To See My photo album:
electricphotoalbum.googlepages.com
MGimage Update: 2007.05.27
Several months ago I wrote a program to do image processing. I wanted the program to work on numeric coordinates, which provides for much greater accuracy than mouse selection. The program worked but for the average user working numerically without seeing what was being done to the image was more than they could manage. I recently solicited the help of a very talented programmer, Luc Pattyn, in Belgium to rewrite the program with an improved user interface. The work he has done is nothing less than spectacular.
Luc has created a resizable window that displays both the input and output image. He has been able to read the cameras imbedded info and extract the exposure date which can be optionally placed on the picture, with or without black background, with or without time of day. The time stamp can be done in any font, size or color you desire.
All the features of my original program have been retained like cropping, resizing, color correction, and the ability to place a graphic on a larger parent background of any color you desire.
For the most recent info see: http://electriac.googlepages.com/mgimage.exe
Update: 2007.05.04
Recently I find that when transferring pictures from my camera chip to the hard drive the “creation date” was lost and replaced with <now>. This bothered me because the date and time that the picture was taken is important to me. After inquiring on the “Code Project Message Board”, Luc Pattyn has again submitted much interesting info. Although the creation date was changed the modification date remains as the date the picture was taken. So if the file is copied the creation date becomes the date of the copy and the modification date is the date the picture was taken.
For the thread relating to this:
http://www.codeproject.com/script/comments/forums.asp?msg=2022119&forumid=1649 - xx2022119xx
Update 2007.04.30 - Some background info
During the late 50’s and early sixties I worked as a salesperson for Berns Camera Store in Albany. Although I was under 20 years old I was calling on industrial customers of twice my age. I had acquired a large body of knowledge about photography and hardware by pursuing the suppliers of the store with a vengeance. Kling Photo which was the primary supplier of Minox, Hasselblad, Linhof, Arriflex and Besseler products was one of my favorite targets. Earnest Leitz also provided a school for sales people that I attended. By the time I was twenty years old I had become a very proficient photographer through various medical and microscope devises. Although my personal photography gained only infrequent recognition I had many devotees that utilized my suggestions. The New York State Health Dept, Winthrop Labs, Ernest F. Fullem Corp and General Electric Corp. to mention a few.
2007.04.28 - Recently found this site that specializes in Pentax equipment:
Kaushik - the owner was very helpfull and supplied superlative service
http://www.k-mount.com/index.php
They had a used Vivitar Series 1 28-210mm and I bought it immediatly.
-Kaushik to me
Update 2007.04.21 – Vivitar 28-210 Series #1
I purchased this lens about 20 years ago and it has always been my favorite lens. It was only manufactured for a short time I believe because the wide angle caused picture to fall off at the corners. In spite of this to have wide angle all the way to Tele in a single lens is a great advantage. I have now mounted this lens on my new Pentax K100 D digital camera. Since the CCD sensor is smaller than 35mm film the effective focal length of this lens becomes 42-315 as compared to 35mm use. This lens also has very good macro feature. It is interesting to note that the fall off in the corners at the wide angle is not present with the smaller capture area. This lens must be manually focused but I prefer to manually focus anyhow. I would recommend this combination but unfortunately I have not been able to find this lens used. I checked B&H, Cameta, and Cambridge with no luck. Knowing what I know now I could have purchased my camera without lens but the 19-55mm lens supplied with the camera will provide better results for indoor photography with flash.
Spring has been slow to arrive: Picture taken with Pentax k100 D w/Vivitar Series #1 28-210 lens.
Update: 2007.04.20 - MGimage.exe
I have been processing a lot of images lately from my new camera. I have been using the newest version of MGimage.exe which is my most recent creation. I had unintentionally limited the size of images to 5.5mp in the first version. My new camera uses 6mp images so while changing the maximum size I increased this to 36mp which should be good for some time into the future.
I recently purchased a Pentax K100 D digital single lens reflex camera so I anticipate doing a lot of photography this year. Digital imaging has taken over my photographic activity and it has now been over two years since I have shot a roll of film.
I have been using a inexpensive 5.0 mp camera and doing any real photography with such a limited device has been a problem. My new Pentax is a real SLR camera with lens interchangeability. I have been a Pentax user for some time and I own a whole complement of lenses and attachments that I will be able to use. My favorite lens is a 28-210 Series #1 which has a good macro range (pictured above). The image below is a picture of a section of a match book cover using maximum macro.
http://photoinf.com/General/KODAK/guidelines_for_better
I have been interested in photography for almost 50 years and the changes in photo technology in that time has been tremendous. From B&W to color new films and methods have been frequent and one has to study constantly just to keep up with the changes. The first computer I was exposed to was a whole lot of vacuum tubes with memory on punch cards. At that time one could not even imagine that the computer could become a photographic tool.
In 1986 I heard that there was a computer, the AMIGA, that could do photography. since I was in the landscape business I had interest in taking an image of a property and drawing in plantings, stairs, walls etc. The pictures that I first produced using this process were very crude but my customers were impressed as the type of proposal was easier for the customer to interpret than a scale drawing.
I had some exposure to FORTRAN and COBOL in the 1960s but now my interest in photography motivated me to learn programming. Since "C" is the primary language for the AMIGA I began learning in this language. Fortunately "C " became the primary language for the IBM and the transition from "C" to "C " is not difficult.
The AMIGA quickly improved during the late 1980s starting with 16 color, then 32 color, then 64 color extra half bright, and finally to the 4096 color HAM mode. While IBM was using CGA there was no possibility to use that platform for graphics and EGA was not a great step forward. In 1990 IBM introduced SVGA (256 color) and for the first time the IBM became a machine capable of photography.
When I first started using the IBM platform I was very disappointed with the graphics software available. I was buying software only to find that it did not do what I wanted. I had gained a little experience with the "C" language on the AMIGA and as I needed a tool I started writing the code and found this easier than purchasing and learning other peoples programs. It has always been that necessity has been the mother of invention and as the years progressed I wrote a paint program, several graphics conversion programs, a pictorial identification program for plants, a multitude of business applications. I continue writing programs but the main focus of my effort remains photography, video, and sound. .
The digital camera now produces images which rivals film. it has been many years now since I have endured the smell of hypo. The computer has become my darkroom.
About a 3years ago I started writing programs in the C# programming language. C# is a dedicated language for the Windows operating system which has extensive picture handling capability. I have recently written numerous programs for the display and processing of pictures.