In order to get reports to us each day, Graham has taken his digital camera (Sony DSC-F55 Cybershot) with him, plus Peter's Toshiba notebook computer and a modem. If everything goes to plan, the article will be typed on the Toshiba, the photographs will be downloaded from the camera to the Toshiba, and then the resulting files will be sent as emailed attachments to The Folding Society for formatting and loading onto the web pages. All quite straighforward really, though carrying the notebook computer around on a bike would be rather hard work; fortunately Graham, Peter and Amanda will be going out from a fixed base each day, so they only have to get the equipment there at the beginning and take it back at the end.
The Sony camera is a remarkably compact device which will produce 2M pictures - much higher resolution than required for the web pages. It uses a 'memory stick' to store the pictures. In fact if they were using a camera like the Nikon Coolpix 900, which uses CF card storage, they could email the pictures and articles using an even more portable computer system. With the Coolpix, theCF memory card can be taken out and plugged direct into a Psion Series 5 handheld computer. The Psion email program can then be used to send the picture files and any associated text. While the Coolpix is a good deal more bulky than the Sony camera, there are more compact cameras using the CF cards, and the overall size and weight of the system becomes much smaller, as the extra size and weight of the Coolpix compared with the Sony is much less than the extra size of the notebook computer, power supplies, cables etc compared with the Psion.
How well the equipment will work we have to wait and see ...
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Copyright (C)1999 Graham and Amanda McDermott and Peter Evans
Last updated: 13 June 1999
URL: http://www.whooper.demon.co.uk/foldsoc/skyetech.html