and put back in again without
turning it off? This works like a warm cpu reboot. This brings my
C3030 back around when it acts up. Others suggest taking the
batteries out for 24 hr. sort of a forced cold reboot.

Click to expand...

Jim T said:

Member said:

Now for my question:
The camera in combination with the camedia software provides the
ability to get panorama shots. Included is a smart media card with
"panorama function".

What exactly is that?

Click to expand...

Special code on the card that allows the camera to take sequential
shots with the same exposure settings to make stitching panoramic
photos simpler.

Click to expand...

Is the special code lost when you use the card in mp3 player, and after that reformat ssfdc format with players utility, or it is read-only
and always stay in diferent formats?

I use to reformat nonoly cards for reuse in oly camera , but dont want to play with oly cards if I can loose the spacial code...