Download Software Issues- CAMEDIA Master

[Noel Carboni]

First, let me start by saying I still download pictures from my two Olympus digicams using a serial cable. Perhaps I will upgrade to a Flashpath or something, but for now I still wait. My PC (a dual Pentium Pro system running WinNT4) is quite happy to download pictures at 115,200 bps in the background while I do real work.

On to my point...

Is it just me, or has the Camedia Master software become less usable than the previous Olympus applications (C-W95.EXE and Olymps32.EXE)? With Olymps32 I used to be able to select all thumbnails, press the download to hard disk button, and be done. Each photo would appear in the directory as it was loaded, and the whole process was accomplished with a minimum of keystrokes.

NOW, with CAMEDIA master:

• I can use the little explorer-like window to create a new folder, but it won't let me do that and rename it in one operation (it briefly looks like "New Folder" can be changed, but jumps out and requires me to select "Rename Folder").

• None of the pictures appear in the target directory until they're ALL loaded.

• I tried to drag pictures out of CAMEDIA Master into a real Explorer folder, and they took time to load, but the files never appeared in the target folder.

• I have trouble getting the thumbnails to refresh if I change cameras on the serial cable, or change SmartMedia cards in one camera.

• I don't yet understand the PAxxxxxx.jpg picture file naming standard. I thought they were supposed to never repeat, but I had several shots come up with the same name, and CAMEDIA Master didn't deal well with this at all. For now I've reverted to auto-naming (e.g., PIC00001.jpg, PIC00002.jpg, etc.).

The above are not a major pain, because CAMEDIA Master CAN be coaxed to work with some effort. It just seems to be more difficult to get the image files than before.

I'm off to go see if Olympus has a version of their good ol' Olymps32.EXE app that will talk to my C-2500L...

Noel

 

[Noel Carboni]

I forgot to add:

• CAMEDIA Master takes an awfully long time to come up. It seems to be doing some network operations, such as probing all connected net drives or something.

Noel

 

[Noel Carboni]

Still hoping for feedback on this.

Noel

 

[Stephan Knaus]

I'm not happy with the Camedia Master Software neither. I much prefered the old version that came with my 620L (and is still available on the Olympus-Europe Homepage for download)

The old version i had was auto-renaming my pictures while downloading if the filename already existed on that drive. If i had a PIC00001.JPG already in the target folder, the Camedia Software renamed the new picture to PIC00002.JPG (and all others accordingly) automatically while downloading all pics from the camera..

Since i didn't like the Camedia Master and i had trouble downloading using that older version (because of something unrelated to the camera) i just got myself a flashpath and am happy with it.

• I don't yet understand the PAxxxxxx.jpg picture file naming standard.

I thought they were supposed to never repeat, but I had several shots
come up with the same name, and CAMEDIA Master didn't deal well with this
at all. For now I've reverted to auto-naming (e.g., PIC00001.jpg,
PIC00002.jpg, etc.).

It seems like this naming standard is working like this:

P.JPG

The picture counter seems to get reset occasionally, not sure what trigers is, might be changing batteries or swapping the card, or deleting the card, not sure)

Last month, all pictures started with PA.. (A = 10) Now in November, they all start with PB..