Nikon considers Linux support for its Digicams

Obscura writes "Recently I bought a Nikon Coolpix 950. When visiting the Nikontech Digital Camera Support Forum the admin mentioned that Nikon was considering official support for Linux and software for use with its digicams. In a post he mentioned that they are watching the number of Linux related questions and requests for support. " Hold your horses folks - I've got e-mail from the web master - it looks like the point has been made, and things taken a bit out of context- so no more posting, k?

Comments

Mail Bomb 'em??

[Anonymous Coward]

You know what to do!

What? Spam another support site, to convince them that Linux users are a bunch of nice guys who they really want as customers?

Do these mail-bomb campaigns really represent a forward-looking attitude for Linux? Or does it make the whole community seem like a bunch of thugs?

If you're not going to buy one, don't mislead them

[Anonymous Coward]

It'll only harm Linux when vendors get a lot of feedback to support a product, and when they OD support it, no one buys it. That's crappy.

don't screw up people's businesses

[Anonymous Coward]

Before you request support for Linux, ask yourself whether you have or are going to have a digicamera. If not, then don't request for support. If you do so w/o having a sincere need for Linux support you only:
1) hurt Linux,
2) hurt Nikon's businesses.

Nikon and other individuals (companies should be consider individuals, too) have a genuine and sincere interest in supporting those platforms where there will be a healthy profit margin. If these people are misled to believe that there is a profit, they would most likely resent having spent time and money investing on lies.

I think is it irresponsible, stupid and childlish to ask other people to request support for x or y just because one uses Linux. C'mon, guys. By doing so you are playing with someone else's money and property. That's not the right thing to do. If there is to be support for applications and devices on Linux, it should come out of genuine customer need. That's the only way to obtain healthy and lasting support for Linux.

So says the leader:)

Luis Espinal
http://www.cs.fiu.edu/~lespin03

GPhoto support is easy!

[gavinhall]

Posted by Mojoski:

We should just ask them to contribute to the Nikon module for GPhoto. It's a great app and writing simple camera specific driver modules for new camera support is the way it was designed. Then they could have automatic support built into the eventual GNOME desktop.

So mention www.GPhoto.org in your email.

Hope it supports SANE

[bluGill]

Not that SANE is perfect, but it is a better standard then our other options.

From my recolection of the SANE mailing list, Nikon will give your the information you need to write SANE drivers that you can disktribute. (You can't distribute the information they give you however, only the source you write from that)

Re:Smart Media = Good!

[jetson123]

SmartMedia, like CompactFlash, looks like a DOS-formatted disk drive when plugged into a PC with an appropriate adapter. I use a Minolta PCMCIA-to-SCSI adapter, and a SmartMedia-to-PCMCIA adapter. To transfer images under Linux, I just mount the SmartMedia card like any other DOS file system.

I think SmartMedia is actually a better design than CompactFlash. CompactFlash has pin-based connectors and carries a lot of electronics. SmartMedia cards have flat gold connectors (like smart cards) that don't get bent and don't trap dirt and are very easy to insert/remove. Te cards contain essentially just the storage and no extra electronics. SmartMedia cards are very thin and somewhat flexible. While individual SmartMedia cards are always a little behind CompactFlash in terms of capacity, their storage density seems higher, and it's easy to carry a whole bunch of them.

While both SmartMedia and CompactFlash are usable, I actually prefer cameras that use SmartMedia.

Linux also supports SmartMedia

[jetson123]

Linux supports both SmartMedia and CompactFlash (with standard adapters, both look like disk drives), so that's not a difference.

I have been using a D-600L (and lately a C-2000Z) from Olympus with my Linux machine for a year and a half. I go directly from SmartMedia to the GIMP, no drivers or anything required, and the SmartMedia cards are easier to remove/insert than a floppy.

This is great news

[Rayban]

Hopefully Nikon makes a Video for Linux driver for their camera. It's nice to have all the devices under a single device. This is the way Windows does it and (I'm sorry I have to admit this ;)), I think that was one of the best aspects of Windows.

As well, it lets me run my QuickCam as a TV input device rather than requiring specific software to run the capture program.

With a laptop, the CoolPix 950 is very usable.

[regs]

Jun 8 17:06:19 localhost cardmgr[212]: initializing socket 1
Jun 8 17:06:19 localhost cardmgr[212]: socket 1: ATA/IDE Fixed Disk
Jun 8 17:06:19 localhost cardmgr[212]: executing: 'insmod /lib/modules/2.2.5-15 /pcmcia/ide_cs.o'
Jun 8 17:06:21 localhost kernel: hde: SunDisk SDCFB-48, ATA DISK drive
Jun 8 17:06:21 localhost kernel: ide2 at 0x100-0x107,0x10e on irq 7
Jun 8 17:06:21 localhost kernel: hde: SunDisk SDCFB-48, 45MB w/1kB Cache, CHS=7 34/4/32
Jun 8 17:06:21 localhost kernel: hde: hde1
Jun 8 17:06:21 localhost kernel: ide_cs: hde: Vcc = 3.3, Vpp = 0.0
Jun 8 17:06:21 localhost cardmgr[212]: executing: './ide start hde'
Jun 8 17:06:21 localhost kernel: hde: hde1
Jun 8 17:11:21 localhost cardmgr[212]: executing: './ide check hde'
Jun 8 17:11:21 localhost kernel: hde: hde1

That's my laptop recognizing the 48 MB flash card that I pulled out of the camera. The camera formats it with vfat, so a simple "mount -t vfat /dev/hde1 /flash" gives me access to all the photos from the camera,

On the other hand, if you don't have a laptop, you are screwed. The raw TIFFs that it takes are 5.5 MB... the highest quality JPEGs around 800K. The flash cards can be hooked up to a flash card reader, either USB (no dice, under linux) or Parrallel (slooooooooooowwww, if it's supported at all). Or, of course, you can hook a serial line into the camera... but I don't think that is supported under linux... not to mention how slow it is.

So if Nikon wants to give us drivers to use the serial line, I say: no thanks... serial lines suck anyway. Help finish USB support!

--

Nikon and gPhoto

[Phill Hugo]

I have spoken to Nikon as part of gPhoto and have
a few leads on developing a driver for them. Please mention gPhoto if you mail then.

I have been sent a form to fill in to get the full details of the Nikon cameras by their European technical office manager. It claims that it'll take 4-6 week for Nikon Japan to review it and release details so we at gPhoto can write the driver fully (Apparently gPhoto will already do some of the stuff needed).

On a related note Konica are already writing a GPL driver for Linux based on some of the work included in gPhoto for the Q-MX00 series. They are currently the most Linux friendly company (at present only my gPhoto code is available, theirs will replace it in due course).

Phill
phill@gnu.org

Good timing

[anticypher]

With just three weeks to go to my purchase of two digital cameras, this is another big plus in their column if they do announce linux drivers. I do too much work in linux, so not having to switch to micros~1 just to import pics then transfer them to ext2fs for processing would be nice.

A question for /.ers, which is the best of the recent crop of mega-pixel cameras for the following two features:

time between two pictures (I would like to snap 8 to 10 shots rapidly like a high-end 35mm with autodrive)

manual override of all features (I need to do some specific things like long exposures or a specific focus waiting for an event)

If I have to go out and buy some professional quality camera it will put a big dent in my savings for the summer, so I'm looking at some off the shelf things like this, especially if I can control it from linux.

the AntiCypher