I agree that the Google camera isn’t great. However, rather than poke at its cheapness, I’d like to give a short guide to those using the camera this season because it does require a little care to get good photos.
For starters, know that it’s not a problem to get good photos from this camera. I just want you to stop assuming the camera is worthless! It’s definitely worth your time!
Not everything in my quick guide is essential - this is for best case scenario. If you have questions and particulars, feel free to e-mail me.
-
Use rechargable NiMh batteries. They will be as good or better than regular alkalines except you can recharge them. This will run you $10 or so.
-
Get an SD card. Buy one on sale within your budget. Anything will help boost your storage from the 16MB on the camera. With the SD card installed, the camera uses it instead of the internal memory. This is good because the internal memory clears if the batteries die or you take them out. And it’s not hard to open the battery sleave. SD cards will also be easier to get to your computer especially if you have a card reader. On a mac, I think this might be the only way to go (I haven’t had time to test on a mac).
-
Get used to the menu and adjust these settings: flash on auto; quality on high quality; resolution on high resolution. The most important is to put the flash on auto. This will allow the auto metering to add light and reduce the exposure time, creating a clear (rather than blurring) picture.
-
Be patient! The camera is slow. Push the shutter button and hold down, wait very still until the display indicates the picture is taken (you’ll see the number of pictures come back). If you move you get blurry pics! The flash helps prevent blurry pics.
-
Take test pictures. Before you take lots of pictures of important moments, take lots of test pics in similar situations and see how well they turn out. You might need to change the angle you shoot at (ours shoot downward) or how long you hold the camera still.
-
Get the pics on your computer and back them up. Use CDs or DVDs to backup your pics or an external drive if you have one. To download the pics, use an SD card reader. If you’re using the camera memory or don’t have a reader, plug in the USB cable to the camera and your computer and it works just like any USB flash drive you’ve ever had. The packaging doesn’t say this camera is mac compatible, but it is. Just like any flash drive.
Additionally, check out the video capabilities of the camera! It’s actually pretty darn good! Certainly it’s good enough to take video of some moments of your robot or team and share them with others.
I hope this helps. If you have questions, e-mail me. If you have suggestions to add to this guide, add them on here. I’ll try to edit this as much as possible to include more tips that people add so that it’s at the top of the thread.
And I’d also like to add my thanks to Google.
