Canon PowerShot A50Canon's "Digital ELPHs" goes megapixel plus - great picture quality, superb portability!<<Camera Modes & Menus :(Previous) | (Next): Video, Power, Software>> Page 10:Image Storage & InterfaceReview First Posted: 7/10/1999 |
Image Storage & Computer Interface
The PowerShot A50 uses CompactFlash (CF)
memory cards for image storage, and comes equipped with an 8 MB unit. Canon
officially claims that the A50 supports memory cards from 4 to 48 MB in size,
but that's probably because that's the range of sizes they sell under their
own brand. CF cards are very upward-compatible, so it's likely that any CF cards
up to the current maximum size of 96 MB (July, 1999) will work just fine.
The CompactFlash card on the PowerShot A50 is hidden behind a hatch on the right-hand
side of the camera, as viewed from the back. (See photo at right.) A latch on
the back panel releases the hatch, and the card can then be popped out by pressing
an eject button. A caution though: If you press firmly, the card will literally
"pop" out, ejecting onto the floor if you're unprepared. A gentle
press on the other hand leaves the card in the camera, requiring fingernails
to get it out. We suggest holding the camera in a position to facilitate catching
the card as it ejects, and pressing firmly...
The A50 stores images in one of two sizes (1280 x 960, and 640 x 480), with
two JPEG compression levels available at each size, plus a proprietary uncompressed
"CCD Raw" format for the large image size. The camera also apparently
supports a "CIFF" format, which we frankly hadn't heard of previously.
(If anyone knows what this is, EMAIL us!) The table below shows the approximate
file sizes, compression ratios, and storage capacities on the furnished 8 MB
memory card for each of the file formats. (All figures except for the CCD Raw
format are approximate, as the JPEG file size will vary based on the amount
of detail in the original image.)
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For computer interface, the A50 sports
a conventional RS-232 serial port on its side (see photo at right), and can
thereby connect to systems running the Mac OS or Windows '95, '98, and NT. (This
last is a fairly rare feature amongst digicams: Although Microsoft tells us
it's going to be the "next big thing", so far few digicam manufacturers
have chosen to provide support for Windows NT.) When connected to our fairly
standard Windows '98 machine (350 MHz Pentium II), we found that a 298 KByte
high-resolution file transferred to the host in 63 seconds, for a transfer rate
of 4.7 KBytes/second, about typical of serial-connected digicams.
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