Digital Cameras: The Apple QuickTake 200

Introduction

Digital cameras of the future will change the way we take pictures. While they haven't redefined the medium of photography as of yet, they are becoming more and more useful and affordable. Canon, Kodak, Minolta, Apple, and many other companies have begun producing low to high end digital cameras for use in the classroom to use by professional photojournalists. We are going to examine the Apple QuickTake 200. In the digital camera spectrum it ranks just at the medium point. There will be differences with each brand and model, but they all will have similar procedures.

Acquiring the Images

1. Get the QT 200 out of the box, and take some pictures. There are two settings for taking pictures, high and low resolution. High is the recommended setting, but the camera holds fewer images. In this case, we have it set on high.
   
   
2. Return to your computer workstation. The QT 200 come with two cords, one that plugs into your video plug, and the other plugs into the modem port. We are going to stick with the latter of the two. So plug the cord first into the computer modem port, then into the camera. If you haven't done it already, plug the camera into the wall so you don't waste the batteries.
   
   
3. Change the camera dial to this icon: This allows the camera and the computer to talk.
   
   
4. Find the QuickTake folder, and double click on it. Find the Camera Access application (it uses the icon at the top of this page), and double click on it. If a message is given that it cannot find the camera. Check your plugs and try again.
   
   
5. The menu below should appear once the program has loaded. This will allow you interact with the camera. It also tells you how many images are currently on the camera, in this case there are 4.
   

    

6. To view thumbnails of all of the images you have taken, hit the Viewer button.
   

    

7. This allows you to pick and choose which images you want to download to your computer. To select an image, click on it once. To select more than one, but not all of the images, hold down the Shift key and click on any other images you want to download.
   
   
8. To copy the selected images, or all of the images to your workstation, go to Viewer on the menu bar and down to Copy Selected Images to Disk or Copy All Images to Disk. They will be given a name (e.g. Image 001, Image 002, etc.) and saved to your hard drive.
   

    

9. Once you have copied all the images to your hard drive, you can delete them in the same manner.

Adjusting the Images

The Camera Access application allows you to make some minor adjustments to your image. This is helpful, because in many cases, the exposure of the image may not be quite right. In the next module, Manipulating Images, this process is explained in more detail.

1. You should still be in Camera Access, if there are no large images found on your screen you need to open one of the downloaded images. Go under File on the menu bar go down to Open. Select the image needing adjusting.
   
   
2. Once it is open, go to Image on the menu bar
   

    

3. The above menu should appear. Go down to Brightness and Contrast and let go of the mouse.
   

    

4. On this menu, you can drag the bars up or down to adjust the brightness and contrast of the image. Each change you make will be reflected on the image behind the menu, but the effects will not be applied until you hit OK.
   
   
5. Unfortunately, Camera Access does not allow to change the size of the image, the next module, Manipulating Images will address resizing.
   
   
6. That is all that can be done right now with the Access Camera application, so save your image.

Exercise

1. Take the QuickTake 200 and photograph something in the classroom, hallway, or outside.
2. Download the images onto the hard drive.
3. Make any Brightness/Contrast adjustments needed.
4. Save the image with a different name.

Resources

For more information on digital cameras and the Apple Quicktake camera.

Macworld Buyer's Guide: Digital Cameras Digital Cameras - PC Webopaedia Definition and Links Apple QuickTake Apple QuickTake 200 Apple QuickTake 150 for Macintosh The Apple QuickTake 200 Camera

The QuickTake 150

Conclusion

Digital Cameras are a quick and easy way to get images onto your computer. To acquire photographs for the web, this is the way to go if you have access to a digital camera.