iPod Updater 2005-03-23

[meli]

Were you hoping for the star wipe?

 

[CalfCanuck]

Here's an intermediate device (USB 2) that device that the iPod Camera Connector should recognize.

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_page.asp?cid=7-6455-6965

So worse case scenario for any camera not supported directly (no USB) -
USB 2.0 reader (non-recognizable by Apple) TO USB 2.0 Bridge TO iPod Camera Connector.


Best case?
USB 2.0 reader TO iPod Camera Connector (USB 2.0).

I sent off an email to Sandisk tech support yesterday inquiring about the protocols built into their USB readers - still no word back.

 

[jaw04005]

Were you hoping for the star wipe?

hehehe. No, maybe a cube, bubble, and dissolve effect would be nice.

 

[nagromme]

Seeing as the 4G can't display photos, there is no advantage to the Apple over the Belkin.

Price

Doesn't the iPod photo require it's own format of images? Does it make them itself in this situation? Or are they just compressed JPEGs to decrease file sizes?

So basically, does anyone know how the Photo handles this?

Yes, the photos the iPod displays are reduced-res (plenty for TV, but not for hi-res printing) that iTunes creates during synching. I too am wondering if the iPod itself must handle this process if you use the Camera Adapter.

does anyone else notice that they said "iPod with color display" instead of "iPod Photo"?

I expect color will spread down the product line eventually. At which time I don't know if there will even BE a "Photo" model by that name anymore.

Are the new transitions. Sorta dissapointing

I'm not disappointed! I wanted more variety and now I have it. I'm glad "Random" is in there. I wasn't expecting Open GL

(You could make some cool looping displays on TV with a repeated Push effect. Logos going by on white, or whatever.)

 

[manu chao]

actually the Apple Camera Connector has a huge advantage over the belkin in two ways:

1. its smaller
2. it connects directly from the camera,not the flash card

much simpler solution, and i would rather use the apple one, and bring it on trips because it is smaller and easier then to use

The "Belkin Digital Camera Link for iPod" (as opposed to the "Belkin iPod Media Reader") does not require that you remove the flash card from your camera since it connects directly to the camera exactly like the Apple Camera Connector does.

It is somewhat bigger, although not as big as the Media Reader. I haven't heard anything about its speed.

And as stated already it is three times as expensive as the Apple part.

 

[Avicdar]

Surprised no one has really mentioned it yet (unless I missed it)...

There doesn't *seem* to be RAW support. Apples info on this is sketchy at best, but they were specific about what file formats are supported. The question is: are these formats strictly for display within the iPod photo, or are they the only formats that get transferred?

If RAW isn't supported for transfer to the iPod, and then subsequent transfer from the iPod to computer, then this is a useless thing for a serious photographer. I am hoping that Apple understands that people are not likely to care a lot about dumping images from their cams to the iPod and creating slideshows on the spot. It is more likely people will want to transfer their images and use the iPod as a mass storage device.

No one seems to know, yet.

 

[iriejedi]

Cannon Cameras

I was a little dissapointed to see EVERY Cannon camera ever made except for the G3, G5 and G6 Powershots - any chance this was an oversite or was apple snubbing them because they use the patented G3 and G5 call signs?

Maybe this was part of the settlement - we will not publicly sue you for making a G3 and G5 camera IF you make a incompatable port on them for our new iPod to pununish all the G3 and G5 camera users!



or maybe it was just an oversight on cameras tested.....

And many of us are hoping the speeds will be USB 2.0, which I think it the likely scenario given that is the default transfer speed of the iPod.

What fascinates me is the quote "The iPod Camera Connector requires an iPod photo and a supported camera or media reader."

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301052

If we can get a small reader (like the 2 oz Sandisk ImageMate USB 2.0) to work, this might be the high speed holy grail for photos and the iPod.

All we need to do is to find a "supported reader" that handles "PTP, Type 4 (or Normal), or Mass Storage"...

 

[neut]

(You could make some cool looping displays on TV with a repeated Push effect. Logos going by on white, or whatever.)

that's a very good idea. with random and a set of symbols ... you could make some very interesting loops.

i'll have to try this out. <runs for iPod>


peace.

*

 

[boombashi]

I was a little dissapointed to see EVERY Cannon camera ever made except for the G3, G5 and G6 Powershots - any chance this was an oversite or was apple snubbing them because they use the patented G3 and G5 call signs?

Maybe this was part of the settlement - we will not publicly sue you for making a G3 and G5 camera IF you make a incompatable port on them for our new iPod to pununish all the G3 and G5 camera users!

or maybe it was just an oversight on cameras tested.....

It says this list isn't all inclusive. Microsoft does this crap two...they only list the products that they have "tested". I think all the cameras that you mentioned are PictBridge compatible which also means that they are PTP compatible which means that they should work without a hitch. 95% of all digital cameras that have comeout in the last 2-3 years support PTP, unless it's some crap $20 noname .1MP camera. I just bought a Canon Rebel XT that BTW is not listed, but it supports all the latest transfer protocols. As far as RAW working, I can see it transferring all the files because they all live in the DCIM folder on the memory card. I can almost guarantee that it WILL NOT display RAW on the screen after transfer, the major reason is because about every single camera that shoots RAW has it's own RAW file format. I really hope I'm wrong about that, but I can't see it having that functionality. Lucky for me my camara can shoot RAW & JPEGs simultaneously so I can have a nice one to see on screen and the uncompressed/processed version for post-processing . If for some odd reason the adapter doesn't support your camera...go out and buy a $10 card reader if you don't already have one...you should have get one of these anyway so you can download all your pictures after a long photo shoot and not have to charge the battery on your camera first.

 

[stcanard]

It says this list isn't all inclusive. Microsoft does this crap two...they only list the products that they have "tested". I think all the cameras that you mentioned are PictBridge compatible which also means that they are PTP compatible which means that they should work without a hitch.

Uhh, that isn't "crap". Of course you aren't going to list a camera you haven't tested. What if it turns out to have an obscure bug and doesn't work?

For the record, Apple has listed elsewhere (I don't know where, but I've seen the instructions in another article here) how to determine if your camera works, by plugging it into image capture and checking the interface.

 

[aafuss1]

Surprised no one has really mentioned it yet (unless I missed it)...

There doesn't *seem* to be RAW support. Apples info on this is sketchy at best, but they were specific about what file formats are supported. The question is: are these formats strictly for display within the iPod photo, or are they the only formats that get transferred?

If RAW isn't supported for transfer to the iPod, and then subsequent transfer from the iPod to computer, then this is a useless thing for a serious photographer. I am hoping that Apple understands that people are not likely to care a lot about dumping images from their cams to the iPod and creating slideshows on the spot. It is more likely people will want to transfer their images and use the iPod as a mass storage device.

No one seems to know, yet.

Or I still can't explain why .psd support is Mac only on the iPod photo (surely important for Windows users who might sync with Photoshop ekements 3.0).

 

[joecirca79]

raw

I asked the "go to" guy at my local apple store. He said that it would support raw files so here's hoping he's right.

 

[m-dogg]

The "Belkin Digital Camera Link for iPod" (as opposed to the "Belkin iPod Media Reader") does not require that you remove the flash card from your camera since it connects directly to the camera exactly like the Apple Camera Connector does.

It is somewhat bigger, although not as big as the Media Reader. I haven't heard anything about its speed.

And as stated already it is three times as expensive as the Apple part.

I have the belkin camera link. it transfers fast enough, but another difference I'm noticing is that the Belkin device requires batteries. the Apple connector (appearently) does not.

 

[Westside guy]

The "Belkin Digital Camera Link for iPod" (as opposed to the "Belkin iPod Media Reader") does not require that you remove the flash card from your camera since it connects directly to the camera exactly like the Apple Camera Connector does.

It is somewhat bigger, although not as big as the Media Reader. I haven't heard anything about its speed.

I bought the Belkin camera link to use with my Nikon D70 just before my trip to Hawaii. The speeds weren't great, but it certainly did the job satisfactorilly. I was a little leery given some of the oddball reports I'd read (fully-charged iPod battery dead before transfer complete, etc.).

I was shooting in camera RAW, so I know it works for that.

Surprised no one has really mentioned it yet (unless I missed it)...

There doesn't *seem* to be RAW support. Apples info on this is sketchy at best, but they were specific about what file formats are supported. The question is: are these formats strictly for display within the iPod photo, or are they the only formats that get transferred?

If RAW isn't supported for transfer to the iPod, and then subsequent transfer from the iPod to computer, then this is a useless thing for a serious photographer.

I am probably guilty of reading between the lines, but I was assuming that this will transfer the RAW files but be unable to display them. However if the RAW image has an embedded JPEG, then I bet it'll display that.

BTW it appears to me that the most recent D70 firmware update quietly changed the NEF (RAW) format so it now includes an embedded JPEG - can anyone confirm or refute that? I didn't see that on Nikon's site, but perhaps I was just blind. So now "RAW+JPEG" mode is now totally useless, as compared to the prior situation where it was just mostly useless.

 

[DWKlink]

Has anyone tried this yet?

I have a 40g photo. i updated the software, and these new transitions don't work right. the push transitions just push to the same photo. anyone else having problems???

 

[virividox]

cool. glad that apple continues to update and improve

 

[manu chao]

I bought the Belkin camera link to use with my Nikon D70 just before my trip to Hawaii. The speeds weren't great, but it certainly did the job satisfactorilly. [...]

BTW it appears to me that the most recent D70 firmware update quietly changed the NEF (RAW) format so it now includes an embedded JPEG - can anyone confirm or refute that? I didn't see that on Nikon's site, but perhaps I was just blind. So now "RAW+JPEG" mode is now totally useless, as compared to the prior situation where it was just mostly useless.

I have a D70 too (bought last September) and what bothered me somewhat is that it cannot save simoultaneously in both RAW and JPEG. Do you have a newer version which has this function, and why would you consider it mostly useless (I understand, that if a high resolution JPEG is embeded into the RAW it would be rather pointless to save both in RAW and JPEG)?

 

[Westside guy]

I have a D70 too (bought last September) and what bothered me somewhat is that it cannot save simoultaneously in both RAW and JPEG. Do you have a newer version which has this function, and why would you consider it mostly useless (I understand, that if a high resolution JPEG is embeded into the RAW it would be rather pointless to save both in RAW and JPEG)?

Second question first: Basically here's what I've experienced. I believe my camera came with firmware revision 1.01. RAW (NEF) files I shot when i first received the camera (August 2004) do not seem to have a preview thumbnail embedded in them. But after downloading the 1.03 firmware upgrade and installing it onto the D70, my more recent RAW files seem to have a preview thumbnail available - at least that's my conclusion based on how OS X's Finder will display thumbnail images for those recent RAWs, but not for the older RAW images.

For your first question: The D70 can actually save two separate RAW and JPEG files simultaneously for each shot (as well as RAW all by itself, of course), but the only quality option is as a rather compressed JPEG. But all I meant by the "mostly useless" comment is that going to the trouble of maintaining a second lower-quality copy (the JPEG) of each RAW image seems pretty pointless, since in my mind the only use for that JPEG is as a representative thumbnail of the RAW file. That was worthwhile when most programs couldn't handle RAW/NEF; but even iPhoto does that now.

But even if it were possible to have the D70 generate a separate high-quality JPEG alongside each RAW image, what purpose would it serve (as opposed to generating a high-quality JPEG from the RAW image after the fact)?

 

[Mustafa]

They're shipping!

i dont think anyone quite knows yet because no one has yet to get a Camera Connector, their shipping date was one to two weeks when they went up for sale not that long ago, i guess we will have to wait and see?

Just had a notification from Apple that mine has shipped and will be here in 2-3 (working) days -- I'm in the UK.

 

[HAViK]

cool. glad that apple continues to update and improve

You and I both, they just need to produce a better line of graphics cards along with good drivers for them. -.- And speed up the processor in the iPods so we can have more cool stufffffffff.

 

[The_Roo]

New compilation feature?

I just noticed a compilation option in settings. If you turn this on, all the albums you marked as compilations appear together seperate from albums.

Is this new to 1.1? I don't remember seeing this before.

Kenny

 

[1rottenapple]

I just noticed a compilation option in settings. If you turn this on, all the albums you marked as compilations appear together seperate from albums.

Is this new to 1.1? I don't remember seeing this before.

Kenny

Nope. Been there, I remember when I got my imac, since march 04.

 

[manu chao]

Second question first: Basically here's what I've experienced. I believe my camera came with firmware revision 1.01. RAW (NEF) files I shot when i first received the camera (August 2004) do not seem to have a preview thumbnail embedded in them. But after downloading the 1.03 firmware upgrade and installing it onto the D70, my more recent RAW files seem to have a preview thumbnail available - at least that's my conclusion based on how OS X's Finder will display thumbnail images for those recent RAWs, but not for the older RAW images.

For your first question: The D70 can actually save two separate RAW and JPEG files simultaneously for each shot (as well as RAW all by itself, of course), but the only quality option is as a rather compressed JPEG. But all I meant by the "mostly useless" comment is that going to the trouble of maintaining a second lower-quality copy (the JPEG) of each RAW image seems pretty pointless, since in my mind the only use for that JPEG is as a representative thumbnail of the RAW file. That was worthwhile when most programs couldn't handle RAW/NEF; but even iPhoto does that now.

But even if it were possible to have the D70 generate a separate high-quality JPEG alongside each RAW image, what purpose would it serve (as opposed to generating a high-quality JPEG from the RAW image after the fact)?

Thanks. You are right, with iPhoto 5, which extracts a high-quality JPEG out of the RAW, the point of having both RAW and JPEG is rather moot (I just recently installed it, so that fact had not really sunken in yet).
And also thanks for bringing the new firmware version to my attention.

 

[doowrehs]

Not working properly...

Yep - the new transitions are not working properly for me either. Wipe Across now leaves a residue of the previous photo on the left hand side of the screen (about 3mm wide). Likewise, Wipe Down leaves a residue on the bottom of the screen. The Push Down/Across slideshows just show a black screen unless I press the play button, which results in a small square with the play/pause button visible in front of part of the current photo. That square then gets pushed off screen and replaced by an identical size square when the next transition occurs. Have reinstalled, but it made no difference...

 

[blybug]

I just noticed a compilation option in settings. If you turn this on, all the albums you marked as compilations appear together seperate from albums.

Is this new to 1.1? I don't remember seeing this before.

I think this is new to the iPod, though a "compilation" feature has been in iTunes for awhile. I don't remember seeing it there on the iPod before either, but quite honestly I don't remember not seeing it, so maybe it has been there?

Seems like it's not exactly the same or as useful as the iTunes function. Turning compilations "On" simply adds another category ("Compilation") to browse by. It does not appear to remove those albums, or more importantly those artists, from the "Albums" or "Artists" browse lists.

Wishing they'd add "Rating" to the browse list (yes, I've fed this back to Apple).