Is there a standard? I paid alot for my Agfa Ephoto 1680 when they first came out, but support is now nonexistant.
The CD version of their software (that came with the camera) crashes on both my XP computers, as does the latest from their website. Yes, I tried the OEM software in compatibility mode.
Every time I want to get pics from the camera, I have to dig up an old win98 133 mhz laptop, which works fine but is a royal PITA.
I have Adobe Photoshop and ImageReady, but can’t figure out how to get them to download from the camera, and I’m not even sure if it’s TWAIN compliant
Is there a way, short of windows 98, to get these photos downloaded through the serial port? For software solutions other than Adobe, freeware or open-source is obviously preferred.
Also, and I know this is a hoax of sorts, but the original software claims to “double the resolution” by filtering it somehow. What is this, and can it be replicated?
I guess I should mention now, that I know 3.5" “multi-drives” are available for like $15, which can directly read the SmartMedia card, but I’d like to avoid that if possible.
When I connect my Nikon to the computer, the CompactFlash appears under “My Computer” as a new drive. No need for software at all. Transfering the pics is a simple copy-paste!
The camera has a mini-plug, similiar to a stereo headphone plug (tip, ring and shell), but a tad smaller. The other end has the female 9 pin serial connector, obviously ignoring 6 of the pins.
I appreciate the help, but it only crashes when it tries to download from the camera. Also, beware, the software will hijack all your associations! :mad:
I’m usually the guy answering these questions… I thought I tried everything.
This worked, though I downloaded the latest a few weeks ago, it was version 1.6, not 1.7. And the file dates on this download still say 03/09/1999. And it was a single setup program, not 10 floppies, though at least in this case setup.exe was “smart” enough to find it’s dependencies in the other directories.
It’s all just weird, and very contrary to my prior experience screwing with this software. Heck, the setup even had a “don’t f*ck with my associations” option, which the software never had before.
It’s like Agfa is trying to “cover up” their previous transgressions.
Thanks, Dog80.
All that said, I’d still like to know if there’s a standard, or other software that could perform these functions.
If the camera software suite was designed to run on Win9x (or 3.1), it may be that it is trying to talk directly to the serial port hardware, which WinXP won’t allow to happen.
Just an innocent question; is your reluctance to use a separate card reader based on difficulties in taking it out of the camera regularly? (just wondering).
There are all kinds of card reading devices out there - some printers now have them built in and even some really cheap mice.
More along the lines of me wanting publish the photos tonight without waking up my wife, and my only landlocked 'puter (non-laptop) already having both 3.5" drivebays tied up with floppy and Zip drives. The cost jumps to $50 if I want the floppy to share the same bay, and USB is clunky IMHO.
I’m prone to put more blame on MS for lack of compatibility between versions of Windows but that’d for a GD thread.
Get yourself a multi format USB card reader. I got an excellent Lexar reader at Wal-Mart that reads all card types so you’ll be ready if you ever get a camera that takes a different media. You’ll be happier in the long run, trust me. With XP I don’t find it to be clunky in the least.
One of the problems with being an early adopter is paying a lot for something that’s obsolete too soon.
The Agfa Ephoto 1680 is a 1.3 megapixel camera introduced in early 1999. (Today a 1.3 megapixel camera would come with a cell phone attached.) And I’m sure you paid in the neighborhood of $650-700 for it, but the time may have come for you to let it go.
Not to be obnoxious or flip about it, but if you continue to use this camera, invest in the card reader for two reasons: A USB 2.2 downloads the SM card a heck of a lot faster than doing it directly from the camera, and doesn’t suck up your camera battery.
I recently bought a Lexar 2GB CompactFlash. There was a USB reader included in the package! I realised that the card reader + the 2GB CF is a great way of moving stuff between computers. A portable reader is better in that respect.
But the reader couldn’t access the CF that was included with my camera (a SanDisk 32MB). It says says somewhere that it can only read “USB Enabled CompactFlash”. Probably its just a cheapo reader designed to work with that specific card only
A Smart Media card reader is great. It’s not clunky in the least with XP. I just plug mine in and it is recognized as an external storage device. It really couldn’t be much simpler. They are dirt cheap and even using USB 1.1 it moves the picture files pretty fast.
I don’t think it is so much lack of compatibility as it is necessity of change; the Hardware Abstraction Layer is one of the key features that makes the WinNT family much more stable than the Win9x family - I suppose if anything, what is unfortunate is that MS ever allowed application software to talk directly to hardware, but given that the 9x family has DOS legacy issues, it’s pretty much inevitable.
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