[NTLUG:Discuss] OT: digital camera question

[Fred James]

steve wrote:

> Fred James wrote:
>
>> The high resolution pictures are all bad (using cp or mv), but the 
>> low resolution pictures are all good.  The camera (obviously cheap) 
>> was a gift and does not have the ability to display the pictures on 
>> its LCD.
>
>
> So the problem is that there is no way to tell whether the camera
> simply didn't take the photos correctly - or whether the transfer
> out to Linux screwed them up - or (perhaps) they are using some
> very obscure dialect of JPEG that GIMP, etc can't display.
>
> I've never seen any of those things happen before - so they all
> seem equally unlikely.
>
> One thing you might try:  Find a JPEG file someplace on the Web
> or whatever of the same size as the ones that are getting screwed
> up.   Copy it INTO the camera (ie mount the drive as before and
> copy the file FROM Linux TO the camera's memory.  Now, unmount,
> disconnect the camera, etc.
>
> If you now follow the exact same procedure you used before to
> copy large JPEG files off the camera to retrieve the one you
> just put there yourself - then if the image comes back intact
> then you'll KNOW for an absolute certainty that it's not the
> transfer process that's messing up.
>
> If the file comes back screwed up in the same way the others
> do - then you know it can't be GIMP - but it could still be
> some problem inside the camera with storing large files.
>
> Once we've narrowed down the problem some, we can move forward.

Steve
I backtracked on your thought about deleting at the camera rather than 
using mv - same result - but in following this out I found that some 
wouldn't read properly on XP either.  So, since some of those files 
could have been left over from earlier ...

I then took 3 photos - one at each of the resolutions available on the 
camera - and:
(1) Copied them from the camera to XP - all photos good.
(2) Copied them from XP to Linux - all photos good.
(3) Copied them from camera to Linux - high and medium bad - only the 
low resolution was good
(4) Deleted all the photos on the camera
(5) Copied the good photos (that had been copied in step 2 from XP to 
Linux) from Linux to the camera
(6) Copied them back from the camera to Linux - all photos good.

But I wondered ... and so I ...

(7) Copied these copies from the camera to XP, and "no preview 
available" was the message for all of them

Then I thought I'd try that again in a slightly different route ... once 
again I deleted all the pictures on the camera (at the camera) and I 
took 3 new photos - one at each of the resolutions available on the 
camera - and:
(8) On Linux, using GIMP to look directly at the camera as a disk - the 
high and medium resolution were bad, but the low resolution was good
(9) Copied the files from the camera to XP - all photos looked good
(10) Copied the files from the camera to Linux - high and medium bad - 
low resolution good

As for a memory card - I am using the camera's built in memory, as I 
wasn't sure I wanted to buy any more memory for this camera just yet.

This almost sounds like I am making it up.  Thank you in advance for any 
help you may be able to offer.

By the way, I don't have any of these problems with our other camera 
(Canon PowerShot A70 - 3.2 mega pixels)
Regards
Fred James