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Hardware

Nikon considers Linux support for its Digicams 55

Posted by Hemos from the excellent-camera-work dept.
Obscura writes "Recently I bought a Nikon Coolpix 950. When visiting the Nikontech Digital Camera Support Forum the admin mentioned that Nikon was considering official support for Linux and software for use with its digicams. In a post he mentioned that they are watching the number of Linux related questions and requests for support. " Hold your horses folks - I've got e-mail from the web master - it looks like the point has been made, and things taken a bit out of context- so no more posting, k?
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Nikon considers Linux support for its Digicams More

Nikon considers Linux support for its Digicams

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  • Since Linux supports Compact Flash Cards, and the Nikon uses Compact Flash Cards......

    What more do you need, except the Gimp????

    Serious question, considering upgrading my Kodak DC210 Plus to Nikon.....

    motjuste@briefcase.com

  • Mail Bomb 'em?? (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    You know what to do!

    What? Spam another support site, to convince them that Linux users are a bunch of nice guys who they really want as customers?

    Do these mail-bomb campaigns really represent a forward-looking attitude for Linux? Or does it make the whole community seem like a bunch of thugs?
  • It'll only harm Linux when vendors get a lot of feedback to support a product, and when they OD support it, no one buys it. That's crappy.

  • don't screw up people's businesses (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Before you request support for Linux, ask yourself whether you have or are going to have a digicamera. If not, then don't request for support. If you do so w/o having a sincere need for Linux support you only:
    1) hurt Linux,
    2) hurt Nikon's businesses.

    Nikon and other individuals (companies should be consider individuals, too) have a genuine and sincere interest in supporting those platforms where there will be a healthy profit margin. If these people are misled to believe that there is a profit, they would most likely resent having spent time and money investing on lies.

    I think is it irresponsible, stupid and childlish to ask other people to request support for x or y just because one uses Linux. C'mon, guys. By doing so you are playing with someone else's money and property. That's not the right thing to do. If there is to be support for applications and devices on Linux, it should come out of genuine customer need. That's the only way to obtain healthy and lasting support for Linux.

    So says the leader:)

    Luis Espinal
    http://www.cs.fiu.edu/~lespin03
  • I've got a CoolPix 900; it's a nice camera (it works relatively well in low-light). The thing already works with my Linux box - there's a program called 'photopc' that grabs images from it over the serial line. It dosen't work with my Windows box; I installed their driver but it crashes whenever it tries to talk to the camera. Strange that it works better on a system for which there is no official support than on a system for which there is official support.
  • If only I could get one! I ordered one from buy.com in February (!) and still haven't received it. My next purchase probably won't be a Nikon, who seems to chronically screw production up. I had a similar problem trying to order a 900S.
  • Well, I'm sure that's part of it, but from what I've read, very few cameras have been shipped to any of the big web discount sites. I think Nikon has just had big problems meeting demand.

  • GPhoto support is easy! (Score:3)

    by gavinhall ( 33 ) on Thursday June 10, 1999 @04:38AM (#1857353)
    Posted by Mojoski:

    We should just ask them to contribute to the Nikon module for GPhoto. It's a great app and writing simple camera specific driver modules for new camera support is the way it was designed. Then they could have automatic support built into the eventual GNOME desktop.

    So mention www.GPhoto.org in your email.

  • Not that SANE is perfect, but it is a better standard then our other options.

    From my recolection of the SANE mailing list, Nikon will give your the information you need to write SANE drivers that you can disktribute. (You can't distribute the information they give you however, only the source you write from that)

  • >what is the best digital camera out there anyway

    It really depends on your needs. There's megapixel cameras for ~$300 that are pretty nice, some of which were reviewed in PC Magazine [pcmag.com]. But then what they find best might not be best for you, depending how important things like storage medium type, time between shots, transfer mechanism, etc. matter to you. A two megapixel camera may be great, but if you're taking pictures for a web site, it's overkill.

    My recommendation? Figure out what's important to you, and then look for magazine and on-line reviews. The reviews will help judge image quality as well as describing the feature sets of the individual cameras.

  • Advice (Score:1)

    by Improv ( 2467 )
    Actually, I've been thinking about getting a
    digital camera, and have been worried about
    Linux compatibility... ideally, I'd hook it
    up to my Alpha over serial, parallel, or
    via something that hooks in via SCSI (although
    I doubt such things exist)... less ideally,
    I'd hook it into my PPro200 (also lacks USB) via
    the same means... Anyone know of the
    equiv of
    http://www.guug.de:8080/cgi-bin/winni/lsc.pl
    for digital cameras on Linux? Is anyone working
    on a Digital Camera HOWTO?
  • This particular camera doesn't do video anyway, unless directly plugged into the PC already. It's not very handy, though still photo quality is great. (A good friend has one... I'm just a little bit jealous :)
    -luge
  • ... someone makes a linux based digital camera than has 10baseT/DHCP that you can just ftp your pictures from?
  • I agree - I'm very pleased with my Coolpix900, provided you have enough light and regular access to a battery charger!

    Treat it like a 64-100 ASA film camera and the images are superb.

    Photopc works slowly but without a hitch, and I especially like the -f 3 option to name all the JPEG files based on the time and date of the shot. Then if I crop or rotate them, I still have the timestamp even though the file time may have changed.
  • Well, I love my 950. It was an early bday present from my gf [merciless.org]. I was a little put off at first that I had to use the included software with it and boot into Win95. Then I did some digging and came across links to gphoto, photopc, and phototk. It was then that I learned of the 900 and 900S support. I figured that the 950 can't be too different and that the serial reading software for linux/bsd/whatever would work for the 950. Out of the gate it didn't work. ./configure; make; make install; etc... I had to look at what was going on and see if I was messing something up in the process. Well, it turned out that I could get the images but only in a certain manner. I know this now and if I get the right cable made I am going to try to contribute to the serial sniffing operation to reverse engineer the protocol used by the 950. I am really happy with the camera. A friend of mine has the Olympus equivalent of the 950 and has had great success with photopc. He is a command line kinda guy anyways :) Also, I think the best way to show Nikon that you feel Linux should be supported is to register with that in the comments section when you buy the camera. There is a web site for registration for ALL Nikon products. Put your money where your mouth is if you really want it. Nikon is a company and will support its customers if it can make more sales. Just let them know you would like to use Linux products vs. Win95 products since dual booting can be a pain. ;)

    "You cannot uncook Mushoo pork once is has been cooked" -- wiseman
  • I posted under the Nikon 950 forum, since they only let you post under an exisitng forum, and there weren't any Misc forums that I could see.

    /. 'em!




    ==============================
    Windows NT has crashed,
    I am the Blue Screen of Death,
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Actually the parallel port card reader I have from Lexar Media is fast enough for any of my applications on Windows - it takes about 1 or 2 minutes to download a whole 64 MB card. It'd be nice to be able to read that in through Linux, though.
  • SmartMedia, like CompactFlash, looks like a DOS-formatted disk drive when plugged into a PC with an appropriate adapter. I use a Minolta PCMCIA-to-SCSI adapter, and a SmartMedia-to-PCMCIA adapter. To transfer images under Linux, I just mount the SmartMedia card like any other DOS file system.

    I think SmartMedia is actually a better design than CompactFlash. CompactFlash has pin-based connectors and carries a lot of electronics. SmartMedia cards have flat gold connectors (like smart cards) that don't get bent and don't trap dirt and are very easy to insert/remove. Te cards contain essentially just the storage and no extra electronics. SmartMedia cards are very thin and somewhat flexible. While individual SmartMedia cards are always a little behind CompactFlash in terms of capacity, their storage density seems higher, and it's easy to carry a whole bunch of them.

    While both SmartMedia and CompactFlash are usable, I actually prefer cameras that use SmartMedia.

  • Linux supports both SmartMedia and CompactFlash (with standard adapters, both look like disk drives), so that's not a difference.

    I have been using a D-600L (and lately a C-2000Z) from Olympus with my Linux machine for a year and a half. I go directly from SmartMedia to the GIMP, no drivers or anything required, and the SmartMedia cards are easier to remove/insert than a floppy.

  • Hopefully Nikon makes a Video for Linux driver for their camera. It's nice to have all the devices under a single device. This is the way Windows does it and (I'm sorry I have to admit this ;)), I think that was one of the best aspects of Windows.

    As well, it lets me run my QuickCam as a TV input device rather than requiring specific software to run the capture program.
  • Look at the Nikon page. "High speed continuous shooting of up to 2 frames per second." "Aperture and Shutter Priority exposure modes for creative control." There's also a link on the page for more detailed specifications.
  • I ordered one from buy.com

    I think this is the true reason you haven't gotten it yet.
  • The Nikon CoolPix 950 was the highest rated camera by both Consumer Reports and PC Week, in their consumer clsses of camera. There are better cameras... but they are professional and costs thousands of dollars. The CoolPix 950 is around $900. It is a megapixel camera that has a maximum resolution of 1600x1200x24bits.

    --

  • With a laptop, the CoolPix 950 is very usable. (Score:3)

    by regs ( 18775 ) on Thursday June 10, 1999 @04:50AM (#1857370) Homepage
    Jun 8 17:06:19 localhost cardmgr[212]: initializing socket 1

    Jun 8 17:06:19 localhost cardmgr[212]: socket 1: ATA/IDE Fixed Disk
    Jun 8 17:06:19 localhost cardmgr[212]: executing: 'insmod /lib/modules/2.2.5-15 /pcmcia/ide_cs.o'
    Jun 8 17:06:21 localhost kernel: hde: SunDisk SDCFB-48, ATA DISK drive
    Jun 8 17:06:21 localhost kernel: ide2 at 0x100-0x107,0x10e on irq 7
    Jun 8 17:06:21 localhost kernel: hde: SunDisk SDCFB-48, 45MB w/1kB Cache, CHS=7 34/4/32
    Jun 8 17:06:21 localhost kernel: hde: hde1
    Jun 8 17:06:21 localhost kernel: ide_cs: hde: Vcc = 3.3, Vpp = 0.0
    Jun 8 17:06:21 localhost cardmgr[212]: executing: './ide start hde'
    Jun 8 17:06:21 localhost kernel: hde: hde1
    Jun 8 17:11:21 localhost cardmgr[212]: executing: './ide check hde'
    Jun 8 17:11:21 localhost kernel: hde: hde1

    That's my laptop recognizing the 48 MB flash card that I pulled out of the camera. The camera formats it with vfat, so a simple "mount -t vfat /dev/hde1 /flash" gives me access to all the photos from the camera,

    On the other hand, if you don't have a laptop, you are screwed. The raw TIFFs that it takes are 5.5 MB... the highest quality JPEGs around 800K. The flash cards can be hooked up to a flash card reader, either USB (no dice, under linux) or Parrallel (slooooooooooowwww, if it's supported at all). Or, of course, you can hook a serial line into the camera... but I don't think that is supported under linux... not to mention how slow it is.

    So if Nikon wants to give us drivers to use the serial line, I say: no thanks... serial lines suck anyway. Help finish USB support!



    --
  • I have a D600-L and it's a great camera, but Nikon is supposed to be releasing an interchangeable-lens digital SLR based on the very nice F100 (which I also own), and priced at something reasonable for a serious amateur. See http://www.nikon.co.jp/main/eng /news/dsc99-e_99.htm [nikon.co.jp]. Imagine this will Linux support (though I agree with those who say that if you have no intention of buying one, don't ask for it).
    Mark Scheuern
  • SANE support would be kludgy. www.gphoto.org is a better place for the driver (if not both) since it was designed for digital cameras in the first place.

    Phill

  • Nikon and gPhoto (Score:3)

    by Phill Hugo ( 22705 ) on Thursday June 10, 1999 @05:16AM (#1857373) Homepage
    I have spoken to Nikon as part of gPhoto and have
    a few leads on developing a driver for them. Please mention gPhoto if you mail then.

    I have been sent a form to fill in to get the full details of the Nikon cameras by their European technical office manager. It claims that it'll take 4-6 week for Nikon Japan to review it and release details so we at gPhoto can write the driver fully (Apparently gPhoto will already do some of the stuff needed).

    On a related note Konica are already writing a GPL driver for Linux based on some of the work included in gPhoto for the Q-MX00 series. They are currently the most Linux friendly company (at present only my gPhoto code is available, theirs will replace it in due course).

    Phill
    phill@gnu.org
  • The Coolpix cameras, in general, are outstanding. I have a Coolpix 900, and it's great. The image quality is much higher than any other digital camera I've tried. In decent light, it'll take pictures that are as high quality as scanning a 4x5 print.

    For use under Linux, photopc works. It uses the serial port, which is kind of painful, but it works. You can take the pictures at standard resolution, which produces ~260k jpeg images. You can do the math how long you'll be waiting around.

    For serious use, though, a CompactFlash Memory reader is crucial. I have one for my Mac, but it would be great to have it on one of the Linux boxes. That would put everything in one place!

  • Hmm, I've always had really good luck with buy.com - when they say an item is in-stock, it always is and ships the next day. UPS has a distrubution center at O'Hare and as I live in the Chicago 'burbs, and buy.com has a warehouse in streamwood, I usually get next-day delivery (at regular ground rates!).

    Sometimes they ship an item out of a warehouse in California and then it takes about a week, but that is ok.

    The only time I've ever had a 'problem' was when I ordered RH6 the day it was released and it didn't ship for 5 days and then UPS 'lost' it for another week. Other than that, I've ordered all kinds of stuff from monitors to ethernet cards and have always been pleased with the quick turn-around.

    Now, if you order an item that is out-of-stock...

  • Well, I did too. I made sure to let them know that I was serious about buying a new camera (which I am) and I also gave them specifics about what I considered 'support':

    "I will buy a new digital camera this year, and as I have switched my OS preference from Win32 to Linux in the last year, support for Linux will be one of (if not the most important) factors in my purchase decision.

    Two things are most important:

    1) Availability of interface specifications so that open-source developers can create software that interacts with Nikon digital cameras.

    2) Availability of Nikon digital camera software for the Linux platform either included with the product or available for download from Nikon which is supported at the same level as software for other platforms (windows). It would be preferable but not required (by me) that this software be open-source.

  • hmmm... (Score:1)

    by Uart ( 29577 )
    I think I'll stick with my Sony Mavica....
  • In response to all of the Linux email, they have created a new forum for unsupported operating systems. You have to click on "options" to get to it.
  • "You know what to do."

    yep. buy an Olympus -- they make much better digital cameras. They're the only SLR digital cameras I know that don't cost $15K+. I have a 620L and it kicks ass. 3x Zoom, 1280x1024 resolution, and a five frame memory buffer means you can take 3.3 shots/sec! sure beats waiting for those Mavicas to write to floppy! certainly my choice ok hardware for putting images on the web [wammo.co.nz].

    sure, it's great to get as much hardware support for Linux as possible but if it came down to lobbying for a particular camera -- why not "a sk olympus" [olympusamerica.com] for a little linux support?

  • Hopefully Nikon makes a Video for Linux driver for their camera. It's nice to have all the devices under a single device.

    Sure, but by the looks of it, there are at least three such interfaces in development: Video for Linux (for video input), SANE [mostang.com] (for scanner input), and gPhoto [gphoto.org] (for input from digital cameras). The three of them have different foci, so a project merge is somewhat inadvisable. But there are also instances where it would be convenient to use the same interface to different devices.

    I doubt that there is a simple solution to this, and I don't know if these projects are working together, but I do know that it would save a lot of work if you only had to write one driver to a common interface, instead of three.
  • I personally think that the lack of an infrastructure like /dev makes windows seem a lot like a giant bag of features.

    It shouldn't be too hard for them to adapt to that
  • I did this using a Microtech CardMaster. 2 PCMCIA ports, plus PCMCIA->CompactFlash adapter. In theory it shouldn't be hard to do for Linux.

    One big caveat though is that the card is an IRQ hog... it requires a free IRQ between 9 and 12 per PCMCIA card hosted - something not advertized in their literature (I had to call tech support to find out). I don't know much about driver software but I imagine this is a hardware limitation and as such couldn't be overcome in a linux driver. I think overall USB support is a better way to go.

    Should also mention that I got this to support image transfer from my Nikon CP950. I've been very happy with it, aside from minor software glitches which will theoretically be eliminated in a flash update, it kicks. If they put TTL in the next model, it'll kick even more.
  • Thats great for Linux, but what is the best digital camera out there anyway (price, Hi res, good color..)? I would love to see some of them get Linux support too.
    But this is a step in the right direction.
  • With just three weeks to go to my purchase of two digital cameras, this is another big plus in their column if they do announce linux drivers. I do too much work in linux, so not having to switch to micros~1 just to import pics then transfer them to ext2fs for processing would be nice.

    A question for /.ers, which is the best of the recent crop of mega-pixel cameras for the following two features:

    time between two pictures (I would like to snap 8 to 10 shots rapidly like a high-end 35mm with autodrive)

    manual override of all features (I need to do some specific things like long exposures or a specific focus waiting for an event)

    If I have to go out and buy some professional quality camera it will put a big dent in my savings for the summer, so I'm looking at some off the shelf things like this, especially if I can control it from linux.

    the AntiCypher
  • On the other hand, if you don't have a laptop, you are screwed.

    What about a nice PCMCIA controller on a card? Seems to me that they have 'em pretty cheap now.

  • Yeah just came in a couple days ago, it works with gphoto. I mean official support would kick ass, but they have stuck to the 'photo-PC' transfer method so it works with ghpoto.
  • I have a 950. no mac. no doze. got linux. got gphoto. Just call it a 900s and it works great (although download over a serial port does take a while ;P)

    (P.S.- I 'verified' that it worked with www.gphoto.org, but they put me up as verifying a 900s, don't worry the 950 WORKS!!!)

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