«

I've just aquired a Kodak DCS-460 digicam.

Storage is on a removable harddisk (PCMCIA type III) and it has
a SCSI interface.

What is the best way to get images from the camera and to my computer
(HP minitower running Windows-XP)?

The computer does not (yet) have a SCSI interface, nor does it have a
slot for PCMCIA (of any type). It has plenty of free slots and an USB
interface.

It looks as if I've three options:

1. Buy a USB card reader for PCMCIA type III cards.
2. Install a SCSI adapter in the PC.
3. Replace the PCMCIA type III harddisk with PCMCIA type I or II.

Any other suggestions?

- Currently, my preferred solution is #1 (USB card reader for PCMCIA
type III cards). In particular, if I can get a model that also
handles CF (CompactFlash) and SM (SmartMedia), that will be great.

Problem: So far I haven't located such an USB card reader - I haven't
even found one that handles PCMCIA type III. Any suggestions?


- Installing a SCSI adapter (e.g. Adaptec SlimSCSI APA-1460D) seems
to be the second best solution.

Problem: Will the camera firmware be willing to talk to this adapter?
The camera is nine years old, and doesn't know about W/XP. Anyone
familiar with the Kodak DCS-460 that can comment?


- Replacing the harddisk will solve the card reader problem. (There
are plenty of card readers around for PCMCIA type I and II cards)

Problem: Will the camera accept a PCMCIA type I or type II card. Again:
Anyone familiar with the Kodak DCS-460 that can comment?

TIA
--
- gisle hannemyr [ gisle{at}hannemyr.no - http://folk.uio.no/gisle/ ]
================================================== ======================
«To live outside the law, you must be honest.» (Bob Dylan)

Greetings Gisle,

I am with you, I would go with the card reader. Useful for all kinds of
things as well as getting your images into your system. Good luck, let me
know if you think I can help.

Ron Baird
Eastman Kodak Company


> I've just aquired a Kodak DCS-460 digicam.
>
> Storage is on a removable harddisk (PCMCIA type III) and it has
> a SCSI interface.
>
> What is the best way to get images from the camera and to my computer
> (HP minitower running Windows-XP)?
>
> The computer does not (yet) have a SCSI interface, nor does it have a
> slot for PCMCIA (of any type). It has plenty of free slots and an USB
> interface.
>
> It looks as if I've three options:
>
> 1. Buy a USB card reader for PCMCIA type III cards.
> 2. Install a SCSI adapter in the PC.
> 3. Replace the PCMCIA type III harddisk with PCMCIA type I or II.
>
> Any other suggestions?
>
> - Currently, my preferred solution is #1 (USB card reader for PCMCIA
> type III cards). In particular, if I can get a model that also
> handles CF (CompactFlash) and SM (SmartMedia), that will be great.
>

<< It looks as if I've three options:

1. Buy a USB card reader for PCMCIA type III cards.
2. Install a SCSI adapter in the PC.
3. Replace the PCMCIA type III harddisk with PCMCIA type I or II.

Any other suggestions? >>

Gisle-

One more. Get one or more Compact Flash cards plus a CF-to-PCMCIA adapter for
use in the camera, and a CF-to-USB adapter for use with your computer.

You didn't say how big the hard disk is, but Compact Flash cards are readily
available at 512 MB. I've heard they are made up to 2 GB, but it is more
economical to buy several smaller cards instead.

The maximum size card you get may be determined by how big a card the camera
can read. The minimum size may be determined by how many pictures you can fit
on it, and whether you can get by with that few.

You need to know if the old camera will work with Compact Flash cards. Perhaps
there is a camera store that will let you try it with your camera before
buying. I wonder if Ron Baird can find out from the Kodak Engineering
Department?

Fred

(Fred McKenzie) writes:
> Gisle wrote:

>> « It looks as if I've three options:
>>
>> 1. Buy a USB card reader for PCMCIA type III cards.
>> 2. Install a SCSI adapter in the PC.
>> 3. Replace the PCMCIA type III harddisk with PCMCIA type I or II.
>>
>> Any other suggestions? »

> One more. Get one or more Compact Flash cards plus a CF-to-PCMCIA
> adapter for use in the camera, and a CF-to-USB adapter for use with
> your computer.
>
> You didn't say how big the hard disk is, but Compact Flash cards are
> readily available at 512 MB. I've heard they are made up to 2 GB,
> but it is more economical to buy several smaller cards instead.
>
> The maximum size card you get may be determined by how big a card
> the camera can read. The minimum size may be determined by how many
> pictures you can fit on it, and whether you can get by with that
> few.

Thanks for the suggestion!

The PCMCIA type III card that came with the camera is 512 Mb.
RAW image files are 6 Mbyte according to the manual (still
downloadable in PDF format from Kodak's web - great service, Ron!),
so 512 Mbyte should give me around 80 images. That sounds like
enough, so I shall buy a 512 Mbyte Compact Flash, an adapter, and
a CF-reader - and check it out.

> You need to know if the old camera will work with Compact Flash
> cards.

I can't see why not. The file system in the camera is DOS (again
according to the manual). AFAIK, that's the file system used on CF in
most current cameras, so the camera shall just see a 512 Mbyte disk
with a DOS filesystem (and is happy), and a current CF flash card
reader should also have no problem recognizing that format.

> Perhaps there is a camera store that will let you try it with your
> camera before buying.

Hmmm . The high street photo shops here should have one of those
signs over the counter that says: «Please don't ask us for any kind
of special service - as a refusal often offends.» - so I'll pass
that one.

But unless someone here responds and tells me (from experience or from
sound reasoning) that it will /not/ work - this sound promising, so I'll
go ahead and try.

(I've located a PCMCIA type III card reader as well - but it is not
USB, but must be installed instead of the floppy drive. I'll kep it
in mind as a backup solution - but I'd rather keep my floppy.)

> I wonder if Ron Baird can find out from the Kodak Engineering
> Department?

That would be really nice.
--
- gisle hannemyr [ gisle{at}hannemyr.no - http://folk.uio.no/gisle/ ]
================================================== ======================
«To live outside the law, you must be honest.» (Bob Dylan)

[lewimt]

We have a DCS460 that had a 340 mb disk drive.
We purchased a new laptop to interface with the camera and the laptop only had one PCMCIA slot, Type I or II.

So, we decided to migrate to the compact flash cards.
Purchased 2 1gig cards and the associated PCMCIA adapters.

Not knowing enough about the camera, the largest cards it could use are 512 and to use them I was going to have to flash the firmware on the camera.

Flashed the firmware and the 1gig cards worked 1/4 of the time. So, decided to purchase some 512 cards and put this problem to bed. No good, 512 cards only worked 1/2 of the time.

Next option, purchase a USB to PCMCIA adapter to read the Type III hard drives to keep production up and running. Problem, I can't find one that will read Type III, kind of stuck.

We have the laptop that came with the system, but it is an older pentium unit and the processing time for the photos is too long.

Any suggestions? We are considering utilizing two laptops, the old and the new. Pictures would be taken and stored on the 340mb drives and stored on the old laptop. Swap out the hard drive with a compact flash card and copy the images to it and transfer them to the new laptop.

Thanks