Ricoh RDC-7A 3 megapixel "Image Capturing Device" for mobile professionals with some unusual capabilities!<<Camera Modes & Menus :(Previous) | (Next): Video, Power, Software>> Page 10:Image Storage & InterfaceReview First Posted: 8/2/2000 |
Image Storage and Interface
The RDC-7 stores images either to its internal eight megabytes of memory or to a SmartMedia card. Since the camera has the capability to store images internally, it does not come with a SmartMedia card. However, memory cards may be purchased separately, in sizes up to 64 megabytes. The SmartMedia slot is conveniently tucked beneath the Operation Panel, with a sturdy plastic door that slides open and clicks securely into place. We actually found this compartment a little tricky to open, and decided that the best method is to close the LCD monitor and use the flat panel as a grip to slide the door open. You can select where you would like to save images to by pressing the Card / IN button on top of the camera, which cycles between the SmartMedia card and the internal memory.
SmartMedia is easily write protected by placing a write protection sticker over the designated area on the card. Likewise, removing the sticker disables the protection. Remember that these stickers can only be used once and write protection may fail if the sticker gets dirty. To protect individual images from accidental erasure (except from card or memory formatting), the settings menu in Playback mode gives you an image protect option. Protected images are denoted by a key symbol on the display. Protection can be removed through the same process.
In normal shooting mode, the RDC-7 offers image sizes of 2048 x 1536, 1024 x 768 and 640 x 480, with image quality settings of Fine, Normal and Economy. An uncompressed TIFF option is available for all three image sizes through the Record menu. Also available through the Record menu are the PRO image quality modes. The basic PRO setting changes the image size to 3072 x 2304 (simply using interpolation). PRO-L records 2048 x 1536 images with improved detail (using two separate exposures to increase the amount of image information), and PRO-H also records higher resolution images (again using two separate exposures), but at the 3072 x 2304 image size.
The RDC-7 allows you to copy images from the SmartMedia card to the internal memory and vice versa, through the Copy function in the Playback menu. Also when in Playback mode, the Erase button pulls up the Erase menu, which allows you to delete the currently displayed image, all images, or selected ones. If you choose to delete selected images, the camera activates the six image thumbnail display, from which you can select the images to erase.
The table below shows the image capacity and compression ratios for the eight megabyte internal memory and the three standard resolution sizes for the RDC-7.
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| Uncompressed |
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| Fine Quality |
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| Normal Quality |
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| Economy Quality |
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The RDC-7 connects to the host computer via a fast USB interface. In our tests, we transferred a 13.5 megabyte(!) high-resolution PRO-mode image to the host PC in 2 minutes and 34 seconds, a data-transfer rate of 87.6 Kbytes/second. This is enormously faster than cameras with RS-232 serial connections, but somewhat slower than we're accustomed to seeing for USB interfaces. Still, it's fast enough that you probably don't need an external card reader for routine work, making the RDC-7 a pretty well self-contained imaging solution.
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