Universal image format viewable on all cameras?

Cianos

Hi there,
I was hoping you folk would be able to help me out. I had an idea for a website, where the websites provides images that users can download, store on their digital cameras and then view later via the picture viewer function on their camera.

I was wondering what restrictions I would face to provide these pictures? Is there any file format, or dimensions that they would have to be?

Any advice appreciated

Ricky91t

You mean so they can view exif data?Or how the shots were set up etc

Well the first issue i'd see would be the varied camera users coming on your site some who can't copy the setting in the exif due to their cameras not being that good.

I've also noticed with my 20D if i edit a card direct from the memory card and save it back to the memory card my camera can't see it,So i think that might be another issue

I read recently on a review of the different types of exif like version 2.2 etc and higher/lower values meaning new cameras should be able to read it but older ones can't

Thats my two cents

Cianos

Ricky91t wrote: »

You mean so they can view exif data?Or how the shots were set up etc

Well the first issue i'd see would be the varied camera users coming on your site some who can't copy the setting in the exif due to their cameras not being that good.

I've also noticed with my 20D if i edit a card direct from the memory card and save it back to the memory card my camera can't see it,So i think that might be another issue

I read recently on a review of the different types of exif like version 2.2 etc and higher/lower values meaning new cameras should be able to read it but older ones can't

Thats my two cents

Thanks for the reply.

It's not so they can view the exif data, it's just so they could view the image itself. Like, if I went on the site, saw a picture I want and wanted to store that picture on my camera so I could view it later on, on the camera.

DaireQuinlan

Cianos wrote: »

I was wondering what restrictions I would face to provide these pictures? Is there any file format, or dimensions that they would have to be?

I'm not too sure what you want to do this for, maybe more details in that regard might help out. You might be in a bit of a quandary though. Technically any jpg put into the right directory ought to be visible if browsed by the camera, but I know for example that if I put random JPGs into the image directory on my mothers' digicam they aren't visible, whereas the ones she's shot with the camera are. I've tried, out of curiousity, resizing them to the same size as the in-camera ones to no avail. So I'm guessing there's something in the EXIF tags or JPG headers or something that tag them as being visible.

Ricky91t

Cianos wrote: »

Thanks for the reply.

It's not so they can view the exif data, it's just so they could view the image itself. Like, if I went on the site, saw a picture I want and wanted to store that picture on my camera so I could view it later on, on the camera.

So it's just kind of what a mobile phone does?Download images off the net to a phone but instead put them on the camera?

Cianos

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

I'm not too sure what you want to do this for, maybe more details in that regard might help out. You might be in a bit of a quandary though. Technically any jpg put into the right directory ought to be visible if browsed by the camera, but I know for example that if I put random JPGs into the image directory on my mothers' digicam they aren't visible, whereas the ones she's shot with the camera are. I've tried, out of curiousity, resizing them to the same size as the in-camera ones to no avail. So I'm guessing there's something in the EXIF tags or JPG headers or something that tag them as being visible.

Yeah this was the thing I was wondering about. I also have tried putting random JPGs on to the camera and they are not viewable on the camera, even if they are the right size. And I'm wondering is there a way to get around this, or some kind of format that does not have that restriction.

Paulw

Well, jpg is the only format that all devices will read.

After that, there are so many parameters - directory structures, exif details, etc. So, what you are looking to do may be very impractical.

coylemj

Agree with DQ, the files will all have different prefixes. I have three cameras, the Canon Powershot S50 photos have a prefix 'IMGxxx', the Samsung S85 calls the files 'SN...' and the Nikon D90 files are called 'DCS...' so downloading these pictures to another camera would only confuse it and it probably wouldn't recognise most of them as photos at all.

I have never been tempted to download other peoples photos to a camera as the screen is too small to get other people interested in looking at a slideshow, you need an Archos or maybe an iPhone/iTouch for that.

I have an Archos 504, I can plug it into the PC, download a bundle of JPEGs into a folder (doesn't matter what the filenames are) and I can run a slideshow, I think this is the functionality you want so I suggest you investigate buying an Archos. The current generation is 5 so the models are all 'xx5'.

Alun

One issue I've come across in the past that determines whether an image is viewable on a digital camera or not, is whether it (still) has it's embedded thumbnail image in it. Some image manipulation software removes these.