Saturday, August 23, 2014

Isn't technology grand?

And frustrating. 

I really do love all these new gizmos. I am totally dependent on my smartphone and find endless, endless pleasure in my iPad. And I remember, in the '60s, when my dad brought home a handheld calculator that could add, subtract, multiply and divide. He put his slide rule away and never looked back. We all viewed it as just short of a miracle. That was the beginning of wondrous things...

We just bought a new camera. We are traveling next month and wanted something small, but with more features than our phones. Lucky for us we know someone else in need of the same kind of camera and he had done all the research, which he gladly shared with us. It is a dandy little camera, with a 30x zoom. ( Just a few years ago I thought my 12x zoom was the bee's knees...)  and this camera has wifi. Imagine that! Wifi. I'm probably way behind, and you already know all this, but wifi means the camera will magically send my photos directly to my iPad or other devices and, just think how easy that makes blogging those photos. (!!!)

So, to try this all out, I wandered around and took photos today. I zoomed up high into the trees, and took shots from across the yard and zoomed into low growing flowers. Then I pulled out the manual to find out how to send them to the iPad. Here is where it got frustrating. I carefully followed each direction, camera in one hand, iPad in the other hand and manual in my other other hand— or something. Nothing happened. I took a deep breathe, started over and did it all again, step by step, by step. Nothing happened. I reread the manual, I read the "help" section on the iPad app, I rechecked all the settings on the camera, then on the iPad. I tried again. NO-THING! Now I am sweating and I start pushing buttons and trying anything and manage to freeze up the camera, which it seems can only be unfrozen by removing the battery and then putting it back in. I pace around a little bit, breathe deeply. I'm into my second hour of fiddly-fie-fiddling with this demon object!  I shake it out and begin again, direction 1, 2 ...  And voila! It works. I watch, in amazement, as my photos pop onto the screen of my iPad. Don't ask me how it worked that time. It just did. It was a miracle. Or magic. 

Here are my photos:








Now I need a glass of wine. 





11 comments:

  1. My sticking point is generally that I forget that the camera has to be turned "ON" to download. Gets me more times than I care to admit! Have fun practicing.

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  2. I am always wary of bandwidth allowances that may or may not be available when using WIFI when travelling. Images are often large files and chew through bandwidth that you might want to use for other things. I have always found the iPad camera connection kit works really well. Just plug in the SD card and all the photos are copied over. Then grab the great value Photogene app that offers comprehensive photo editing tools and a handy export/resizing function that means images file sizes can be optimised for online use and sharing generally. There's also a collage tool.

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  3. Bravo for sticking with it to a successful conclusion! I've been using an Eye-Fi SD card in my camera and love it when we are at home and I'm using our home network. But when we travel and I find myself in a different wifi network, it needs setting up all over again, even to communicate with the same tablet/laptop PC. Is that so with your new camera? (Yes, I've been tempted) It's such a pain to set up each time, I swap the Eye-Fi card out when we travel and use an ordinary SD card instead.

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  4. Anonymous7:07 AM

    The photos with your new camera are exceptionally clear and beautiful! I feel your pain with figuring out the new technology and admire your perseverance!! I hope you enjoyed your wine. (grin)

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  5. Wonderful shots. What brand of camera was that?

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  6. http://m.shop.panasonic.com/shop/model/DMC-ZS40K?sc_mc=sem_google_cov_camera-brand_model_03192014_imaging

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  7. i have two but love my little point and shoot for travel, it's small

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  8. I have tried several times to sync my camera to my computer and have yet to make it work.....you have given me hope to try it again!!!!

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  9. I would love to have wi-fi on my camera! I've gotten so lazy that I'll take iphone pics instead of using my camera because of the pain of transferring from my camera to the computer, so maybe a new wifi camera is in my future....

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  10. Sounds like the wine should have come first... LOL I SO feel your pain. We just upgraded phones from an S2 to an S5. Apparently for me that is too big of a jump. Some things are better, some things = argh!

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