Sort of a new camera

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a Dell Netbook, a cheapy for $350 Cdn
(not including the external drive). The computer has a built in 1.3 meg web
cam that is kind of interesting.

Obviously, the sensor is not going to produce any gigantic enlargements, but
it is interesting to play with. Also, it does quite well when doing videos,
great sound from the onboard sound card.

I'd kind of like to try using the web cam as a light meter (shouldn't be too
hard to get it to talk). Anybody know if it's been done, and if there might
be some VB or C++ code samples kicking around?

Take Care,
Dudley

On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:06:43 GMT, "Dudley Hanks"
wrote:

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a Dell Netbook, a cheapy for $350 Cdn
(not including the external drive). The computer has a built in 1.3 meg web
cam that is kind of interesting.

Obviously, the sensor is not going to produce any gigantic enlargements, but
it is interesting to play with. Also, it does quite well when doing videos,
great sound from the onboard sound card.

I'd kind of like to try using the web cam as a light meter (shouldn't be too
hard to get it to talk). Anybody know if it's been done, and if there might
be some VB or C++ code samples kicking around?

Take Care,
Dudley


When are you going to face up to reality and your limitations? Watching you
trying to be a photographer is like watching a midget from the circus
trying to be an All-Star basketball player. Even an auto-everything P&S
DSLR isn't helping you, as has been proved to you countless times. For the
less intelligent, a good example being all fans of David Letterman, they'll
find your act highly amusing. For everyone else this is just a sad
clown-act that has outlived its entertainment value about 6 decades ago.
You might as well appear on the David Letterman Show so he can exploit you
to feel better about himself as he and all his fans do with all his guests.

Give it a rest Dudley. Take up a new interest that is a challenge to your
remaining senses. The photography avenue is closed to you now. Grow up and
deal with it.

"Brutally Honest" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:06:43 GMT, "Dudley Hanks"
wrote:

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a Dell Netbook, a cheapy for $350
Cdn
(not including the external drive). The computer has a built in 1.3 meg
web
cam that is kind of interesting.

Obviously, the sensor is not going to produce any gigantic enlargements,
but
it is interesting to play with. Also, it does quite well when doing
videos,
great sound from the onboard sound card.

I'd kind of like to try using the web cam as a light meter (shouldn't be
too
hard to get it to talk). Anybody know if it's been done, and if there
might
be some VB or C++ code samples kicking around?

Take Care,
Dudley


When are you going to face up to reality and your limitations? Watching
you
trying to be a photographer is like watching a midget from the circus
trying to be an All-Star basketball player. Even an auto-everything P&S
DSLR isn't helping you, as has been proved to you countless times. For the
less intelligent, a good example being all fans of David Letterman,
they'll
find your act highly amusing. For everyone else this is just a sad
clown-act that has outlived its entertainment value about 6 decades ago.
You might as well appear on the David Letterman Show so he can exploit you
to feel better about himself as he and all his fans do with all his
guests.

Give it a rest Dudley. Take up a new interest that is a challenge to your
remaining senses. The photography avenue is closed to you now. Grow up and
deal with it.


Tell it to the TV crew I'm working with tomorrow...

Take Care
Dudley

Dudley Hanks wrote:
A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a Dell Netbook, a cheapy for $350 Cdn
(not including the external drive). The computer has a built in 1.3 meg web
cam that is kind of interesting.

Obviously, the sensor is not going to produce any gigantic enlargements, but
it is interesting to play with. Also, it does quite well when doing videos,
great sound from the onboard sound card.

I'd kind of like to try using the web cam as a light meter (shouldn't be too
hard to get it to talk). Anybody know if it's been done, and if there might
be some VB or C++ code samples kicking around?

Convert a histogram into sound? So it would start with the lows (dark),
proceed to the highs (light)? Might be hard to detect a sudden drop at
either extreme but maybe not.


--
Paul Furman
www.edgehill.net
www.baynatives.com

all google groups messages filtered due to spam

"Paul Furman" wrote in message
...
Dudley Hanks wrote:
A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a Dell Netbook, a cheapy for $350
Cdn (not including the external drive). The computer has a built in 1.3
meg web cam that is kind of interesting.

Obviously, the sensor is not going to produce any gigantic enlargements,
but it is interesting to play with. Also, it does quite well when doing
videos, great sound from the onboard sound card.

I'd kind of like to try using the web cam as a light meter (shouldn't be
too hard to get it to talk). Anybody know if it's been done, and if
there might be some VB or C++ code samples kicking around?

Convert a histogram into sound? So it would start with the lows (dark),
proceed to the highs (light)? Might be hard to detect a sudden drop at
either extreme but maybe not.


--
Paul Furman
www.edgehill.net
www.baynatives.com

all google groups messages filtered due to spam

That's one aspect of it, Paul, but I was also thinking that a simple numeric
breakdown would help. For instance, a breakdown of how many pixels are
overloaded / not visible, what percentage of the **** are red / green / blue
/ some other colour? These are all factors I'd love to know before I take a
shot, but need to rely on rather subjective feedback. The meter I'm
envisioning would be much more than a simple f/2.8 at 1/125 sec / ISO 400
style. It would be closer to the scene analyzing capability of the Nikon
D3, et al...

Take Care,
Dudley

BTW, if there are any Nikon, Canon, Sony, Panasonic, Dell, IBM, engineers,
or anybody else with related experience who loves a challenge, give me a
shout and we might start a whole new trend...

On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:53:10 GMT, "Dudley Hanks"
wrote:


"Brutally Honest" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:06:43 GMT, "Dudley Hanks"
wrote:

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a Dell Netbook, a cheapy for $350
Cdn
(not including the external drive). The computer has a built in 1.3 meg
web
cam that is kind of interesting.

Obviously, the sensor is not going to produce any gigantic enlargements,
but
it is interesting to play with. Also, it does quite well when doing
videos,
great sound from the onboard sound card.

I'd kind of like to try using the web cam as a light meter (shouldn't be
too
hard to get it to talk). Anybody know if it's been done, and if there
might
be some VB or C++ code samples kicking around?

Take Care,
Dudley


When are you going to face up to reality and your limitations? Watching
you
trying to be a photographer is like watching a midget from the circus
trying to be an All-Star basketball player. Even an auto-everything P&S
DSLR isn't helping you, as has been proved to you countless times. For the
less intelligent, a good example being all fans of David Letterman,
they'll
find your act highly amusing. For everyone else this is just a sad
clown-act that has outlived its entertainment value about 6 decades ago.
You might as well appear on the David Letterman Show so he can exploit you
to feel better about himself as he and all his fans do with all his
guests.

Give it a rest Dudley. Take up a new interest that is a challenge to your
remaining senses. The photography avenue is closed to you now. Grow up and
deal with it.


Tell it to the TV crew I'm working with tomorrow...

Take Care
Dudley


Yes, I've known those types. Patronizing the cripple so they can feel
better about themselves.

"Awww ... isn't that cute. A blind guy who thinks he can take photos with a
camera. Let's let him pretend he's working with us, make him think he's
special. It'll be just like the 'make a wish' program. It's not going to
hurt anyone is it? We'll just let him think he's helping. Then we can get
back to doing our real work after he's gone."

Just because you'll be wasting their time, the very same way that you waste
everyone else's time when you ask everyone to look at your blurry and badly
composed sub-par snapshots, shouldn't matter to you. Should it?

Naaawwww. Not at all! You're the BLIND GUY! You deserve to have and make
everyone else put up with your ridiculous nonsense for absolutely no good
reason whatsoever.

You're such a fool. And so is everyone else that continues to patronize
your inability to produce any photos worth looking at. They're not even
worthwhile snapshots. We've all seen that proved, many times over.

But hey! Enjoy!

Dudley Hanks wrote:
"Paul Furman" wrote in message
...
Dudley Hanks wrote:
A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a Dell Netbook, a cheapy for $350
Cdn (not including the external drive). The computer has a built in 1.3
meg web cam that is kind of interesting.

Obviously, the sensor is not going to produce any gigantic enlargements,
but it is interesting to play with. Also, it does quite well when doing
videos, great sound from the onboard sound card.

I'd kind of like to try using the web cam as a light meter (shouldn't be
too hard to get it to talk). Anybody know if it's been done, and if
there might be some VB or C++ code samples kicking around?
Convert a histogram into sound? So it would start with the lows (dark),
proceed to the highs (light)? Might be hard to detect a sudden drop at
either extreme but maybe not.


--
Paul Furman
www.edgehill.net
www.baynatives.com

all google groups messages filtered due to spam

That's one aspect of it, Paul, but I was also thinking that a simple numeric
breakdown would help. For instance, a breakdown of how many pixels are
overloaded / not visible, what percentage of the **** are red / green / blue
/ some other colour? These are all factors I'd love to know before I take a
shot, but need to rely on rather subjective feedback. The meter I'm
envisioning would be much more than a simple f/2.8 at 1/125 sec / ISO 400
style. It would be closer to the scene analyzing capability of the Nikon
D3, et al...

Take Care,
Dudley

BTW, if there are any Nikon, Canon, Sony, Panasonic, Dell, IBM, engineers,
or anybody else with related experience who loves a challenge, give me a
shout and we might start a whole new trend...

What you want is more ore less a real-time histogram... I had that on my
Lumix FZ8. But what you'll get will be based on the field of the
webcam, and will have little practical purpose, unless you want to take
pictures with said webcam.


--
Bertrand

On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:16:53 +0200, Ofnuts
wrote:

Dudley Hanks wrote:
"Paul Furman" wrote in message
...
Dudley Hanks wrote:
A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a Dell Netbook, a cheapy for $350
Cdn (not including the external drive). The computer has a built in 1.3
meg web cam that is kind of interesting.

Obviously, the sensor is not going to produce any gigantic enlargements,
but it is interesting to play with. Also, it does quite well when doing
videos, great sound from the onboard sound card.

I'd kind of like to try using the web cam as a light meter (shouldn't be
too hard to get it to talk). Anybody know if it's been done, and if
there might be some VB or C++ code samples kicking around?
Convert a histogram into sound? So it would start with the lows (dark),
proceed to the highs (light)? Might be hard to detect a sudden drop at
either extreme but maybe not.


--
Paul Furman
www.edgehill.net
www.baynatives.com

all google groups messages filtered due to spam

That's one aspect of it, Paul, but I was also thinking that a simple numeric
breakdown would help. For instance, a breakdown of how many pixels are
overloaded / not visible, what percentage of the **** are red / green / blue
/ some other colour? These are all factors I'd love to know before I take a
shot, but need to rely on rather subjective feedback. The meter I'm
envisioning would be much more than a simple f/2.8 at 1/125 sec / ISO 400
style. It would be closer to the scene analyzing capability of the Nikon
D3, et al...

Take Care,
Dudley

BTW, if there are any Nikon, Canon, Sony, Panasonic, Dell, IBM, engineers,
or anybody else with related experience who loves a challenge, give me a
shout and we might start a whole new trend...

What you want is more ore less a real-time histogram... I had that on my
Lumix FZ8. But what you'll get will be based on the field of the
webcam, and will have little practical purpose, unless you want to take
pictures with said webcam.

Use a CHDK P&S camera and write a simple script using these commands:

[copied from manual]

get_histo_range

Usage: get_histo_range from to

Returns percent of values between from and to in histogram data.

This command gets the information about the histogram of the last image
that was shot (i.e. after you have focused, metered, shot etc.), it
operates reading the RAW buffer (but doesn't require raw saving to be
enabled: the shot histogram data is obtained from the RAW data before
discarding or further processing it).

It can be very useful to get information about very dark scenes: the live
preview screen is completely black, while the RAW buffer (with a long
enough exposure) would contain an image.

It depends on the shot_histo_enable command: if shot_histo_enable is not
set, get_histo_range returns a value of -1, so shot_histo_enable has to be
enabled first. This is necessary because the shot-histogram is calculated
just after each shot and takes some time. So, by default the shot-histogram
is disabled and you need to enable it with shot_histo_enable.

[end copy]


Use the percentage values returned from that command to trigger
sound-events with the command:

[copied from manual]

playsound

Plays any of the built-in sound events, if sounds are turned on.

Example:

playsound 0

Where 0 is the startup sound. There are sounds ranging from 0 to 7, 7 being
a nasty long beeeeeeep. The first few sounds can only be played if they are
NOT muted by the camera, the other beeps will be played though (cam must be
un-muted, wasn't tested with the nasty error beep). This feature will lead
to many more features, for example anti theft protection together with
DataGhost's Disco lights.

0 = startup sound
1 = shutter sound
2 = button-press sound
3 = selftimer
4 = short beep
5 = af (auto focus) confirmation
6 = error beep
7 = long beep (nasty! – can be stopped by ½-pressing the shutter)

[end copy]

The other way to approach it using a histogram would be to have 2 tones
changing their volumes to denote the intensity at either end of the
histogram curve. If one is louder you know that you're clipping too many
darks or lights. If neither note is sounding then all your light-values are
falling safely within the proper exposure range. Since all you care about
is having the light-curve falling evenly between the two limits you're only
concerned about clipping at either end.

Not a lot of good this will do for anyone who can't focus or compose a
scene properly though. Nor when having to determine if you need a
silhouette exposure or you need to clip one extreme or the other. Like
letting a lot of specular backlight highlights on sunlit water wash out
intentionally. Try to compensate for those highlights with a "proper"
histogram and you'll destroy the photo. Not all photos need to have a
correct histogram curve. Doing so could ruin what were trying to
accomplish. If the person can't determine that from the subject by actually
SEEING IT this'll do nothing to help, just like focus and composition.
It'll only make the blind person feel as if they are somehow involved in
the process, and that's all it'll do.

More patronizing nonsense.

"Brutally Honest" wrote in message
...


Yes, I've known those types. Patronizing the cripple so they can feel
better about themselves.

"Awww ... isn't that cute. A blind guy who thinks he can take photos with
a
camera. Let's let him pretend he's working with us, make him think he's
special. It'll be just like the 'make a wish' program. It's not going to
hurt anyone is it? We'll just let him think he's helping. Then we can get
back to doing our real work after he's gone."

Just because you'll be wasting their time, the very same way that you
waste
everyone else's time when you ask everyone to look at your blurry and
badly
composed sub-par snapshots, shouldn't matter to you. Should it?

Naaawwww. Not at all! You're the BLIND GUY! You deserve to have and make
everyone else put up with your ridiculous nonsense for absolutely no good
reason whatsoever.

You're such a fool. And so is everyone else that continues to patronize
your inability to produce any photos worth looking at. They're not even
worthwhile snapshots. We've all seen that proved, many times over.

But hey! Enjoy!



My mother ( when she wasn't churning butter, or sewing quilts) used to say,
"If you can't say something nice, shut the **** up, you little *******"

If you'd had a mother like that you'd be a better person today.

"Idlesod" wrote in message
...

"Brutally Honest" wrote in message
...


Yes, I've known those types. Patronizing the cripple so they can feel
better about themselves.

"Awww ... isn't that cute. A blind guy who thinks he can take photos with
a
camera. Let's let him pretend he's working with us, make him think he's
special. It'll be just like the 'make a wish' program. It's not going to
hurt anyone is it? We'll just let him think he's helping. Then we can get
back to doing our real work after he's gone."

Just because you'll be wasting their time, the very same way that you
waste
everyone else's time when you ask everyone to look at your blurry and
badly
composed sub-par snapshots, shouldn't matter to you. Should it?

Naaawwww. Not at all! You're the BLIND GUY! You deserve to have and make
everyone else put up with your ridiculous nonsense for absolutely no good
reason whatsoever.

You're such a fool. And so is everyone else that continues to patronize
your inability to produce any photos worth looking at. They're not even
worthwhile snapshots. We've all seen that proved, many times over.

But hey! Enjoy!



My mother ( when she wasn't churning butter, or sewing quilts) used to
say, "If you can't say something nice, shut the **** up, you little
*******"

If you'd had a mother --------I think you could have ended that sentence
just there :-)


--
[This comment is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Church of
Scientology International]
"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your
Christ." Gandhi