                               CAMWORK - April, 1998
                               ========================



                 **What's new in this version?"

See whatsnew.txt.


                 **What is CamWork?**

CamWork is a DOS program designed to extract pictures from the Agfa ePhoto and Olympus digital cameras.  It has been tested successfully (as far as I know) with the Agfa 307, 1280,  Epson 500, Epson 600, Olympus 200, Olympus 300 cameras.  If you try it with another camera and it works, send me an e-mail (maxlyons@erols.com).


                 **Is CamWork Free?**

Well, sort of...CamWork is now E-Mail-Ware.  This means I'd appreciate an e-mail (maxlyons@erols.com) if you find it useful.  CamWork used to be shareware ($15 US), but almost no-one registered , so I gave up on that idea!

                 **Why would I want to use CamWork?**

Since CamWork is DOS software, it is compatible with any DOS (version 3.3 or higher), Windows 3.X or Windows 95 computer.  CamWork gives camera owners considerable flexibility in where and when they download images from their camera.  CamWork is ideal for use on a "guest" computer, when you don't want to install a large Windows program that takes up hard-drive space and may never get used again!

Because CamWork is only ~60k in size and requires no setup or install procedure, it can easily be run from a floppy disk.


                 **What do I need to do to set it up?**

First, you must copy CamWork into a directory of your choice, e.g. c:\CamWork.  Use standard Windows or Dos commands to create this directory and put the program file in there.


                 **How does it work?**

To run CamWork, make sure your camera is connected to your computer and turned on.  The easiest way to run CamWork is in "interactive" mode...Simply type CamWork at the Dos prompt.  (Note: This starts CamWork at a relatively slow speed.  Use the /s option to specify a faster speed, and get much shorter download times!)  The program checks Com 2 to see if it can communicate with the camera.  If your camera is connected to another Com port, use the /com option to specify where it is connected.  For example, if your camera is connected to Com 1, type:

                        CamWork /com1

Once CamWork has found the camera it will determine how many pictures are available for download, and check the battery status.  If the batteries are below 50% it will terminate and prompt you to put in fresh batteries.  (This is a safety feature so that the batteries do not die during a download session.  To override this feature, use the /nb option.)

Assuming that batteries are fresh, the program will prompt you to specify which pictures to download.  To download selected pictures, simply place a "." between picture numbers.  For example, to download pictures 1, 4, 9, 10 and 17 from the camera you would specify at the prompt -->:

                        1.4.9.10.17

To download a range of pictures, use a "-" between pictures.  For example, to download pictures 1, 2, 3 and 4, type:

                        1-4

A combination can also be used.  For example, to download pictures 1, 2, 4, 9, 10, 11 and 12:

                        1.2.4.9-12

To download all the pictures in the camera, type:

                        all

The program should finish the task of downloading without further input.  All files (unless specified otherwise by a command line option) are downloaded to a subdirectory of the current directory given the current date.  For example, if today is November 12 and CamWork is installed in C:\Camwork, the images will be downloaded to:
	
                        C:\Camwork\Nov12

The program names images image01.jpg, image 02.jpg, etc. but will not overwrite existing files in the current directory.

While the images are downloading the program displays session statistics, including elapsed time, time remaining, percent completed, images remaining, etc.  Where possible, CamWork also displays the total number of pictures taken since the camera was created.

At any time during the download process, hit F1 to abort the program.

Once the specified pictures have been downloaded the program will prompt you to delete ALL pictures.  NOTE: this deletes all the images in the camera, not just the ones you have downloaded to the computer!


               **Command line options**

Using command line options allows considerably more flexibility.  To get a list of all the options available type:

                        CamWork /?


If you want to completely automate the procedure of downloading all pictures, you could type:

                        CamWork /pALL


To specify a different download directory use the /d switch.  For example, to download images to the c:\mypics directory type:

                        CamWork /dC:\mypics


To increase download speeds (and shorten download times) try using a faster speed:

                        CamWork /s38400  or  CamWork /s57600


Older computers may not be able to work this quickly, and in some cases you may have to use a slower speed to avoid problems:

                        CamWork /s9600


CamWork sometimes encounters errors when communicating with the camera.  Most of the time, the program can recover from these errors and continue as normal.  By default, CamWork will try to continue after the first 10 errors it encounters.  This should be plenty for most situations.  To increase (or decrease) the number of communication errors CamWork tries to recover from before aborting, use the /e switch.  For example, to have CamWork try and recover from a total of only 5 errors:

                        CamWork /e5


To turn off program sounds:

                        CamWork /q



By default, CamWork will warn you if the batteries are almost empty and will not let you continue.  To turn off this warning and continue downloading, type:

                        CamWork /nb



                **Tips & Troubleshooting**

Although CamWork has worked successfully on many different computers, it may have difficulties working on some (particularly older) computers.  Here are some tips that may help:

1.  By default, CamWork downloads pictures at a speed of 19,200bps.  While this speed should work on most computers, some are capable of faster.  Try using the /s switch to specify 57,600bps (/s57600) or 38,400 (/s38400).  Download times will be considerably shorter.

2.  If you get frequent communication errors under Windows 3.x or Windows 95, exit windows, (if necessary boot to DOS) and retry -- some background Windows operations seem to disturb CamWork.  You could also try increasing the number of errors that CamWork encounters before it aborts.  The default is 10 which should be enough for most situations, but can be increased as necessary using the /e switch.  Finally, like computers in general, sometimes the easiest way to solve troublesome problems is to turn the camera off and on again!

3.  Turn on the camera about 1-2 seconds before starting CamWork...wait until the "ready" light on the camera is visible before starting CamWork.  But, don't not wait too long (more than 8 seconds) to start CamWork.  Simlarly, don't wait too long when prompted to specify which pictures to download when running CamWork in interactive mode.  Sometimes CamWork can have difficulty re-establishing communication with the camera if the program is exited and restarted too quickly.  Wait for the "ready" light on the camera before restarting CamWork.

4.  If you get commuication over-run errors, it is likely that your computer's serial port cannot support fast transfer rates.  Try the default speed setting (19200 bps) or the slowest speed (9600 bps).

5. If you are using a monochrome monitor you might want to try the /bw command line option to increase display visibility.

6. The /s speed setting switch can only be used in conjunction with COM1 and COM2.

7. Note for Agfa 1280 users:  CamWork does not alter the images in any way after downloading.  You will need to user the PhotoGenie software to enhance the images.
 
8. Other error messages:  CamWork works on a wide range of machines, but seems to have difficulty running on some computers, with some cameras.  Some users have reported getting the following error message: "Error 52 occurred at Line 580".  Unfortunately I do not have a fix for this problem at the moment, although I haven't given up hope!  If you encounter this problem please send me an e-mail with as much information about what happened (i.e. how far the program had progressed, what was on the screen at the time of the error, etc.) as possible.


                        **Terms of Use**

While Tawbaware has no reason to believe that CAMWORK can harm your camera or computer, use of this software indicates your agreement to the following terms:

CAMWORK IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK. TAWBAWARE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL TAWBAWARE BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS OR SPECIAL DAMAGES.  TAWBAWARE DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS CONTAINED IN THE SOFTWARE WILL MEET LICENSEE'S REQUIREMENTS, OR THAT THE OPERATION OF THE SOFTWARE WILL BE FREE OF ERRORS. 

