Shooting
QuickCam is
delivered with two image recording softwares. The first one is
QuickMovie to record video film, and the second one is QuickPict
to take static image.
Installing softwares is very
simple, one just need to insert CD-ROM in the CD driver and to
follow instructions.
Connect the camera on PC printer port (parallel port) and on keyboard port. BE CAREFUL, this connection must be done when the PC is switched off. Switch on the PC and launch quickPict software. One must see the camera display on the PC screen.
The display refreshing is very fast with a Pentium PC, although the software runs perfectly on less powerful PC (a 50 Mhz DX2 486 is the less powerful PC usable). It's possible to work with a lower resolution : half or a quarter of the standard image, that is 160x120 or 80x60 pixels. These resolutions are useful to make the refractor focusing and pointing with a few powerful computer.
The real time display is very useful, because it's possible to determine the best instants to take the image when there is a hole in turbulence. A full size image with 64 gray levels needs 76 ko to be stored on the hard disk, so it's possible to take a huge quantity of images without hazarding to saturate the hard drive. The image taking is similar to argentic photograph, when 36 images are taken, QuickPict asks to store the images batch.
It's possible too to store images in a jibbing way in Bitmap format. The software allows you to use exposure time ranging from 1 sec to 24 hours (even if in reality the maximum exposure time doesn't exceed several seconds), and it allows too to shoot at regular spacing.
QuickMovie allows to record video films in AVI format. This is very interesting to make animation (stars occultation, motion of Jovian satellites, rotation of planets, etc...).
