DC210 vs Olympus 340L

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Torn between DC210 vs Olympus 340L (and maybe EpsonPC 700 next month when it comes out). 340 has slightly better resolution than 210. Has a glass lens. Lighter and less bulky. Autofocus vs fixed focus for 210. 4" macro vs. 8" for 210. Perhaps most significantly, has a 2-3 second cycle time and has continuous shoot feature. 210 lacks continuous shoot and cycle time is not stated. On the down side, I can get the 210 for $660, while the 340 is pretty close to $800, maybe a little less mail order. 210 has 2X optical zoom and infrared--lacking on 340. Comparometer suggests better color with 210 but maybe slightly better resolution with 340. Epson PC is similar to 340 regarding features but has date/time stamp and threaded to accept different lenses. $700. Auto/manual exposure. NiMH batteries and charger included.

-- Rick Fleming (Montanan1@aol.com), May 10, 1998

Answers

RED ALERT!! I went ahead and got the 340. Got about three blocks away (wife was driving) and discovered that only pictures taken with the 340 can be uploaded into the 340. With my little cheapo Casio QV-10a I can upload internet pictures, scanned pictures, anything into the camera and then use it to do a slide show on a television or laptop. I assumed all the cameras did this. I don't know whether the 210 does it or not and I sure don't want to order it by mail and then have to return it. You might actually have to go into the documentation for the software to get an answer and this may be on CD-ROM. May just have to wait for the Casio QV-5000--don't know what to do.

-- Rick Fleming (Montanan1@aol.com), May 11, 1998.

Rick-

We didn't experiment with re-uploading images to the D-340L, but this seems strange. - Have you tried seeing if it would take images that were *exactly* the same dimensions? What happens if you open an image with Photoshop, then just do a "save as" back to disk as JPEG. Will the camera accept it? What about IBM vs Mac byte-ordering? (Or am I confused, and that's only on TIFFs?)

Let us know what you find out...

(I'll try to make a note to email the Oly product manager, see what they say.)

-- Dave Etchells (detchells@imaging-resource.com), May 15, 1998.


Thanx Dave--just got back from Vegas. Can't really answer any of your questions because I never got home with it once I saw the sheet that stated I couldn't backload any other pics into it other than the ones taken by that camera. Somebody in Vegas said this is a characteristic of Olympus cameras. I know my Casio QV10a will do any picture regardless of size--it will crop it to fit. Really thinking now that the Casio 5000SX may be the way to go. Would still consider the Kodak DC210 if I knew positively that it could upload any other pics if converted to the appropriate format.

-- Rick Fleming (Montanan1@aol.com), May 19, 1998.

Here's an interesting update on the "upload JPEGs back to the camera" topic: I was just playing with doing this on the Kodak DC260 we have in-house. Sure enough, couldn't do it with Photoshop. Recalled seeing in the Toshiba PDR-M1 manual a caution that the pics had to conform strictly to EXIF JPEG format. (EXIF is a new standard being promulgated by digicam mfrs, basically (as I understand it) a tweak on standard JPEG) On a whim, I took an untouched JPEG from a CoolPix 900, and loaded it onto the DC260's CF card. Voila! the 260 read the CP900 JPEG just fine!

Now, anyone know apps that will write true EXIF JPEG files?

-- Dave Etchells (hotnews@imaging-resource.com), June 15, 1998.


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