1This is a fresh driver for the Minolta Dimage V camera, which has since been
2discontinued by Minolta. This driver contains no code form my earlier efforts.
3
4The assistance of Minolta was very helpful in writing this driver; I was given
5a copy of the specification and told that I could "share it with the Linux
6community". I am interpreting this "sharing" as the GNU GPL. Minolta takes no
7responsibility for the information they provided me, which is perfectly fair.
8Please see the file COPYING for more information.
9
10Copies of the Dimage V transfer specification are available under the
11aforementioned "share" clause; I will mail them globally, and fax them
12anywhere in the US or Canada. A lot of the information is in the code
13itself, but sometimes the real spec is nice so readers can find my bugs.
14Minolta has made it clear that they do not wish to release further protocols,
15and recommend that users of unsupported systems purchase SmartMedia readers
16to transfer images.
17
18This library is far from complete. There are plenty of places where better
19sanity checking could be done. I will continue to work on it until I buy a
20newer camera ;>
21
22Notes on specific functions:
23    The capture function takes a picture, downloads it, and then deletes it.
24    This image is always named dv00000.jpg, since that holds with the naming
25    convention for the rest of the pictures, and simultaneously cannot be a
26    valid name for an image retrieved from the camera. Sometimes the deletion
27	of an image will fail after it has been retrieved; since reporting this
28	error would mean the entire capture process failed, I merely print a
29	message indicating which image needs to be deleted. This is, in my
30	opinion, preferable to losing the picture entirely.
31
32	The camera_init() function attempts to set the camera clock to the current
33	system time. If it fails, the init function can still succeed; I do not
34	believe that failing to set the clock should mean failure to initialize.
35	The same is true of the camera_exit() function.
36
37	At long last, the preview thumbnails finally work! The strange distortions
38	that were occurring previously have been eliminated, and I have been able
39	to retrieve accurate thumbnails reliably for the last several hundred
40	images. This puts this driver as the first that I know of that handles
41	the Dimage V thumbnail format; there were other programs to connect, but
42	all (including my earlier attempts) just gave up on the retrieved data.
43	More information on the file format can be obtained in the code itself.
44
45	Deleting all images is now implemented correctly. This beats iterating
46	across all of them, hands down.
47
48	Here are the pinouts for the serial cable:
49         _____________     /-----\
50         \ 5 4 3 2 1 /    / X X X \
51          \ 9 8 7 6 /     | 2 5 3 |
52           ---------      -| 8 7 |-
53                            -----
54
55
56
57--Gus Hartmann, <gphoto-dimagev@gus-the-cat.org>
58