Alternate USB Driver for RCA CDS6300

Well, so far, I like what I see.

I previously used an Olympus D-520. The biggest single problem with that
camera was focusing. It had a very hard time getting focussed in low light.
The best thing about it was the through-the-lens viewing.

The RCA camera seems to focus very well, even in low light levels. Being
newer, it also has more pixels. My (non-technical) wife noted that the
controls are much easier to learn and use. It is a very complete package,
and includes USB cable, serial cable, video out cable, soft case, and AC
power adapter. Since it does not have through-the-lens viewing, I've noticed
parallax problems when trying the macro mode. But, I can overcome that
simply by viewing the LC display instead of using the viewfinder.

A TWAIN driver is often used with scanners. It allows a program (usually a
paint shop type program) to retrieve an image from the scanner. So, to use
it, you connect the camera, fire up your favorite paint shop program (I use
Paint Shop Pro), and tell it to "acquire" the image(s). The TWAIN driver
pops up a window that includes controls for whatever device it is handling.
For a scanner, you would use it to scan the document. For the camera, it
displays thumbnails of the images and you select the ones to download. Then
you can adjust the images as necessary in the paint program and save them.
Other discussions in this newsgroup have pointed out the disadvantages of
this method (search for TWAIN). If there's no other software available for
this camera, I'll invest in a CF card reader and use that to download the
images.

Gerry

...

Well, so far, I like what I see.

I previously used an Olympus D-520. The biggest single problem with that
camera was focusing. It had a very hard time getting focussed in low light.
The best thing about it was the through-the-lens viewing.

The RCA camera seems to focus very well, even in low light levels. Being
newer, it also has more pixels. My (non-technical) wife noted that the
controls are much easier to learn and use. It is a very complete package,
and includes USB cable, serial cable, video out cable, soft case, and AC
power adapter. Since it does not have through-the-lens viewing, I've noticed
parallax problems when trying the macro mode. But, I can overcome that
simply by viewing the LC display instead of using the viewfinder.

A TWAIN driver is often used with scanners. It allows a program (usually a
paint shop type program) to retrieve an image from the scanner. So, to use
it, you connect the camera, fire up your favorite paint shop program (I use
Paint Shop Pro), and tell it to "acquire" the image(s). The TWAIN driver
pops up a window that includes controls for whatever device it is handling.
For a scanner, you would use it to scan the document. For the camera, it
displays thumbnails of the images and you select the ones to download. Then
you can adjust the images as necessary in the paint program and save them.
Other discussions in this newsgroup have pointed out the disadvantages of
this method (search for TWAIN). If there's no other software available for
this camera, I'll invest in a CF card reader and use that to download the
images.

Gerry

...

Gerry, I can't help with your question but I am considering the purchase of
the same camera. I was hoping you could give me some feedback based on
your purchase.

What camera did you have before this one?

What features do you like about the RCA?

What drawbacks have you identified other than the twain driver (whatever
that is)?

What is a TWAIN driver any way?

Thanks in advance
Dean

...
I just bought an RCA CDS6300. The images are better than my previous camera,
the features are OK, and it was on sale ($199 at Office Max). I installed
the software package that came with it, which is a photo program and a TWAIN
driver. I uninstalled the photo program, because I already have Paint Shop
Pro.

However, I'd rather not use a TWAIN driver at all. If I use TWAIN to import
the images into PSP, then I have to save each one separately. Also, as
mentioned in other threads in this NG, there's additional noise added to the
image each time it is compressed and decompressed.

What I'm looking for is an alternate USB driver that displays the contents
of the camera's CF card in My Computer (using Windows, obviously). If I
can't find that, I'll probably buy a CF card reader to use instead of
connecting the camera to the computer.

Any hints or pointers are welcome.

Gerry