Optio 555 'features'

jeffjo · Aug 2, 2004

I just purchased an Optio 555 and found a couple of features that I was wondering if there are workarounds for:

1) When resizing pictures, the sound is lost on the new version. Is there anyway possible to resize and not loose the sound?

2) When running a slide show, the camera is not smart enough to not do its power down sequence. I presume this means I must override the power down features when doing a slide show.

I'm planning on taking pictures using the highest quality, lowest ( ) compression mode. If I run out of room (on my upcoming trip), I plan to resize the pictures using higher ( ) compression. Besides feature 1) above, does anyone see any problems with this strategy?

Thanks for your help
Jeff

brianj · Aug 2, 2004

jeffjo said:
I'm planning on taking pictures using the highest quality, lowest
( ) compression mode. If I run out of room (on my upcoming
trip), I plan to resize the pictures using higher ( ) compression.
Besides feature 1) above, does anyone see any problems with this
strategy?

That's an interesting idea, I had always thought that resizing meant just that, and did not include recompressing. It would be useful as you say, so I will try it out soon.

Brian

Jack Simpson · Aug 2, 2004

jeffjo said:
I just purchased an Optio 555 and found a couple of features that I
was wondering if there are workarounds for:
1) When resizing pictures, the sound is lost on the new version.
Is there anyway possible to resize and not loose the sound?

I have never resized a movie so I am afraid I don't know...perhaps
ask the dealer or contact Pentax if you don't receive satisfaction
from the shop.

jeffjo said:
2) When running a slide show, the camera is not smart enough to
not do its power down sequence. I presume this means I must
override the power down features when doing a slide show.

I turn off the 'power down' feature on my camera.

jeffjo said:
I'm planning on taking pictures using the highest quality, lowest
( ) compression mode. If I run out of room (on my upcoming
trip), I plan to resize the pictures using higher ( ) compression.
Besides feature 1) above, does anyone see any problems with this
strategy?

I would pick up an extra card and/or, depending where you are going,
find some shops/internet cafe's where you can download your images

on to CD which is something I really regret not doing on my 3 weeks in London and Paris last spring

( If I had done so, I could have come
home with far more the 800 or so photos I did come home with.

HTH,

Jack

jeffjo said:
Thanks for your help
Jeff

--
It's amazing what one can do when one doesn't know what one is doing

jeffjo · Aug 3, 2004

Jack Simpson said:
jeffjo said:

I just purchased an Optio 555 and found a couple of features that I
was wondering if there are workarounds for:
1) When resizing pictures, the sound is lost on the new version.
Is there anyway possible to resize and not loose the sound?

Click to expand...

I have never resized a movie so I am afraid I don't know...perhaps
ask the dealer or contact Pentax if you don't receive satisfaction
from the shop.

Actually, I'm talking about resizing (different compression most likely) pictures, not movies. I doubt you can resize a movie.

Jack Simpson said:
Jack Simpson said:

2) When running a slide show, the camera is not smart enough to
not do its power down sequence. I presume this means I must
override the power down features when doing a slide show.

Click to expand...

I turn off the 'power down' feature on my camera.

Jack Simpson said:

I'm planning on taking pictures using the highest quality, lowest
( ) compression mode. If I run out of room (on my upcoming
trip), I plan to resize the pictures using higher ( ) compression.
Besides feature 1) above, does anyone see any problems with this
strategy?

Click to expand...

I would pick up an extra card and/or, depending where you are going,
find some shops/internet cafe's where you can download your images
on to CD which is something I really regret not doing on my 3
weeks in London and Paris last spring ( If I had done so, I
could have come
home with far more the 800 or so photos I did come home with.

HTH,

Jack

Jack Simpson said:

Thanks for your help
Jeff

Click to expand...

--
It's amazing what one can do when one doesn't know what one is
doing

GordonBGood · Aug 3, 2004

jeffjo said:
I'm planning on taking pictures using the highest quality, lowest
( ) compression mode. If I run out of room (on my upcoming
trip), I plan to resize the pictures using higher ( ) compression.
Besides feature 1) above, does anyone see any problems with this
strategy?

I don't use the sound feature much for picture notations, but on vacation I can see that it could be useful to help remember where the pictures were from.

I don't see any problems recompressing to quality as long as the scene does not have too many fine high contrast details such as leaves or animal fur, in which case you will start to see JPEG artifacts if printed at larger print sizes, or when viewed on high resolution monitors or at 100% zoom (which may be required if you crop).

You might also use the Play mode to resize the images to not less than 2 MP images (1600 X 1200 pixels), as that is not much less than the native resolution of the camera at 1800 X 1350 pixels according to Phil's resolution tests. It is better to resize later in the Play mode than to shoot at this image size, as the re-interpolation algorithms are much better than the interpolation used in Record mode.

Using Low Sharpening, Low Contrast, and Low Saturation also reduces image file size for any compression and image size at the cost of having to post process the images when you get home, but that can be done using a batch process as the corrections will all be the same.

Using a combination of these techniques, you could reduce image file size for low settings, medium compression, and 2 MP image size to about 0.5 MB per image or about 480 images per 256 MB card (allowing for space lost for FAT tables and directories). And 512 MB cards are now reduced in price to finally be a pretty good comparative value at less than twice the cost of the 256 MB cards.

Hope this helps, GordonBGood

Jack Simpson · Aug 4, 2004

GordonBGood said:
jeffjo said:

I'm planning on taking pictures using the highest quality, lowest
( ) compression mode. If I run out of room (on my upcoming
trip), I plan to resize the pictures using higher ( ) compression.
Besides feature 1) above, does anyone see any problems with this
strategy?

Click to expand...

I don't use the sound feature much for picture notations, but on
vacation I can see that it could be useful to help remember where
the pictures were from.

I don't see any problems recompressing to quality as long as the
scene does not have too many fine high contrast details such as
leaves or animal fur, in which case you will start to see JPEG
artifacts if printed at larger print sizes, or when viewed on high
resolution monitors or at 100% zoom (which may be required if you
crop).

You might also use the Play mode to resize the images to not less
than 2 MP images (1600 X 1200 pixels), as that is not much less
than the native resolution of the camera at 1800 X 1350 pixels
according to Phil's resolution tests. It is better to resize later
in the Play mode than to shoot at this image size, as the
re-interpolation algorithms are much better than the interpolation
used in Record mode.

Using Low Sharpening, Low Contrast, and Low Saturation also reduces
image file size for any compression and image size at the cost of
having to post process the images when you get home, but that can
be done using a batch process as the corrections will all be the
same.

Using a combination of these techniques, you could reduce image
file size for low settings, medium compression, and 2 MP image size
to about 0.5 MB per image or about 480 images per 256 MB card
(allowing for space lost for FAT tables and directories). And 512
MB cards are now reduced in price to finally be a pretty good
comparative value at less than twice the cost of the 256 MB cards.

Hi Gordon,

Ah well, that would explain how I can take a supposed 3MB file RAW
image and end up with an 80KB image :> >

Take care my friend and have a great summer.

Jack

GordonBGood said:
Hope this helps, GordonBGood

--
It's amazing what one can do when one doesn't know what one is doing

Jack Simpson · Aug 4, 2004

jeffjo said:
Jack Simpson said:

jeffjo said:

I just purchased an Optio 555 and found a couple of features that I
was wondering if there are workarounds for:
1) When resizing pictures, the sound is lost on the new version.
Is there anyway possible to resize and not loose the sound?

Click to expand...

I have never resized a movie so I am afraid I don't know...perhaps
ask the dealer or contact Pentax if you don't receive satisfaction
from the shop.

Click to expand...

Actually, I'm talking about resizing (different compression most
likely) pictures, not movies. I doubt you can resize a movie.

Ah, it was the 'losing the sound' that threw me for a loop.

Jack

jeffjo said:
jeffjo said:

jeffjo said:

2) When running a slide show, the camera is not smart enough to
not do its power down sequence. I presume this means I must
override the power down features when doing a slide show.

Click to expand...

I turn off the 'power down' feature on my camera.

jeffjo said:

I'm planning on taking pictures using the highest quality, lowest
( ) compression mode. If I run out of room (on my upcoming
trip), I plan to resize the pictures using higher ( ) compression.
Besides feature 1) above, does anyone see any problems with this
strategy?

Click to expand...

I would pick up an extra card and/or, depending where you are going,
find some shops/internet cafe's where you can download your images
on to CD which is something I really regret not doing on my 3
weeks in London and Paris last spring ( If I had done so, I
could have come
home with far more the 800 or so photos I did come home with.

HTH,

Jack

jeffjo said:

Thanks for your help
Jeff

Click to expand...

--
It's amazing what one can do when one doesn't know what one is
doing

Click to expand...

--
It's amazing what one can do when one doesn't know what one is doing

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