Cameras & Printers

By Gerry Morris

Electronic gadgets are evolving at the speed of thought. Every year computers are smaller, faster and cheaper by a power for dollar measure. Other devices are also moving forward at the same or an even faster speed. Just look at what’s happened to Ipods in the last two years. Perhaps one of the fastest evolving products is the digital camera and the accompanying photo printing technology.

I use digital photos quite a bit in my practice. I take pictures to be used in evidence and then print them in my office. If I am going to use a photo taken with a traditional camera I often scan the photo into digital form. That way I can control the size of the finished print and enhance the image if appropriate to do so. Here’s a tip. I find it useful to print photos I’m going to introduce into evidence in 4” X 6” format in the center of an 81/2” X 11” sheet of photo paper. That way there is at least a 2” margin around the picture where the evidence sticker can be placed and the witness can write. That size is large enough to project with a digital document projector or for the jury to see fine detail upon examination.

My first digital camera was a Kodak 2.2 megapixel model with very few features by today’s standards. I bought this unit about 3 years ago for around $300. The thing is almost idiot proof having very few manually adjustable settings. Accordingly, the photo quality isn’t great in unusual conditions but is certainly passable in the normal indoor flash and outdoor sunlight environment. It came bundled with Kodak’s proprietary image management software that allows for fairly good manipulation of the pictures.

A USB cable allows for transfer of the images to a computer. The Kodak software allows for “One Touch” transfer, a process that makes transferring the pictures to the computer and into the software’s directory system almost automatic. Printing is done from the software. A print size of 4” X 6” is about as large as one can go with a 2.2 megapixel image without losing resolution. Various enhancements to the images can also be made. In a Windows XP environment the camera appears as another drive so the images can be transferred manually to a directory on the computer. I have a 256 meg SD memory card (secure digital) that allows me to store about 50 pictures at maximum resolution.

The Kodak camera is about the size of the Kodak Brownie camera my sister had when we were kids. If you are too young to remember Brownies, it’s about the size of a Scotch tape desktop dispenser. It’s just a little too large to comfortably strap on your belt in a carrying case.

This Christmas my wife bought me a Casio EX-Z750. This model, also about $300 on the Internet has a resolution of 7.2 megapixels. Prints of 8 ½ X 11 are no problem. The camera has both a variety of automatic features for point and shoot operation as well as manual override for those that want to set the aperture, shutter speed and focus to achieve custom results. Powered off it is about the same size as a deck of cards. A 3X optical zoom lens emerges when the unit is powered on.

The Casio camera is very highly rated by the likes of CNET. A comparable competitor is the Canon PowerShot SD 550. This unit is of comparable size and features. According to the ratings in CNET, to get better performance than either of these cameras you have to sacrifice size. The highest rated non-SLR camera according to CNET is the Canon PowerShot S80, a somewhat larger model although still rather compact.

One area of digital photography that has evolved greatly over the last few years is digital image procession, or, simply put, converting the images into prints. All cameras have some means of transferring images to a computer where they can be manipulated and printed. However, technology has emerged to make the step of transferring the image to the computer unnecessary. The companies that manufacture printers capable of the resolution necessary to print photos have gotten together in varying degrees to create standardized formats through which images can be transferred directly from the camera to the printer with the particulars of the printing process controlled by the camera. Two of the more prevalent formats are PictBridge, established by the Cameral and Imaging Products Association (CIPA) and USB DIRECT-PRINT, a standard proposed by Seiko Epson Corporation. If you have a camera and printer that are compliant with the same format you’re in business.

Both formats involve transfer of the images from the camera to the printer through a USB cable. Depending on the capabilities of the particular camera, the image can be enhanced, the print size determined and other features or the print controlled right from the camera. While loading the images on the computer might still be preferable if extensive editing is required, the direct print formats speed the printing operation up a lot. Also, any camera with a format compatible to the printer will allow instant printing, so you don’t have to have the transfer software for each camera loaded on the computer.

My PictBridge compatible printer is a Hewlett Packard Office Jet 7410 multifunction model. HP makes quite a few models that support the PictBridge format. Some of the models, like my 7410, also have slots that accept memory cards. This allows you to remove the memory card from your camera, plug it in to the printer’s slot, and print the photos directly from the card. This method is even less dependent on the type of digital cameral you have than the transfer formats discussed above. The prints made directly from the memory card are more or less “as is” without any opportunity to enhance or resize the images.

If you’re starting from scratch with digital photography or thinking about an upgrade, its worth considering selecting a printer at the same time that matches the image transfer capabilities of the camera. Matching those features will give you a lot more options for producing prints.

E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a solo practitioner and has practiced law for over 27 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at tech@egmlaw.com.