Canon S50 Text Mode?

[Irondel]

TEXT MODE SETTING? I am considering buying the S50, but expect to use the camera for some text and document copying. Canon's customer support says they can't tell me how to set the camera to capture text and do document copying (primarily B&W). I should think that one could manually set the camera to do this fairly easily, but Canon doesn't seem to think so. Has anyone had experience with this on the S50 or other similar cameras? If not, can you recommend a good quality compact 4 Mp or 5 Mp camera (preferrably with some manual control) that will do text and image copying, perhaps with a text mode setting? Thanks.

[Mike_PEAT]

You're confusing the camera with a scanner. If you intend to do text copying, use a scanner (or a photocopier and scan the photocopied document). Digital cameras aren't designed for copying documents (although some like the higher-end Olympus has modes for copying blackboards/whiteboards, but I've found those modes useless).

If the situation is you can't do this, you'll just have to look at the LCD for when the text is at its sharpest...you may have to use macro mode. You may also have to use a tripod (as a copying stand), and the smallest lens opening with a slow shutter speed (not a situation for a point and shoot camera).

Also, you will want as high a megapixel as you can get (so you can have such minute detail).

[KCan]

Dun know for other cameras, but the D7xx have a "text mode" optimized for text shooting/coying.

[Irondel]

Thanks for your thoughts. I found only one post on the Web by someone who discussed using the text mode feature, a genealogist, who said she likes her digital cameras for capturing text information quickly so she doesn't have to write it down. She said that she finds her digital cameras "... small enough to fit into a purse, coat pocket, or fanny pack, and both have a macro feature that enables them to be used as visual notepad, taking the place of traditional pen and paper for copying snippets of text from books or records. They can also be used to capture information from microfilm readers, to copy existing photographs, or to create new photographs of tombstones, family homes and heirlooms, and living relatives." --http://www.genealogy.com/genealogy/17_pack.html?Welcome=1054566169

I had hoped that the text feature might therefore be useful in similar ways, but don't find it on many cameras.

[Colt-45]

Why can't you capture text on a digi cam? pixels are pixels aren't they?

thanks
Steve

[KCan]

Originally Posted by Colt-45

Why can't you capture text on a digi cam? pixels are pixels aren't they?

I agree with you. In the case of my camera , this mode is just an optimized mode for black character on white background , I guess there is a special setting for sharpness, contrast , and denoising process. I think it’s not difficult to post process a picture to have the same effect.
(BTW, with a camera or a scanner , you need to use an OCR software if you want to convert to editable text )

[Mike_PEAT]

Originally Posted by Colt-45

Why can't you capture text on a digi cam? pixels are pixels aren't they?

The difference is how many pixels per inch the device can capture...a 2mp camera (for example) is limited to 72dpi at 22x16" or 8x10" at 150dpi...my scanner can capture that same size at 1200x2400dpi optically (IOW able to capture a lot more detail).

The digital camera is still a device from the days of video, while scanners were made for scanning documents from the beginning.

To say that it doesn't matter which you use to capture text, is like saying AM and FM radio sounds the same.

[kschewe]

you can try omnipage for transferring text in a image to text. It works pretty good as long as the image is decent quality