Taking photos with the Guide IR PC210

[jweaver]

I got my PC210 yesterday and so far I am impressed.. I was expecting to have to update it, but it came with the latest firmware (0522).

I am finding the taking photos a bit odd.. Specifically the fact you have to press the OK button to save it, or the power button not..  I can see the benifit, but its too easy to forget to press OK especially as you only get a few seconds to make a decision.. And it just makes no sense for an extra press.. Why not give an option in the settings to disable this, so the trigger just takes a picture.

But what I don't get is the message "Press OK to save", which appears AFTER you have decided where to save, or the option has timed out.. That just looks to be a bug..

I am also curious about the actual method of taking a photo.

The manual says you do a quick press of the trigger.. And sure enough, this takes a photo, but makes the torch/laser a bit pointless.

But I have found that if you press and HOLD the trigger.. This allows the laser/torch to stay on.. You can then compose your shot (or even just point the laser at the subject) and then the photo is taken when you let go.

This actually seems like a good feature as you take photos without looking at the screen and just using the torch and laser to know what you are pointing at.. But then you have to remember to press 'ok' after, which is just a bit clumsy..

I would like a firmware option which always saves the photo, but gives you the option of not saving it by pressing power...


Anyone else got any thoughts about this?

Jon

[jweaver]

After a bit more playing I think I got it wrong.

I think the message "OK to save" actually means "Picture Saved"

After taking a photo, you have the option to save it with the OK button.. Or not save it with the Power button.. But if you leave it, I think it saves every time and then gives the "OK to save" message.

So its actually working as I thought it should... But its still not clear when its actually taken a photo as its a bit clunky.

Pressing and holding the trigger is best, as when you let go, it takes a photo every time.. And this is good as you can use the laser to point at the subject.. But the quick press of the trigger seems a bit hit and miss.

I still havn't worked out what the torch does.. I took a photo as a test in total darkness and the "visual" photo shows that the torch clearly illuminates the scene.. But in daylight the torch switches off before the photo is taken.. So i am not sure if it has some logic to keep the torch on in darkness?

So other than a bit of poor translation ("OK to Save") and perhaps a lack of options to define the behavior the photo mechanism is pretty good once you work it out.

[jweaver]

One more (surprising?) observation about the photo mode.. It doesn't store an image from the sensor.. It just captures whats on the screen.

So quite useful if you want to see the temperatures.. But if you have the A/S/M selector up, it saves that too, as well as other potentially unwanted information.

[jweaver]

Another tip if you are interested.. I found taking photos really slow.. And sometimes the camera freezes for 10 seconds or so and doesn't take a picture.. And I think I found out why.

When i got it I changed the Visual Camera settings from its default value (320x200 I think), to 1200x600..

This means that the Visible camera file is massive compared to the IR one and the camera appears to struggle when writing this file.

Turning it back to the default low res settings has made a world of difference.. Now photos are taking instantly.

So unless you have a specific need for high resolution visible photos, there is no point in enabling it as it totally ruins the user experience.