Egghead finally got me my Coolpix 950, and it ONLY took three and a half months! But it /was/ cheap ($770) and I love it. Now I have a few questions:

1. I saw software for Mac that can decode the camera's JPG headers and give you time, date and exposure information, but I haven't seen anything for PC. Anyone know what software I can use to get that info?

2. I'm using Adobe Photoshop 4, and when I open the Nikon's JPG's Photoshop insists on a 72dpi setting. What's the right way to tell Photoshop that they're 300dpi without getting the image resized and resampled?

3. As an afterthought, I thought it might be convenient to have a photo album on a spare CompactFlash card. I tried uploading some 1600x1200 images into the card, but the 950 doesn't seem to want to display images that were not created by it, even if I mimic the numbering system. Any ideas or workarounds?

Many thanks!

Brad Berson

-- Brad Berson (bersonb@abc.com), July 24, 1999

Answers

In photoshop you don't have to resample the image to change the resolution from 72 dpi to 300. Just uncheck the resample square in "Image size". The size in inches will srink but the size of the file will stay the same.

Mar

-- Martin Cote (martinco@videotron.ca), July 24, 1999.

Brad, the program I like the best for displaying EXIF header information is called Picture Information Extractor. It not only gives the information you're wanting, it also is a nice and very fast viewer of the photos. You can down load a fully functioning 15 day demo at www.hoju.de/ If you want the program, you can register it online for $18.95. They e-mail you a password that you plug in and you are ready to go. I use the program a lot. It really has some nice viewing features.

This EXIF header is also what is keeping you from viewing images imported into your 950. The 950 will not display any image that does not have the EXIF header. An image generated outside the camera, or brought out of the camera and modified then imported back into the camera, will not have the header. There has been talk of software that will let you modify an image without removing the header. But so far as I know, no such software exists at this point.

I use Photoshop 5.0. The previous answer is correct for changing image size with 5.0. I assume 4.0 is probably the same. Just look for the resample box and make sure it is not checked.

-- Steve (tuna-boat-captain@ibm.net), July 24, 1999.

Thanks fellas - BTW that crappy NikonView program that comes with the camera shows the EXIF header info by right-clicking the photos. Duh. Thanks for the PhotoShop suggestions and EXIF info. Hopefully some inventive fellow will come up with a program that allows us to twiddle the headers somehow soon.

BTW, the thumbnails you see in the camera that come up while the sharp version of the image is decoding - are those built into the JPG header too? (reminds me of the TIFF images embedded in PostScript).

Thanks!

-- Brad Berson (bersonb@abc.com), July 24, 1999.